| The Creation of the Jaguar Cat warriors have been peaceful and loving onto one another for many generations, but this has never always been part of the lives of such a pleasant civilization. There was once a time -- although very short -- that cat warrior persecuted cat warrior, and the best example is with a very unfortunate lioness named Teixe. Teixe was born into a poverty-stricken family, much worse than any of her fellow cat warriors of the early days of the gathering, when those oppressed or imprisoned cat people would escape their lands to join to love each other. Her parents had both passed away and the poor girl was left to grow on her own, raising herself off of the ground that she lived upon every day of her life. She could barely read nor write, for her mother and father had died when she was too young to learn. Most cat warriors wore clothes to conceal their personal features; Teixe was so poor that she wore no clothes, not even tossed-aside rags. She was rarely seen because of her bareness, and when she was, she would be ridiculed and taunted by the other cat warriors, most often the women, who pelted her with sticks and rocks and struck her with blunt weapons. They often made her cry and bleed and bruise; many thought she would be better dead. One evening, a group of young lionesses was walking towards the middle of the village to join the inhabitants for dance and song. Teixe quitely followed behind them to see if she could join in, but she failed. As she walked, she crushed some dry leaves underfoot and she was discovered by the other women. The adolescent girls taunted her, using some of the most vulgar words spoken in the kingdom, then threw stones at her and chased her into the woods. Teixe ran as fast as her legs could carry her, and managed to outrun her assailants. She escaped to her small living space in the woods: a small mound of dry dirt that was her bed. It was there that she collapsed on her belly and cried. She wept all night, her tears falling down onto the soft dirt under her. Morning seemed to come suddenly. The villagers seemed to stay all night and were returning to their homes by sunrise. It was at this time that Teixe awoke on her heap of earth. During the night she had tossed and turned, all from the horrible persecution of the previous evening. She slowly rose, still distressed, and walked to a nearby pool, where she often drank from. As Teixe knelt to lower her face to the water, she looked into the pool to see her entire face spotted. Shocked, she stood and looked at her body; it was covered with brown spots! Teixe looked again into the surface of the pool and cracked a smile; she was beautiful! She began to cry happily as she danced in the forest and laughed out loud, for she had never felt so happy in all her life. It was at this time that the other lionesses were walking by. They heard Teixe singing and laughing and dancing about, and decided to go investigate. What they saw astounded them; they saw a young girl covered with brown rosettes from head to foot. They thought that they had never seen anything so awesome. They approached her quietly and touched her gently, and smiled. Finally, all the girls apologized to Teixe for their rudeness, and carried her on their shoulders to the center of the village for all to see, and it was there that the cat warriors all saw the beauty. They called her "jaguar," for that was the title of the cat warrior who was most high and mighty, almost as royalty. Teixe was the first jaguar of the cat warriors. From that day forward she became revered and respected, and the cat warriors all taught her to read and write, and she became part of their world, and she learned the love for men that all other cat women had, and was happy. Her spots were held in awe for generations, and she had children who had spots as well, and they were called jaguars as well. In the future, many years after her death, the children of her latest generation came to be known as "leopards," a young prince or princess. Back to Stories Back to Home |