Father Civet. 



By R. 0. WlNSTEDT. 



This tale is not to be confused with that rollicking farce 

 Musang Berjanggut, " The Bearded Civet-Cat ; " it is merely 

 a beast fable of the Aesop type. The tale and language is so 

 simple that a literal translation would be tiresome. The 

 following is the gist of it. Some villagers moved from their 

 Jcampong up to a hill rice-clearing and left behind them a hen 

 and two chicken which they could not catch. One day hen 

 and chicken were looking for food in the scrub, when the 

 chicken wandered away from the hen and met a huge civet- 

 cat. Said the civet-cat, " How would you like me for a step- 

 father, you fatherless little chicks? Tell me where your 

 mother roosts to-night and I will come and woo her." " We 

 all sleep at the end of the threshold to-night," chirped the 

 chicken. " All right I'll come and meet your mother," said 

 civet-cat. So the chicken went back to the hen and the elder 

 chicken chirped all about their meeting with civet-cat and 

 how civet-cat was coming to visit them at i the end of the 

 threshold ' that very night. " Oh you very naughty tell-tale 

 chicken " clacked the hen and removed with them to a cross- 

 beam under the roof. And civet prowled in vain that night 

 all round the threshold. The next morning civet-cat met the 

 chicken again and scolded them for their deceit. " All 

 mother's fault " chirped the chicken, " she was angry with us 

 for telling you her roosting-place and moved to the roof 

 beam." " Oh," said civet-cat, " well, where does your mother 

 roost to-night ; I am longing to meet her." " On the cross- 

 beam under the roof " chirped the chicken. When they re- 

 turned to their mother, she asked where they had been and 

 they told the whole story. Then the hen was very angry and 

 beat them for telling civet-cat of the roosting-place and remov- 

 ed and slept on the ridge-pole. In vain civet-cat searched that 



Jour. Straits Branch, R. A. Soc, No 50, 1908. 



