A few days later he went again to the village and frightened away the villagers as before; but one old woman was too feeble to run away and she hid in a pig sty, and one fowl that the jackal chased, ran into this sty and the jackal followed it, and when he saw the old woman, he told her to catch the fowl for him or he would knock her teeth out; but she told him to catch it himself; so he caught and ate it.  Then he said to the old woman.  Say “Toyo” (jackal) and she said “Toyo;” then he took a currypounder and knocked all her teeth out and told her again to say “Toyo;” but as she had no teeth she said “Hoyo;” this amused the jackal immensely and he went away laughing.

When the villagers returned, the old woman told them that it was only a jackal who had attacked the village, so they decided to kill him; but one man said “You won’t be able to catch him; let us make an image of this old woman and cover it with birdlime and set it up at the end of the village street; he will stop and abuse her, and we shall know where he is.”  So they did this, and the next morning, when the jackal came singing along the road, they hid inside their houses.  When the jackal reached the village, he saw the figure of the old woman with its arms stretched out, and he said to it, “What are you blocking my road for? get out of the way; I knocked your teeth out yesterday:  arn’t you afraid?  Get out of the way or I will kick you out.”

As the figure did not move he gave it a kick and his leg was caught in the birdlime; then he said, “Let me go, you old hag, or I will give you a slap.”  Then he gave it a slap and his front paw was stuck fast; then he slapped at it with his other paw and that stuck; then he tried to bite the figure and his jaws got caught also; and when he was thus helpless the villagers came out and beat him to death and that was the end of the jackal.

CXIII.  The Jackal Punished.

Once a hen and a jackal were great friends, and they decided to have a feast and each brewed beer for the occasion; the hen brewed with rice, and maize and millet and the jackal brewed with lizards, locusts, frogs and fish.  And when the brew was ready, they first went to the jackal’s house, but the hen could not touch his beer, it smelt so bad and the jackal drank it all; then they went to the hen’s house and her beer was very nice and they both drank till the hen got very drunk and began to stagger about; and the jackal made up his mind that the hen must be very nice to eat, as her beer was so good to drink and when he saw her drunk he was delighted and sang: 

    “Fowl, do not graze in the field! 
    The jackal laughs to see you. 
    Paddy bird, do not fish in the pond! 
    You pecked a piece of sedge thinking it was a frog’s leg! 
    Do not drink rice beer, O fowl! 
    The jackal laughs to see you.

And so saying he gobbled her up; and her chickens cried at the sight.  Then the jackal resolved to eat the chickens also, so he came back the next day, and asked them where they slept and they said “In the hearth.”  But when the jackal had gone, the chickens planned how they should save their lives.