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.

Every day the tigers went to the village in search of the cat; but when
the dogs barked they slunk away; for the tigers were very frightened
at the sight of the dogs' curly tails; they thought that the tails
were nooses and that they would be strangled by them. One day one
of the tigers met a jack