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安萨是加拉巴的国王，他在位已有50年了。安萨有一只猫和一只鼠，他让忠实的猫当管家，老鼠当男仆：安萨国王是一个顽固不化、刚愎自用的人，但他却非常钟爱这只饲养了多年的猫。 老鼠爱上了国王的女仆，但他非常贫穷，没钱给女仆买礼物。 后来，他想到了国王的仓库，因此，夜里他在仓库屋顶上钻了一个小洞，身材小巧的他几乎毫不费力地就钻进了仓库，偷走了玉米和梨子。然后，他把这些东西送给了他心爱的人。 月底，猫向国王报账清点库里的东西时，发现少了不少玉米和梨子。闻之，国王勃然大怒，责令猫把事情解释清楚，但是猫却又说不清东西是怎么丢的。后来，猫的一个朋友告诉她老鼠偷玉米送女仆的事情。 猫向国王汇报了这件事。国王把女仆叫到跟前，让人把她鞭打了一顿，并把老鼠交给了猫处置。国王不允许老鼠和猫继续在宫中供职。猫非常生气，就咬死并吃掉了老鼠。从此，猫见鼠就咬死吃掉。 Why the Cat Kills Rats? Ansa was King of Calabar for fifty years. He had a very faithful cat as a housekeeper, and a rat was his house- boy. The king was an obstinate，headstrong man，but was very fond of the cat, who had been in his store for many years. The rat，who was very poor, fell in love with one of the king’s servant girls，but was unable to give her any presents, as he had no money. At last he thought of the king's store，so in the nighttime, being quite small，he had little difficulty» having made a hole in the roof，in getting into the store. He then stole corn and pears, and presented them to his sweetheart. At the end of the month，when the cat had to render her account of the things in the store to the king，she found that a lot of corn and pears were missing. The king was very angry at this，and asked the cat for an explanation. But the cat could not account for the loss，until one of her friends told her that the rat had been stealing the corn and giving it to the girl. When the cat told the king, he called the girl before him and had her flogged. He handed over the rat to the cat to deal with, and dismissed them both from his service. Fhe cat was so angry at this that she killed and ate the rat, and ever since that time whenever a cat sees a rat she kills and eats it. |
