Story 72 - The Grateful Jackal

IN a certain village there was a boy who looked after cattle. One day, in the morning having taken the cattle [to graze], as they were going to water, that boy, when a python seizing a Jackal was going to eat it, went and beat the python, saying,

“Ane ! This python is going to eat the Jackal, isn’t it ?”

Then the python having let the Jackal go seized the boy. So the boy cried out,

“Anda ! Anda ! O my father ! The python has seized me!”

he cried.

Then the Jackal having come running, when he looked [saw that] the python had caught the boy, and thinking “Ada! Because of me this one seized the boy,” the Jackal looking and looking backwards, ran off [to fetch assistance]. After he had looked [to see] if there was anyone, there was no one. The Jackal heard several people in the distance. The Jackal went running there.

When he was going near the men, the men said,

“A mad Jackal has come,”

they said.

Then again the, Jackal came running to the place where the python was. Again he came running to the place where the men were. Having come [there], after the Jackal looked [he saw that] the clothes of men who were bathing were under a tree. The Jackal having gone to the place where the clothes were, taking a waist cloth in his mouth ran off. Having run off, and having put down the cloth at the place where the python, holding the boy, was staying, the Jackal ran into the jungle.

Then those men having seen that the Jackal which had taken the cloth in its mouth was running away, saying,

“Ada ! The mad Jackal taking our cloth in its mouth is running away,”

followed the Jackal. When they looked, having seen that the python had seized the boy, they said,

“Ada! The python has caught such and such a one’s boy and encircled him.”

Then those men who were ploughing and ploughing having all come running, and having beaten and thrown down the python, saved the boy.

[Afterwards] those men asked at the hand of the boy,

“What did the python seize thee for ?”

Then the boy said,

“As I was coming the python had seized the Jackal, and I was sorry. At that time I tried to save the Jackal, and that one having let the Jackal go, seized me.”

Rodiya. North-western Province.