Why Singapore Cats Have Knotted Tails
    by Eric A. Kimmel

Singapore cats are elegant cats. They do what they like and go where they please. They come in all the cat colors: black, white, orange, tabby, calico, tortoise shell. But you can always tell a cat from Singapore, because Singapore cats have something that no other cat has.

Every Singapore cat has a knot at the end of its tail. How did they get that knot? …Here is the story.

     A long, long time ago the island of Singapore, or Singhapura as it was known, was ruled by a rajah. The rajah built his palace at the top of a high hill. Here he could look out over his kingdom and enjoy the cool breezes coming from the ocean. A spring of cold, clear water bubbled at the foot of the hill. The water from the spring flowed into a pool.

    Every evening, after the sun went down, the rajah's wives and daughters came down to the pool to bathe. They hung their clothes on the branches of the bushes that grew around the pool. They took off their rings, bracelets, earrings and necklaces and left them on silk kerchiefs spread beneath the bushes. When they finished bathing, they put their clothes and jewelry back on and walked back up the hill to the palace. Here they danced and feasted until dawn.

A ship once came into port from the islands of Suluwesi. The sailors aboard claimed to be traders, but in truth they were pirates. They had come to Singhapura to exchange their loot for tools and supplies.

One of the pirates, a young man named Ahmed, overheard a merchant talking about the rajah's palace. His ears pricked up when the man described the pool where the princesses bathed.

"That is a sight I would like to see!" Ahmed exclaimed.

"It would be the last thing you would see, though I doubt you would get close enough to ever see it," the merchant answered. "The entrances to the rajah's palace are heavily guarded. No one goes in or out without permission. If the rajah's guards were to catch you, you'd be chopped into little pieces. Your head would hang in the market like a chicken ready for the pot."

"All the more reason to try!" Ahmed exclaimed. For he was no ordinary pirate. He took pride in entering places where others dared not go, and accomplishing feats that others dared not even attempt.

Ahmed walked to the rajah's hill. He could see the golden roofs of the royal palace shining at the top. He introduced himself to the guards at the gate.

"I am a sailor from Suluwesi. The fame of the rajah's palace has come to our distant islands. I have come a long way, hoping to see it. Might I be permitted to go in to look around?"

"Absolutely not!" the guards warned him. "No one but the rajah's family and the members of his court may enter. All others are put to death."

"But surely there is no harm in my looking at the palace from here!"

"Look all you like-as long as you stay on this side of the wall," the guards said.

Ahmed thanked the guards for their help. Then he continued his stroll, as if he were no more than a curious sailor out for a walk.

All the while he was searching for a way to get inside the grounds of the rajah's palace. At last he saw it-a tall banyan tree growing on the other side of the wall.

Now the banyan is a curious tree. Runners drop from its branches. When these touch the ground, they send roots into the earth, and another tree grows. Ahmed noticed several runners growing on his side of the wall.

"The rajah has locked his front door, while leaving his back door open," Ahmed murmured to himself as he walked away, chuckling.

Ahmed returned to the port. He told his companions to get their ship ready to sail that evening. Then he changed into black clothes and darkened his face and hands with nut juice. He took only two things with him: a sack made of cord netting and a long, thin iron rod with one end bent into a hook.

Seeking the shadows, he returned to the rajah's hill, to the place where the banyan grew. Ahmed climbed up one of the runners. He walked along the branch; not a difficult task for a sailor used to climbing ropes and rigging.

Ahmed dropped down on the other side of the wall. He heard the sound of rushing water. It was a stream, flowing down the hillside. Ahmed followed the stream's course up the hill. It led to a pool, surrounded by a thicket of bushes.

Ahmed hid in the bushes, waiting. The sound of voices made him look up. He saw lights approaching; a procession of lamps and torches carried by a host of beautiful young women. The rajah's wives and daughters, accompanied by their handmaidens, were coming down to the pool to bathe.

The princesses took off their jewelry. They hung their silk garments on the bushes. Together they entered the pool, splashing and playing in the moonlight.

Now Ahmed went to work. Like a fisherman casting his line, he hooked each silk garment with the iron rod, pulled it from the bushes, and stuffed it into his cord sack. That done, he carefully and silently threaded each jeweled ring, bracelet, earring, and necklace onto the iron like a string of beads.

With the royal clothes in his sack and the royal jewels in his pocket, Ahmed found his way back toward the banyan tree. He cleared the wall and hurried toward the port, where he found his companions aboard their ship, waiting for him.

"Cast off!" Ahmed cried, leaping aboard as the pirates raised the sails.
"Where have you been?" the others replied.
Ahmed laughed. "Hunting for treasure at the rajah's pool!"

The princesses finished bathing. They came out of the pool, looking for their clothes. The garments were gone, along with their jewelry.

The princesses were outraged. "Run to the palace! Bring us some clothes!" they screamed at their handmaidens. "Tell our father what has happened! He must avenge this outrage!"

The rajah quivered with rage when he heard the story. He ordered his soldiers to close the port and the city gates while they searched for the culprit. No one was to leave or enter Singhapura until the criminal was found.

Of course, it was to no purpose, for by then Ahmed's ship was on the high seas, sailing back to Suluwesi with a royal treasure of silks and jewels.

The rajah's wives and daughters never recovered their lost jewels or clothing. However, they learned to take better care of both in the future. Each princess had a pet cat. When the princesses went to bathe, they would fold their clothes, set them on the grass, and place the cats on top of them. Each princess would thread her cat's tail through her rings and earrings, tying a knot at the end of the tail to make sure none of the jewelry slipped off.

The royal cats would allow no one except their mistresses to come near the clothes or touch their tails.

The rajah and the princesses are long gone. The palace of Singhapura is a memory. But the story is still told. It must be true, because every Singapore cat to this day does have a knot in its tail.