Brief Synopsis of "The Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal":
This is by far my favorite of all the Indian Fairy Tales, a
must read. I can't for the life of me really
pinpoint the
moral to this tale, but if I had to guess - I'd guess "Fool me once, shame on you... fool me twice shame on me".
a fairy tale from Indian Fairy Tales
by Joseph Jacobs, 1890
THE TIGER, THE BRAHMAN, AND THE JACKAL
Once upon a time, a tiger was caught in a trap. He tried in vain to get
out through the bars, and rolled and bit with rage and grief when he
failed.
By chance a poor Brahman came by. "Let me out of this cage, oh pious
one!" cried the tiger.
"Nay, my friend," replied the Brahman mildly, "you would probably eat
me if I did."
"Not at all!" swore the tiger with many oaths; "on the contrary, I
should be for ever grateful, and serve you as a slave!"
Now when the tiger sobbed and sighed and wept and swore, the pious
Brahman's heart softened, and at last he consented to open the door of
the cage. Out popped the tiger, and, seizing the poor man, cried, "What
a fool you are! What is to prevent my eating you now, for after being
cooped up so long I am just terribly hungry!"
In vain the Brahman pleaded for his life; the most he could gain was a
promise to abide by the decision of the first three things he chose to
question as to the justice of the tiger's action.
So the Brahman first asked a pipal tree what it thought of the
matter, but the pipal tree replied coldly, "What have you to
complain about? Don't I give shade and shelter to every one who passes
by, and don't they in return tear down my branches to feed their
cattle? Don't whimper--be a man!"
Then the Brahman, sad at heart, went further afield till he saw a
buffalo turning a well-wheel; but he fared no better from it, for it
answered, "You are a fool to expect gratitude! Look at me! Whilst I
gave milk they fed me on cotton-seed and oil-cake, but now I am dry
they yoke me here, and give me refuse as fodder!"
The Brahman, still more sad, asked the road to give him its opinion.
"My dear sir," said the road, "how foolish you are to expect anything
else! Here am I, useful to everybody, yet all, rich and poor, great and
small, trample on me as they go past, giving me nothing but the ashes
of their pipes and the husks of their grain!"
On this the Brahman turned back sorrowfully, and on the way he met a
jackal, who called out, "Why, what's the matter, Mr. Brahman? You look
as miserable as a fish out of water!"
The Brahman told him all that had occurred. "How very confusing!" said
the jackal, when the recital was ended; "would you mind telling me over
again, for everything has got so mixed up?"
The Brahman told it all over again, but the jackal shook his head in a
distracted sort of way, and still could not understand.
"It's very odd," said he, sadly, "but it all seems to go in at one ear
and out at the other! I will go to the place where it all happened, and
then perhaps I shall be able to give a judgment."
So they returned to the cage, by which the tiger was waiting for the
Brahman, and sharpening his teeth and claws.
"You've been away a long time!" growled the savage beast, "but now let
us begin our dinner."
"Our dinner!" thought the wretched Brahman, as his knees knocked
together with fright; "what a remarkably delicate way of putting it!"
"Give me five minutes, my lord!" he pleaded, "in order that I may
explain matters to the jackal here, who is somewhat slow in his wits."
The tiger consented, and the Brahman began the whole story over again,
not missing a single detail, and spinning as long a yarn as possible.
"Oh, my poor brain! oh, my poor brain!" cried the jackal, wringing its
paws. "Let me see! how did it all begin? You were in the cage, and the
tiger came walking by--"
"Pooh!" interrupted the tiger, "what a fool you are! I was in
the cage."
"Of course!" cried the jackal, pretending to tremble with fright; "yes!
I was in the cage--no I wasn't--dear! dear! where are my wits? Let me
see--the tiger was in the Brahman, and the cage came walking by--no,
that's not it, either! Well, don't mind me, but begin your dinner, for
I shall never understand!"
"Yes, you shall!" returned the tiger, in a rage at the jackal's
stupidity; "I'll make you understand! Look here--I am the
tiger--"
"Yes, my lord!"
"And that is the Brahman--"
"Yes, my lord!"
"And that is the cage--"
"Yes, my lord!"
"And I was in the cage--do you understand?"
"Yes--no--Please, my lord--"
"Well?" cried the tiger impatiently.
"Please, my lord!--how did you get in?"
"How!--why in the usual way, of course!"
"Oh, dear me!--my head is beginning to whirl again! Please don't be
angry, my lord, but what is the usual way?"
At this the tiger lost patience, and, jumping into the cage, cried,
"This way! Now do you understand how it was?"
"Perfectly!" grinned the jackal, as he dexterously shut the door, "and
if you will permit me to say so, I think matters will remain as they
were!"
THE TIGER, THE BRAHMAN, AND THE JACKAL.
Source --Steel-Temple, Wideawake Stories, pp. 116-20;
first published in Indian Antiquary, xii. p. 170 seq.
Parallels.--No less than 94 parallels are given by Prof. K.
Krohn in his elaborate discussion of this fable in his dissertation,
Mann und Fuchs, (Helsingfors, 1891), pp. 38-60; to which may be
added three Indian variants, omitted by him, but mentioned by Capt.
Temple, l. c., p. 324, in the Bhagavata Purana, the Gul
Bakaoli and Ind. Ant. xii. 177; and a couple more in my Aesop,
p. 253: add Smeaton, Karens, p. 126.
Remarks.--Prof. Krohn comes to the conclusion that the majority
of the oral forms of the tale come from literary versions (p. 47),
whereas the Reynard form has only had influence on a single
variant. He reduces the century of variants to three type forms. The
first occurs in two Egyptian versions collected in the present day, as
well as in Petrus Alphonsi in the twelfth century, and the Fabulae
Extravagantes of the thirteenth or fourteenth: here the ingrate
animal is a crocodile, which asks to be carried away from a river about
to dry up, and there is only one judge. The second is that current in
India and represented by the story in the present collection: here the
judges are three. The third is that current among Western Europeans,
which has spread to S. Africa and N. and S. America: also three judges.
Prof. K. Krohn counts the first the original form, owing to the single
judge and the naturalness of the opening, by which the critical
situation is brought about. The further question arises, whether this
form, though found in Egypt now, is indigenous there, and if so, how it
got to the East. Prof. Krohn grants the possibility of the Egyptian
form having been invented in India and carried to Egypt, and he allows
that the European forms have been influenced by the Indian. The
"Egyptian" form is found in Burmah (Smeaton, l. c., p. 128), as
well as the Indian, a fact of which Prof. K. Krohn was unaware though
it turns his whole argument. The evidence we have of other folk-tales
of the beast-epic emanating from India improves the chances of this
also coming from that source. One thing at least is certain: all these
hundred variants come ultimately from one source. The incident "Inside
again" of the Arabian Nights (the Djinn and the bottle) and
European tales is also a secondary derivate.
from Project Gutenberg (public domain)
Indian Fairy Tales index
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