The King O' The Cats - Variants

Variants

"The King of the Cats" is connected to various other stories in which the main human character is told to tell someone (often an odd name, presumably unknown to the character) that someone else (normally a similarly odd name) has died, typically by an animal (such as a cat) or an unseen voice. As in "The King o the Cats", the hearer repeats this to his family, and an unexpected listener reacts to the news.

One such tale features a man selling a calf at the November fair in Macroom, County Cork, Ireland. After he sold the calf, late in the fair, he ate and drank before he left. He heard the news as he passed the graveyard of Inchigeelagh, a cat put his head through the railings and said to the man, "Tell Balgeary that Balgury is dead." The rest of the tale follows the same format.