24 THE FIRESIDE SPHINX 



It is rather disconcerting, when we are dwelling 

 so complacently upon the love of the Moslem for 

 his cat, to remember that the only bit of verse upon 

 the subject which has floated down to us from the 

 dim East is not more flattering or more kindly than 

 the epigrams of Agathias. Ibn Alalaf Alnaharwany, 

 a poet of Bagdad who died about 930, celebrated the 

 misdeeds and the punishment of his cat in a strain 

 of such uncompromising morality that we are still 

 uncertain as to whether he meant what he said, or 

 was referring in veiled language to some tragedy 

 of the harem. Alalaf s pussy steals forth to rob 

 a dove-cote, " fearing nothing save the loss of his 

 prey," and is pierced by an avenging arrow ere he 

 can escape with the bird. "Alas !" muses the vir- 

 tuous chronicler, "had he but contented himself 

 with the lawful pursuit of mice, no such evil fate 

 had befallen him. Cursed be the refined taste which 

 led him to seek a daintier quarry, and cursed be the 

 forbidden joy which brings destruction in its wake." 



To be slain in the moment of victory — even 

 though death turns triumph to defeat — is not, in 

 Moslem eyes, the worst of woes. The robber cat 

 of Bagdad — if he were a cat, indeed, and not an 

 adventurous lover — had doubtless enjoyed many a 

 moonlight raid before retribution overtook him ; and 

 this reflection should have soothed Alalaf's soul. 



The Turk, although he enjoys scant reputation 

 for humanity, has never been, and is not now, cruel 



