Wise cats

I was reading Bellow's Dangling Man and it said something like: the Egyptians -- great guys -- one of their gods -- they got it right -- to make him -- (or her, or it, who knows) -- to make it a cat, -- for the cats have eyes -- that can see into the soul.

I don't buy that, but anyway I agree that the Catalans are wiser than their stupid neighbors; they've suffered the inclemencies of unluck too often, and that, who doubts it, sharpens the imagination.

Imagination makes you not only kinder, and more alive. It makes you wiser.

[Ventafocs means Cinderella in Catalonian. Ventar is a verb than means: to make some kind of wind (vent) with bellows (manxa) or with a fan (ventall) or with whatever, in this case in order to revive the fire in the hearth. Foc means fire. So what Cinderella does, and this is why she is full of cinders or ashes (cendres) is revive the home fires - hence the name Ventafocs...]