The Hunt Of Lion And Jackal
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South-african Folk-tales
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 nos
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.