Their mother had laid an egg and as there was no one to hatch it now, they said, “Egg, you must lie in the fireplace and blind the jackal;” and they said to the paddy husker, “You must stand by the door and when the jackal runs out you must knock him down;” and they told the paddy mortar to wait on the roof over the door and fall and crush the jackal.  So they put the egg among the hot ashes in the fireplace and they themselves sat in a cupboard with axes ready; and when the jackal came he went to the fireplace and scratched out the ashes; and the egg burst and spirted into his eyes and blinded him and as he ran out of the door the paddy husker knocked him over; and as he crawled away the paddy mortar fell on him from the roof and crushed him; then the chickens ran out and chopped him to pieces with their axes and revenged the death of their mother.

CXIV.  The Tigers and the Cat.

In former days tigers and cats were friends and used to hunt together and share the game they caught; and they did not eat the game raw but used to cook it as men do.

One day some tigers and a cat had killed a deer and they had no fire with which to cook it; then the tigers said to the cat “You are small, go and beg a light from yonder village.”  But the cat said that he was afraid to go; however they urged him saying “You have a thin tail and plump feet; you can bring it in a trice.”  So, as they all insisted on his going, he at last consented; and said “Well, I will go; but don’t expect me to be very quick; if I get a good opportunity for fetching the fire, I will come back soon.”  They said “All right, go and run off with a small fire-brand and we will meet you outside the village.”

So the cat went off and coming to a house, went inside to pull a firebrand from the hearth.  On the fire some milk was boiling; and the cat thought “This smells very nice, I will have a taste of it” and he found it so nice that he made up his mind to drink it all, before he took away the fire-brand.  But in order to lap the milk he had to put his feet on the fireplace, and it was so hot that he burnt his feet and had to get down; so then he sat down and waited till the fire went out and the hearth grew cool, and then he lapped up the milk and ran off with a piece of smouldering wood.

Meanwhile the tigers had got tired of waiting and had eaten the deer raw; and they were very angry at being made to eat raw flesh and swore that they would eat the cat too.  When they saw the cat bringing the fire they ran to meet him and abused him and cried out “You have made us eat raw flesh; we will eat you too, dung and all” On hearing this threat the cat ran back to the village in fear of his life; and the tigers followed in pursuit; but when they got near the village, the village dogs all ran out barking and the tigers were frightened and turned back and the cat was saved.  From that day tigers and leopards have eaten raw flesh; and cats bury their excrement, because of what the tigers had said.