Black Tales for White Children

by C. H. Stigand; Nancy Yulee Stigand

So he went off, and returned again to the place of meeting, and there met the hare. The hare asked him, "Have you killed your mother, my brother?"

The jackal said, "Yes, I have killed her."

So the hare said, "Let me look at your spear and knife. See, here are mine, and you can see that I have killed my mother, truly."

Then was the jackal ashamed, and the hare said to him, "Oh, my brother, you have deceived me. We agreed that each one must do as the other, and now I have gone and killed my mother, and you have not done likewise. We must both go and kill your mother, so that we may both be without our mothers."

So they went and killed the jackal's mother, and the jackal was very sorry.

After that the hare said to the jackal, "Now, my brother, we must eat nothing but insects." So they went about the forest trying to catch insects to eat, but when the jackal slept the hare used to run into that cave where he had hidden his mother, and she fed him.

The jackal lived with the hare, trying to catch enough insects to eat, and he grew thinner and thinner, till at last he died.

Now when all the animals heard how the hare had deceived the jackal, and made him kill his mother, and how he had made him live on nothing but insects till he died, they were very angry with the hare. Then they held a meeting, and it was asked, "Who is a match for the hare in cunning?"

The cock said, "I am; I am able to deceive the hare and kill him."

All those animals said to the cock, "You, cock, are not the equal of the hare. What sort of cunning have you to match yourself against the hare?"