The Cat said, "Yes," and went away, and after having been at home for a
while, she sent her child to the Hen, saying, "Go and tell the Hen to
rise up early to-morrow morning, and to come and accompany me to a
neighbouring town."
The child arose, went to the Hen's house and saluted her.
The Hen arose, and asked it: "Thou child of the Cat, dost thou come to
me in peace?"
The Cat's child replied, "I come in peace; my mother has sent me to
thee."
The Hen said to the Cat's child, "Say what thy mother has sent thee
for; let me know."
After the Cat's child had told it to the Hen, it said: "I will go," and
set out and went home.
When it was gone the Hen arose, called a child of hers, and said: "Go
and ask the Cat at what time we shall go to the neighbouring town?"
When the child had already started, she called it back again, saying,
"Come back, I will tell thee something."
The child returned, and when it had come to its mother, she said to it,
"When thou goest to the Cat, open thy ears and hear well what she says,
and come and tell me."
The child went to the Cat, and saluted her, and when the Cat arose and
came out to it, the Hen's child was standing there. The Cat asked the
Hen's child, "Why did thy mother send thee to me?"
The Hen's child said, "My mother said I must come and ask thee how
early shall we go to the neighbouring town?"
The Cat said to the Hen's child, "Go and tell thy mother to arise and
come at the cockcrowing; for what should eat her?"
The Hen's child returned to its mother, and said to her, "Behold I went
to the Cat's place where thou sentest me, and am come back."
The Hen said to her child, "What did the Cat say? Let me hear what
word she spoke?"
Her child answered and said to her, "My mother, the word which the Cat
spoke is this: 'Go and tell thy mother to come to me when the cock
crows, that we may go; for what should eat her?'"
Its mother, the Hen, said to her child, "My child, lie down in your
house, for I have heard what the Cat said."
The child of the Hen obeyed her mother, went and lay down, and also her
mother lay down. They slept their sleep until the cock crew, which
when the Cat heard, she arose, got ready and waited for the Hen,
thinking, "May she come that we may go!" The cock crew the second
time, and the Cat looked out on the way whence the Hen was to come,
thinking, "May she come that we may go!"
The Hen did not get up at home and day came on. When it became day,
the Cat arose in her house, went to the Hen's home, and said to her,
"Hen, thou sentest thy child to me, and asked at what time thou
shouldst rise up, and I said to thy child, 'Go and tell thy mother to
come when the cock crows, that we may go.' Did it not tell thee what
it was told by me, that thou art still sitting at home although it has
become day?"
The Hen said to the Cat, "Sister Cat, if thou wishest to have me for a
friend, I must never get up in my house and come out at night."
The Cat said to the Hen, "What art thou afraid of that thou sayest, 'I
will never come out at night'? What is there in the way?"
The Hen listened to what the Cat said, got herself ready and called her
children, saying, "Come and let us accompany the Cat to a neighbouring
town!" All the children arose and when they had set out on their way,
the Cat went before, and having gone on a little, she seized two of the
children of the Hen; and the Hen saw that the cat was seizing two of
her children; so she said to the Cat, "Sister Cat, we have scarcely set
out on our way and dost thou seize two of my children?"
The Cat replied, "Thy two children which I took have not strength
enough to walk; therefore did I take them to my bosom that we may go
on."
The Hen said to the Cat, "If thou actest thus, I and thou must dissolve
our friendship."
The Cat replied, "If thou wilt not have a friend, I shall let thee go
home." So, as the Hen began to go home, the Cat made a bound, and
seized the Hen's head, whereupon the Hen cried for help. All the
people of the town heard her, arose, ran, and when they were come, the
Cat was holding the Hen's head tight. When the Cat saw the people of
the town, she left the Hen, ran away, and entered the forest.
There the Hen was standing and the people of the town said to her:
"Foolish one, didst thou, a Hen, arise and go to befriend a Cat? If we
had not heard thy screams, and come to thee, she would have killed thee
and carried away all thy children into her forest."
The Hen said to the people of the town: "God bless you: you have taken
me out of the Cat's mouth."
The people of the town said to her: "To-day our Lord has delivered
thee, but for the future do thou no more make friendship with the Cat.
The Cat is too cunning for thee: beware of the Cat in future!"
I have heard old people say, that on that day the cats and the fowls
dissolved their friendship. This is finished.