cateress

Then the cateress arose and set food before them and they ate.

And, turning to her sister, the cateress, she said, "Give him another dinar!"

Then quoth the lady portress to the lady cateress, "Come in from the gate and relieve this poor man of his load."

She recovered and sat upright and said to her sister the cateress, "Onward, and help me in my duty, for there remains but this one song."

Then the cateress crowned a cup and gave it to the portress, who took it from her hand and thanked her and drank.

She answered, "Even so," and, taking her seat upon the couch of juniper wood, pargetted with gold and silver, said to the portress and cateress, "Now do ye what ye have to do."

Then the cateress went and stood before him and the portress behind him while the third helped them, and they lifted the load from the porter's head, and, emptying it of all that was therein, set everything in its place.

The others again addressed themselves to conversing and carousing, and when the wine gat the better of them, the eldest lady, who ruled the house, rose and, making obeisance to them, took the cateress by the hand and said, "Rise, O my sister, and let us do what is our devoir."