How Did the Red Fox Get His Dinner?

On the evening of one quiet summer day, when the sun had hidden behind the western hills, old Umm Salih was on her way home from the market, holding in one hand a basket filled with sugar, tea, starch, and soap, and carrying on her shoulder a long stick from which dangled two brown hens. The two hens were not at ease at being carried in this fashion, for they were accustomed to having the ground—not the sky—beneath their feet. So they blinked their eyes and uttered not a single word, and Umm Salih went on her way, worn out with fatigue.

Meanwhile the red fox was sniffing the pleasant evening breeze behind the prickly-pear trees. Then all of a sudden he raised his long muzzle and began to sniff about him, for the smell of chicken had reached his nostrils. His mouth watered when this thought crossed his mind, and he peered with his nose through the folds of the prickly-pear trees, and there he saw Umm Salih walking slowly along the dusty road, carrying the two delicious hens. The sight of them inflamed his appetite. But how was he to reach them?

He shook his head once, then twice, and then walked along behind the hedge of prickly-pear trees, keeping level with Umm Salih's road.

When Umm Salih passed the bend in the road, she saw a fox with a beautiful red pelt sprawled in the middle of the road, a lifeless corpse. She set her basket on the ground and looked at him in astonishment, then said:

"What a beautiful piece of fur."

Then she picked up her basket again and went on her way. Hardly had Umm Salih passed out of sight when the red fox stood up on his feet and slipped away behind the prickly-pear trees. He passed Umm Salih and her two hens hanging from the stick, as she still plodded on toward her house in effort and weariness. He had to be quick, for there was only one more bend in the road. So he stole out of the field and flung himself down once more in the road and pretended to be a dead corpse.

When Umm Salih rounded the bend she nearly fell over the fox's body. She cried out, saying: "Good Lord! Here is another dead fox. The plague must be spreading among the foxes. But the skins of two foxes would do for making a beautiful rug for my bed. I will leave my load here and go to fetch the other fox."

And she matched word with deed.

And what did the red fox do?

He sprang to his feet with the speed of lightning, snatched the stick—and the two hens with it—and went strutting on his way under the wing of dusk, as you can see in this picture. When Umm Salih came back to her basket she shook her head and sighed, saying:

"The world is teeming with thieves. Not content with stealing two foxes, they have stolen the two hens as well. Curse them for wicked criminals!" And she walked slowly on her way toward her little house standing on the hill.

Umm Salih had scarcely reached her house, and was about to open its door, when she heard the red fox calling in the darkness to his wife, who stood waiting for him in the belly of the valley. Her face darkened with anger—and no wonder she should burst with rage, for the red fox was chanting the following song:

"Come, my darling, come running, come!
I have taken two hens by a clever, devilish trick—
one of them is for me
and the other hen is for you.
How sweet are hens, and how sweet are you!"