The Jackal Devatawa

In a certain country there was a dead Elephant, it is said. A Jackal having gone to eat the Elephant's carcase, and having eaten and eaten a hole into the Elephant from behind, passed inside it. While he was eating and eating the carcase of the Elephant as he remained inside it, the skin [dried and] became twisted up, and the path by which the Jackal entered became closed.

A man who was a tom-tom beater was going near it, taking a tom-tom for a devil-dance. Then among the bones the sound of tom-tom beating was heard. So the Jackal asked, "Who is going here?"

The tom-tom beater said, "I am going to this devil-dance."

The Jackal said, "What art thou going this way for, without permission?"

The tom-tom beater replied, "O Lord, I am going without knowing about this [permission's being necessary]."

The Jackal asked, "What wilt thou obtain for the dancing?"

The tom-tom beater said, "I receive presents and the like."

Then the Jackal said, "I will give thee a present better than money. It is owing to thy good luck that thou hast come this way. I am a Devatawa (deity) who is guarding his own treasure here. If I am to give thee the treasure, split one eye (end) of the tom-tom which is in thy hand, and having filled it with water and brought it here, pour it on this Elephant."

After that, the tom-tom beater having plucked out the eye of the tom-tom, filling it with water brought it, and poured it on the Elephant's dried up carcase. The Jackal, also, sitting inside it, worked and worked it into the skin with its muzzle. Having made the skin pliable it sprang out, and went away.

When this man looked inside, no deity was there, but there were many maggots. So the man, taking his broken tom-tom, went home.

In a few days afterwards, a rain having fallen, the Elephant's carcase floated, and went down into the water-course. From the water-course it passed down to the stream. A flock of crows covered the carcase. As they were going eating and eating the dead body, it descended into the river, and from the river it passed down to the great sea. There the skin having rotted began to fall to the bottom. After the crows had looked [around], there was not even a tree [to be seen], and before they were able to fly to a place where there were trees their wings were broken, and they died.