"Now, Bolo! let us hear something from you."
The old Kaffir took a pinch of snuff, and began about the jackal and the
netikee, the smallest of all South African birds, and a member of the
wren family.
"The jackal one day was boasting. Said he, `When we go on the hunt all
the animals are still. We--the lion and I--we rule the forest. When we
growl the trees shiver, when we roar the earth shakes, when we strike
the biggest goes down before us. Even the elephant turns out of our
path.' So he shook his tail and loped off to tell the lion that a fat
eland was drinking at the vlei. Then up stood the lion, and crawled on
his stomach to the shelter of a rock, while the jackal went round
beyond. `Look out, eland,' said the jackal; `here comes the lion.' So
the eland ran, and he ran straight for the lion, who rose through the
air and broke the eland's neck. The lion ate, and the jackal sat on his
tail, licking his chops and whimpering. But the lion ate, and ate--
first the hind legs, then the stomach, and the jackal ran up to take a
bite. `Wait,' grunted the lion, and the jackal sat on his tail and
howled. Bymby the lion went off to the vlei to drink, and the jackal
snap at the carcase, but before he gets a mouthful down swoop the ring
crows and the aasvogels. `Away,' said the jackal, `away--this food is
mine and the lion's.'
"`Tell the lion we are obliged to him for giving us a meal,' said the
chief aasvogel, and with his big wing he hit the jackal, ker-bluff--long
side the head, and the black crow dig him in the back. So the jackal
run away, and jump, and howl."
"`Why don't you roar?' said the netikee.
"The jackal looked up, and there he sees the netikee on a thorn tree.
"`Growl,' says the netikee; `growl, and the tree will shake me off,' and
he laughed.
"`What are you laughing at?'
"`At you.'
"`Why,' said the jackal, looking back over his shoulder at the bag of
bones that the birds had cleaned.
"`'Cos you're afraid of the birds, though the elephant gets out of your
way and you can strike down the biggest,' and the netikee laughs again.
"`Who's afraid?' said the jackal.
"`You are.'
"`What! me!'
"`Yes, you! I make my nest from your fur.'
"The jackal he bite, and snap, and howl, and then he say he'd only
wished he had a chance of a fight with the birds.
"`What's that spot I see in the sky?' said the netikee, looking up.
"The jackal look up and see the eagle swooping down, and he bolt into
the earth. Bymby he poke his head out. `Is he gone?' he said. `You
see, me and the eagle had a dispute over a lamb which I took away from
him, and I thought he would feel uncomfortable if he saw me. What did
he say?'
"`The eagle said he willing to fight if the lion leads the animals; but
he's not going to demean himself against any jackal trash.'
"The jackal grinned. `Well,' said he, `the lion won't fight, he's just
been feeding, and the eagle needn't trouble about it. You get all the
partridges, the pheasants, ducks, knorhaan, guinea fowl--the more the
merrier, and I'll bring the red cats, the muishonden, the wild dogs, the
tiger-cat, and we'll meet here to-morrow.'
"The netikee flip his tail about, and say, `Yes, he's willing to have a
battle,' and the jackal with a grin he run off to call all his friends
to a big feast off the birds. The netikee just bunch up his feathers,
tuck his head under his wing, and go to sleep. Next morning before
sunrise he fly to the bush, and he hear the jackal making a plan.
"`You keep your eye on my tail,' said the jackal. `Watch my tail,' said
the jackal, `I will hold it up straight like a banner, and you must
follow it into the thick of the fight.'
"The netikee flew away off to a honey-tree, and he had a word with the
bees: then he fly back to the thorn bush with a clump of bees with him.
"Bymby here comes the jackal with his bushy tail held up straight like a
banner, and behind him come a green-eyed, silent, swift, cruel pack of
wild-cats, red cats, grey cats, and wild dogs.
"`There they come,' said the nekitee; `see the jackal, with his tail up.
Stick his tail, creep into his hair, and make him yell.' So the
netikee left his perch and flew to meet the animals all by himself, for
they could not see the bees; but the bees they swarmed into the big
bushy tail, and the next minute there was the jackal scooting off across
the veld with his tail between his legs. Next thing you know the
animals is all scuttling home.
"That's why the netikee is so perky."
"Jes' like little men," says Abe Pike.