The Lambikin

There was once a tiny Lambikin who bounced on unsteady little legs and thought the world a joy. One morning he skipped off toward Granny’s house, already tasting the treats she would give him, when a Jackal barred the path. The Jackal eyed that soft scrap of a lamb and growled that he meant to eat him.

Lambikin only skipped and answered:

To Granny’s house I go,
Where I shall fatter grow,
Then you can eat me so.

The Jackal found the bargain fair and stepped aside.

Farther on a Vulture stooped with the same hungry threat. Lambikin sang the identical promise—fatter at Granny’s, edible later—and the Vulture, too, let him pass.

After that came a Tiger, a Wolf, a Dog, and an Eagle. Each one eyed the tender traveler and vowed to make a meal of him. To every hunter Lambikin tossed the same frisky verse. Each hunter agreed to wait.

He reached Granny’s door out of breath and safe. She welcomed him with treats, yet he was already thinking past the feast. He saw the danger of walking home after his feast: the waiting animals would now expect the meal he had promised. So he asked Granny to fashion a little drumikin from the skin of his brother who had died, so he could sit inside and roll along. Granny made the drum; Lambikin curled into the warm middle and trundled away with soft tum-pa noises.

An Eagle spotted the rolling drum and called:

Drumikin! Drumikin!
Have you seen Lambikin?

From inside, a tiny voice replied:

Fallen into the fire, and so will you
On little Drumikin. Tum-pa, tum-too!

The Eagle sighed for the meal he had missed. Lambikin rolled on, laughing and humming tum-pa, tum-too.

Every creature that met the drum asked the same question about Lambikin, and from inside came the same sly answer about the fire, ending in tum-pa rhythms. Each listener sighed for the lost morsel.

Finally the Jackal limped up—shabby to look at, sharp as a needle. He called to the drumikin for news of Lambikin. Inside, Lambikin began the fire verse once more—“Tum-pa—”—and got no further. The Jackal knew that voice at once. “Hullo! You’ve turned yourself inside out, have you? Come out of that!” He ripped the drumikin open and gobbled Lambikin up.

Where this story comes from

“The Lambikin” is a Punjabi nursery tale printed by Joseph Jacobs in Indian Fairy Tales (1892; Project Gutenberg ebook 7128). It uses chantable verses on the road to Granny and again inside the rolling drumikin.

The printed ending is sharp: the Jackal recognizes Lambikin’s voice and eats him. This page preserves that fatal outcome from the cited printed telling.

Read the original: Joseph Jacobs, Indian Fairy Tales (Project Gutenberg)

Reading guidance: ages 9–12 with adult selection for sensitivity. Lambikin is killed and eaten at the end, and his drum is made from his dead brother’s skin; this is not a mild preschool escape story.

A closer reading

The first repeated verse buys Lambikin time by offering the hunters a larger meal later. Granny’s feast therefore makes the return more dangerous, not less. The drum changes the problem from postponement to concealment, but the voice inside it remains the same.

Repetition teaches listeners what to expect, so the final interruption breaks both the trick and the rhythm. The jackal recognizes the voice that the other animals accept without question. This ending does not show that song or cleverness always protects the small; its force comes from showing that a strategy can work several times and still fail at a new encounter.

Try this with the story

Read the two recurring verses aloud, then pause just before the final jackal’s response. List what the drum hides and what it cannot hide. After reading the ending, discuss how recognizing a voice changes the pattern listeners have learned.

Talk about it

• What promise does Lambikin make to every hungry animal on the way to Granny’s?
• How does the drumikin help him on the way home—and who sees through the trick?
• How do you feel about the way this story ends?

Related stories

• The Blue Jackal — another Indian animal trick that unravels
• The Brahmani and the Mongoose — a Punjab-linked household animal tale
• The Monkey and the Crocodile — wit on the road between predator and prey