Story 56 - The Proud Jackal

IN the midst of a certain forest a Lion stayed. Having joined with that very Lion, a Jackal was eating and eating the flesh of animals killed by the Lion.

After a few days had gone by, the Jackal, becoming arrogant, said to the Lion,

“Don’t say ‘Jackal’ to me.”

Thereupon,

“What shall I say ?”

the Lion asked.

Then the Jackal says,

“You must call me, saying to me, ‘Jackal-artificer’ (Narinayide).”

In this way, when the Lion had said,

“Jackal-artificer,”

for many days, he said,

“Don’t say ‘Jackal-artificer.’”

“What name am I to say ?”

the Lion asked.

“Say to me, ‘Small Lion’; don’t say, ‘Jackal-artificer,’”

he said.

After the Lion had been saying,

“Small Lion,”

for a few days,

“Say to me, ‘ Great Lion '; don’t say, ‘ Small " Lion,’”

he said to the Lion.

Then the Lion says,

“For me to say, ‘ Great Lion,’ you must make the Lion’s roar,”

the Lion said.

Then the Jackal having gone near a tusk elephant, after he had cried out, as the Lion’s roar,

“Hokkiye, Hokkiye”

(the beginning of the customary yelping cry of the Jackal), the tusk-elephant kicked the Jackal.

Thereupon the Jackal died.

Tom-tom Beater. North-western Province.

 

Note:

In the Jataka stories 143 (vol. i, p. 306) and 335 (vol. iii, p. 75), , a Jackal who acted as a Lion's servant induced his master to let him go out in the latter’s place, in order to kill animals. He howled and sprang at an elephant, but was crushed to death by it.