Long ago, there was a foolish lazy jackal.

He lived with his old father in the Kalahari bush.

One morning Old Jackal woke up to find his son sleeping in the sun. The food was not ready and the goats were still in the kraal!

"Young man, you are so lazy! Go and find a wife. I am too old to look after you," said Jackal's father.

Jackal jumped up and took the goats out to graze. In the bush, he saw something shining on a rock. He went closer and closer to the rock.

The closer he got, the more beautiful the shine was. Perhaps this was the wife for him!

"You are beautiful," said Jackal to the shine. "But who are you? Why are you alone?"

"I am the sun," the shine answered. "My family left me here when they moved on. They did not want to carry me. I am too hot."

Jackal said, "But you are so beautiful! I will carry you. I will take you home to meet my father."

"All right, you can carry me. But do not complain when I get too hot for you," said the sun.

So Jackal put the sun on his back and walked home. Before long, the sun was burning Jackal's fur.

"Please come down from my back! I need to rest," said Jackal. His back was so sore that he could hardly walk.

"Just carry on! I told you not to complain," said the sun.

Then Jackal saw a log across the path.

He crawled under the log so that the sun would fall off.

But the log also scraped the skin and fur from his back and they were left behind with the sun.

The new fur was a different colour to the fur on the rest of his body.

The different colours always reminded Jackal not to be so foolish again.

Story notes In 2005, Naro storyteller Bega Cgase from the Kalahari Desert in Botswana told this story to Marlene Winberg, who retells it here. The story appears in different versions in many southern African San communities. It warns foolish young men not to be confused by the outside appearance of a girl, and tells parents not to force their children to marry for the sake of domestic help. It also provokes the powerful presence of the hot sun in the desert and does what stories do – give everything in nature a personality. The illustrations in this story are from story boards by Marlene Winberg, interpreted digitally by Satsiri Winberg through manipulations of the Manyeka Art Collection of paintings made by San artists /Thaalu Rumao, /Tuoi Samcuia and Joao Wenne Dikuango, who have all passed away since.