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. |