A jackal entered a town, in search of food. The sound of clucking chickens caught his ear. Beneath the cover of the night’s darkness, avoiding the attention of dogs, he made his way to where the sound was coming from. As he made his way there, he passed by a dyer's shop, and failed to see the pool full of indigo.
A loud splash attracted the attention of the dogs as the jackal fell into it. However, the jackal sped away fast, stopping to take a breath only when he reached the forest, where there was no sign of the dogs. Noticing his blue skin, an idea popped into his head.
Walking along aimlessly, he happened to pass by a lion's den. He sat outside it. The lioness was sitting inside all by herself. Fluffing out his fur as if he was in rage, the jackal questioned her in a booming voice: "Who are you?"
The lioness answered: "We are the lions, the kings of the jungle. Who are you, the one who has come strutting along to sit outside our house? If you put any value on your life, get lost or my husband will make a morsel of you upon his arrival."
The jackal replied sternly: "I am the Great Lord Pabori, who eats the roast of seven lions! Let your husband come; I'll teach him a nice lesson!" The reply struck a chord of fear in the lioness's heart. She meekly came out of her den, treading quietly, with her neck lowered, and sat a safe distance from the jackal.
Meanwhile, the King of the Jungle arrived at his den. Cracking his tail like a whip, and letting out a ferocious roar was all it took for the jackal to become frightened, lose all courage and run away.
Seeing the jackal scamper off with his tail between his legs, the lioness called out to him, "O Great Lord Pabori, where are you off to in such a hurry? Wait a while to taste of our hospitality."
The lion chased down the fleeing jackal. The two ran and ran. As the lion began to catch up with the jackal, the jackal left the path and made a dash for the thickets.
Terrorised, he jumped onto a morpankhi tree, bouncing off the saltwort bushes like a chipmunk.
However, the lion pursued him relentlessly.
The jackal was so frightened of the lion closing in on him that he climbed up a dried tree, leaping over one of its branches, with the lion still following at his heels.
The jackal made it past the tree, but the lion, who was much bigger, did not. The sharp point of the dried branch pierced and ripped though the lion's belly, impaling and killing him.
Jolly well pleased to see the lion die, the jackal made his way back to the den, and called out to the lioness, "O widow, go and see what became of your male. You used to mock me and say, ‘Lord Pabori, do partake of our hospitality!’
“From today, I am your husband and you my wife, and if you make the least objection, I will make short work of you too." the jackal declared. The lioness rushed to the tree upon hearing the distressing news. She saw the lion impaled on the tree branch and the whole tree reddened with his blood.
Terribly saddened and heartbroken, she returned, and agreed to obey the jackal. She said, "Sir, you are now my male, and I, your female. Now I shall follow you wherever it might be your pleasure to lead me." The jackal told her, "The two of us shall neither cohabit, nor live in one place. For one because I am Lord Pabori, the lord of all wild beasts; and for another because I'm very fond of hunting lions: wherever I find a pride of lions I do kill and make a morsel of them."
"O Lord Pabori, I shall do as you direct me, but it would be preferable by far to cohabit and spend our lives together." The lioness said.
The argument went back and forth between the lioness and the jackal, and he eventually caved in to her wishes. They found a cosy cave in the dense forest and made it their home. Afterthat, whenever the jackal went out to hunt, he took the lioness along. However, it was always the lioness who made the kill.
"Today I am not feeling too well. You should go hunting by yourself." The lioness told the jackal jackal one day.
"So be it!" he replied haughtily, and headed out into the forest. But alas! He was a jackal at the end of the day, and his heart was anxious. He really did not know how to hunt something by himself.
As fate would have it, he passed by a herd of she-camels, and a delightful idea came into his head.
The jackal urinated on the edge of a nearby stream and rubbed it well with his tail to make it slippery. Then he ran straight into the group of the she-camels, giving them a fright. The camels ran in panic, towards the direction of the steam. All of them crossed it, except one old she-camel, who slipped on the edge of the stream and fell into it.
The jackal immediately put his sharp teeth to good use, ripping open her belly as she thrashed about and died. Clueless on how to drag away the whole carcass, the jackal sat down and began to think.
The lioness was waiting in the cave and thinking to herself, "What could have kept him so long that the fool has not returned yet?"
She set out in search of him, and arrived at the stream, to find the jackal sitting beside the dead camel. The lioness became sure at that side, that the jackal was certainly a monster, to have killed such a huge animal all by himself.
She said to the jackal, "Now we should take the prey home." The jackal said, "Very well! Now that you have arrived, let us pick up the prey and return home."
The lioness dragged away the animal, and left behind the innards for the jackal to carry. After she was gone, the jackal tried his best, but he could not even drag them, leave alone pick them up. He tugged and pulled at the innards, but they collapsed over him, burying him underneath the heap.
Time passed and the jackal did not return, so the lioness returned to the same spot. She looked all around but could not find the jackal. When she prodded the entrails, and the jackal was freed. Instead of thanking her, he jumped out from underneath and angrily said, "O idiot woman, did you not realize that I was hiding there to hunt the crows? I had decided on making a meal of birds today. Now you have frightened them. As a penalty you must carry these entrails home too. I will arrive there in my own good time."
The lioness was forced to drag the entrails home too, and the crafty jackal strolled at leisure, taking his own sweet time getting there.
One day, according to their custom, the jackal and the lioness were walking in the jungle when they heard the roar of lions. The lioness said, "The lions are celebrating by dancing and jumping."
When he heard that the jackal began trembling with fear. The lioness asked him, "Lord Pabori, what is the matter? Why do you tremble?" The jackal said, "Listen well! Whenever I hear the lions roar, or when some lion falls into my clutches, I become astir from the desire to eat him that very instant. If you know what is good for you, you will walk a little ahead of me and keep calling out, “Dance at a safe distance, you who dance, lest the champion should crush you under his paw.”
The lions said to her, "Who are you, O dastard, to thus interfere with our celebrations?"
The lioness pointed toward the jackal, who was sitting full of deception on a mound at a safe distance, and said, "Hold your tongue! See that creature over there?"
"Who on Earth is that?" the lions asked.
The lioness replied, "There sits the great Lord Pabori, who makes the roast of seven lions. I would advise you to run for your life. The great lord has killed countless lions, leaving them impaled on trees. If you do not believe me, come along and I will show you the sight." The lioness then took the lions to show them the dead lion. All the lions became terribly afraid at the sight, and the fear of the Great Lord Pabori was impressed upon their hearts.
They sat at a safe distance from the jackal and submitted with bowed heads, "O Great Lord, kindly show us favor. We are as your children, and we are celebrating a wedding. We request you to come and join us in the celebrations, and hope that you will show us favor by accepting the invitation from your children. Thereafter you may continue on your way."
The jackal, who had sat motionless, took some heart upon hearing that, and granting their request went running and sat in the middle of the lions. All the lions were frightened of him and kept their distance lest he should come into a rage and kill them.
The lions now asked, "O Great Lord, we ask your permission to resume our singing and dancing."
The jackal said, "Very well, but dance away from me lest you should get crushed under my paw."
The lions then began the hambhochi dance while the jackal sat in their midst with the lioness.
The jackal could hardly breathe with fear, and constantly looked around fitfully lest he should be clawed during the lions' dance.
One by one the lions began falling down from exhaustion, and they began singing. After they finished their singing, the lions approached the jackal and said, "It is our custom to ask our guests to join us in our wedding celebrations, and sing and dance for us as well. Therefore, kindly oblige us as you may wish by singing and dancing for us a little."
The jackal said to himself, "Now I am done for, because when I sing the other jackals in the vicinity will answer with their cries and come running, and I will be ruined for good." With that in mind, he said to the lions, "I will certainly oblige you by singing, but my voice has such booming power and force that all the trees and the bushes on the highlands and lowlands will shake and tremble to their roots. Therefore I suggest that we go to a high hill so that I may perform in accordance with your custom."
The jackal led all of them to the foot of a high hill, and climbed atop it. Once he was seated at the summit, he called out to them, "I am about to begin my song. You should all close your eyes and hold on to the tree trunks."
As the lions stood with their eyes closed, holding the trees to keep themselves from being blown away, they heard the cry of a jackal. They opened their eyes and saw the marvel that indeed it was a jackal that was singing atop the hill. They were enraged at the trick played on them but the jackal proved too quick for them. He raced and jumped into a lake where he splashed around to wash and clean himself of the dye, and vowed never again to play such a trick.
Source: Translations of Sindhi Folklore by Musharraf Ali Farooqi
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