Page 206. In Reynard the Fox in Southern Africa (Dr. Bleek), p. 33, there is a Hottentot variant. The clothes of a tailor had been torn by a Mouse which denied it and blamed the Cat; the blame was passed on to the Dog, the Wood, the Fire, the Water, the Elephant, and the Ant. The tailor got the Baboon to try them; in order to catch the real culprit it made each one punish the other.
In a Sierra Leone story in Cunnie Rabbit, etc. (Cronise and Ward), p. 313, a boy killed a bird with a stone and his sister ate it, giving him in exchange a grain of corn. White ants ate this and gave him a waterpot. This was swept away by the water, which gave him a fish. A hawk took it and gave him its own wing, which the wind carried off, giving him in exchange much fruit. A baboon ate this and gave him an axe; the Chief took this and satisfied him by presenting him with money and slaves.
Page 208, line 6 of notes. For crane read egret.
Page 212. In Folktales of the Santal Parganas, p. 338, the hare, wanting a dinner of rice cooked with milk, lay down while watch was kept by its friend the jackal. Men taking rice put down their baskets and chased the hare, the jackal meanwhile removing the rice. In this way they got also milk, firewood, a cooking-pot, and some leaf-plates. The jackal brought a fire-brand, cooked the food, and hurried over his bath, at which the hare spent a long time. While it was away, the jackal ate as much rice as he wanted, and filled up the pot with filth over which he placed the remaining rice. When the hare discovered this he threw the contents over the jackal, and drove it away.
Page 215. In the same work, p. 339, the animals were a leopard and a he-goat which occupied its cave and frightened it by saying “Hum Pakpak.” The leopard returned with the jackal, their tails tied together, but when the goat stood up and the leopard remarked on the dreadful expressions it used in the morning, they both ran away and the hair was scraped off the jackal’s tail.
In Folk-Tales from Tibet, p. 76, two jackals with three cubs occupied a tiger’s den, frightened it by telling the cubs they would soon be eating tiger’s flesh, and it returned with a baboon which laughed heartily at the story. The jackal called out to the baboon to bring up the tiger quickly, and said they had expected two or three at least. The tiger bolted and bumped the baboon to death, their tails being twisted together.
In Les Avadānas (Julien), No. cxxii, vol. ii, p. 146, the animals are a tiger and stag which frightened it in the same way when a monkey was leading it in search of an animal to kill. It said, “I never would have believed the monkey was so wicked; it seems he wants to sacrifice me to pay his old debts.”
In Folk-Tales from an Eastern Forest (Skeat), p. 45, in order to save an elephant a mouse-deer frightened a tiger. An ape went back with the tiger, the mouse-deer said it refused to accept only one tiger when two had been promised, and the tiger ran away.
In Old Hendrik’s Tales (Vaughan), p. 19, in a Hottentot variant a wolf and baboon, their tails tied together, were about to punish the jackal. When the female jackal made the cub squall, the male jackal said he had sent the baboon for wolf-meat and he was now bringing one. As he moved towards them, the wolf bolted, dragging the baboon, which got a kink in its tail.
In Reynard the Fox in Southern Africa, p. 24, there is another Hottentot story, the animals being a leopard and ram. When the former ran off, a jackal took it back, fastened to it by a leather thong. As they drew near, the leopard wished to turn back. On the ram’s praising the jackal for bringing the leopard to be eaten when its child was crying for food, it bolted and dragged the jackal till it was half-dead.