Once upon a time there was a Sultan, and he had seven sons, and he gave
them ships, and they all went abroad to trade, and came back with much
wealth, all except the youngest, who brought back only a dog and a cat,
and he kept the dog and the cat till they grew and grew, and at last the
dog died.
Then he kept the cat, and it grew and grew, till at last one day it ate
a whole goat.
[Illustration: "HE KEPT THE CAT AND IT GREW AND GREW"]
And it still grew, till one day the son said to the Sultan, "My father,
give me an ox for my cat to eat," and he gave him an ox, and the cat
grew and grew, till at last he finished all the camels and oxen of the
Sultan.
So the Sultan said to his son, "You must turn that cat out of the town,
as it has eaten all our wealth."
So that cat was turned out and went to live in the bush, and there it
grew and grew, and it was called Nunda.
Till one day it came into the town and ate everybody in that town, all
the people and the Sultan himself and all his sons; but the Sultan's
wife was upstairs, and she shut the door and was saved, but everybody
else in the town was eaten.
And when the Nunda thought that he had finished everybody he went again
into the bush and there he lived.
And the Sultan's wife stayed in the upper storey, and there she gave
birth to a son, and she called him Mohammed.
And Mohammed grew up, till one day he said to his mother, "How is it
that we two sit alone and there are no other people here?"
And his mother said to him, "Go and open the window and look out." And
he opened the window and looked out.
And she said to him, "What do you see?" And he said, "I see many
houses."
Then she said to him, "All those houses were once full of people, but
the Nunda has killed and eaten them all, even your father and brothers
he has eaten."
So Mohammed said, "Did my father have any weapons?" And his mother said,
"He used to go to war, and guns and spears and bows and arrows and
shields were the weapons he had."