A jackal demanded dove chicks, threatening to fly if refused. The dove, believing him, reluctantly surrendered her young. Heron advised the dove that jackals cannot fly and to resist further demands. When the jackal learned of Heron’s guidance, he deceived and attacked Heron, breaking his neck. This tale explains why herons have bent necks and highlights gullibility’s consequences.
Source
South-African Folk Tales
by James A. Honey, M.D.
New York,1910
► Themes of the story
Trickster: The jackal employs deceit, threatening to fly to coerce the dove into surrendering her chicks.
Moral Lessons: The tale imparts lessons on gullibility and the consequences of naivety.
Origin of Things: The story provides an etiological explanation for the heron’s bent neck.
► From the same Region or People
Jackal, it is said, came once to Dove, who lived on the top of a rock, and said, “Give me one of your little ones.” Dove answered, “I shall not do anything of the kind.”
Jackal said, “Give me it at once! Otherwise, I shall fly up to you.” Then she threw one down to him.
He came back another day and demanded another little one, and she gave it to him. After Jackal had gone, Heron came, and asked, “Dove, why do you cry?”
► Continue reading…
Dove answered him, “Jackal has taken away my little ones; it is for this that I cry.” He asked her, “In what manner did he take them?” She answered him, “When he asked me I refused him; but when he said, ‘I shall at once fly up, therefore give me it,’ I threw it down to him.”
Heron said, “Are you such a fool as to give your young ones to Jackal, who cannot fly?” Then, with the admonition to give no more, he went away.
Jackal came again, and said, “Dove, give me a little one.” Dove refused, and told him that Heron had told her that he could not fly up. Jackal said, “I shall catch him.”
So when Heron came to the banks of the water, Jackal asked him: “Brother Heron, when the wind comes from this side, how will you stand?” He turned his neck towards him and said, “I stand thus, bending my neck on one side.” Jackal asked him again, “When a storm comes and when it rains, how do you stand?” He said to him: “I stand thus, indeed, bending my neck down.”
Then Jackal beat him on his neck, and broke his neck in the middle.
Since that day Heron’s neck is bent.
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