“The Zebra Storyteller” is a very short story by Spencer Holst. It can be read in the preview of The Language of Cats and Other Stories. It’s about a cat who finds a way to prey upon a herd of zebras, and his comeuppance. It’s an allegory for what a storyteller is supposed to do. Here’s a summary of “The Zebra Storyteller”.
“The Zebra Storyteller” Summary
A Siamese cat once pretended to be a lion. It spoke Zebraic, the language of the striped horses of Africa. The Siamese cat did it like this. When crossing paths with a zebra in the jungle, the cat would greet the zebra in perfect zebraic and make some small talk. The zebra would be shocked to hear a cat speaking his language so well.
Taking advantage of the zebra’s disorientation, the cat ties him up, kills him and brings some of the carcass back to his den. He hunts like this successfully for months. He eats well and makes himself fashionable accessories from the hides. The cat boasts he’s a lion, citing his zebra hunts as proof.
The zebras can smell that there’s no lion nearby. Still, many zebras have died, so they avoid the area, believing it to be haunted by a lion’s ghost.
The storyteller of the zebras walks through the jungle one day, thinking of ideas for stories. He comes up with one—a Siamese cat who speaks zebraic. His fellows will find this funny.
The cat steps in front of him and greets him in Zebraic. Unlike the others, the storyteller isn’t frozen in shock. After all, he was just thinking of this very thing.
Looking the cat over, something bothers the zebra storyteller about its appearance. He kicks the cat, killing it.
That is the function of the storyteller.
I hope this “The Zebra Storyteller” summary was helpful.
