Jalap

“ There are no buildings in Jalapa of special interest to the tourist except the old convent of San Francisco. Many of the merchants of Vera Cruz have their country-houses at Jalapa. The climate is cool, although damp, for the greater part of the year. The soil is very fertile, and coffee, tobacco, vanilla, cotton, maize, and jalap are cultivated extensively. The town derives its name from the latter plant.
Travelers may visit the ruins of Papantla, which lie about fifty miles north of Jalapa. ”

“ The first glimpse of a building on the north side of the Jalap-Là proclaims the fact that you are no longer in India or under the influence of Indian ideals of domestic or other architecture. The houses in the [Pg 36] Chumbi valley are not, however, as typically Tibetan as those further north, being far more Chinese in appearance. ”

“ Near Jalapa are two or three cotton factories, under the management of English and Americans: the girls employed are all Indians, healthy and good-looking; they are very apt in learning their work, and soon comprehend the various uses of the machinery. In the town there is but little to interest the stranger, but the church is said to have been founded by Cortez, and there is also a Franciscan convent. The vicinity of Jalapa, although poorly cultivated, produces maize, wheat, grapes, and jalap, from which plant the well-known medicine is prepared, and the town takes its name. ”

“ There is an easy uninteresting pass between Gnatong and Kapap. Kapap itself looked a bleak dismal spot, lying all in the clouds at the end of a long dark lake. From here you rise to the [Pg 33] top of the Jalap-Là, which is about 14,900 feet high. The suffix 'Là' denotes a 'pass.' There was snow on the pass which covered the road in some places. I got into a small drift once, my pony flopping down suddenly till his girths were in the snow. He knew nothing about snow in those days, and must have been very much astonished. One's first acquaintance with so high an altitude impresses one greatly. ”

“ There are several ports on the coast—Coatzacoalcos, Alvarado, Vera Cruz, Nautla, Tecolutla and Tuxpam. The products of the state are chiefly agricultural—cotton, sugar, rum, tobacco, coffee, cacao, vanilla, maize, beans and fruit. Cattle-raising is followed in some districts, cattle and hides being among the exports. Among the forest products are rubber, cabinet woods, dye-woods, broom-root, chicle, jalap and orchids. Vera Cruz is one of the largest producers of sugar and rum in Mexico. ”

“ But all the natural wonders of this town are not yet enumerated; for the fruits as well as the flowers of every climate flourish in Jalapa. There are strawberries, of the largest size, growing beside a coffee-tree the tree being filled with coffee-berries. Peach-trees were in full blossom in November, beside apricots and chirimoyas, while potatoes flourish among the bulbous productions of a tropical climate. The people of the town take a pride in its natural beauty; and there are no filthy alleys, no squalid poverty, or uncleanly hovels. Every house appears to be of stone ”

“ Now, you know, a Camel is very big, and a Jackal is very little. Consequently, the little Jackal had eaten his fill by the time the Camel had barely taken a mouthful. The little Jackal had no mind to wait for his slow friend; he wanted to be off home again, about his business. So he ran round and round the sugar-cane field, and as he ran he sang and shouted, and made a great hullabaloo.
Of course, the villagers heard him at once.
"There is a Jackal in the sugar-cane," they said; "he will dig holes and destroy the roots; we must go down and drive him out." ”

“ A jackal chewing betel-leaves! why thousands of men and women of this city cannot indulge in that luxury. He must have come from a wealthy land.” The princess asked the jackal, “Sivalu!1 from what country do you come? It must be a very prosperous country where the jackals chew betel-leaves. Do other animals in your country chew betel-leaves?” “Dearest princess,” replied the jackal, “I come from a land flowing with milk and honey. Betel-leaves are as plentiful in my country as the grass in your fields. All animals in my country—cows, sheep, dogs—chew betel-leaves. ”

“ But the jackal said: "You coward! 'tis a woman has frightened you; there is neither king nor army. Both your ears and your tail have been cut off by a woman!" The tiger replied: "Why, I saw the wazir of the army with my own eyes!" The jackal said: "That was a woman. Come, and I'll show her to you." The tiger said: "I'll go with you, but first tie a rope round my neck and then tie it round your neck." So the jackal fastened a rope to his own neck and to the tiger's, and they went to the millet-field. ”

“ It is always so in life. And it was so with the little Jackal. This is what happened.
The little Jackal was, as you know, exceedingly fond of shell-fish, especially of river crabs. Now there came a time when he had eaten all the crabs to be found on his own side of the river. He knew there must be plenty on the other side, if he could only get to them, but he could not swim.
One day he thought of a plan. He went to his friend the Camel, and said,—
"Friend Camel, I know a spot where the sugar-cane grows thick; I'll show you the way, if you will take me there." ”

“ When they had got well into the water, the Camel said, “This is a pretty way in which you have treated me, friend Jackal. No sooner had you finished your own dinner than you must go yelping about the place loud enough to arouse the whole village, and bring all the villagers down to beat me black and blue, and turn me out of the field before I had eaten two mouthfuls! What in the world did you make such a noise for?”
“I don’t know,” said the Jackal. “It is a custom I have. I always like to sing a little after dinner.” ”

“ The queen sent word to the king, requesting him to come and see the jackal. The king came and saw the jackal, heard him describe the wealth and pomp of the king of his country, and expressed himself not unwilling to give away his daughter in marriage to him.
“The jackal ... opened his bundle of betel-leaves, put some into his mouth, and began chewing them”
The jackal after this returned to the weaver and said to him, “O lord of the loom, you are the luckiest man in the world; it is all settled; you are to become the son-in-law of a great king. ”

“ The four stories of the little Jackal, in this book, are adapted from stories in Old Deccan Days, by Mary Frere (John Murray) , a collection of orally transmitted Hindu folk tales, which every teacher would gain by knowing. In the Hindu animal legends the Jackal seems to play the rôle assigned in Germanic lore to Reynard the Fox, and to "Bre'r Rabbit" in the negro stories of Southern America; he is the clever and humorous trickster who usually comes out of an encounter with a whole skin, and turns the laugh on his enemy, however mighty he may be. ”

“ The poor jackal, bruised all over and swollen with the beating it had received, replied: “Friend, a man has caught me, and takes the greatest care of me; see how fat I have grown with eating all the hulwa-poories2 he gives me. If you will release me, I will tie you here, and you will get a share of the good things.”
So the two exchanged places, and the first jackal ran back gladly into the jungles.
On the return of the weaver he, as usual, began to beat the poor creature, who then spoke, and said: “Why are you beating me?” ”

“ The seizure of the leg of the Jackal by the Crocodile is common to many folk-tales throughout India, and is an indication of the general groundwork of many Aryan tales.
“Jackal.”—So often described, it is not necessary to do more here than to refer to the fact that they usually hunt in packs. When a jackal is heard to cry without a response, the natives know that he is a lone animal and what they call “Yekaria,” and by some “yeklota,” meaning in Sanscrit “single.” ”

“ In all Hindu tales the jackal seems to be an awkward substitute for the Grecian and classical fox, the Giddar or Kola (Cants aureus) being by no means sly and wily as the Lomri (Vulpes vulgaris) . This is remarked by Weber (Indische Studien) and Prof. Benfey's retort about "King Nobel" the lion is by no means to the point. See Katha Sarit Sagara, ii. 28.
I may add that in Northern Africa jackal's gall, like jackal's grape (Solanum nigrum = black nightshade) , ass's milk and melted camel-hump, is used aphrodisiacally as an unguent by both sexes. See. ”

“ Related to our Zambal story are two modern Indian folk-tales in which a jackal is substituted for the monkey (this substitution is analogous to the Indian substitution of the jackal for the Philippines monkey in the “Puss-in-Boots” cycle) . In the first of these—Frere, No. XXIV, “The Alligator and the Jackal”—we have the incident of the house answering when the owner calls. In Steel-Temple, No. XXXI, “The Jackal and the Crocodile,” the jackal makes love to the crocodile, and induces her, under promise of marriage, to swim him across a stream to some fruit he wants to eat. ”

“ The jackal must be more powerful than the Raja; I will follow the jackal.” So he left the wedding party and went after the jackal; now the jackal was hunting for food for her young ones, and as Kara followed her wherever she went she could find no opportunity of killing a goat or sheep; so at last she went back to the cave in which she lived. Then her cubs came whining to meet her and she told her husband that she had been able to catch nothing that day because a man had followed her wherever she went, and had come right up to their cave and was waiting outside. ”

“ When the Jackal heard this, he laughed very much, and said, 'I see it is no use giving such unlucky people as you gold or jewels, for they will only bring you into trouble. Come, I'll give you a more useful present.' So, running into his cave, he fetched thence a small chattee, and gave it to the Brahman, saying, 'Take this chattee; whenever you or any of the family are hungry, you will always find in it as good a dinner as this.' And putting his paw into the chattee, he extracted thence currie, and rice, and pilau, [5] and all sorts of good things, enough to feast a hundred men ”

“ While resting in a sunny hollow of rock, I heard a wild cry which came from a shepherd who was driving the jackal away from his goats. The discomfited brute trotted in my direction, and only caught sight of me at a few yards' distance. I never saw a jackal more surprised in my life. When a camel expires in the plain near some nomads' tents, they sometimes set a spring-trap for jackals near the carcase—they eat these beasts and sell their skin for a few francs; the traps are craftily concealed underground, with a little brushwood thrown over them to aid the deception. ”

“ Here the Jackal sighed so piteously, and cast such sheep’s eyes at Miss Crocodile, that she was unable to withstand him. So she carried him across to the plum tree, and then sat on the water’s edge to think over her wedding dress, while Mr. Jackal feasted on the plums and enjoyed himself.
“Now for the barber, my beauty!” cried the gay Jackal, when he had eaten as much as he could. ”

“ A jackdaw is a jackdaw all the world over, and it is absurd to try to make him anything else.
[232]
As it has not been my good fortune to spend any time in Kashmir, my acquaintance with the jackdaws of India is confined to those that visit the Punjab in winter. These do not appear to frequent the vicinity of houses; I have invariably found them feeding in fields at some distance from a village. They roost, along with the crows and the rooks, in remote parts of the country. Every evening during the half-hour before sunset two great streams of birds pass over Lahore. ”

“ According to the arrangement he had made, he rapped with a loose stone upon the roof of the den, and Mrs. Jackal immediately woke up the young Jackals and made them cry.
"What are those children crying about?" called out Father Jackal.
"They are very hungry, and getting impatient for their supper," was the reply.
"Tell them they won't have long to wait now," said Father Jackal; " the Tiger will probably be home very soon, and we shall all be eating hot Tiger's meat before long." ”

“ To catch the jackals, they make an enclosure of a net, inside which a man seats himself, armed with a big stick. He then proceeds to execute a perfect imitation of the jackal's cry, on hearing which the jackals come running to see what is the matter, and are beaten down. A Kuruvikkāran, whom the Rev. E. Loventhal interviewed, howled like a jackal, to show his skill as a mimic. The cry was quite perfect, and no jackal would have doubted that he belonged to their class. Sometimes the entire jackal's head is sold, skin and all. The process of manufacture of the horn is as follows. ”

“ Closely resembling in many respects the wolf, the jackal is widely spread over India, Asia, and Africa. These animals hunt in packs, and there are few sounds more startling to the unaccustomed ear, than a chorus of their cries. ”

“ The worshippers of the female deities adore the jackal as a form of this goddess, and present offerings to him daily. Every worshipper lays the offering on a clean place in his house, and calls the god to come and partake of it. As this is done at the hour when jackals leave their lurking places, one of these animals sometimes comes and eats the food. In temples dedicated to Dūrga and other deities, a stone image of the jackal is placed on a pedestal and daily worshipped. When a Hindū passes a jackal, he must bow to it ”