Notebooks

Story: The Jackal and the Porcupine

Title

The Jackal and the Porcupine

Collection

Summary

Porcupine worked in the clay while Jackal lay on his back playing the goura. When Porcupine had finished working Jackal covered himself in clay 'like one who had worked'. One day Porcupine told the Master who saw Jackal lying on his back. Jackal then said to Porcupine that the master would kill them and that Porcupine must pull out quills so that they might pierce their eyes and jump into the water and die. Porcupine drew out quills and pierced his eyes, while Jackal only put the quills into the corners of his eyes. Then Jackal threw a stone into the water, pretending it was he, and Porcupine jumped in too, and then asked Jackal to help him out. Jackal went to the Master for help and when they got back Porcupine was dead. The master was angry and tried to catch Jackal, but fell into the water and drowned and Jackal became the master. The children of the master grew up and the young master chased Jackal away, so that he lived in the veldt. Jackal and leopard met while leopard was catching fish. Jackal said that Leopard must go into the water and Jackal took the fish that Leopard had caught. Leopard followed his spoor and waited at his home, so Jackal slept in the veldt. Jackal asked why his house did not answer and so it answered "he", and then Jackal asked whether Leopard thought that he was stupid, and went away. He met a lion and said to him that the lion must hold the cliff up while he went to fetch a stick to prop it up. He went away. The leopard came upon the lion while looking for Jackal and said to Lion that the cliff will not fall. The lion pushed at the cliff and fell on his back.

Comments

1) The bulk of Lucy Lloyd's translations for this story occur on the opposite pages, 2) There are translations in pencil by Louis Maingard in pencil throughout this story, 3) p.134 opp: Piet Lynx heard this from his paternal grandfather. There is an additional note on this page saying that if this story did not come from the white man, it came from the Korannas. It is followed by a few sentences in Dutch, 4) p.141: 'The porcupine pierced his eyes to pieces', 5) p.143: the master is master of 'the werft' in this story, 6) p.143: Jackal says of Porcupine that 'The man fell in to the water and is dead', 7) p.150: 'this is a cliff which God made when the world was made; it will not fall. It is a cliff', 8) This story is found in Kora Book I-3