There once lived a jackal and a hedgehog who were the best of friends.
One day they were walking along a road together, when the jackal exclaimed, "Look! I see a barn ahead; I bet it is full of food. Let's go and eat!"
Yes, let's do that!" answered the hedgehog, who was glad his friend the jackal was so much taller than he was, and able to see what was waiting for them down the road.
So the jackal and the hedgehog headed towards the barn. As they got nearer, the hedgehog said, "Jackal, your shoes are squeaking very loudly. You better take them off so that we can creep silently into the barn undetected."
"Good idea, my friend," said the jackal, and he took off his shoes.
Then the two friends crept into the barn, which was indeed full of food, and they ate till they could eat no more. Then the jackal put on his shoes and they resumed their journey down the road.
"Uh-oh," said the jackal. "I see a leopard coming this way."
The hedgehog scurried off into the bushes by the side of the road, but the jackal was too big to hide in the bushes. "I just hope the leopard isn't hungry," he said to himself.
"Excuse me," said the leopard politely, "but I can't help admiring those shoes of yours. Do you mind telling me who made them?"
The jackal breathed a sigh of relief; the leopard was not going to eat him! Then he said, "Yes, I think they are rather nice. I made them myself!"
Seeing that the leopard was being so affable, the hedgehog then crept out from the bushes. "My friend the jackal is the best shoemaker in the land," he said, smiling.
"How wonderful!" said the leopard. "Could you make me a pair of shoes just like them?"
"I would do my best, of course," replied the jackal. "You will just need to supply me with the leather. Could you kill me a cow?" Then, after we eat the meat, I will take the skin and make your shoes."
"Gladly!" said the leopard, and he went away, prowling until he saw a fine cow grazing apart from the rest of the herd. He killed the unsuspecting cow, and then he shouted, "Your cow is ready!"
The jackal and the hedgehog ran there, and with the leopard's help, they skinned the dead cow, and and spread its skin out to dry, after which the three of them enjoyed a grand feast before they curled themselves up for the night, and slept soundly.
The next morning the jackal got up early and set to work upon the shoes, while the leopard sat by and looked on with delight. "You are indeed a fine shoemaker!" he exclaimed, admiring the jackal's work.
At last the shoes were finished. "Now go and lay them in the sun out there to dry," he told the leopard. "In a couple of hours they will be ready to put on, but don't attempt to wear them any sooner than that or you will find them most uncomfortable."
"Thank you, Jackal," said the leopard. "I will be very proud to wear the shoes you have made for me."
"Meanwhile," chirped the hedgehog, "I see the sun is high in the heavens, and we must be continuing our journey."
So the hedgehog and jackal took leave of the leopard and continued their journey, while the leopard waited patiently for the shoes to dry. The foolish leopard always believed what everybody told him, so he followed jackal's orders, waiting two hours before he put them on. The shoes certainly set off his paws wonderfully, and he stretched out his forepaws and looked at them with pride. But when he tried to walk — oh no! The shoes did not fit at all. They were so stiff and hard that he nearly shrieked every step he took, and at last he sank down where he was, and actually began to cry.
After a while, a partridge heard the poor leopard's groans and went up to see what was the matter. The leopard was not in the habit of eating partridges, so the two of them had always been quite friendly.
'Dear Leopard," said the partridge, "you seem to be in pain. Is there something I can do to help you?"
"Oh, it is all the cursed jackal's fault!" exclaimed the leopard. "He made me these shoes; they are so hard and tight that they hurt my feet, and I cannot manage to kick them off."
"Lie still, and I will soften them," said the partridge. Then he called to his brothers, and they all flew to the nearest spring where they gathered water in their beaks. Then they flew back to the leopard and poured the water over the shoes. The partridges did this until the hard leather grew soft, and then then panther was able to slip his feet out of them.
"Oh, thank you, thank you," the leopard exclaimed, skipping round with joy. "I am back to my old self! Now I will go after the jackal and get my revenge." So saying, the leopard bounded away into the forest while the partridges waved goodbye.
But the jackal had been very cunning, of course; he knew the leopard come after him, so he had separated from his friend the hedgehog and trotted backwards and forwards and in and out, so that it was very difficult to know which track he had really followed. At length, however, the leopard caught sight of his enemy, and at that same moment the jackal caught sight of him. The leopard gave a loud roar and sprang forward, but the jackal was too quick for him and plunged into a dense thicket, where the leopard could not follow.
Disgusted with his failure and more angry than ever, the leopard lay down for a while to consider what he should do next. As he lay there pondering his options, an old man came by.
"Please, sir," said the leopard, "tell me how I can repay the jackal for the way he has treated me!" And he then proceeded to tell the old man everything that had happened.
"If you take my advice," the old man said, "you will kill a cow and invite all the jackals in the forest to the feast. Watch them carefully while they are eating, and you will see that most of them keep their eyes on their food. But if one of them glances at you, you will know that is the traitor."
The leopard, who was very polite despite being a fool, thanked the old man profusely and followed his advice. The leopard killed another cow and cut it up into pieces with a butcher's knife. Then the partridges flew about with invitations to the jackals, who all came running to the feast. The wicked jackal was one of them, but the leopard did not recognize him; all jackals looked alike to him. But he waited to see what would happen, remembering what the old man had advised. The jackals all sat down around the pieces of meat and began to eat, each jackal fixing his eyes greedily on his piece of meat. Only one of the jackals seemed uneasy, and every now and then he glanced in the direction of his host. After the third glance, the leopard leaped at the guilty jackal and seized his tail. "I've got your now, shoemaker!" he shouted, but again the jackal was too quick for him: the jackal grabbed the butcher knife and cut off his own tail, thus escaping the leopard. He then darted into the forest, followed by all the rest of the jackals.
Thus the leopard found himself standing there holding the jackal's tail, angrier than ever before. "I must go ask the old man what to do next," he said to himself, and so he did.
"That turned out badly, I admit," said the old man, "but I think I know where you can find the jackal. There is a melon garden about two miles from here, and jackals are very fond of melons, so I'm sure you can find him there. Just look for a jackal without a tail and you will know he's the one you want."
So the leopard thanked the old man and made his way to the melon patch.
The jackal, for his part, had guessed the leopard was getting advice from the old man, and he suspected what the old man would say next. So, while his friends were greedily eating the ripest melons in the sunniest corner of the garden, the jackal crept up behind them and tied their tails together. He had only just finished when he heard the sound of breaking branches, and he shouted, "Quick! Quick! Here comes the gardener!" And the jackals sprang up and ran away in all directions, leaving their tails behind them.
The jackal smiled to himself. Now the leopard would never be able to know which jackal he wanted.
When the leopard realized that he could not identify his enemy, he gave up and reported back to the old man. "Now none of the jackals appear to have tails," the leopard said sadly, "and I am tired of hunting them. I shall leave them alone to go and catch something for supper, but I wanted to thank you for helping me."
But this was not the end of the story. After the adventure in the melon patch, the jackal went to look for his friend the hedgehog, whom he was lucky enough to find at home.
"Ah, there you are!" said the jackal. "I have lost my tail since I saw you last, and other people have lost theirs too; but that is no matter! I am hungry again. What about you?"
"I am hungry too," replied the hedgehog.
"Well," said the jackal, "let's go see the shepherd who is sitting out there in the grass, and we will ask him to sell us one of his sheep.'
"Yes," answered the hedgehog, "that is a good plan." And he walked as fast as his little legs would go to keep up with the jackal.
When they reached the shepherd, the jackal pulled out his purse from under his foreleg and made his bargain. He had enough money for one nice, fat sheep.
"Only wait till tomorrow," said the shepherd, "and I will give you an even bigger sheep, the biggest sheep you ever saw. But he always feeds at some distance from the rest of the flock, and it will take me a while to catch him. Just come back tomorrow, and I'll have him ready for you."
The jackal glanced at the hedgehog who nodded his agreement. "Alright," said the jackal, "I supposed we can wait." Then he and the hedgehog looked about for a nice dry cave in which to make themselves comfortable for the night.
Then, after they had gone, the shepherd killed one of his sheep and stripped off then skin, which he sewed tightly round a dog he had with him. Next, he took a rope and tied the dog-in-sheep's-clothing to a tree and lay down to sleep nearby.
Very, very early, before the sun was even fully up, the jackal and the hedgehog arrived and started tugging at the shepherd's cloak.
"Wake up! Wake up," they said, "and give us that sheep. We have had nothing to eat all night, and are very hungry."
The shepherd yawned and rubbed his eyes. "He's tied up to that tree; go and take him." So the jackal and hedgehog went to the tree and untied the sheep, or what they thought was a sheep, and then turned to go back to the cave where they had slept, dragging the sheep after them.
When they reached the cave the jackal said to the hedgehog, "Before I kill him let me see whether he is really as fat as the shepherd promised us." And he stood a little way back, so that he might the better examine the animal. After looking at him, with his head on one side, for a minute or two, the jackal nodded gravely. "He is very fat indeed! This is a good sheep."
But the hedgehog, who sometimes showed more cunning than anyone would have guessed, exclaimed, "My friend, you are talking nonsense! The wool is indeed a sheep's wool, but I see the paws of a dog sticking out below."
"No!" insisted the jackal. "He's a sheep. Anybody can see he's a sheep!" The jackal did not like to think anyone might be cleverer than himself.
"You hold the rope while I inspect him more closely," said the hedgehog.
Very unwillingly the jackal held the rope while the hedgehog walked slowly round the sheep till he reached the jackal again. He knew quite well by the paws and tail that it was a dog and not a sheep, and he was determined to keep himself out of harm's way. "Why yes, you are right!" he said to the jackal. "What fine sheep indeed! I don't know what I was thinking. But before we eat I need to go quench my thirst at the spring by the edge of the wood. I'll be back soon."
The hedgehog then scurried out of the cave while the jackal curled up to go back to sleep until his friend returned. The hedgehog, however, did not go to the spring; instead, he hid under a rock just outside the cave and waited to see what would happen.
When the jackal woke up again and the hedgehog had still not returned, he decided he could not wait any longer for his breakfast. He untied the sheep and, just as he was about to attack and give him a deadly bite, the jackal heard a low growl like no sheep had ever growled before. The jackal threw down the rope and went flying out of the cave and across the plain. His legs were long, but the dog's legs were longer; the jackal ran fast, but the dog ran faster. Soon the dog had hold of him, so the jackal turned to fight, but he was no match for the dog, and in a few minutes the jackal was lying dead on the ground, while the dog was trotting happily back to the shepherd and his flock.
As for the further adventures of the hedgehog, that would be another story...
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