We suppose most of our young readers know that the people of far-off
Asia have their folk-lore and their fairy stories just as we have them.
This is one relating to a quarrel about the stupid question of "caste,"
which simply means whether one person is of better blood and position
than another.
There was once a dog and a cat. It was a very rainy day, and some men
were eating their dinner inside their house. The cat sat inside, too,
eating her dinner, and the dog sat on the door-step. The cat called out
to the dog, "I am a high-caste person, and you are a very low-caste
person." "Oh," said the dog, "not at all. I am the high-caste person,
and you are of very low caste. You eat all the men's dinner up, and
snatch the food from their hands just as they are putting it into their
mouths. And you scratch them, and they beat you, while I sit away from
them, and so they don't beat me. And if they give me any dinner, I'll
eat it; but if they don't, I won't." "Oh," says the cat, "not a bit of
it. I eat nice clean food; but you eat nasty, dirty food, which the men
have thrown away." "No," said the dog, "I am high caste, and you are
very low caste; for if I gave you a slap you would tumble down
directly." "No, no," said the cat. And they went on disputing, and began
to fight, until the dog said, "Very well, let us go to the wise jackal
and ask him which of us is the better." "Good," said the cat. So they
went to the jackal and asked him. Said the cat, "I am of the higher
caste, and the dog is of the lower caste." "No," said the jackal, "the
dog is of the higher caste." The cat said, "No," and the jackal said,
"Yes," and they began to fight.
Then the jackal and the dog proposed to go and ask a great big beast,
who lived in the jungle, and was like a tiger. But the cat said, "I can
not go near a tiger, or anything like one." So then they said, "When we
come near the beast you can remain behind, and we will go on and speak
to him." So they ran into the jungle, where there was a tiger who had
been lying on the ground with a great thorn sticking in his foot. When
his aunt, the cat, saw him, she scampered off, for she was dreadfully
frightened.
The thorn had given the tiger great pain; for a long while he could get
no one to take it out, so had lain there for days. At last he had seen a
man passing by, to whom he called and said, "Take out this thorn, and I
promise I won't eat you." But the man refused through fear, saying, "No,
I won't, for you will eat me." Three times the tiger had promised not to
eat him; so at last the man took out the thorn. Then the tiger sprang up
and said, "Now I will eat you, for I am very hungry." "Oh, no, no!" said
the man. "What a liar you are! You promised not to eat me if I would
take the thorn out of your foot, and now that I have done so you say you
will eat me." And they began to fight, and the man said, "If you won't
eat me, I will bring you a cow and a goat." But the tiger refused,
saying, "No, I won't eat them; I will eat you."
At this moment the jackal and the dog came up. And the jackal asked,
"What is the matter? why are you fighting?" So then the man told him why
they were fighting; and the jackal said to the tiger, "I will tell you a
good way of eating the man. Go and fetch a big bag." So the tiger went
and fetched the bag, and brought it to the jackal. Then the jackal said,
"Get inside the bag and leave its mouth open, and I'll throw the man in
to you." So the tiger got inside the bag, and the jackal, the dog, and
the man quickly tied it up as tight as they could. Then they began to
beat the tiger with all their might until at last they killed him. Then
the man went home, and the jackal went home, and the dog went home.