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.

I don’t suggest that there is any truth in this next one, but it is fun and clever to introduce the angel (goddess) Bast into the story, she will appear later in our travels.


On the seventh day, the Creator spirit took his rest, turning his mind to other projects such as the creation of a race of grey people with huge dark eyes in a distant star system. He had, however, created a group of caretaker-managers, the Angels, to oversee the Earth while he was otherwise engaged, and during an annual audit one of these Angels, Bast, looked down at the Earth and felt that something was missing.

The dolphins were frolicking happily in the ocean and the various finned, feathered and furred life-forms were busy begetting offspring. The insects and humbler creations were buzzing and chirping and squelching in their ecological niches. Plants were growing and seeding and the humans were busy inventing fire and the wheel. However, there seemed to be something indefinably amiss in paradise.

Then Bast noticed. The mice and rats, of course, blessed with outstanding reproductive capacities, they were outstripping the predators' abilities to maintain balance in paradise.

'Brother Mongoose,' called Bast, 'I see that the rats and mice are going forth and multiplying and you and your begotten ones are having a hard time keeping up with them.'

Brother Mongoose paused in his toils, dropping a dead mouse, 'Tis true,' he admitted, 'the wife is busy nursing our latest brood and it seems that Lucifer has touched the rats and mice so that they multiply quicker than we can count. They gnaw away at the humans' grain stores and carry with them disease and famine.'

'I will see if I can arrange some help for you,' replied Bast.

The Angel Bast put a draft proposal on the Creator spirit's desk, outlining plans for a new predator to help in the control of the rats and mice and of the rabbits who were beginning to display unnerving fecundity and were rapidly decimating the greenery. Two weeks later, her proposal was still in the Creator spirit's 'Pending' tray, along with Black Death, and Bast decided to take it upon herself to address the situation before it deteriorated further.

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