_SINGH RAJAH AND THE CUNNING LITTLE JACKALS._
Once upon a time, in a great jungle, there lived a great Lion. He was
Rajah of all the country round; and every day he used to leave his
den, in the deepest shadow of the rocks, and roar with a loud, angry
voice; and when he roared, the other animals in the jungle, who were
all his subjects, got very much frightened and ran here and there; and
Singh Rajah would pounce upon them and kill them, and gobble them up
for his dinner.
This went on for a long, long time, until, at last, there were no
living creatures left in the jungle but two little Jackals--a Rajah
Jackal and a Ranee Jackal--husband and wife.
A very hard time of it the poor little Jackals had, running this way
and that to escape the terrible Singh Rajah; and every day the little
Ranee Jackal would say to her husband, "I am afraid he will catch us
to-day; do you hear how he is roaring? Oh dear! oh dear!" And he would
answer her, "Never fear; I will take care of you. Let us run on a mile
or two. Come, come quick, quick, quick." And they would both run away
as fast as they could.
After some time spent in this way, they found, however, one fine day,
that the Lion was so close upon them that they could not escape. Then
the little Ranee Jackal said, "Husband, husband, I feel much
frightened. The Singh Rajah is so angry he will certainly kill us at
once. What can we do?" But he answered, "Cheer up; we can save
ourselves yet. Come, and I'll show you how we may manage it."
So what did these cunning little Jackals do but they went to the great
Lion's den; and when he saw them coming, he began to roar and shake
his mane, and he said, "You little wretches, come and be eaten at
once! I have had no dinner for three whole days, and all that time I
have been running over hill and dale to find you. Ro-a-ar! Ro-a-ar!
Come and be eaten, I say!" and he lashed his tail and gnashed his
teeth, and looked very terrible indeed. Then the Jackal Rajah,
creeping quite close up to him, said, "Oh, great Singh Rajah, we all
know you are our master, and we would have come at your bidding long
ago; but indeed, sir, there is a much bigger Rajah even than you in
this jungle, and he tried to catch hold of us and eat us up, and
frightened us so much that we were obliged to run away."
"What do you mean?" growled Singh Rajah. "There is no king in this
jungle but me!" "Ah, sire," answered the Jackal, "in truth one would
think so, for you are very dreadful. Your very voice is death. But it
is as we say, for we, with our own eyes, have seen one with whom you
could not compete--whose equal you can no more be than we are
yours--whose face is as flaming fire, his step as thunder, and his
power supreme." "It is impossible!" interrupted the old Lion; "but
show me this Rajah of whom you speak so much, that I may destroy him
instantly!"
Then the little Jackals ran on before him until they reached a great
well, and pointing down to his own reflection in the water, they said,
"See, sire, there lives the terrible king of whom we spoke." When
Singh Rajah looked down the well, he became very angry, for he thought
he saw another Lion there. He roared and shook his great mane, and the
shadow Lion shook his and looked terribly defiant. At last, beside
himself with rage at the violence of his opponent, Singh Rajah sprang
down to kill him at once, but no other Lion was there--only the
treacherous reflection--and the sides of the well were so steep that
he could not get out again to punish the two Jackals, who peeped over
the top. After struggling for some time in the deep water, he sank to
rise no more. And the little Jackals threw stones down upon him from
above, and danced round and round the well, singing, "Ao! Ao! Ao! Ao!
The King of the Forest is dead, is dead! We have killed the great Lion
who would have killed us! Ao! Ao! Ao! Ao! Ring-a-ting--ding-a-ting!
Ring-a-ting--ding-a-ting! Ao! Ao! Ao!"[75]
[75] See Notes at the end.
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