The Jackal and the Spring (
French: ''Le chacal et la source'') is an African
fairy tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...
collected by E. Jacottet in ''Contes Populaires des Bassoutos''.
Synopsis
All the rivers and streams ran dry. The animals dug a well to keep from dying, but the jackal did not help. They set a guard to keep the jackal from drinking. The first, a rabbit, kept off the jackal until it bribed it with some
honeycomb
A honeycomb is a mass of Triangular prismatic honeycomb#Hexagonal prismatic honeycomb, hexagonal prismatic Beeswax, wax cells built by honey bees in their beehive, nests to contain their larvae and stores of honey and pollen.
beekeeping, Beekee ...
to let it tie it up; then the jackal drank its full. The second, a hare, met the same fate. The
third
Third or 3rd may refer to:
Numbers
* 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3
* , a fraction of one third
* Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute''
Places
* 3rd Street (d ...
, the tortoise, did not answer the jackal, so it thought it could kick it aside, but the tortoise grabbed its leg and never let it go. The jackal did not manage to free itself until the other animals appeared; then it managed to wrench itself free and flee without drinking.
Translations
Jacouttet's work was translated into
English
English usually refers to:
* English language
* English people
English may also refer to:
Peoples, culture, and language
* ''English'', an adjective for something of, from, or related to England
** English national ide ...
, with this tale being named ''The Jackal''. Its title in the original language was given as ''Phokojoe''.
Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University ...
included the tale in ''
The Grey Fairy Book
''The Langs' Fairy Books'' are a series of 25 collections of true and fictional stories for children published between 1889 and 1913 by Andrew Lang and his wife, Leonora Blanche Alleyne. The best known books of the series are the 12 collections ...
'' with the name ''The Jackal and the Spring''.
Analysis
Édouard Jacouttet stated that the tale was very popular in South Africa and found "on the Zambezi, at Delagoa Bay and among the Ba-Sumbwa". He also notices that the
hare
Hares and jackrabbits are mammals belonging to the genus ''Lepus''. They are herbivores, and live solitarily or in pairs. They nest in slight depressions called forms, and their young are able to fend for themselves shortly after birth. The ge ...
replaces the jackal as the cunning character.
[Jacottet, Édouard. ''The treasury of Ba-suto lore; being original Se-suto texts, with a literal English translation and notes''. London, K. Paul, Trench, Trubner & co. 1908. pp. 32-33 (footnote nr. 1)]
References
{{Reflist
External links
''The Jackal and the Spring''
Jackal and the Spring