The Jackal and the Spring

The Jackal and the Spring is an African fairy tale collected by E. Jacottet in Contes Populaires des Bassoutos. Andrew Lang included it in The Grey Fairy Book.

Synopsis

All the rivers and streams ran dry. The animals dug a well to keep from dying, but the jackal did not help. They set a guard to keep the jackal from drinking. The first, a rabbit, kept off the jackal until it bribed it with some honeycomb to let it tie it up; then the jackal drank its full. The second, a hare, met the same fate. The third, the tortoise, did not answer the jackal, so it thought it could kick it aside, but the tortoise grabbed its leg and never let it go. The jackal did not manage to free itself until the other animals appeared; then it managed to wrench itself free and flee without drinking.

gollark: Movies and stuff go for a stupid inconsistent nonsensical one most of the time, though.
gollark: There are various perfectly sensible and consistent ways it *could* work.
gollark: The past is mostly not very good and it wouldn't be very nice living there. Unless you're time-travelling and can just go for a bit and/or bring back knowledge from the future (present?).
gollark: Plus, life extension research is an actual thing now so hopefully some of us may actually live long enough for space exploration at some scale.
gollark: Oh, and much faster.
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