Black-Backed Jackal (Canis Mesomelas), Hwange National Park,Matabeleland North, Zimbabwe

South African Folk-Tales by James A. Honey

Lion by by Keith Levit (photographer)

South African Folk-Tales
by James A. Honey

Introduction

Origin of the Difference in Modes of Life Between Hottentots and Bushmen

The Lost Message

The Monkey's Fiddle

The Tiger, the Ram, and the Jackal

The Jackal and the Wolf

A Jackal and a Wolf

The Lion, the Jackal, and the Man

The World's Reward

The Lion and the Jackal

Tink-Tinkje

The Lion and Jackal [I]

The Lion and Jackal [II]

The Hunt of Lion and Jackal

The Story of Lion and Little Jackal

The Lioness and the Ostrich

Crocodile's Treason

The Story of a Dam

The Dance For Water or Rabbit's Triumph

Jackal and Monkey

Lion's Share

Jackal's Bride

The Story of Hare

The White Man and Snake

Another Version of the Same Fable

Cloud-Eating

Lion's Illness

Jackal, Dove, and Heron

Cock and Jackal

Elephant and Tortoise

Another Version of the Same Fable

Tortoises Hunting Ostriches

The Judgment of Baboon

Lion and Baboon

The Zebra Stallion

When Lion Could Fly

Lion Who Thought Him Self Wiser Than His Mother

Lion Who Took A Woman's Shape

Why Has Jackal a Long, Black Stripe On His Back?

Horse Cursed By Sun

Lion's Defeat

The Origin of Death

Another Version of the Same Fable

A Third Version of the Same Fable

A Fourth Version of the Same Fable

A Zulu Version of the Legend of the "Origin of Death"

Literature on South African Folk-Lore

SurLaLune Fairy Tales Main Page

The Hunt of Lion and Jackal

LION and Jackal, it is said, were one day lying in wait for Eland. Lion shot [with a bow] and missed, but Jackal hit and sang out, "Hah! hah!"

Lion said, "No, you did not shoot anything. It was I who hit."

Jackal answered, "Yea, my father, thou hast hit."

Then they went home in order to return when the eland was dead, and cut it up. Jackal, however, turned back, unknown to Lion, hit his nose so that the blood ran on the spoor of the eland, and followed their track thus, in order to cheat Lion. When he had gone some distance, he returned by another way to the dead eland, and creeping into its carcass, cut out all the fat.

Meanwhile Lion followed the blood-stained spoor of Jackal, thinking that it was eland blood, and only when he had gone some distance did he find out that he had been deceived. He then returned on Jackal's spoor, and reached the dead eland, where, finding Jackal in its carcass, he seized him by his tail and drew him out with a swing.

Lion upbraided Jackal with these words:

"Why do you cheat me?"

Jackal answered: "No, my father, I do not cheat you; you may know it, I think. I prepared this fat for you, father."

Lion said: "Then take the fat and carry it to your mother " [the lioness] ; and he gave him the lungs to take to his own wife and children.

When Jackal arrived, he did not give the fat to Lion's wife, but to his own wife and children; he gave, however, the lungs to Lion's wife, and he pelted Lion's little children with the lungs, saying:

"You children of the big-pawed one!
You big-pawed ones!"

He said to Lioness, "I go to help my father [the lion]; but he went far away with his wife and children.

The text came from:

Honey, James A. South African Folk-tales. New York: Baker & Taylor Company, 1910.


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©Heidi Anne Heiner, SurLaLune Fairy Tales
E-mail: surlalune@aol.com
Page last updated September 6, 2006
www.surlalunefairytales.com

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