Long time ago, there lived Anza. He was the king of Calabar for
fifty years. He had a very faithful cat as a housekeeper, and a rat was his house-boy.
The king was an obstinate, headstrong man, but was very fond of the cat, which
had been in his store for many years.
The rat, which was very poor, fell in love with one of the
king’s servant girls, but was unable to give her any presents, as he had no
money. At last he thought of the king’s store, so in the night-time, being
quite small, he had little difficulty, having made a hole in the roof, in
getting into the store. He then stole corn and native pears, and presented them
to his sweetheart.
At the end of the month, when the cat had to render her account
of the things in the store to the king, it was found that a lot of corn and
native pears were missing. The king was very angry at this, and asked the cat
for an explanation. But the cat could not account for the loss, until one of
her friends told her that the rat had been stealing the corn and giving it to
the girl.
When the cat told the king, he called the girl before him and
had her flogged. The rat he handed over to the cat to deal with, and dismissed
them both from his service. The cat was so angry at this that she killed and
ate the rat, and ever since that time whenever a cat sees a rat she kills and
eats it.
Source: BSE; Inter language XII
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