The Lion, the Jackal, and the Man

One day Lion and Jackal met to talk over matters of land and state. Jackal, you should know, was the chief adviser to the king of the forest. When they had spent a good while on business, the talk turned more personal, and Lion began bragging loudly about how strong he was. Perhaps Jackal had encouraged him, for Jackal was a flatterer by nature. But now that Lion was putting on such airs, Jackal said, “Listen, Lion. I can show you an animal that is mightier than you.”

They set off with Jackal in front, and the first creature they met was a small boy.

“Is this the strong man?” Lion asked.

“No, O king,” said Jackal. “He has yet to become a man.”

A little later they came on an old man, walking with his head bowed and leaning his bent body on a stick.

“Is this the marvellous strong man?” Lion asked.

“Not yet, O king,” Jackal replied. “He used to be a man.”

They went on a little farther and met a young hunter in the prime of his strength, with some of his dogs around him.

“There he is, O king,” said Jackal. “Match your strength against his. If you beat him, then you truly are the strength of the earth.”

Then Jackal hurried off to one side, to a small rocky kopje where he could watch the meeting in safety.

Growling and growling, Lion strode up to the man. As he came near, the dogs rushed at him. He hardly noticed them; a few sweeps of his front paws scattered them in every direction, and they ran howling back to their master.

Next the man fired a load of shot that hit Lion behind the shoulder, but Lion paid little attention to that either. Then the hunter drew his steel knife and gave him a few good stabs. At that Lion backed away, with the hunter’s bullets flying after him.

“Well, are you the strongest now?” was the first thing Jackal asked when Lion reached him.

“No, Jackal,” said Lion. “That fellow can keep the title, and welcome to it. I have never seen anything like him. First he set about ten of his bodyguards on me. I didn’t trouble myself much about them. But when I tried to smash him to bits, he spat fire and blew it at me, mostly in my face. It burned a little, though not too badly. And when I tried again to pull him down, he snatched one of his own ribs out of his body and gave me some very nasty wounds with it, so bad that I had to run for it. And as I left, he sent some hot bullets after me. No, Jackal. Give him the name.”

About this telling

“The Lion, the Jackal, and the Man” is from James A. Honey’s South-African Folk-Tales (1910). The joke of the ending is that Lion describes the hunter’s gear as if it were part of the man’s body: the dogs are a bodyguard, the gun “spits fire,” and the steel knife is a rib he pulls out of himself.

Jackal’s answers on the walk make a little riddle about the ages of life: the boy “has yet to become a man,” and the old man “used to be” one. A kopje is a small rocky hill on the open veld.

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

Suggested for ages 9–12 with an adult: the hunting scene includes gunshots and repeated knife wounds.

Strength includes what Lion cannot name

Lion measures power as though it comes only from a body. His description of the knife as a rib shows how badly that idea fits tools. Jackal also narrows “man” to an adult at physical strength; the boy and older traveller remain people, whatever the riddle’s wording implies.

Translate Lion’s report

Make paired captions for the gun and knife: one in Lion’s words and one from the reader’s view. Explain what his mistaken descriptions reveal about why he misjudged the encounter.

Think about it

• Why did Jackal say the boy and the old man were not yet the “strong man”?
• What did Lion think the gun and the knife were?
• What do you think Lion learned about boasting?

More stories like this

• The Hunt of Lion and Jackal — Jackal outwits Lion on a hunt
• Lion Who Thought Himself Wiser Than His Mother — another proud lion who meets a man
• Why Tigers Never Attack Men Unless They Are Provoked — a big cat and a man in a West African tale