(From a German original Manuscript in Sir G. Grey’s Library, viz.,
H. C. Knudsen’s “Notes on the Hottentots,” pp. 11, 12.)
The Lion and the Jackal went together a-hunting. They shot with arrows.
The Lion shot first, but his arrow fell short of its aim; but the
Jackal hit the game, and joyfully cried out, “It has hit.” The Lion
looked at him with his two large eyes; the Jackal, however, did not
lose his countenance, but said, “No, Uncle, I mean to say that you have
hit.” Then they followed the game, and the Jackal passed the arrow of
the Lion without drawing the latter’s attention to it. When they
arrived at a cross-way, the Jackal said, “Dear Uncle, you are old and
tired; stay here.” The Jackal went then on a wrong track, beat his
nose, and, in returning, let the blood drop from it like traces of
game. “I could not find anything,” he said, “but I met with traces of
blood. You had better go yourself to look for it. In the meantime I
shall go this other way.” The Jackal soon found the killed animal,
crept inside of it, and devoured the best portion; but his tail
remained outside, and when the Lion arrived, he got hold of it, pulled
the Jackal out, and threw him on the ground with these words: “You
rascal!” The Jackal rose quickly again, complained of the rough
handling, and asked, “What have I then now done, dear Uncle? I was busy
cutting out the best part.” “Now let us go and fetch our wives,” said
the Lion; but the Jackal entreated his dear Uncle to remain at the
place because he was old. The Jackal went then away, taking with him
two portions of the flesh, one for his own wife, but the best part for
the wife of the Lion. When the Jackal arrived with the flesh, the
children of the Lion saw him, began to jump, and clapping their hands,
cried out, “There comes Uncle with flesh!” The Jackal threw, grumbling,
the worst portion to them, and said, “There, you brood of the big-eyed
one!” Then he went to his own house and told his wife immediately to
break up the house, and to go where the killed game was. The Lioness
wished to do the same, but he forbade her, and said that the Lion would
himself come to fetch her.
When the Jackal, with his wife and children, had arrived in the
neighbourhood of the killed animal, he ran into a thorn bush, scratched
his face so that it bled, and thus made his appearance before the Lion,
to whom he said, “Ah! what a wife you have got. Look here, how she
scratched my face when I told her that she should come with us. You
must fetch her yourself; I cannot bring her.” The Lion went home very
angry. Then the Jackal said, “Quick, let us build a tower.” They heaped
stone upon stone, stone upon stone, stone upon stone; and when it was
high enough, everything was carried to the top of it. When the Jackal
saw the Lion approaching with his wife and children, he cried out to
him, “Uncle, whilst you were away we have built a tower, in order to be
better able to see game.” “All right,” said the Lion; “but let me come
up to you.” “Certainly, dear Uncle; but how will you manage to come up?
We must let down a thong for you.” The Lion ties himself to the thong,
and is drawn up; but when he is nearly at the top the thong is cut by
the Jackal, who exclaims, as if frightened, “Oh, how heavy you are,
Uncle! Go, wife, fetch me a new thong.” (“An old one,” he said aside to
her.) The Lion is again drawn up, but comes of course down in the same
manner. “No,” said the Jackal, “that will never do; you must, however,
manage to come up high enough, so that you may get a mouthful at
least.” Then aloud he orders his wife to prepare a good piece, but
aside he tells her to make a stone hot, and to cover it with fat. Then
he drew up the Lion once more, and, complaining that he is very heavy
to hold, he tells him to open his mouth, whereupon he throws the hot
stone down his throat. When the Lion has devoured it, he entreats and
requests him to run as quickly as possible to the water.