Rat and Cat Have a Contest

This, too, is a piece from the journal that Mianmo labeled "From the Cottar," and as such is likely another rural recitation that she saved for us. Here we have an example of the Just-So Story, a distinctly lesser myth that would likely only have been of interest to children and those few bold souls who walked the path of Yinkin.

Here we see the origin of one of the great rivalries of the granary and the storehouse: the alynx and the rat (whose patron deity eludes current mythographic practices, but was associated with both undermining Krarsht and troublesome Eurmal in the Orlanthi imagination). Here we also see a warning against underhanded dealings, theft from the community, and being unwilling to accept second place. All of these warnings would have been especially important among the ambitious and competitive masculine world of the Orlanthi; the unspoken lesson is that those who betray their clan in the pursuit of glory are cast out.

Given the uncertain divine place of Rat, and the rather childish suffixes given to both of the titular characters, the translator has chosen not to use either "alynx" or "Yinkin" to refer to Cat in the following story. If the reader prefers, "tabby" and "kitty-cat" also convey the meaning behind the Theyalan name given for the tale's protagonist.