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‘‘That terrible bird!’’ mourned the Jackal. ‘‘Ha, ha!’’ said the Jackal’s wife, ‘‘I’ll drop this hot rock into your mouth, and then how you’ll kick and claw the air!’’ She tried to drop the rock, but the tongs would not open. She then tried to drop both tongs and rock, but could not. The tongs soon began to burn her hands. In trying to throw them from her, she fell from the tower and killed herself. The Jackal dropped the rope and so freed the Lion. The tower trembled and fell. The little bird that the Jackal thought dead was the cause of the change. It was the spirit of the jungle and believed in fair play. It sang a sad song while the wife of the Jackal was being buried. It then sang joyously while the Lion and his wife and children, who had come back, ate the rest of the meat. The Jackal was badly hurt and crippled by falling with the tower, yet he had to wait on the Lion and his family while they were feasting. And ever afterwards the Jackal was an outcast among animals, despised by all because of his evil and deceitful spirit. Source: Adapted from ‘‘The Jackal and the Lion.’’ Joseph Cotter, Negro Tales (New York: The Cosmopolitan Press, 1912), pp. 102–109. 6 African American Folktales