Another anecdote from the series ‘Lankan Village Stories’ started in our Issue No. 26.

‘Ekamath aka rataka’ there was a beautiful forest full of lovely birds and many different animals. 

This forest was ruled by a lion who was rather advanced in years. The lion lived in a cave. All the animals respected and feared the lion even though he was old. But respect by itself was not enough for the lion to exist. He had come to the stage when he could not chase his quarry and kill for food.

Now amongst all these animals in the forest was a cunning jackal who frequently passed the lion’s cave hoping that the old lion would have thrown out some old decaying meat that it did not want to eat. The jackal, always from a distance, greeted the lion and inquired about his health.

One day the jackal thought he would check up whether the lion was still alive and went to the entrance to the lion’s cave and shouted into the cave. ‘Good morning my lord are you still alive?’ Because there was no answer the jackal thought the lion was dead. So, the jackal went into the cave to see for himself. Suddenly the lion jumped on the jackal and was about to kill it when the jackal got a cunning idea.

‘Please my lord do not kill me’ pleaded the jackal. ‘I will bring you a live deer for you to kill and eat’. ‘Ha’ said the lion and asked the jackal to tell him about the plan before he let the jackal free. The jackal said, ‘I will somehow trick a deer to come inside your cave and then you can jump on him and kill it’.

The lion thought about this plan and let go of the jackal and said ‘Hum! Palayang, go away! If you do not bring the live deer to me, I will kill you and eat you’. The jackal quickly went outside the cave thanking the gods for his good luck. While he was thinking of a plan, he met an old friend, a deer who lived near the river.

‘Good morning! You know,’ said the jackal to the deer, ‘our lord the lion is very old, and he is thinking of a successor when he dies. It was only this morning that our lord asked me to find a successor to become the king when he dies’.

The jackal knew that the deer was interested in the story and said, ‘I suggested to our king that he appoint you as his successor by placing his crown on you. He wanted me to bring you to his cave so that he can place his crown on you’.

The jackal told the deer ‘Oh his majesty is quite ill and wants us to come in and meet him to put his crown on you’. So, the jackal and the deer went into the cave. It was dark inside the cave.

When the lion got the smell of the deer so near him, he got very excited and lost all control of himself and jumped on the deer. This surprised and shocked the deer so much that his first instinct was to turn round and run out of the cave. The lion missed the kill.

The jackal was very disappointed and told the lion ‘Now see what you have done! You frightened the deer before it got close enough for you to kill him. I will have to think of another plan to bring the deer back to you. This time you must wait till the deer is close enough for you to jump on him’.

The jackal met up again with the deer and said ‘You ran away just as when the king was about to hug you, kiss you and congratulate you before he placed the crown on your head’. The deer fell for the jackal’s plan for the second time and said ‘I am sorry jackal that I embarrassed you. Let us go back to the cave so that my coronation can be completed’.

The jackal and the deer went to the cave of the lion for the second time and called on the lion. This time the lion realised the plan and said in a very weak voice ‘anney, please come in. I have no strength even to get up to welcome my successor. Please come in’. Having heard the lion’s welcome, the jackal brought the deer very close to the lion. For some time, the lion pretended to be asleep but suddenly it jumped on the deer and killed it by biting its head and throat.i

Then the lion told the jackal that he was going to have a bath in the river before eating and said ‘watch over the body of the deer till I come back from my bath.  The jackal agreed. As time went on the jackal could not resist eating from the dead deer’s body. Now, when he looked at the dead body, he saw that the deer’s head was split open by the blow given by the lion, and the deer’s brains had leaked-out. The jackal quickly ate the brains of the deer and waited.

The lion returned from his bath in the river and told the jackal ‘I feel good, and I will start on my meal by eating the brains first, my favourite food’. Now the jackal never thought that the brains of an animal was the favourite part of a lion’s meal and knew he was in trouble with the lion. The jackal quickly had to think of another plan to get out of trouble. The jackal started shivering with fright.

The lion sniffed around the dead body of the deer. He tried to find the brains of the deer but could not because the jackal had already gobbled it down. The lion was furious when he could not find the brains of the deer and yelled at the jackal ‘Where are the brains of this deer? The jackal had to do some quick thinking and said, ‘my lord, I do not think this deer had any brains at all because if he did, he would not have returned to the cave for the second time with me to be killed by you’.

The lion thought that there was some good logic in that answer and started his meal. The jackal thanked the lion for the morsel of meat that the lion gave him and went outside the cave free and justly rewarded.

By Rudra de Zoysa. MNZM – Gold Coast , Australia

Honorary Consul for Sri Lanka in New Zealand (Retired after 20 years of service)
Dean of the Wellington Consular Corps (Retired)
Founding Member of United Sri Lanka Association
Founding Member of the Sri Lanka Association of New Zealand.

Image generated in DALL·E and modified by Chris Goffin, 2024.