The Hedgehog, The Jackal, And The Lion

Once upon a time the jackal went in search of the hedgehog and said to it:
"Come along. I know a garden of onions. We will fill our bellies."

"How many tricks have you?" asked the hedgehog.

"I have a hundred and one."

"And I," said the other, "have one and a half."

They entered the garden and ate a good deal. The hedgehog ate a little and
then went to see if he could get out of the entrance or not. When he had
eaten enough so that he could just barely slip out, he stopped eating. As
for the jackal, he never stopped eating until he was swollen very much.

As these things were going on, the owner of the garden arrived. The
hedgehog saw him and said to his companion:

"Escape! the master is coming." He himself took flight. But in spite of his
exhortations the jackal couldn't get through the opening. "It is
impossible," he said.

"Where are those one hundred and one tricks? They don't serve you now."

"May God have mercy on your parents, my uncle, lend me your half a trick."
"Lie down on the ground," answered the hedgehog. "Play dead, shut your
mouth, stretch out your paws as if you were dead, until the master of the
garden shall see it and cast you into the street, and then you can run
away."

On that the hedgehog departed. The jackal lay down as he had told him until
the owner of the garden came with his son and saw him lying as if dead. The
child said to his father:

"Here is a dead jackal. He filled his belly with onions until he died."

Said the man, "Go, drag him outside."

"Yes," said the child, and he took him and stuck a thorn into him.

"Hold on, enough!" said the jackal. "They play with reeds, but this is not
sport."

The child ran to his father and said, "The jackal cried out, 'A reed! a
reed!'"

The father went and looked at the animal, which feigned death. "Why do you
tell me that it still lives?"

"It surely does."

"Come away and leave that carrion." The child stuck another thorn into the
jackal, which cried, "What, again?" The child went to his father. "He has
just said, 'What, again?'"

"Come now," said the man, and he sent away his son. The latter took the
jackal by the motionless tail and cast him into the street. Immediately the
animal jumped up and started to run away. The child threw after him his
slippers. The jackal took them, put them on, and departed.

On the way he met the lion, who said, "What is that footwear, my dear?"

"You don't know, my uncle? I am a shoemaker. My father, my uncle, my
mother, my brother, my sister, and the little girl who was born at our
house last night are all shoemakers."

"Won't you make me a pair of shoes?" replied the lion.

"I will make you a pair. Bring me two fat camels. I will skin them and make
you some good shoes."

The lion went away and brought the two fat camels. "They are thin," said
the jackal. "Go change them for others."

He brought two thin ones.

"They are fat," said the jackal. He skinned them, cut some thorns from a
palm-tree, rolled the leather around the lion's paws and fastened it there
with the thorns.

"Ouch!" screamed the lion.

"He who wants to look finely ought not to say, 'Ouch.'"

"Enough, my dear."

"My uncle, I will give you the rest of the slippers and boots." He covered
the lion's skin with the leather and stuck in the thorns. When he reached
the knees, "Enough, my dear," said the lion. "What kind of shoes are
those?"

"Keep still, my uncle, these are slippers, boots, breeches, and clothes."

When he came to the girdle the lion said, "What kind of shoes are those?"

"My uncle, they are slippers, boots, breeches, and clothing." In this way
he reached the lion's neck. "Stay here," he said, "until the leather dries.
When the sun rises look it in the face. When the moon rises, too, look it
in the face."

"It is good," said the lion, and the jackal went away.

The lion remained and did as his companion had told him. But his feet began
to swell, the leather became hard, and he could not get up. When the jackal
came back he asked him, "How are you, my uncle?"

"How am I? Wretch, son of a wretch, you have deceived me. Go, go; I will
recommend you to my children."

The jackal came near and the lion seized him by the tail. The jackal fled,
leaving his tail in the lion's mouth.

"Now," said the lion, "you have no tail. When my feet get well I will catch
you and eat you up."

The jackal called his cousins and said to them, "Let us go and fill our
bellies with onions in a garden that I know." They went with him. Arriving
he tied their tails to the branches of a young palm-tree, and twisted them
well. "Who has tied our tails like this?" they asked. "No one will come
before you have filled your bellies. If you see the master of the garden
approach, struggle and fly. You see that I, too, am bound as you are." But
he had tied an onion-stalk on himself. When the owner of the garden
arrived, the jackal saw him coming. They struggled, their tails were all
torn out, and stayed behind with the branches to which they were fastened.
When the jackal saw the man, he cut the onion stem and escaped the first of
all.

As for the lion, when his feet were cured, he went to take a walk and met
his friend the jackal. He seized him and said, "Now I've got you, son of a
wretch."

The other answered, "What have I done, my uncle?"

"You stuck thorns in my flesh. You said to me, 'I will make you some
shoes.' Now what shall I do to you?"

"It was not I," said the jackal.

"It was you, and the proof is that you have your tail cut off."

"But all my cousins are without tails, like me."

"You lie, joker."

"Let me call them and you will see."

"Call them."

At his call the jackals ran up, all without tails.

"Which of you is a shoemaker?" asked the lion.

"All of us," they answered.

He said to them: "I am going to bring you some red pepper. You shall eat of
it, and the one who says, 'Ouch!' that will be the one I'm looking for."

"Go and get it."

He brought them some red pepper, and they were going to eat it when the
first jackal made a noise with his shoes, but he said to the lion, "My
uncle, I did not say, 'Ouch!'" The lion sent them away, and they went about
their business.