Page:George McCall Theal, Ethnography and condition of South Africa before A.D. 1505 (2nd ed, 1919).djvu/162

138 breath, and am half dead with fright, for I have just seen a terrible looking fellow, with a large and a thick head, and on my asking him what his name was, he answered roughly, ‘I am a ram.’ ”

“What a foolish tiger you are!” cried the jackal, “to let such a nice piece of flesh stand! Why did you do so? but we shall go to-morrow, and eat it together.”

Next day the two set off for the kraal of the ram, and as they appeared over a hill, the ram, who had turned out to look about him, and was calculating where he should that day crop a tender salad, saw them, and he immediately went to his wife and said, “I fear this is our last day, for the jackal and tiger are both coming against us. What shall we do?”

“Don't be afraid,” said the wife, “but take up the child in your arms, go out with it, and pinch it, to make it cry as if it were hungry.” The ram did so, as the confederates came on.

No sooner did the tiger cast his eyes upon the ram than fear again took possession of him, and he wished to turn back. The jackal had provided against this and made the tiger fast to himself with a leathern thong, and said, “come on!” when the ram cried in a loud voice, and pinching his child at the same time, “You have done well, friend jackal, to have brought us the tiger to eat, for you hear how my child is crying for food!”

On these dreadful words the tiger, notwithstanding the entreaties of the jackal to let him go, to let him loose, set off in the greatest alarm, dragged the jackal after him over hill and valley, through bushes and over rocks, and never stopped to look behind him, till he brought back himself and the half-dead jackal to his place again. And so the ram escaped.

The wild animals, it is said, were once assembled at the lion's. When the lion was asleep the jackal persuaded the little fox to twist a rope of ostrich sinews in order to play the lion a trick. They took ostrich sinews, twisted them, and fastened the rope to the lion's tail and the other end of the