Misadventures in the Land of Fables #51
I first came across ‘How the Tiger Got its Stripes’ in Walton Ford’s Pancha Tantra. The story was recounted without a title (in English) so I didn’t know it was a ‘Just So’ story, an etiological narrative, and as Ford’s book is a collection of paintings inspired by fables, I was expecting a more didactic outcome and this may be why my train of thought followed a different track.
To summarise the story, the tiger’s stripes are burn marks sustained after it is tricked by a farmer. It asks a buffalo why it allows itself to be the servant of a man when it appears more powerful than its master. The answer is human intelligence. The tiger then enquires with the farmer about this intelligence and the farmer demonstrates it by persuading the tiger to allow itself to be tied up. He then sets a fire around the tiger. The tiger escapes, but not without sustaining these marks.
This is a delightful explanation because it uses not only intelligence but the ‘gift’ of fire, control of which is exclusive to humankind. It’s also a rather ironic account given the purpose of the tiger’s stripes is a deception itself, camouflage adapted to its colour-blind prey.
But as I suggested, I was more intrigued by the initial scenario.
THE PROMISE OF FREEDOM
A tiger watches a buffalo and a peasant plough a field. When the peasant breaks for lunch, the tiger approaches the buffalo to ask why it allows itself to be used in this way…
There are a number of fables in which an apex predator, typically a lion, teams up with other, lesser animals. An association which tends not to end well for the subordinates. I imagined events proceeding along those lines.
First, I saw the incident as one of recruitment and the tiger’s sidekick would be tasked with recruiting another member to the gang, sticking it to the man, then the idea of betrayal came up. You have to ask what use a buffalo would be to the tiger? And what service does the monkey provide?
Beyond the law, the strongest, or those most devoid of compassion, prevail. Promises of ‘liberty’ disguise a brutal vision of reality, organised around dominance and predation. A mockery performed by opportunists, grifters, and nihilist thugs.
Read the fable here: ‘The Buffalo and the Monkey’
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