Once upon a time a family of jackals lived in a deep forest in India. One evening, one among them happened to wander toward a town at the edge of the forest. As he sniffed and poked around, he accidentally slipped into a tub that stood outside a tailor's house.

The tub was filled with indigo dye.

Try as he might, the jackal could not climb out. So he lay back, closed his eyes and pretended he was dead, hoping that the owner soon would come and pull him out of the tub.

The night passed. In the morning the tailor found the jackal in his tub. Thinking him dead, the tailor lifted him out and tossed him aside. After the tailor walked away, the jackal jumped up and dashed as fast as he could into the forest.

Stopping at a stream, he bent down to take a drink. That's when he saw the strangest thing: he was blue from head to tail. Bright, beautiful blue! Could that be true? The jackal looked at himself long and hard. He turned his head this way and that. He lifted his paw and saw that even his toenails were bright blue.

"Ah," he said to himself, "I am now a jackal of a different color, and I might advance myself a little in this way."

He ran on. When he reached the middle of the forest, he howled and gathered all the other jackals together. "Listen to me," he said in a loud, stern voice. "You see that I am blue from head to tail. I have been chosen by the holy goddess of the forest. She has poured over me the essence of all the colors of the woods.

"Look at me! Look closely at my tail, my toes, my head. You see that I must from this day onward be the King of the Forest. Everything in the forest is mine to command.

"That is the will of the goddess of the forest."

The jackals looked at him. They turned their heads this way and that. They moved closer and stared at his toes, his tail, his nose. Yes, they had to agree, he was a most distinguished color. Yes, he was the essence of all the colors of the forest.

Yes, it must be true.

And so they bent their knees and lowered their heads, bowing to their majesty. "We shall obey your commands," they said.

"Tell the other creatures of the forest the news," the jackal commanded.

So the other jackals rose to their feet and dashed off, this way and that.

Soon everyone knew, and everyone came to see the blue jackal and to pay him respect.

Before too many days had passed, the jackal was surrounded by a court of creatures. The lions strode around the blue jackal, proud to serve so noble a creature. The tigers, too, worshiped their king, and so did the monkeys, the hares, the mice.

Life was pleasant for the jackal, for every creature did his bidding. The tigers brought him juicy meat for breakfast. The monkeys served him berries and nuts on leafy plates. All day and night he lay upon his throne, a large hard rock softened by a mat of leaves. Ahh, the jackal sighed, this is the life. Every now and then he strolled around the forest, calling to the others to bow down before him. And so they did.

What a dull and ugly lot the other jackals seemed to him. He began to think of them as useless. They were worse than the wild dogs. They were smaller than wolves, and worthless, too. He began to think of them as strays and castoffs.

He forgot about his family and felt only contempt for his old friends. Soon he visited them only when he wanted them to perform some difficult task.

The other jackals shook their heads. "How he treats us!" they despaired. "And we, his own kind! What will we do with such a haughty creature? How can we praise and worship a jackal who looks down on his own?"

The eldest jackal, a wise and wily creature, turned to his fellows and said calmly: "Do not be sad, fellows. The blue jackal has treated his old comrades badly. It is he who ought to feel terrible, for anyone who shows contempt to his own fellows is an unworthy creature, no matter if the goddess of the forest has painted him blue."

"But what shall we do?" moaned the others.

"Gather round," said the old jackal. "I have a plan. You see, though the others do not recognize that he is but a jackal, we know who he is. The others see only his color and accept him as their king. Ah, but we know who he is, deep down. I will tell you how to lead him to betray his true nature."

The others sat together and discussed the plan. They waited until evening, just when the first stars appeared in the sky. They crept to the place where the jackal held court. They stood, hidden behind bushes, and watched as the lions strolled by. They saw the monkeys come to serve him nuts. They watched the tigers paw the ground. They stared as the mice and hares danced for their king. They waited while the birds sang their songs.

And then, when a bright moon began to rise on the horizon, they gathered closer still. They sat back on their hind legs. They lifted their heads in the air. And when the oldest jackal raised his paw, they all set up a wild, wailing howl.

At the sound the jackal sat up fast. King he might be, but deep in his bones, he was a jackal, and he was bound by his very nature to return the call. He tossed his plate of nuts. to the ground, sat back on his haunches, and howled.

At that, all the other creatures stopped and stared, for they recognized the cry of a jackal.

"He is only a jackal!" growled the lions. "He is a jackal in disguise!" chattered the monkeys. The owl screeched out the news. And in a moment all the creatures, angry at the lying jackal, stopped bowing and serving and began chasing him.

The bright blue jackal ran so far away that no one ever saw him again.

*****

Amy Friedman adapted this story from a book of animal fables in India known as the "Hitopadesha. Copyright 1994 by Universal Press Syndicate. From The Milwaukee Journal, January 9, 1994.