|| A Korean folktale ||
There were many dogs, but few cats, in Korea.
People didn’t love cats as much there. They are not made pets and are rarely seen in the houses of the people. Even bull calves are more petted by the children than are cats.
Korean cats are not bob-tailed, like their cousins in Japan. The Korean attitude towards cats is a bit surprising seeing that the neighbouring Chinese and Japanese have traditionally favoured the cat. It is said that the Chinese can tell the time of the day by the width of the slits in a kitten’s green eyes!
Alas! Not the same in Korea! Mother cats tell their kittens stories of the cruelty of dogs and why cats and dogs do not agree. They also tell the stories how humans insulted their ancestors.
The story goes like this.
Long long ago, there was an old man called Tip Pul, who earned his living through his fruit wine shop.
Once when the fairies had come down, he treated them well and gave them good hospitality. Impressed, they gave him a gem.
The happy old man was inspecting the gem, thinking it would fetch him a handsome sum of money, when it fell into the huge flask of wine. Not wishing to put his hand inside and contaminate the wine, he thought of getting the gem out when the wine in the flask finishes.
To his surprise, the flask never emptied. No matter how much wine was poured out from the flask, the flask always remained full.
The old man understood this was due to the magic of the gem. He continued selling wine and never had to worry about poverty. He could sell wine at cheaper rates and soon everyone wanted to buy only from him. He lived like that for many years with Snap, his dog and Meow, his cat.
One day, the old man woke up to realize that his wine flask was empty and the gem was gone!
He was in great distress. Now he would be poor soon. What should he do, where should he search, he was too old!
The faithful pets swung into action.
The cat at once began to ransack every rat’s quarters known, not only in her master’s home, but in every house in the village, in search of the missing stone. Day and night she searched. Meow knocked over tobacco boxes, scratched among hat covers hung on the wall, tipped up the hanging shelves and upset the crockery in the closet over the kitchen stove.
The noise of cat chasing mice in the rafters and beams under the roof, nearly drove some people crazy. Some thought it must be a mischievous spirit. Yet when they investigated, they just found Meow.
When they saw the cat, they poked her with fishing rod or threw things at her, sometimes calling her names.
Despite all the trouble that Meow went through, she could not find the gem.
Meanwhile, Snap, the dog could not climb like Meow did. But he did have a nose that could smell a tiger a mile off, he traveled all over the country, even beyond the frozen river.
Although he fought many another dog, chased many a rat into its hole, and worried about a hundred cats, even jumping into wood-sheds and running in and out among the cows and horses, he too found nothing.
One day, the cat brushed her whiskers against a sturdy soapstone box.
Recognizing that it contained her master’s gem, she tried to claw and bite it, but could not open it. The dog, too, tried to bite, but it was too strong.
Finally, the cat and dog came to an agreement with the rats and mice that they would be spared for six months if they gnawed through the box. The rodents were happy at the prospect of living peacefully for six months.
Both mice and rats gnawed at the box, and within a week, they got the magic gem to the cat and the dog.
Delighted, Snap and Meow ran back home to their master. When they had to cross a river, Snap suggested Meow to hold the gem in her mouth and hold onto him, while he swam.
And so they started.
It was a long swim and Snap was getting tired. Meow was happy, she only had to hold on. It was going fine until there were some children on the other side on the river, who saw the strange pair.
They had not seen anything funny like it and they began laughing till tears came out of their eyes. Snap was too focused to share their mirth, but Meow, pleased that some humans were at last not being mean to her, started laughing with them.
Her laughter shook Snap and he moved zigzag trying to balance. This made the cat laugh even more, finally she guffawed loudly.
The gem fell from her mouth into the river. The faithful dog at once, dove after the gem, trying to retrieve it. But he could not find it.
Meanwhile, Meow, unable to swim, somehow made it to the shore, shivering from the ice cold water.
Snap, furious that his labour had been wasted because of the cat’s vanity, started chasing her once he got got of the water. She immediately climbed up a tree and stayed there. Snap kept barking at her from below, while she kept growling at him. After a while, Snap left her and ran back to his master. Meow, homeless and unable to face a furious Snap, continued living in the wild.
After that, in Korea, the cats and dogs ceased to be friends. Indeed, they never spoke to each other. Wild, unloved and unpetted, the cat was regarded as a trouble-maker, while the dog was considered the faithful friend of man.
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