The Jackal and the Spring
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Jackal and the Spring is an African fairy tale collected by E. Jacottet in Contes Populaires des Bassoutos. Andrew Lang included it in The Grey Fairy Book.
[edit] Synopsis
All the rivers and streams ran dry. The animals dug a well to keep from dying, but the jackal did not help. They set a guard to keep the jackal from drinking. The first, a rabbit, kept off the jackal until it bribed it with some honeycomb to let it tie it up; then the jackal drank its full. The second, a hare, met the same fate. The third, the tortoise, did not answer the jackal, so it thought it could kick it aside, but the tortoise grabbed its leg and never let it go. The jackal did not manage to free itself until the other animals appeared; then it managed to wrench itself free and flee without drinking.
