The Jackal's Judgment

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Duraya. North-western Province.



This is one of the best-known of folk-tales. A Malay variant is given
in Mr. W. Skeat's Fables and Folk-Tales from an Eastern Forest,
p. 20. A tiger, being released from a cage-trap by a man, seized
him in order to eat him. When appealed to, the road and tree were
against him. The Mouse-deer, which in Malaya fills the place of the
clever animal in folk-tales, got the tiger to return to the cage,
and called the neighbours to kill it.

The tiger story is given in Old Deccan Days (Frere), p. 198 ff.,
and the appeal was made to a banyan tree, camel, bullock, eagle,
and alligator [crocodile], which were against the man. The Jackal
settled it in his favour.

In Wide-Awake Stories (Steel and Temple), p. 116--Tales of the
Punjab, p. 107--the matter was referred to a pipal (or bo) tree,
a road, and the Jackal, who induced the tiger to re-enter the trap,
and left him there.

In Indian Fairy Tales (Stokes), p. 16, the matter was not referred to
others, but the Jackal told the tiger a good way of eating the man,
by getting inside a large bag and having him thrown in to it. When
it was inside the bag, the Jackal, a dog who was present, and the
man tied it up, and beat the tiger to death.

The Panchatantra (Dubois), as in several other instances, comes
nearest to the Sinhalese story. A Brahmana carried a Crocodile in a
sack from a stream to the Ganges, and was then seized by it. In reply
to his appeal to the Crocodile's virtue and gratitude, he was told,
"The virtue and gratitude of our days is to devour those who nourish
us and who do good to us." Reference was made to a mango tree, an old
cow (both of which agreed with the Crocodile), and a Jackal, who,
stating that he wished to get to the bottom of the matter, induced
the Crocodile to re-enter the sack, after which the Jackal broke his
head with a stone.

In Indian Nights' Entertainment (Swynnerton), p. 134, a boy on his
way to fetch his bride, killed a mungus that was attacking a snake,
which then turned on him, to eat him, but gave him eight days' grace
to get married. When he returned with his wife she remonstrated
with the snake, and was referred to some trees. One had preserved a
thief in its hollow interior, but he found sandalwood there, and cut
it down; and now it had become a rule to do evil for good. For the
future widow's protection, the snake gave her magic powder capable of
reducing to ashes whatever it fell on, so she applied it to the snake,
and burnt it to dust.

The tale is found in West Africa also, in a form which is very
close to the South Indian and Sinhalese one. In Contes Soudanais
(C. Monteil), p. 53, a child found a tired Crocodile, and carried
it back to water. The Crocodile asked if he knew how goodness was
rewarded. "By evil," the child said. The Crocodile was going to eat
him, but referred the matter to an old horse and an old ass (both of
which recommended it to do so), and lastly to a Hare, which refused
to believe that the child could have carried it. When this was proved,
and the Crocodile taken back, the Hare said to the child, "Doesn't thy
father eat Crocodile?" "Yes." "And thy mother?" "Yes." "Hast thou not
an axe?" "I have one," the child replied. "Then break the Crocodile's
head and eat it," the Hare said. In many West African tales the Hare
is the clever animal who outwits the others.