Told by BAL BÍR PRASÁD, teacher of the school at
Sultánpur, Oudh.
A Jackal sees melons on the other side of a river--Sees a Tortoise--"How
are you and your family?" "I am well, but I have no wife." "Why did you
not tell me? some people on the other side have asked me to find a match
for their daughter." "If you mean it I will take you across"--Takes him
across on his back--When the melons are over the Jackal dresses up a
jhau-tree as a bride--"There is your bride, but she is too modest to
speak till I am gone"--Tortoise carries him back--Calls to the stump--No
answer--Goes up and touches it--Finds it is a tree--Vows revenge--As
Jackal drinks, catches his leg--"You fool, you have got hold of a stump
by mistake; see, here is my leg," pointing to a stump--Tortoise leaves
hold--Jackal escapes--Tortoise goes to Jackal's den--Jackal returns and
sees the footprints leading into the den--Piles dry leaves at the mouth,
and fires them--Tortoise expires.
This is an unpublished variant of the "Jackal and the Crocodile"
(Temple, "Wide-awake Stories," 243).