The cat in the well
Posted: Sun Mar 12, 2006 4:56 pm
I am trying to write a fable my grandmother told me, but I can't seem to remember the rest of it. I hope that you can help me finish it so I can get it published when I return to South Africa.
In South Africa we consider cats a nusiance. They often damage the crops that we used to grow on our berry plantation in Burgersfort. This causes a huge amount of money to be lost on our investments in the berry seeds. Most farmers don't like cats, and will stab them as soon as they get a chance. My grandmother told me a story about why cats steal our berries. I am no author, so I decided to post it when I found this topic. Hopefully you can help me.
Once upon a time there was a rich king. He ruled all of Africa and the people were united and very happy. He had a great amount of money and riches, but considered himself rich mainly because he was satisfied with his life and had many good friends.
These good friends were all nice people, but he had friend in particular who had been his friend since childhood, and he placed above all other friends. She seemed at times to know him better than he knew himself. This was good, because she often helped him make difficult decisions that he could not make on his own.
She was a very old hag with no eyes and a slack jaw who walked with a cane. She knew ancient magic from the far north desert. She spoke to nobody except the king, because everybody else considered her a bum who lived off the kings sympathy. The king knew this was untrue, but he pretended not to notice because he didn't want to be seen as weak and as somebody who needed help from an old bum woman.
One day she was baking a toad in the oven when she lit herself on fire. The king, who was luckily standing nearby, saw this and shouted. He then went on to beat the fire out on the woman with a large beaver tail, and having no water, urinated on the stove to put out the stove fire. The old woman thanked the man, and ate the frog before going to bed.
She slept easily that night, but she felt something strange in her stomach.
[...]
(THIS IS THE PART I CANT REMEMBER -- THE KING GETS ATTACKED OR SOMETHING AND THE CAT CREATES A THOUSAND COPIES OF ITSELF OR SOMETHING TO GET ALL OVER THE WORLD -- PLEASE HELP!)
In South Africa we consider cats a nusiance. They often damage the crops that we used to grow on our berry plantation in Burgersfort. This causes a huge amount of money to be lost on our investments in the berry seeds. Most farmers don't like cats, and will stab them as soon as they get a chance. My grandmother told me a story about why cats steal our berries. I am no author, so I decided to post it when I found this topic. Hopefully you can help me.
Once upon a time there was a rich king. He ruled all of Africa and the people were united and very happy. He had a great amount of money and riches, but considered himself rich mainly because he was satisfied with his life and had many good friends.
These good friends were all nice people, but he had friend in particular who had been his friend since childhood, and he placed above all other friends. She seemed at times to know him better than he knew himself. This was good, because she often helped him make difficult decisions that he could not make on his own.
She was a very old hag with no eyes and a slack jaw who walked with a cane. She knew ancient magic from the far north desert. She spoke to nobody except the king, because everybody else considered her a bum who lived off the kings sympathy. The king knew this was untrue, but he pretended not to notice because he didn't want to be seen as weak and as somebody who needed help from an old bum woman.
One day she was baking a toad in the oven when she lit herself on fire. The king, who was luckily standing nearby, saw this and shouted. He then went on to beat the fire out on the woman with a large beaver tail, and having no water, urinated on the stove to put out the stove fire. The old woman thanked the man, and ate the frog before going to bed.
She slept easily that night, but she felt something strange in her stomach.
[...]
(THIS IS THE PART I CANT REMEMBER -- THE KING GETS ATTACKED OR SOMETHING AND THE CAT CREATES A THOUSAND COPIES OF ITSELF OR SOMETHING TO GET ALL OVER THE WORLD -- PLEASE HELP!)
