Long, long ago the Jackal and the Dog were friends and lived in the bush. They hunted together every day. In the evening they came home and ate food together.
One day they did not catch anything and came back very hungry. A cold wind was blowing in the bush.
“Oh,” said the Dog, “it is so bad to be hungry and cold!”
“Go to sleep,” the Jackal said. “When morning comes, we shall go hunting again and we shall catch a young antelope.”
But the Dog could not sleep. Then he saw a red light far away.
“Jackal,” he cried, “what is that red light over there?”
“There is a village there, and that red light is a man’s fire,” the Jackal answered.
“Fire is warm, and it is cold here,” said the Dog. “I say, Jackal, will you go and bring some fire? You are so brave!”
“No, no, I will not. You can bring it, if you like.”
The Dog did not want to go, because he was afraid of men. But he thought “I am sure there are some bones near the fire. I can eat them, and the fire is so warm!”
He was so hungry and cold! Hunger and cold made him forget his fear, and he said to the Jackal “I am going to the village to get some fire and some bones. If I do not come back soon, please cry Bo-aa, bo-aa! Then I shall know where you are and where I must go.”
So the Dog ran to the village. He saw a hut near the fire. There were some bones near the hut. They were so good for the hungry Dog! He came nearer to the bones, but then a man came out of the hut and saw the Dog. The Dog was afraid of him and cried “Oh please do not kill me! I am a poor Dog, and I want to warm myself by the fire. Then I shall go back to the bush.”
“Very well,” the man said. “You may sit by the fire, but when you are warm you must go back to the bush.”
The Dog thanked him and sat
by the fire. He was quite happy; he was warm and there was a big bone under his nose. He began to eat it, and then the man came out of the hut and asked “Are you not warm yet?”
“Not yet,” the Dog answered, he saw another bone not far away and wanted to eat it too.
Soon the man asked again, “Are you not warm yet?”
Please let me stay a little longer, I am not quite warm yet,” was the Dog’s answer.
Then the man came up to the Dog. The Dog looked into his eyes and said “Yes, I am warm now, but I do not want to go back to the bush. I am often cold and hungry there. Let me live with you in the village, please! I shall help you to hunt birds and animals in the bush and forest, and you will give me some bones to eat.”
“All right,” the man said. “You may stay with me.”
From that day on, the Dog began to live with the man, and when you hear the Jackal cry at night Bo-aa, bo-aa, you know that he is asking the Dog to come back. The Dog never answers, so now the Jackal lives in the bush alone.
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