There was a time when all animals were wild. Although people sometimes saw wild beasts deep in the forests or high up on the mountains, they had not yet started keeping animals to give them milk or carry their heavy loads. All this changed because of an old woman and this is how it happened.

One evening, she was on her way back from the rice fields to cook supper for her daughter. Suddenly, the old woman felt a pair of hands cover her eyes. It was a spirit called Zize. "I'll let you go if you'll give me your daughter to be my wife," he said. The old woman agreed and early the next day, the spirit carried off the girl. A year went by and then the girl came back to see her mother. After a few days she said to the old woman, "Please come back with me now, and spend some time in my new home."

So mother and daughter set off to the spirit's house. The old woman took care to mark the way by dropping a trail of rice husks.

The girl and her mother spent many happy weeks together in the spirit's house. A day or two before it was time for the old woman to go home, her daughter whispered, "When you leave, as a going-away present, ask the spirit for the little basket that hangs beside the front door."

So, later, when the time came for her to go, the old woman asked Zize for the little basket. At first he refused, quite firmly, but then he turned to her and spoke gravely, "Very well. You may have it but you must not open it on your way home and when you do get home, you must build a fence around the basket before you take off the lid."

The old woman thanked her daughter and Zize for their warm hospitality and also for the little basket. But, as she followed the trail of rice husks back through the forest, she wondered what could possibly be inside the basket. After a while, she could contain her curiosity no longer and she put down the basket to lift open its lid. As she bent over it, she heard growling, tweeting and squeaking and, before she could close the basket, out leapt bears, birds, mice and monkeys. And what a commotion as they all rushed out from the open basket into the forest! Finally, the old woman managed to throw herself onto the basket and close the lid. She held it down firmly and re-tied the string to keep it shut. She could just hear some more animal sounds from inside the little basket. "There must still be a few animals inside," she said to herself. "I heard some mooing and grunting and barking."

The old woman paused for a while to get her breath back and then she picked up the basket and continued her journey home, following the trail of rice husks. It was daybreak when she finally trudged into her village. The old woman woke her neighbors and they all helped her to build a fence around the basket, just as the spirit Zize had told her.

Then, carefully, she opened the basket and out came... cows, horses, sheep, buffaloes, pigs, chickens and dogs. They all wanted to rush off, just as the other animals had done, but, of course, now there was a fence to stop them. The old woman and her neighbors collected up food for these animals to eat and brought water from the stream for them to drink. After a week or so the animals had all settled down happily. This was now their new home and they liked it here.

A year later the old woman's daughter paid her another visit, this time with her husband. As they walked into the village they passed neatly-fenced fields and little bamboo shelters for the animals and their young.

And so, that is why some animals are wild and some live with people. Perhaps, if the old woman had not been so hasty in opening her basket on her way home, then all the animals that are still wild would be tamed and living with us, too!