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Jackal in new garb

A brown coloured jackal who lived in a certain forest wanted to be the king of his region.

But certain things prevented him. One thing was that he had a bad voice. He hooted whenever he liked making other animals in the region irritable, and the rest of the animals disliked his behaviour.

“Why should he hoot like that? That is the sound of a devil.” Some animals used to remark. Then he went on in search of ways and means of becoming the king of the region. He met several beasts and birds who said:

“You have to change some of your external and internal looks and mannerisms. Then we should be able to consider you as our king of the region.”

The jackal agreed and went forth in search of a better strategy. Then he was engrossed in his thinking to the extent that he did not know where he was going. It so happened that he was passing the house of a certain painter who had several pits full of paint. The jackal accidentally fell into one such pit. It was full of paint. Am I trapped, thought the jackal. But who is interested in trapping a jackal? He made his way out of it. Then he saw a pool of water through which he could see his own body from the snout to the tail.

“Oh I have changed into a gold colour! This is really a gift from the god! I look beautiful now, I am fit to be a king of the beasts now,” thought the jackal. A rabbit was hurriedly running and saw the jackal all of a sudden. Rabbit who saw the changed jackal stopped for a moment and asked:

“What made you look so beautiful?” “It is a god given reward,” replied the jackal.

“How very wonderful!”

“Then will you accept me as your king?”

“Quite happily and easily you can become the king of our region.”

“But the animals will ask me how I have become gold coloured. What would I say?”

“Say the truth and nothing but the truth,” said the rabbit. “You are correct. Then I will say the truth, it was god given.” he thought of words he should utter for any question raised by his colleagues. Addressing the rabbit the jackal asked:

“Will you do me a favour?”

“What is it you want?”

“Will you please arrange a meeting of beasts and birds of the region to elect me as the king?” “Oh it is simple.” Sooner than said then the rabbit went from place to place meeting the birds and the beasts of the region. Some of the animals came to see the god given royal garbed jackal. They all asked a simple question.

“How did you meet the god?”

“Oh I prayed for him from morn till night”

They all believed the jackal. He made sure that he is not going to hoot in the manner he used to do, instead got another animal, a bear to play the role of the voice maker, the announcer.

“ I propose that the jackal in the god given golden garb be elected as our king,” said the rabbit.

“I second that,” said a monkey who jumped to the scene from a treetop. “Any other names or proposals?” Asked the announcer. The elephant was moving about uneasily for he thought that someone will propose his name. “This is all manipulated,” the elephant thought.

“Let the jackal be the king of the region, but I will see that he be ousted in no time.” He came closer to the jackal and found that he had not taken a bath for sometime. “I think he needs a dip in a river,” he thought further.

Anyway to cut a long story short, they all got the jackal elected as the king. But there was a hitch. How to take him around the region? He needs a vehicle. Who is going to be the vehicle? The lion disliked it. The giraffe disliked it. Many other animals refused to be the royal vehicle of the newly elected king.

“Who is going to be the royal vehicle?” Asked the rabbit. The elephant was silent. They all thought the most fitting vehicle would be the elephant. How to approach the elephant? He is so big and gigantic. Will he accept or will he reject the offer? Anyway it is better to ask him.

“I like to ask the wise elephant about his views on becoming the royal vehicle for our newly appointed king of the region.” The elephant stood silent for a moment and then tried to answer. “I don’t mind. But on certain conditions.”

“What are the conditions?”

“In the first instance, the newly appointed king should not command me.”

“No I am not going to command you, my dear elephant, I just want you to be my vehicle.” “All right then. Come on jump on to my back and sit properly.”

There was a loud applause from all the well wishers. The jackal in a majestic manner jumped firstly onto the back of several animals and lifted himself to the back of the elephant and stood looking around in the manner identifiable to a king.

“Take me first to the house of the lion, I want to have a word with him,” said the jackal to the elephant.

“I told you that you should not command me.”

“All right then take me to the house of the peacock.”

“There again you are commanding me.”

“But don’t you know that I am the king of this region? I am much more powerful than you. I can get work from you now that I am seated on your back.” Said the jackal sternly.

In reply the elephant just said:

“Oh is that so?”

Then the elephant felt a certain foul smell coming from the jackal, for he had not taken a bath for a few days. The elephant was slowly going to the riverside.

He felt that the jackal be given a royal bath. It so happened that the elephant too wanted to have a bath. Quite a number of animals were following them like a procession. Then they came like a long line to see what is happening. In the forefront was the rabbit, following him was the bear.

Then came some other animals like alligators and crocodiles and birds like pigeons and parrots and many others.

The elephant showed as if he is trying to cross the river and slowly dipping into deep waters with the newly elected king.

The birds and beasts who followed them stood on the bank watching what is going to happen.

Then at one moment, the elephant dipped into the water with the jackal. The jackal knew no way of coming out of the water. He was hooting once again, in the manner he was used to ask for help.

Anyway with the help of animals the jackal could get out of water with difficulty. The real image of the jackal was seen.

They saw that the skin of the jackal was discoloured. Instead of the royal gold colour, he had a mixed colour which helped the animals know that the jackal was false and the garb was not god given.

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