Overall, this half unit was mainly about the trickster, Jackal. It shows him being clever, being shamed, and eventually being defeated. The adventure continues with stories of his two just-as-clever sons.
Jack-attack-al.
Image Credit: Wikimedia Commons
At the very beginning of the unit, however, there is a story from Mozambique (one of the countries I am in love with) called Motikatika. This story features a family with a mother, father, and baby son. One thing I found crazy was that the mother was caught by an ogre, and in order to get away from it, she offers the ogre her son to eat. Wait, what? You were scared of an ogre so you told it that it could eat your son? Ya CRAZY! Worst mother award.
I also thought that for such a good trickster, the jackal had a pretty lame death in The Adventures of Jackal (end). He was with his good friend hedgehog, who had actually warned him that the sheep was a vicious, jackal-eating greyhound, but he didn't listen. So then the hedgehog ran and the jackal got eaten. Outtricked the trickster, eh greyhound?
Pretty sweet stories, these are! I'd highly recommend them if you need a quick read.
I've noticed that small, wolf-ish type canids are usually depicted in many cultures to be tricksters. There's the jackal in African tales, and the coyote in Native American tales. Usually, the trickster gets to be too cocky for his own good and ends up meeting his death by a foolish fate. I'm intrigued about this tale 'Motikatika' because I'm curious if the mother gets any punishment from the gods or spirits for offering her own child to an ogre so that hers could be spared! You're right - worst mother award!
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