Jackal and Monkey

Every evening Jackal went to the Boer’s kraal, crept in through the sliding door, and stole a fat young lamb. Clever Jackal did this several nights in a row. So the Boer set a wip for him at the door—a snare made from a bent green branch with a noose on the end.

Jackal came again, and zip! The noose caught him round the middle and whipped him up into the air. There he hung, swinging and swaying, unable to touch the ground. Dawn began to break, and Jackal grew uneasy.

Monkey was sitting on a stony kopje nearby. When it grew light he could see what had happened, and he scrambled down quickly to make fun of Jackal. He perched on the kraal wall.

“Ha, ha, good morning! So there you hang. Caught at last.”

“What? Me, caught? I’m only swinging for fun. It’s delightful.”

“You fibber. You’re caught in the wip.”

“If you only knew how lovely it is to swing and sway like this, you wouldn’t think twice. Come and try it. It makes you feel so healthy and strong for the whole day, and you never get tired afterward.”

“No, I won’t. You’re caught.”

But after a while Jackal talked Monkey round. Monkey jumped down from the wall, freed Jackal, and fitted the noose round his own body. Jackal let go at once and burst out laughing, because now Monkey was the one swinging high in the air.

“Ha, ha, ha!” he laughed. “Now Monkey is in the wip.”

“Jackal, let me out!” Monkey screamed.

“Look, here comes the Boer,” shouted Jackal.

“Jackal, get me out of this, or I’ll smash your toys!”

“No, the Boer is coming with his gun. You have a little rest in the noose.”

“Jackal, quick, set me free!”

“No, here’s the Boer already, and he has his gun. Good morning!” And with that he ran off as fast as he could.

The Boer came and found Monkey in the wip. “So, so, Monkey, now you’re caught. You’re the one who’s been stealing my lambs, hey?”

“No, Boer, no!” screamed Monkey. “Not me—Jackal!”

“No, I know you. You’re not too good for that.”

“No, Boer, no, not me, it was Jackal,” stammered Monkey.

“Oh, I know you. Just you wait,” said the Boer. He raised his gun, took aim, and shot poor Monkey dead.

About this story

“Jackal and Monkey” comes from James A. Honey’s South-African Folk-Tales (1910). Honey adds a footnote explaining the trap: a wip is a Dutch word for a snare made from a bent green stick with a noose, set off by a cross-stick so that the bough springs up and pulls the animal into the air.

The story gives no comfort at the end: the real thief escapes and the mocking onlooker is blamed and shot. Honey says some of his tales were translated from the Dutch, and Dutch farm words such as kraal and kopje run all through this one.

Read the original: Honey’s South-African Folk-Tales on Project Gutenberg

Suggested for ages 9–12 with an adult: the trick ends with an innocent animal being shot dead.

Being in the trap is not proof of theft

Monkey begins by recognising the trap correctly. Jackal talks him out of that sound judgment by making danger sound pleasurable. The farmer then makes a different mistake: he treats the animal he finds as necessarily the thief he wanted. Monkey’s earlier unkindness does not make that accusation true or his death just.

Give the farmer one missing question

Write a question that would help distinguish “found in the snare” from “stole the lambs”. Then identify the moment when Monkey abandons what he already knows about Jackal’s predicament.

Talk about it

• How did Jackal persuade Monkey to get into the snare?
• Why did the Boer refuse to believe Monkey?
• What responsibility do Jackal and the farmer each have for what happens to Monkey?

More stories like this

• The Monkey’s Fiddle — another Cape monkey in trouble with the law
• Lion and Jackal — Jackal tricks Lion with a rope
• The White Man And Snake — Jackal settles a dangerous argument