Long, long ago, the cat, Ka Miaw, lived in the forest where her brother, the tiger, was king. She was very happy to belong to the cat family and had great pride about the family honour. The cat family waited for the tiger to take care of them.
But the tiger was rather careless. He would eat his fill and leave the rest of his prey in the forest to be eaten up by jackals and other creatures. Ka Miaw and others of his family would wait and starve!
The proud cat waited till it was dark so that no one might see her prowling around looking for mice, frogs and vermin to eat. She tried to speak about it to the tiger, but he was so angry that she never opened her mouth again!
One day, the tiger was ill and some of the animals came to meet him. It was the custom to smoke the hookah with friends. But as he was sick, he asked the cat to light the hookah and bring it.
This offended Ka Miaw. ‘It’s not correct for me to be asked to bring the hookah!’ she thought. So, she said, “There’s no fire to light it, brother.” The tiger was very upset to have his orders disobeyed in front of his esteemed guests.
“Go to the village and fetch a firebrand from the house of some man,” he ordered.
The cat reluctantly went to the village, grumbling all the way. Some children playing there saw her and were so charmed with her beauty, that they caught her. They played with her, petting and stroking her. Ka Miaw was so happy that she quite forgot the tiger’s orders.
The visitors waited in vain for Ka Miaw to return. Finally, they left in a huff. The angry tiger set off to look for her. Ka Miaw heard his angry roar and, recollecting the errand, she quickly collected a firebrand and ran.
She dropped the firebrand in front of the tiger. But the tiger was so furious at the delay and the insult he had suffered that he roared and yelled at her. She was so terrified when he raised his paw to whack her, that she took to her heels.
She ran till she reached the village. It was so much better to be petted and cuddled by the children than to be abused by the tiger! She decided she would stay there always. And so the cat came to stay with man!
