In some versions of the tale, the she-mouse is seduced by the answer of the cat, who sweetly meows when asked what he will do at night.
Joseph Jacobs found 25 variants of the same droll scattered over the world from India to Spain, and discusses various theories of its origin.
[1] A second literary reference can be found in Carmen Lyra's Cuentos de mi tía Panchita (1920), in which, although she acknowledges it to be the same tale as Fernán Caballero's, she also leaves room for an oriental or African origin.
The tales of the book became part of the Costa Rican folklore, but the Little Roach is also known in Cuba, Mexico and Panama.
In 1936 Saturnino Calleja published another version La hormiguita se quiere casar, in which the mouse in saved from the broth by the little ant.