Jackal

Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope. ~ Herman Melville

Jackals (Canis aureus) are quadrupedal carnivorous mammals related to wolves and coyotes. They feature prominently in Asian folklore, and are typically despised as carrion eaters.

Quotes

• The jackal's troop, in gather'd cry,
  Bay'd from afar complainingly,
  With a mix'd and mournful sound,
  Like crying babe, and beaten hound.
  • Lord Byron, Siege of Corinth (1816)

• The jackal’s tawny nose
  And sanguine dripping tongue
  Out of the desert rose
  And plunged its sands among.
  • Richard Watson Dixon, "Dream", II, in Christ's Company, and Other Poems (1861), p. 59

• Be you the Lyon, to devour the Prey; I am your Jack-Call, to provide it for you: There will be a Bone for me to pick.
  • John Dryden, Mr. Limberham; or, the Kind Keeper (1678)

• ... the jackal seems to be placed between [the wolf and the dog]; to the savage fierceness of the wolf, it adds the impudent familiarity of the dog... It is more noisy in its pursuits even than the dog, and more voracious than the wolf.
  • Oliver Goldsmith, A history of the earth, and animated nature. (1816) Vol. 3, p. 56

• The jackal's cry
  Resounds like sylvan revelry.
  • Reginald Heber, Poetical Works (1812)

• Personal columnists … are jackals and no jackal has been known to live on grass once he had learned about meat — no matter who killed the meat for him.
  • Ernest Hemingway, "Old Newsman Writes : A Letter from Cuba" in Esquire (December 1934)

• We were the Leopards, the Lions; those who'll take our place will be little jackals, hyenas; and the whole lot of us, Leopards, jackals, and sheep, we'll all go on thinking ourselves the salt of the earth.
  • Giuseppe Tomasi di Lampedusa, Il Gattopardo (1958), Archibald Colquhoun (trans.) The Leopard (London: Fontana, 1963). p. 152

• Faith, like a jackal, feeds among the tombs, and even from these dead doubts she gathers her most vital hope.
  • Herman Melville, Moby-Dick (1851), Ch. 7

To live like a lion for a day is far better than to live for a hundred years like a jackal. ~ Tipu Sultan

• To live like a lion for a day is far better than to live for a hundred years like a jackal.
  • Tipu Sultan, as quoted in Encyclopedia of Asian History, Vol. 4 (1988), p. 104

Proverbs

• Everyone who sees a jackal hunts it.
  • As quoted in M. W. Carr, A Collection of Telugu Proverbs, ... Together with Some Sanscrit Proverbs (1868), p. 216

• If the jackal gains the mastery, he will demand two sheep from every flock
  • As quoted in P. Percival, Tamil Proverbs with Their English Translation: Containing Upwards of Six Thousand Proverbs (1996), p. 383

• The jackal is a [quadruped] thief, the shepherd is a biped thief.
  • As quoted in P. Percival, Tamil Proverbs with Their English Translation: Containing Upwards of Six Thousand Proverbs (1996), p. 383

External links

Data related to Canis aureus on Wikispecies