The Lioness and the Young Jackal

A lion and his mate lived in one part of a forest, and one day the lioness gave birth to twin cubs. Every day the lion went hunting and brought deer and other game home for her.

But one evening he had roamed the whole forest and found nothing at all by the time the sun went down. On the way home he came across a tiny jackal pup lying on the path. He felt sorry for it, because it was so young. So he picked it up gently in his teeth, carried it home and set it down in front of the lioness, still alive.

“Did you bring us anything to eat, dear?” asked the lioness.

“I found nothing today except this jackal cub,” said the lion. “And I could not bring myself to kill him. He is a creature not so different from us, and he is only a baby. Eat him if you like, and tomorrow I will bring you something else.”

“You spared him because he is a baby,” said the lioness. “How could I kill him just to fill my stomach? No, he will be my third son.” She fed him her own milk until he grew plump, and the three cubs grew up together, playing the same games, never thinking they were any different.

One day a wild elephant came wandering into the forest. The two lion cubs saw him and bounded toward him, angry and eager to attack. But the jackal cub cried, “Brothers, that is an elephant, the enemy of your family. Keep away from him!” and he ran off home. When the twins saw their older brother run, their own courage drained away, and they followed.

Back at home the twins laughed as they told their parents about it. “The moment he saw the elephant,” they said, “he could not run away fast enough.”

The jackal was furious. His lip trembled, his eyes went red, and a deep frown creased his forehead. He shouted at the twins. The lioness took him aside. “You must never speak to them like that,” she said gently. “They are your brothers.”

Her soft words only made him angrier. “Do you think I am worse than them?” he snapped. “Am I less brave, less handsome, less clever or less skilful? Why should they make fun of me? I am going to kill them.”

The lioness laughed quietly, because she did not want him to die. “You are handsome and brave and clever,” she said, “but in your family no one has ever killed an elephant. Listen to me, my dear. Your mother was a jackal. I fed you with my own milk because I pitied you. Go now, while my sons are young and do not know what you are, and find your own people. If you stay, they will one day fight you, and you will die.”

When the jackal heard this, he was terrified. Quietly he slipped away and went to join the jackals.

Where this story comes from

Arthur W. Ryder’s 1925 Panchatantra calls this tale “The Jackal Who Killed No Elephants.” In Book IV, “Loss of Gains,” a king tells it to the potter of “The Potter Who Became a Warrior”, warning him to leave before the real soldiers discover he is a potter.

The lioness’s line about the elephant is the same verse the king recites in the potter’s story, which is how the two tales are linked.

Read the original: Arthur W. Ryder, The Panchatantra (1925), Internet Archive

Reading guidance: Ages 9–12; includes threats to kill, rejection from an adoptive family and an inherited-status message that benefits from critical discussion.

A closer reading

The lioness first acts across a species boundary: she refuses to eat the pup and raises him beside her cubs. Later she predicts that the same household will become dangerous for him. Her affection and her decision to send him away pull in opposite directions.

The twins’ desire to attack an elephant is not automatically wiser than the jackal’s retreat. Nor does his ancestry prove a person’s courage or worth. This fable uses animal kinds to organize its conflict, but applying that hierarchy to human families, caste or inherited status would turn a literary device into prejudice. The jackal’s threat against his brothers is a separate wrong that can be judged without condemning his birth.

Try this with the story

Give each cub one line explaining the elephant encounter. Separate an action the text shows from a judgment another character makes about it. Then discuss a way the lioness could address the threats and teasing while protecting all three young animals.

Think about it

• How does the lioness show care at the beginning and fear at the end?
• Does retreating from an elephant necessarily show poor judgment?
• Which problems arise from the cubs’ behavior, rather than their birth?

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