Story of Lion and Little Jackal

Little Jackal was out hunting one day when he ran into Lion. Lion had a proposal: they would hunt as partners, and any small antelope they brought down would go to Little Jackal, while any big one would go to Lion. Little Jackal said that suited him.

The very first kill was a big eland, which pleased Lion greatly. “I’ll carry on hunting,” he told his partner. “You run to my house and fetch my children to carry this meat home.”

“Very well,” Little Jackal answered.

Off went Lion. The moment he was out of sight, Little Jackal hurried to his own home and brought his own children to take the meat. “Lion must think I’m a fool,” he said. “Why would I fetch his children when mine are starving?”

So the jackal children hauled the eland home. Their house stood on top of a tall rock, and nobody could reach it except by climbing a rope.

Lion had no more luck that day. Later he returned home and asked his wife what had become of the meat. There was none, she said. “But surely Little Jackal brought the children word to come and fetch it?”

“He never came near us,” said his wife, “and we are still starving.”

Lion set off for Little Jackal’s place, but there was no getting up the rock. So he settled down beside the water to wait. In time Little Jackal came down to drink. He was nearly at the water when he caught sight of Lion, and he spun round and fled, with Lion close behind. He shot into a hole beneath a tree, but before he could get deep inside, Lion seized his tail.

“That isn’t my tail,” Little Jackal called. “You’re holding a tree root. Hit it with a stone if you don’t believe me. You’ll see there’s no blood.”

Lion dropped the tail and went to look for a stone to test it. Meanwhile Little Jackal wriggled deep into the hole, and when Lion got back, there was no sign of him. Lion stretched out beside the hole and waited.

A long time passed, and Little Jackal felt like coming out. He crept to the mouth of the hole and peered about, but Lion was nowhere in sight. Just to be safe he called, “Ho, master! I can see you, even though you think you’re hidden!”

Lion kept quite still where he was lying. So out came Little Jackal, and Lion sprang after him, but he got away.

After that Lion kept a lookout, and one day he found Little Jackal hunting in a spot with no way out. Just as Lion was gathering himself to leap, Little Jackal said under his breath, “Hush, don’t move! Can’t you see the bushbuck over there behind the rock? How lucky that you’ve come to help. Wait here, and I’ll go round and chase it your way.”

Lion stayed put, and Little Jackal got clean away.

On another occasion the animals called a meeting, with Lion presiding. Little Jackal wished to be there, but there was a rule that only horned animals could come. So he took wax from a bees’ nest, moulded it into a pair of horns, fixed them to his head, and joined the meeting. Thanks to the horns, Lion did not know him. But Little Jackal sat close to the fire and dozed off, and his horns melted.

Then Lion took a good look and knew him at once. He lunged to grab him, but Little Jackal was too quick and leapt aside. He darted beneath an overhanging rock and yelled, “Help! Help! The rock is coming down on me!”

Lion went off to find a pole to hold up the rock so he could get at Little Jackal. While he was gone, Little Jackal slipped away.

Later the two made friends once more and went hunting together again. This time they killed an ox. “I’ll stay and guard it,” said Lion, “and you carry the joints away.” He handed over the breast. “This is for my wife.”

Little Jackal delivered it to his own wife. When he got back, Lion handed him a shin. “This is for your wife.”

Little Jackal carried the shin to Lion’s house. “I won’t take that,” Lion’s wife said. “It doesn’t belong here.”

So Little Jackal hit her in the face and went back to the ox. Lion passed him a large chunk of meat. “This is for my wife.” And Little Jackal delivered that one to his own wife. It went on this way until nothing was left of the ox, and then each went home.

Lion found his whole family crying. “Did you send Little Jackal here to beat me and the children?” his wife demanded. “And did you send me this shin? When have I ever eaten a shin?”

Lion was furious when he heard this, and he marched straight to Little Jackal’s house. At the foot of the rock, Little Jackal peered down at him. “Who are you? What are you called? Whose son are you? Where have you come from, where are you heading, whom are you looking for, and what do you want with him?”

“I’ve just come to pay you a visit,” Lion said. “Let the rope down, please.”

Little Jackal lowered a rope made of mouse skins. Lion had climbed only a short way when it snapped, and he tumbled down and was hurt. After that he went home.

About this story

“Story of Lion and Little Jackal” is a chain of escapes from James A. Honey’s South-African Folk-Tales (1910). Honey groups it among a run of Lion-and-Jackal stories, and in this one Lion never wins a single round: a tail passed off as a tree root, an imaginary bushbuck, horns of melting beeswax, a “falling” rock, and finally a rope made of mouse skins.

Honey writes that he began gathering his tales about ten years before publication, partly because he feared that South Africa’s rapid changes would sweep the old stories away. The collection, he says, is the first complete one to appear since Bleek’s in 1864.

Read the original: South-African Folk-Tales, ebook 38339 at Project Gutenberg

Suggested for ages 9–12 with an adult: includes hunting deaths, assault on Lion’s family and a fall that injures Lion.

An escape is not always an innocent act

Jackal’s first excuse is that his children are hungry, but Lion’s family is hungry too. Later he takes the better meat again and hits Lion’s wife when she objects. His smaller size does not erase those choices. The story invites admiration for quick invention while giving us reasons to question how he uses it.

Find what each lie changes

Choose the tree root, the bushbuck and the falling rock. For each, write what Lion believes and what he does next. Then compare those escapes with the meat deliveries: which tricks answer a threat, and which create a new injury to someone else?

Think about it

• How did Little Jackal break the hunting agreement?
• Which of Little Jackal’s escapes do you think was the cleverest? Why?
• Why do you think Little Jackal asked Lion so many questions at the end?

More stories like this

• Lion and Jackal — Jackal escapes up a cliff with a rope
• Lion’s Share — Jackal’s tower and the cut thong