II

Now in the course of time there came to that place a very wise man who

had seen many wonders. It had come to his ears that the cat was a

creature of darkness, teaching harmless things evil tricks, but of the

fox-faced man he knew nothing. The cat only, he considered. So the wise

man walked the mountains for many days, and one day when the sky was low

and it was a day of rain, an unpleasant day for the cat, he came upon

the evil-minded creature hurrying somewhere.

“Why in so great a hurry?” asked the wise man. “Sit awhile with me and

talk.”

“No. No,” said the cat. “I like not your water and I seek a place where

there is shelter, so that I may be dry and warm.” Indeed, the cat looked

very miserable indeed.

“Well, how would you like to have a house of stone?” asked the wise man.

“That I should like very much indeed,” answered the cat. “But it must be

a house large enough for me, and with no room for any other creature,

for I am not fond of company. But a house in which I could sit and

dream, and where no noises might disturb, would be very pleasant. Make

me such a one and I shall teach you something. Or how about a wish?

Would you like to have claws like an owl? Or would you like to drink

blood like a vampire bat? Or would you like to spit poison? Or would you

like to bristle like a porcupine?”

“Thank you, no,” said the wise man. “I want nothing. But by to-morrow

there shall be a house ready for you.”

“Where is it to be built?” asked the cat. “First, it must be in a quiet

place where men do not go.”

“It shall be that,” answered the wise man. “But just now I do not know

where the place may be. I must seek a proper place.”

“Then how shall I find it?” asked the cat.

“Attend,” said the wise man. “I shall put a thread about the world, a

thread that no man may break with his hands, and when you see that

thread, follow it and so come to the stone house.”

“Agreed,” said the cat. “But let the house be just big enough for me.

Let it be in a quiet place. Also, let it be of such fashion that I can

slip out backward or leap out forward should an enemy come.”

So that being said and no more to come, man and cat parted.

But mark well what followed. On the next day the cat chanced to see the

thread and followed it, walking down hill and up hill, down mountain and

up mountain, until she arrived at a high place where stood the wise man.

At his feet were three flat stones, two standing upright, the third

across the top of the two, so that it was like two sides of a little

house, roofed and of a comfortable size for the cat. So after looking

about carefully and suspiciously, the cat entered into it and coiled her

tail about her, blinked her eyes once, twice, thrice, then slept. And as

soon as she was well asleep the wise man fastened the thread about her

neck, the same thread which went about the world and which no man could

break with his hands, there being magic about it, and señora cat was

bound for years, and would have been bound for ever, had it not been for

Nasca, about whom you shall hear.

That ends the tale of the cat, though there is much more to come. And if

you are in a hurry to get to the rest of the tale, you may skip from

this—to the three stars * * * again, without losing much.

I said that it ended the tale of the cat, but it does not. It ends the

first part only, for Adolpho went only thus far, and the telling took

the whole of an evening, for there was much looping and winding in his

telling and he added much that had nothing to do with the tale. Indeed,

you should be very grateful indeed to me for trimming all the

uninteresting stuff away. And let me tell you this: it was not at all

easy to get Adolpho to tell the rest of the tale, and the place in which

we sat when we talked was not comfortable. It was no house with

radiators and electric lights, or bathtubs and bookshelves. Indeed, the

only furniture that we had was a frying-pan without a handle and an iron

pot. As for our house, it looked more like a short stout bottle than a

dwelling. For the truth is that we were careless builders and had made

our house out of sods of earth; but while we started to build a square

house, we did not take care of the corners, and the house came roundish

and the walls leaned inward as they went higher, so we left the top open

by way of chimney, for our fire was built in the middle of the floor.

Thus such was the shape of our house that we had to sleep curved and we

had to stand curved, though we rarely stood, because of the smoke, I

assure you.

Almost three weeks passed away before Adolpho told me the rest of the

tale and it was a cold night in June when he did. After supper he

commenced, perhaps because it was the kind of stew that he liked best.

For the most of the stew was fish. I said “the most of the stew,”

because our stews were different from those you have. If on Monday we

had a piece of huanaco meat, we put it in the iron pot to stew. There

would be something left over, for we always made a little more than we

required and we never wasted food. So, supper being done, the iron pot

with the remains of the stew was put aside. Perhaps next day we might

have caught or shot a young goose, or something like that. Anyway,

whatever we caught went into the pot by way of stew. So that day there

would be goose stew with a flavour of huanaco. Next day we might add

charqui, which is dried horse-flesh, to the stew, so while the chief

thing would be charqui, there would be a decided flavour of goose and

more than a trace of huanaco. But if we had fish on the fourth day, then

of course it would be strongly fishy stew, with a kind of side taste of

charqui, a flavour of goose, and a mild trace of huanaco. On the whole

it was satisfactory, for toward the end of the week any one might find

something to his liking, though on Saturday we always cleaned out the

pot, as we needed it for our week’s washing. And so, as I say, when we

came one evening to fish stew, Adolpho was in high good humour and told

me the rest of the tale, and this is how his story ran.

* * *

_The Second Part of the Tale_

Now, began Soto, you must remember all that I have told you about the

cat bound on the mountain top, the magic ax hanging in the tree, and the

hundreds and hundreds of years that passed, with the cat growing larger

and larger. As the cat grew, so did the house, for the wise man had

promised that it should be just big enough for the cat, and he kept his

word. But you must also remember that the cat could not move, but could

certainly dream. So she dreamed of many lands, and the dream man was

very active indeed, though he vanished whenever the cat woke.

When you come to think of it, you will see that it was a most excellent

thing that the cat was bound, for had she not been, she would have

worked her mischief on the world and a sheep might have been as terrible

as a wild boar or flies as annoying as mosquitoes or horses as bold as

wild bulls or the very fish as poisonous as serpents. While the cat did

not dream, of course the fox-faced man was nowhere, and then all went

very well and trees put out their blossoms and fruits, the grass was

softly green, the rain was like silver, and gentle were the hearts of

men as they went about their affairs.

But there was a day on which the cat dreamed and the fox-faced fellow

was busy. To the place where lived the people who guarded the magic ax,

there came a stranger. His eyes were aslant and little, the hair of him

was reddish, and he was in rags and tatters and altogether dirty in

appearance. To be sure, no one would look twice at rags and tatters, for

one coming through the forest must needs be torn by thorns and bushes in

all that tangle, but dirt was quite another matter, especially when the

dirt included blood stains, because in that place was much water and

many running streams, nor was the water chill to the skin. So, because

of the uncleanness of the man, people looked at him with unfriendly

eyes, and though they were neither insolent nor rude they hoped that he

would go farther and not stay there. Nor would it have been any great

hardship for him to do so, seeing that it was a place of much fruit and

of many berries, and roots pleasant to the taste and full of

nourishment. As for the night, any man might well stretch himself under

that star-sprinkled sky, nor except for the beasts that the cat had made

unfriendly were there creatures to do harm. But the stranger had no

notion of doing anything to please the people, nor indeed could he do

anything, seeing that he was the creature of the cat’s dream, walking

the world.

For a time then he stood under a tree bewailing his lot and crying out

that all the world was against him and saying that none were kind to

him. Strange things he did, too, as is the manner of dream people,

making himself sometimes shoot far far away so that he looked small,

then coming near again and getting big, or sometimes pointing his finger

at someone, then throwing his arm round and round in great circles, the

finger always pointing, the circles he made growing smaller and smaller,

little by little, but his finger always pointing, until it came close to

the watcher’s eyes. The people thought this an annoying thing for a

stranger to do; but so it was. And always he woefully wailed. So those

there stood about him in a little circle, none going close, but all

wondering much at the great outcry, the like of which none there had

heard before. Then he began to sing, noisily, wildly. This was his song:

“Over the world I walk,

Alone, for ever alone.

Trouble and trial and care,

Alone, I bear alone.

Torture and pain I bear,

Alone, for ever alone.

Wandering day and night,

Alone, for ever alone.

Sad and wretched my plight,

Alone, for ever alone.”

Then he gave a long, long cry, like a wolf:

“A—a—a—a—a——lone, Oo—oo—oo—oo!”

Nor did he stop at that, for his song done, he began to act stupidly,

leaping from side to side in rage and fury, mouthing and grimacing,

opening and closing his fists, but making no noise. Then he talked

again, but it was a jabber of idle words, so presently those about him

shook their heads at one another, looking at him as one who had lost his

wits, never thinking of course that he was a cat’s dream.

While all this was going on, there came from the little lake where he

had been fishing a lad named Nasca, bearing a basket of fish, a happy

fellow who always made music and song as he walked, and seeing the

people gathered about the stranger he drew near. No sooner did the

stranger clap eyes on the fish than he leaped at the basket and began

devouring the silvery things, eating them raw, heads, bodies, and tails,

for thus ran the cat’s dream and cattishness must out. But the meal

being done, the stranger redoubled his lamentations, all the time

swinging his arm in circles, sometimes great, sometimes small, with his

finger pointed at the boy.

“A—a—a—a—a——lone, Oo—oo—oo—oo!” he screamed, and the boy

thought that such a fellow well deserved to be alone, but he was too

polite to say so.

“I am hungry and travel-worn,” the stranger went on. “Is there no one

here who will give me shelter? Is there no one in this place with a kind

heart to pity me?”

Hearing that, the heart of Nasca was touched, for never had he, nor

never had his grandmother with whom he lived, turned a hungry creature

away empty. Indeed, so gentle in spirit was Nasca that if the stem of a

flower was broken by a heedless creature he was full of grief. Yet the

doings of the stranger astonished him and troubled him, for the man

without seeming to move his feet thrust his face close to the boy’s,

then somehow took his face far off. That silly trick he did again and

again as dream creatures do, so that seeing him Nasca was well nigh made

dizzy. Then the lad, blushing red as fire because of all the people

thereabouts who did not offer what he offered, said:

“Come home, then, with me. Our house is small but there is room enough.

Believe me, it is not that these people are hard-hearted that they do

not seem to welcome you, but more because you must have been too weary

with walking to wash yourself. But behind the hill and under a tree near

where we live is a still pool, and there doubtless you will clean

yourself.”

Then Nasca led the way and the stranger went with him, yet not walking,

but leaping up and down as he went, and sometimes not touching the

ground at all. Nasca was not comfortable with the stranger by his side,

for he felt him to be more like a shadow than a man, and a shadow that

hung over him and tormented him, a shadow that might pounce upon him.

Having come to the place where his grandmother was, Nasca was sorely

troubled to see the old woman fall to trembling when she heard the voice

of the stranger, who was making an idle jabber of words again. Indeed,

after a time she put her hands to her face and wept, though that was

after the man having eaten had left the place to rest under a tree.

Nasca comforted her as best he could, then asked her to tell him the

cause of her grief. Be it remembered that she was very, very old and her

eyes were weak and dim with age.

“Tell me,” she said, taking Nasca’s hand, “has this man eyes aslant,

like the eyes of a fox?”

“Indeed and he has,” answered Nasca. Then his heart bade him say some

good of the fellow, and he added: “Yet no man makes his own face,

wherefore must some be pitied.”

“Tell me,” said the grandmother eagerly, “has he sharp teeth like a

cat?”

“That he has,” said Nasca, then wondering, asked: “Have you seen this

man, then, when your eyes were bright and strong?”

“No, Nasca,” she answered, “never have I set eyes on him, yet I greatly

fear him; and long, long ago I heard stories about such a creature and

it was said that much evil he wrought, yet none could slay him.” She was

silent for a little, then again she asked this: “Did you see his ears,

Nasca, and are they pointed, like those of a fox?”

“Yes,” said Nasca.

At that answer the old woman was sad again and Nasca had to comfort her

with sweet words, telling her that she should come to no hurt, since he

was there, for he would die defending her.

“That I know, Nasca,” she said. “If the hurt came to me alone, glad

would I be, for I have seen my golden days and now there is little left

for me but the brief sunset hour. But I fear for others. Of such a

creature I have heard it said that he comes from nowhere and goes into

nothing, but somehow looses evil upon men. Because of that I fear. So,

Nasca, promise me that if this man asks anything of you, you will do

nothing that promises hurt to any living thing.”

That Nasca promised gladly enough, then said: “Yet it may be that this

man is not the evil creature you have heard of. It may well be some

unfortunate whose wits are loose. True, his face is far from pleasant to

see, but a rough face may go with a good heart, and a man’s face may

change.”

“Yes, with wickedness,” said the old woman, “but in truth it has been

said that a man’s face and his character both go with him to the grave,

if indeed there is any grave for such as this.”