Reading Notes: Week 2 Anthology

Reading Notes: The Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal
Indian Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1912).

Photo of a tiger, @analogicus. Photo link 

A tiger was caught in a trap cage and cried. A Brahman (a member of the highest Hindu caste, that of the priesthood) came by and the tiger asked him to let him out. The Brahman wouldn't because he knew the tiger would eat him, but the tiger convinced him that he wouldn't and that he'd be eternally grateful; his slave, even.

When he let him out, the tiger called him a fool and that he was going to eat him since he was so hungry from being in the cage. The brahman begged for his life, and even asked the opinion of a papal-tree, a buffalo, and and a jackal.

When he met the jackal, he said he kept getting the Brahman's story confused, and asked the Brahman to take him to where it happened so he could understand better. When the jackal meets the tiger during the re-explanation, they argue about the jackal not remembering.

Finally, the jackal confirms that the tiger was in the cage, and the tiger gets in the cage to prove his point; the jackal quickly shut the door with the tiger inside. In reality, he knew what had happened the whole time but was tricking the tiger to get him to show what happened and get back in the cage.

The sad part is that while the jackal was helping the Brahman, the Brahman was being two-faced to the jackal and trying to instigate the jackal being eaten instead of himself.

I noticed that in this story it starts with a problem, the subject of the story goes on a journey to try to solve it, and meets the trickster who solves the problem for them. In my opinion, the climax would be either when he meets the jackal or when the tiger gets back in the cage, although that is very close to the end of the story. I also noticed that it does end kind of abruptly and most of the story is building up to the trickster's moment.

I had never read a trickster story before, but I really enjoyed this one. I thought it was really clever and I like how they have an unexpected twist at the end.