Folktale Of The East

(How cats became domestic animal)

Many ages ago, there lived a cat and a tiger in the forest. They were good friend, the best of friend, perhaps. They hunt and share everything together and were happy with each other. However, one fateful day, they hunt nothing and have nothing to eat. Hungry as they are, the tiger demands that the cat should go this time to the nearby village to bring foods for both of them because he had done it before.

Without protest, the cat went to steal food from the village. He anxiously sneaked into the house but when he found a warm fireplace, he could not resist the temptation to stay back for awhile. Then beset by the warm of the fire, the cat soon fall into deep sleep.    

Realizing that he had slept for hours, the cat was afraid and hurried to the kitchen to search for food, after stretching his body sleepily. There, in the cupboard, the cat found a jar of milk. He tasted it and it was so good. The cat drank until he was about to vomit.

Packing all the food he could find and coming down to the fireplace again, he was tempted to take a nap.

‘Let me sleep for a while. I’m so sleepy.’ The cat said to himself, and before he could utter another word, he began to snore. The cat never wakes up until it was late evening. Feeling so comfortable in the house, the cat did not want to go back to the forest.

 A day was gone like a blink of an eye to the cat, and he did not return to the forest. The next day too, he drank the milk and fall asleep again. He did not even remember his friend was waiting for him.

As the cat did not return back, the tiger too went to the village to rescue his little friend. However, seeing his friend sleeping peacefully beside the fireplace, the tiger lost his temper and shouted at the cat.

The cat was very frightened when he saw his angry friend standing in front of him. He tried to explain and apologize but the tiger would not listen to him.

‘You enjoy the live of human here that you even forget your best friend, huh? Don’t ever return to the forest again or I will crush even your dung if I saw it.’

Saying so, the hungry tiger went to the forest; never returned to the village seeking his friend.

And the cat was afraid of the tiger that when he pass his faeces, he covered it with the mud, so that the tiger won't saw it.

That's how, until now, the cat used to hide his excrete.