So the poor old Lion floundered about and floundered about, and as he
couldn't get up the steep sides of the well, he was at last drowned. And
when he was drowned, the little Jackals took hold of hands and danced
round the well, and sang,--

"The Lion is dead! The Lion is dead!

"We have killed the great Lion who would have killed us!

"The Lion is dead! The Lion is dead!

"Ao! Ao! Ao!"

FOOTNOTES:

[12] The four stories of the little Jackal, in this book, are adapted
from stories in _Old Deccan Days_, by Mary Frere (John Murray), a
collection of orally transmitted Hindu folk tales, which every teacher
would gain by knowing. In the Hindu animal legends the Jackal seems to
play the rôle assigned in Germanic lore to Reynard the Fox, and to
"Bre'r Rabbit" in the negro stories of Southern America; he is the
clever and humorous trickster who usually comes out of an encounter with
a whole skin, and turns the laugh on his enemy, however mighty he may
be.[A]




THE COUNTRY MOUSE AND THE CITY MOUSE[13]