Folk Talcs from the Naga Hills of Assam. 405
after this the jackal asks you for food, say to him, ' I won't give you food to-day but one day later on I will feed all jackals at my house. Bring them all together to my house '."
And she spoke in this way. And the jackal heard her words and went away.
And the next day he called all the jackals and took them to the man's house. Then the man said to them, " Sit down. I will cook food and bring it to you." Thus speaking the man went into his house and the jackals sat outside. But the man did not cook food, but sat inside his house and only pretended to do so, and again coming out he said to the big jackal, " Big jackal, it may be that some of you will flee away from fear. And so take this rope and tie it round their necks." Thus he spoke, and the jackals remained with the rope tied round their necks. A little later in the same day the man again said, " To make the big jackal eat I will take him inside the house and then kill him."
Thus he did, and afterwards taking a piece of wood slew all the other jackals.
And there was amongst them one very small jackal. When the man went to kill him he said, " Grant me a favour and don't kill me. I have done nothing wrong at all." Thus he spoke, and the man replied, " Very well, I won't kill you ; but from now on, if you make no noise when you come out to look for food, then you will get nothing at all to eat." Thus he spoke, and the jackal because he was very frightened, heeded his words, said, " Yes," and went away.
And so jackals when they come out at night to look for food always make a noise. ^
^ The jackal appears not to be indigenous in the Naga Hills, but to have come in with the British flag and the metalled cartroad. Possibly a story about some other animal has been transferred to the jackal with its very obtrusive noisiness. — J. H. H.
