TALES OF KALILA AND DEMNA BOOK THE BELLING CAT There was once in the land of the Brahmins a swamp called Dawran that extended in all directions for a distance of a thousand parsangs. In the middle of the swamp was a city called Aydazinun. The city enjoyed many natural advantages and its people were prosperous and could afford to enjoy themselves however they liked. Now there was a mouse in that city called Mahraz, and he ruled over all the other mice in the city and in the surrounding countryside. He had three wazirs to advise him in his affairs. One day all the wazirs were gathered in the presence of the king of the mice discussing various things, when the king said: Do you think it is possible for us to free ourselves of the hereditary terror which we and our fathers before us have always felt for cats? Although we have many comforts and good things in our lives, our fear of the cats has taken the savor out of everything. I wish all three of you would give me the benefit of your advice about how to solve this problem. What do you think we ought to do? My advice, said the first wazir, is to collect as many bells as you can, and hang a hell around the neck of every cat so that we can hear them coming and have time to hide in our holes. Then the king turned to the second wazir and said, What do you think about your colleague’s advice? I think it’s lousy, answered the second wazir. After we collect all the bells, who do you think is going to dare hang one around the neck even of the smallest kitten, much less approach a veteran tomcat? In my opinion, we should emigrate from the city and dwell in the country for a year until the people of the city think that they can dispense with the cats who are eating them out of house and home. Then they’ll kick them out, or kill them, and the ones that escape will scatter in all directions into the country and become wild and no longer suitable for house cats. Then we can safely return to the city and live forever without worrying about cats. Then the king turned to the third and wisest wazir. What do you think about that idea? It’s pretty poor, replied the third wazir. If we leave the city and go live in the country, how do we know that the cats will disappear in a single year? And what about the difficulties we will experience? The wilderness is full of wild animals that like to eat mice, and they will do us a lot more harm than do the cats. You’re right about that, said the king. So what do you think we should do? I can think of only one possible plan. The king should summon all the mice in the city and in the suburbs and order them to construct a tunnel in the house of the richest man in the city, and to store up enough food for ten days. Have them make doors in the tunnel that lead to every room in the house. Then we will all get inside the tunnel, but we will not touch any of the man’s food. Instead, we will concentrate on damaging his clothes, beds, and carpets. When he sees the damage, he will say to himself, ‘Obviously one cat can’t handle all the mice around here! And he will go get another cat. When he has done that, we will increase the amount of damage that we do, really tearing his clothes to pieces. Again he will decide to get another cat. And then we will increase the damage threefold. That should make him stop and think. He’ll say to himself: The damage was much less when I only had one cat. The more cats I get, the more mice there seem to he.’’ So then he will try an experiment. He will get rid of one of the cats. Immediately, we will lessen the amount of damage that we do by a third. ‘That’s strange,’ the man will say. And he will get rid of another cat. And we will again decrease the amount of damage by a third. Then the light will dawn on him. When he gets rid of the third cat, we will stop our destruction completely. Then the man will think that he has made a great discovery. He’ll say: ‘It’s not the mice that damage food and clothes, but cats.’ He will run to tell his neighbors, and because he is a rich and respected man in the town, they will all believe him and throw their cats out of doors, or kill them, and forever after, whenever they see a cat, they will chase it and kill it. So the king followed the advice of the third wazir and before very long not a cat remained in the city. The people remained so convinced that they were right about the cats that whenever they saw a hole in their clothes, they would say, ‘‘A cat must have gotten into the house last night. And even when there was an outbreak of disease among men or livestock, they would say, A cat must have walked through the town last night. So by this strategem, the mice freed themselves forevermore from their hereditary fear of cats.
Posted on: Sat, 20 Dec 2014 22:03:34 +0000
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