The Hunt of Lion and Jackal

People say that Lion and Jackal once lay in wait together for an eland. Lion let fly with his bow and missed. Jackal’s arrow struck home, and he gave a shout: “Hah! Hah!”

“No,” said Lion. “You hit nothing. The shot that struck was mine.”

“Yes, father,” Jackal answered meekly. “It was you who hit it.”

The two of them went home, meaning to come back once the wounded eland had died and cut it up then. But Jackal slipped away without Lion knowing. He knocked his own nose until it bled and let the blood drip along the eland’s tracks, laying a false trail to fool his partner. After following it for a stretch, he doubled back by another path to the dead eland, crawled inside its body, and cut out all the fat.

Lion, meanwhile, was following the bloody trail, sure it was the eland’s blood. Only after a long way did he realise he had been tricked. He turned and tracked Jackal’s footprints back to the carcass, found Jackal inside it, grabbed him by the tail and swung him out.

“Why are you cheating me?” Lion scolded.

“I’m not cheating you, father,” said Jackal. “Surely you can see that. I was getting this fat ready for you.”

“Then carry the fat to your mother,” said Lion, meaning his own wife, the lioness. And he gave Jackal the lungs to take home to Jackal’s wife and children.

But when Jackal arrived, the fat went to his own wife and children, and the lungs went to the lioness. He even threw the lungs at Lion’s cubs, chanting:

“You children of Big-Paws!
You big-pawed things!”

Then he told the lioness, “I’m off to help my father,” meaning Lion. Instead he took his wife and children and went far away.

Where this tale comes from

“The Hunt of Lion and Jackal” comes from James A. Honey’s South-African Folk-Tales (1910). It was printed earlier as No. 2 in W. H. I. Bleek’s Reynard the Fox in South Africa (1864), where Bleek notes that the original, in the Khoekhoe (“Hottentot”) language, was in G. Krönlein’s manuscript in Sir George Grey’s library.

Honey’s text keeps Bleek’s small explanations in brackets: the bow used in the hunt, and the lioness whom Jackal politely calls his “mother.”

Read the original: South-African Folk-Tales (James Honey, 1910) — Project Gutenberg

Suggested for ages 9–12 with an adult: includes a self-inflicted bloody nose and cutting fat from a dead animal.

Polite words conceal a struggle

Jackal calls Lion “father” while refusing, through his actions, the subordinate place Lion assigns him. Lion falsely claims the successful shot; Jackal falsely claims to prepare the fat for Lion. Each uses words to make an unfair division seem acceptable. The getaway resolves who keeps the food, but it does not turn either falsehood into fairness.

Compare speech and action

For the shot, the fat and the final delivery, write what each hunter says beside what actually happens. Which gap between words and actions produces the next trick?

Talk about it

• How did Jackal fool Lion with the trail of blood?
• Why did Jackal call Lion “father” even while he was cheating him?
• Which gift should have gone to which family, and what did Jackal do instead?

Related stories

• Story Of Lion And Little Jackal — Jackal swaps the meat gifts again
• Lion’s Share — another hunt where Jackal outwits Lion
• The Story of a Dam — Jackal escapes the animals’ punishment