Once upon a time there lived in a distant village a husband and wife, no longer young people. They fed on what they grew palm trees. The old people did not have children, therefore, apparently, they loved cats and dogs very much. One day they took a little kitten into the house. The kitten was all white, and the old people affectionately called him Little White.
Time passed and the kitten grew. One day the old people had breakfast, the old woman put fish in a pot, from which she wanted to cook delicious quin* for dinner, closed it with a lid, and she went to the market to sell betel. At this time the old man was sitting below and cutting bamboo rods.
The cat wanted to eat fish, and he slowly began to open the pot. But the old man heard a rustling, picked up a stone from the ground and went up into the house. He entered and saw: Belenky had his head in a pot and was eating fish. The old man became very angry and in his anger threw a stone at the cat. But it didn’t hit the cat, but landed right in the pot. The stone knocked off the throat of the pot - and it remained on the cat’s neck. The cat took off out of fear and ran into the forest.
In the forest, a rooster and a hen were walking towards a cat. When they saw him, they first hid their chickens in a safe place, and then the rooster asked:
- What is this strange cat? Does he have a ring around his neck?
The cat heard their conversation and decided to cheat:
- I'm not an ordinary cat. I am the wisest of cats! And on my neck I don’t have a ring at all, but a rosary. Look at my fur coat! Isn't it the purest white? If you have children, you can send them to me for training.
The rooster and hen believed the cat and gave their chickens to him for training.
The cat went further, and he met a drake and a duck. The cat deceived them in the same way as the rooster and hen; they also gave him their duckling for training.
The cat went further through the forest with the chickens and duckling. They go and see: a bow bird is sitting under a bush. At first she was also surprised what kind of unprecedented cat this was, but the cat told her that he was the wisest of cats, and these were his students. And the bow bird released her beloved son named Ye Cho with the cat.
After that, the cat also encountered a crow on its way. The cat told her that he was the wisest of cats, and offered to give the chicks to him for training. The crow didn’t really believe the cat, but when the father of her crows saw the chicks, duckling, and bow chick, he was worried that their chicks would remain ignorant, and gave the cat his beloved crow named Me Gaun.
The cat led all his students to a large tree with a hollow and said:
— Today I will train a duckling. He will climb into this hollow with me. And the rest go to sleep in the tree.
The chicks fell asleep in the tree, and the cat in the hollow had a duckling for dinner.
When morning came, Ye Cho and Me Gaung noticed that the duckling had disappeared somewhere, and asked the cat:
- Teacher, where is the duckling?
“He has already learned and returned to his parents.
The next day, the cat called the chicken into the hollow with him, and ordered Ye Cho and Me Gaun to sleep in the tree. The cat ate the poor chicken, just like the duckling.
When dawn broke, Ye Cho and Me Gaun saw that there was no trace of the chicken, and they again began to question the cat. The cat, like last time, replied that the chicken had already mastered all the sciences and returned to its parents. But this time Ye Cho and Me Gaung did not believe the cat’s words.
- Listen, Me Gaun! - said Ye Cho. - Although the teacher says that the duckling and chicken have already learned and returned to their parents, I don’t believe it. It looks more like the teacher ate them.
“I think that’s how it is, as you say,” Me Gaun responded.
Then Ye Cho and Me Gaun began to think about what to do.
“That’s it, Ye Cho,” Me Gaun finally said. “Today the teacher will probably take one of us with him.” Let the other one not sleep, but wait nearby so that he can hear everything from the hollow. If the cat really wants to eat us, we need to scream. The other one will immediately fly to the rescue, and together we will peck the cat.
Soon the sun set and a dark night fell. The cat called Ye Cho and Me Gaun and asked:
- Well, which of you wants to return to your parents first?
“I, teacher,” Me Gaun volunteered. “I want to return to my parents.” Teach me the sciences tonight so that I know everything.
“Okay,” the cat agreed, “climb into the hollow.” And you, Ye Cho, go sleep on a tree. Tomorrow you will go home.
But Ye Cho, as agreed with Me Gaun, sat down not far from the hollow and began to listen. Suddenly a cry was heard from the hollow:
- Ye Cho, help! Help!
Ye Cho immediately flew into the hollow and grabbed the cat’s eyes! The swindler had a bad time here - he almost went completely blind. They say that since then, cats’ pupils are located not lengthwise, like all animals, but across them.
Well, the two friends instantly jumped out of the hollow and flew to their native lands.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru