The Blue Jackal

A hungry jackal once wandered out of the forest and into a town, looking for scraps to eat. But the town dogs spotted him and came barking and snapping at his heels, and the terrified jackal ran for his life. He darted into the first open door he could find, which happened to be a washerman’s yard, and in his panic he tumbled straight into a great big vat of blue dye.

When at last he scrambled out and fled back to the safety of the forest, he was no longer a dusty brown jackal. He was blue. A bright, brilliant, astonishing blue, from nose to tail, like no creature the forest had ever seen.

And oh, how the other animals stared. The lions, the tigers, the elephants, the deer, all of them froze in amazement and a little fear at this strange blue beast. The jackal, quick as ever, saw his chance. He drew himself up grandly. “Behold!” he announced. “The gods have sent me down to be your king. Bow before me!”

And they did. They bowed, and they served him, and they brought him the finest food, while the blue jackal lived like a king, with mighty lions fetching his dinner. He was very careful, though, to keep the ordinary jackals far away, for they alone might know him.

All went perfectly well, for a while. But one evening, far off in the hills, a pack of jackals lifted their heads and began to howl, the way jackals do. And the sound reached the blue jackal, and stirred something deep inside him that he simply could not hold back. Before he even knew what he was doing, he threw back his head and howled too, a long, unmistakable jackal’s howl.

And in that instant, every animal understood. This was no king sent by the gods. This was a jackal who had fallen in a vat of dye. And, furious at being fooled, they chased him right out of the forest.