The messenger jackal said to the jackals, “This king of the fourfooted is only another jackal. I have seen his mother who dwells in such and such a mountain ravine.”
They replied, “In that case we will test him and see whether he is a jackal or not.”
Now it is according to the nature of things that jackals, if they hear a jackal howl without howling themselves, lose their hair.
So the jackal, when he heard the other jackals lift up their voices, said to himself, “If I utter no cry, my hair will certainly fall off. But if I get off the elephant and then begin to howl, he will kill me. So I will lift up my voice where I am.”
So soon as, sitting on the elephant, he began to lift up [[338]]his voice, the elephant perceived that it was a jackal that was riding on his back, so he flung him off and trampled him under foot. A deity uttered this verse:—
“He who keeps at a distance those who should be near, and brings near those who should be at a distance, will be cast down, as the jackal was by the elephant.” [[339]]
[1] Kah-gyur, iv. f. 255. Cf. Panchatantra, i. 10, and Benfey’s remarks thereon, pp. 224–5; Hitopadeśa, iii. 7; A. Weber, Indische Studien, iii., 349, 366.—S. [↑]