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THE HEDGEHOG, THE JACKAL, AND THE LION

Once upon a time the jackal went in search of the hedgehog and said to it:  “Come along.  I know a garden of onions.  We will fill our bellies.”

“How many tricks have you?” asked the hedgehog.

“I have a hundred and one.”

“And I,” said the other, “have one and a half.”

They entered the garden and ate a good deal.  The hedgehog ate a little and then went to see if he could get out of the entrance or not.  When he had eaten enough so that he could just barely slip out, he stopped eating.  As for the jackal, he never stopped eating until he was swollen very much.

As these things were going on, the owner of the garden arrived.  The hedgehog saw him and said to his companion: 

“Escape! the master is coming.”  He himself took flight.  But in spite of his exhortations the jackal couldn’t get through the opening.  “It is impossible,” he said.

“Where are those one hundred and one tricks?  They don’t serve you now.”

“May God have mercy on your parents, my uncle, lend me your half a trick.”  “Lie down on the ground,” answered the hedgehog.  “Play dead, shut your mouth, stretch out your paws as if you were dead, until the master of the garden shall see it and cast you into the street, and then you can run away.”

On that the hedgehog departed.  The jackal lay down as he had told him until the owner of the garden came with his son and saw him lying as if dead.  The child said to his father: 

“Here is a dead jackal.  He filled his belly with onions until he died.”

Said the man, “Go, drag him outside.”

“Yes,” said the child, and he took him and stuck a thorn into him.

“Hold on, enough!” said the jackal.  “They play with reeds, but this is not sport.”

The child ran to his father and said, “The jackal cried out, ’A reed! a reed!’”

The father went and looked at the animal, which feigned death.  “Why do you tell me that it still lives?”

“It surely does.”

“Come away and leave that carrion.”  The child stuck another thorn into the jackal, which cried, “What, again?” The child went to his father.  “He has just said, ‘What, again?’”

“Come now,” said the man, and he sent away his son.  The latter took the jackal by the motionless tail and cast him into the street.  Immediately the animal jumped up and started to run away.  The child threw after him his slippers.  The jackal took them, put them on, and departed.

On the way he met the lion, who said, “What is that footwear, my dear?”

“You don’t know, my uncle?  I am a shoemaker.  My father, my uncle, my mother, my brother, my sister, and the little girl who was born at our house last night are all shoemakers.”

“Won’t you make me a pair of shoes?” replied the lion.