- Genre
- Mythological legend
- Source status
- folkloric
- Motifs
- harvest storm, folded skirt, black cat, changing refuge
The story
During the rye harvest, clouds brought rain and thunder. Two young women working at the Rasiai manor hurried home with their skirts gathered up.
The overseer saw a black cat running after them. It caught up and jumped into the fold of one woman’s raised skirt. Lightning immediately began flashing around the pair.
The overseer mounted a horse, followed them and shouted for them to let their skirts down. Looking back, the first woman saw a black cat with red eyes in the second woman’s skirt. Frightened, they both released the folds.
The cat fell out, ran away and sprang into a tree. Perkūnas struck the tree, scattering splinters in every direction.
Reading the story
The skirt fold briefly becomes someone else’s hiding place. The source title identifies the cat as a disguised devil; the story is not a claim about the nature of ordinary cats.
The anthology’s source notes cite Jonas Basanavičius’s Lietuviškos pasakos įvairios, volume IV, no. 84.
Source and retelling
Lietuvių tautosaka, IV (1967), Nr. 505, p. 526: „Perkūnas ir katinu pasivertęs velnias“. An original retelling of the recorded traditional narrative cited here. The sequence of events and ending are retained in modern language.