diff options
Diffstat (limited to '32488.txt')
| -rw-r--r-- | 32488.txt | 4504 |
1 files changed, 4504 insertions, 0 deletions
diff --git a/32488.txt b/32488.txt new file mode 100644 index 0000000..ee67b59 --- /dev/null +++ b/32488.txt @@ -0,0 +1,4504 @@ +The Project Gutenberg EBook of Just So Stories, by Rudyard Kipling + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + + +Title: Just So Stories + +Author: Rudyard Kipling + +Illustrator: Joseph M. Gleeson + +Release Date: May 23, 2010 [EBook #32488] + +Language: English + +Character set encoding: ASCII + +*** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JUST SO STORIES *** + + + + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + + + + + + + +[Illustration: JUST SO STORIES] + +[Illustration: How the Whale Got His Throat] + +Transcriber's Note: Not being able to ascertain which words were Kipling +being clever and which were his printer's creativity, all spelling +anomalies except the few glaringly obvious ones noted at the end have +been retained. For example, "He married ever so many wifes" was retained +on page 227. For the HTML version, the page images have been included so +that the reader may make comparisons. + + + + +JVST SO STORIES + +BY RVDYARD KIPLING + +[Illustration] + +_Pictures by Joseph M. Gleeson_ + + Doubleday Page & Company + 1912 + + + + + Copyright, 1912, by Rudyard Kipling + + "Just So Stories," have also been copyrighted + separately as follows: How the Whale Got His Tiny + Throat. Copyright, 1897, by the Century Company. + How the Camel Got His Hump. Copyright, 1897, by + the Century Company. How the Rhinoceros Got His + Wrinkly Skin. Copyright, 1898, by the Century + Company. The Elephant's Child. Copyright, 1900, by + Rudyard Kipling; Copyright, 1900, by the Curtis + Publishing Company. The Beginning of the + Armadillos. Copyright, 1900, by Rudyard Kipling. + The Sing Song of Old Man Kangaroo. Copyright, 1900 + by Rudyard Kipling. How the Leopard Got His Spots, + Copyright, 1901, by Rudyard Kipling. How the First + Letter Was Written. Copyright, 1901, by Rudyard + Kipling. The Cat That Walked by Himself, + Copyright, 1902, by Rudyard Kipling. + +[Illustration] + + + + +CONTENTS + + + PAGE + + How the Whale Got His Throat 1 + + How the Camel Got His Hump 15 + + How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin 29 + + How the Leopard Got His Spots 43 + + The Elephant's Child 63 + + The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo 85 + + The Beginning of the Armadillos 101 + + How the First Letter was Written 123 + + How the Alphabet was Made 145 + + The Crab that Played with the Sea 171 + + The Cat that Walked by Himself 197 + + The Butterfly that Stamped 225 + +[Illustration] + + + + +HOW THE WHALE GOT HIS THROAT + + +IN the sea, once upon a time, O my Best Beloved, there was a Whale, and +he ate fishes. He ate the starfish and the garfish, and the crab and the +dab, and the plaice and the dace, and the skate and his mate, and the +mackereel and the pickereel, and the really truly twirly-whirly eel. All +the fishes he could find in all the sea he ate with his mouth--so! Till +at last there was only one small fish left in all the sea, and he was a +small 'Stute Fish, and he swam a little behind the Whale's right ear, so +as to be out of harm's way. Then the Whale stood up on his tail and +said, 'I'm hungry.' And the small 'Stute Fish said in a small 'stute +voice, 'Noble and generous Cetacean, have you ever tasted Man?' + +'No,' said the Whale. 'What is it like?' + +'Nice,' said the small 'Stute Fish. 'Nice but nubbly.' + +'Then fetch me some,' said the Whale, and he made the sea froth up with +his tail. + +'One at a time is enough,' said the 'Stute Fish. 'If you swim to +latitude Fifty North, longitude Forty West (that is magic), you will +find, sitting _on_ a raft, _in_ the middle of the sea, with nothing +on but a pair of blue canvas breeches, a pair of suspenders (you must +_not_ forget the suspenders, Best Beloved), and a jack-knife, one +shipwrecked Mariner, who, it is only fair to tell you, is a man of +infinite-resource-and-sagacity.' + +So the Whale swam and swam to latitude Fifty North, longitude Forty +West, as fast as he could swim, and _on_ a raft, _in_ the middle of the +sea, _with_ nothing to wear except a pair of blue canvas breeches, a +pair of suspenders (you must particularly remember the suspenders, Best +Beloved), _and_ a jack-knife, he found one single, solitary shipwrecked +Mariner, trailing his toes in the water. (He had his mummy's leave to +paddle, or else he would never have done it, because he was a man of +infinite-resource-and-sagacity.) + +Then the Whale opened his mouth back and back and back till it nearly +touched his tail, and he swallowed the shipwrecked Mariner, and the raft +he was sitting on, and his blue canvas breeches, and the suspenders +(which you _must_ not forget), _and_ the jack-knife--He swallowed them +all down into his warm, dark, inside cupboards, and then he smacked his +lips--so, and turned round three times on his tail. + +But as soon as the Mariner, who was a man of +infinite-resource-and-sagacity, found himself truly inside the Whale's +warm, dark, inside cupboards, he stumped and he jumped and he thumped +and he bumped, and he pranced and he danced, and he banged and he +clanged, and he hit and he bit, and he leaped and he creeped, and he +prowled and he howled, and he hopped and he dropped, and he cried and +he sighed, and he crawled and he bawled, and he stepped and he lepped, +and he danced hornpipes where he shouldn't, and the Whale felt most +unhappy indeed. (_Have_ you forgotten the suspenders?) + +[Illustration: THIS is the picture of the Whale swallowing the Mariner +with his infinite-resource-and-sagacity, and the raft and the jack-knife +_and_ his suspenders, which you must _not_ forget. The buttony-things +are the Mariner's suspenders, and you can see the knife close by them. +He is sitting on the raft, but it has tilted up sideways, so you don't +see much of it. The whity thing by the Mariner's left hand is a piece of +wood that he was trying to row the raft with when the Whale came along. +The piece of wood is called the jaws-of-a-gaff. The Mariner left it +outside when he went in. The Whale's name was Smiler, and the Mariner +was called Mr. Henry Albert Bivvens, A.B. The little 'Stute Fish is +hiding under the Whale's tummy, or else I would have drawn him. The +reason that the sea looks so ooshy-skooshy is because the Whale is +sucking it all into his mouth so as to suck in Mr. Henry Albert Bivvens +and the raft and the jack-knife and the suspenders. You must never +forget the suspenders.] + +So he said to the 'Stute Fish, 'This man is very nubbly, and besides +he is making me hiccough. What shall I do?' + +'Tell him to come out,' said the 'Stute Fish. + +So the Whale called down his own throat to the shipwrecked Mariner, +'Come out and behave yourself. I've got the hiccoughs.' + +'Nay, nay!' said the Mariner. 'Not so, but far otherwise. Take me to my +natal-shore and the white-cliffs-of-Albion, and I'll think about it.' +And he began to dance more than ever. + +'You had better take him home,' said the 'Stute Fish to the Whale. 'I +ought to have warned you that he is a man of +infinite-resource-and-sagacity.' + +[Illustration: HERE is the Whale looking for the little 'Stute Fish, who +is hiding under the Door-sills of the Equator. The little 'Stute Fish's +name was Pingle. He is hiding among the roots of the big seaweed that +grows in front of the Doors of the Equator. I have drawn the Doors of +the Equator. They are shut. They are always kept shut, because a door +ought always to be kept shut. The ropy-thing right across is the Equator +itself; and the things that look like rocks are the two giants Moar and +Koar, that keep the Equator in order. They drew the shadow-pictures on +the doors of the Equator, and they carved all those twisty fishes under +the Doors. The beaky-fish are called beaked Dolphins, and the other fish +with the queer heads are called Hammer-headed Sharks. The Whale never +found the little 'Stute Fish till he got over his temper, and then they +became good friends again.] + +So the Whale swam and swam and swam, with both flippers and his +tail, as hard as he could for the hiccoughs; and at last he saw the +Mariner's natal-shore and the white-cliffs-of-Albion, and he rushed +half-way up the beach, and opened his mouth wide and wide and wide, and +said, 'Change here for Winchester, Ashuelot, Nashua, Keene, and stations +on the _Fitch_burg Road;' and just as he said 'Fitch' the Mariner walked +out of his mouth. But while the Whale had been swimming, the Mariner, +who was indeed a person of infinite-resource-and-sagacity, had taken his +jack-knife and cut up the raft into a little square grating all running +criss-cross, and he had tied it firm with his suspenders (_now_ you know +why you were not to forget the suspenders!), and he dragged that grating +good and tight into the Whale's throat, and there it stuck! Then he +recited the following _Sloka_, which, as you have not heard it, I will +now proceed to relate-- + + By means of a grating + I have stopped your ating. + +For the Mariner he was also an Hi-ber-ni-an. And he stepped out on the +shingle, and went home to his mother, who had given him leave to trail +his toes in the water; and he married and lived happily ever afterward. +So did the Whale. But from that day on, the grating in his throat, which +he could neither cough up nor swallow down, prevented him eating +anything except very, very small fish; and that is the reason why whales +nowadays never eat men or boys or little girls. + +The small 'Stute Fish went and hid himself in the mud under the +Door-sills of the Equator. He was afraid that the Whale might be angry +with him. + +The Sailor took the jack-knife home. He was wearing the blue canvas +breeches when he walked out on the shingle. The suspenders were left +behind, you see, to tie the grating with; and that is the end of _that_ +tale. + +[Illustration] + + + WHEN the cabin port-holes are dark and green + Because of the seas outside; + When the ship goes _wop_ (with a wiggle between) + And the steward falls into the soup-tureen, + And the trunks begin to slide; + When Nursey lies on the floor in a heap, + And Mummy tells you to let her sleep, + And you aren't waked or washed or dressed, + Why, then you will know (if you haven't guessed) + You're 'Fifty North and Forty West!' + +[Illustration: How the Camel Got His Hump] + + + + +HOW THE CAMEL GOT HIS HUMP + + +NOW this is the next tale, and it tells how the Camel got his big hump. + +In the beginning of years, when the world was so new and all, and the +Animals were just beginning to work for Man, there was a Camel, and he +lived in the middle of a Howling Desert because he did not want to work; +and besides, he was a Howler himself. So he ate sticks and thorns and +tamarisks and milkweed and prickles, most 'scruciating idle; and when +anybody spoke to him he said 'Humph!' Just 'Humph!' and no more. + +Presently the Horse came to him on Monday morning, with a saddle on his +back and a bit in his mouth, and said, 'Camel, O Camel, come out and +trot like the rest of us.' + +'Humph!' said the Camel; and the Horse went away and told the Man. + +Presently the Dog came to him, with a stick in his mouth, and said, +'Camel, O Camel, come and fetch and carry like the rest of us.' + +'Humph!' said the Camel; and the Dog went away and told the Man. + +Presently the Ox came to him, with the yoke on his neck and said, +'Camel, O Camel, come and plough like the rest of us.' + +'Humph!' said the Camel; and the Ox went away and told the Man. + +At the end of the day the Man called the Horse and the Dog and the Ox +together, and said, 'Three, O Three, I'm very sorry for you (with the +world so new-and-all); but that Humph-thing in the Desert can't work, or +he would have been here by now, so I am going to leave him alone, and +you must work double-time to make up for it.' + +That made the Three very angry (with the world so new-and-all), and +they held a palaver, and an _indaba_, and a _punchayet_, and a pow-wow +on the edge of the Desert; and the Camel came chewing milkweed _most_ +'scruciating idle, and laughed at them. Then he said 'Humph!' and went +away again. + +Presently there came along the Djinn in charge of All Deserts, rolling +in a cloud of dust (Djinns always travel that way because it is Magic), +and he stopped to palaver and pow-pow with the Three. + +'Djinn of All Deserts,' said the Horse, '_is_ it right for any one to be +idle, with the world so new-and-all?' + +'Certainly not,' said the Djinn. + +'Well,' said the Horse, 'there's a thing in the middle of your Howling +Desert (and he's a Howler himself) with a long neck and long legs, and +he hasn't done a stroke of work since Monday morning. He won't trot.' + +'Whew!' said the Djinn, whistling, 'that's my Camel, for all the gold in +Arabia! What does he say about it?' + +'He says "Humph!"' said the Dog; 'and he won't fetch and carry.' + +'Does he say anything else?' + +[Illustration: THIS is the picture of the Djinn making the beginnings +of the Magic that brought the Humph to the Camel. First he drew a line +in the air with his finger, and it became solid; and then he made a +cloud, and then he made an egg--you can see them both at the bottom of +the picture--and then there was a magic pumpkin that turned into a big +white flame. Then the Djinn took his magic fan and fanned that flame +till the flame turned into a magic by itself. It was a good Magic and a +very kind Magic really, though it had to give the Camel a Humph because +the Camel was lazy. The Djinn in charge of All Deserts was one of the +nicest of the Djinns, so he would never do anything really unkind.] + +[Illustration] + +'Only "Humph!"; and he won't plough,' said the Ox. + +'Very good,' said the Djinn. 'I'll humph him if you will kindly wait a +minute.' + +The Djinn rolled himself up in his dust-cloak, and took a bearing across +the desert, and found the Camel most 'scruciatingly idle, looking at his +own reflection in a pool of water. + +'My long and bubbling friend,' said the Djinn, 'what's this I hear of +your doing no work, with the world so new-and-all?' + +'Humph!' said the Camel. + +The Djinn sat down, with his chin in his hand, and began to think a +Great Magic, while the Camel looked at his own reflection in the pool of +water. + +'You've given the Three extra work ever since Monday morning, all on +account of your 'scruciating idleness,' said the Djinn; and he went on +thinking Magics, with his chin in his hand. + +'Humph!' said the Camel. + +'I shouldn't say that again if I were you,' said the Djinn; 'you might +say it once too often. Bubbles, I want you to work.' + +[Illustration: HERE is the picture of the Djinn in charge of All Deserts +guiding the Magic with his magic fan. The camel is eating a twig of +acacia, and he has just finished saying "humph" once too often (the +Djinn told him he would), and so the Humph is coming. The long +towelly-thing growing out of the thing like an onion is the Magic, and +you can see the Humph on its shoulder. The Humph fits on the flat part +of the Camel's back. The Camel is too busy looking at his own beautiful +self in the pool of water to know what is going to happen to him. + +Underneath the truly picture is a picture of the World-so-new-and-all. +There are two smoky volcanoes in it, some other mountains and some +stones and a lake and a black island and a twisty river and a lot of +other things, as well as a Noah's Ark. I couldn't draw all the deserts +that the Djinn was in charge of, so I only drew one, but it is a most +deserty desert.] + +And the Camel said 'Humph!' again; but no sooner had he said it than +he saw his back, that he was so proud of, puffing up and puffing up into +a great big lolloping humph. + +'Do you see that?' said the Djinn. 'That's your very own humph that +you've brought upon your very own self by not working. To-day is +Thursday, and you've done no work since Monday, when the work began. Now +you are going to work.' + +'How can I,' said the Camel, 'with this humph on my back?' + +'That's made a-purpose,' said the Djinn, 'all because you missed those +three days. You will be able to work now for three days without eating, +because you can live on your humph; and don't you ever say I never did +anything for you. Come out of the Desert and go to the Three, and +behave. Humph yourself!' + +And the Camel humphed himself, humph and all, and went away to join +the Three. And from that day to this the Camel always wears a humph (we +call it 'hump' now, not to hurt his feelings); but he has never yet +caught up with the three days that he missed at the beginning of the +world, and he has never yet learned how to behave. + + + THE Camel's hump is an ugly lump + Which well you may see at the Zoo; + But uglier yet is the hump we get + From having too little to do. + + Kiddies and grown-ups too-oo-oo, + If we haven't enough to do-oo-oo, + We get the hump-- + Cameelious hump-- + The hump that is black and blue! + + We climb out of bed with a frouzly head + And a snarly-yarly voice. + We shiver and scowl and we grunt and we growl + At our bath and our boots and our toys; + + And there ought to be a corner for me + (And I know there is one for you) + When we get the hump-- + Cameelious hump-- + The hump that is black and blue! + + The cure for this ill is not to sit still, + Or frowst with a book by the fire; + But to take a large hoe and a shovel also, + And dig till you gently perspire; + + And then you will find that the sun and the wind, + And the Djinn of the Garden too, + Have lifted the hump-- + The horrible hump-- + The hump that is black and blue! + + I get it as well as you-oo-oo-- + If I haven't enough to do-oo-oo-- + We all get hump-- + Cameelious hump-- + Kiddies and grown-ups too! + +[Illustration: How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin] + + + + +HOW THE RHINOCEROS GOT HIS SKIN + + +ONCE upon a time, on an uninhabited island on the shores of the Red +Sea, there lived a Parsee from whose hat the rays of the sun were +reflected in more-than-oriental splendour. And the Parsee lived by the +Red Sea with nothing but his hat and his knife and a cooking-stove of +the kind that you must particularly never touch. And one day he took +flour and water and currants and plums and sugar and things, and made +himself one cake which was two feet across and three feet thick. It was +indeed a Superior Comestible (_that's_ magic), and he put it on the +stove because _he_ was allowed to cook on that stove, and he baked it +and he baked it till it was all done brown and smelt most sentimental. +But just as he was going to eat it there came down to the beach from the +Altogether Uninhabited Interior one Rhinoceros with a horn on his nose, +two piggy eyes, and few manners. In those days the Rhinoceros's skin +fitted him quite tight. There were no wrinkles in it anywhere. He looked +exactly like a Noah's Ark Rhinoceros, but of course much bigger. All the +same, he had no manners then, and he has no manners now, and he never +will have any manners. He said, 'How!' and the Parsee left that cake and +climbed to the top of a palm tree with nothing on but his hat, from +which the rays of the sun were always reflected in more-than-oriental +splendour. And the Rhinoceros upset the oil-stove with his nose, and the +cake rolled on the sand, and he spiked that cake on the horn of his +nose, and he ate it, and he went away, waving his tail, to the desolate +and Exclusively Uninhabited Interior which abuts on the islands of +Mazanderan, Socotra, and the Promontories of the Larger Equinox. Then +the Parsee came down from his palm-tree and put the stove on its legs +and recited the following _Sloka_, which, as you have not heard, I will +now proceed to relate:-- + + Them that takes cakes + Which the Parsee-man bakes + Makes dreadful mistakes. + +And there was a great deal more in that than you would think. + +_Because_, five weeks later, there was a heat-wave in the Red Sea, and +everybody took off all the clothes they had. The Parsee took off his +hat; but the Rhinoceros took off his skin and carried it over his +shoulder as he came down to the beach to bathe. In those days it +buttoned underneath with three buttons and looked like a waterproof. He +said nothing whatever about the Parsee's cake, because he had eaten it +all; and he never had any manners, then, since, or henceforward. He +waddled straight into the water and blew bubbles through his nose, +leaving his skin on the beach. + +[Illustration: THIS is the picture of the Parsee beginning to eat his +cake on the Uninhabited Island in the Red Sea on a very hot day; and of +the Rhinoceros coming down from the Altogether Uninhabited Interior, +which, as you can truthfully see, is all rocky. The Rhinoceros's skin is +quite smooth, and the three buttons that button it up are underneath, so +you can't see them. The squiggly things on the Parsee's hat are the rays +of the sun reflected in more-than-oriental splendour, because if I had +drawn real rays they would have filled up all the picture. The cake has +currants in it; and the wheel-thing lying on the sand in front belonged +to one of Pharaoh's chariots when he tried to cross the Red Sea. The +Parsee found it, and kept it to play with. The Parsee's name was +Pestonjee Bomonjee, and the Rhinoceros was called Strorks, because he +breathed through his mouth instead of his nose. I wouldn't ask anything +about the cooking-stove if _I_ were you.] + +Presently the Parsee came by and found the skin, and he smiled one +smile that ran all round his face two times. Then he danced three times +round the skin and rubbed his hands. Then he went to his camp and filled +his hat with cake-crumbs, for the Parsee never ate anything but cake, +and never swept out his camp. He took that skin, and he shook that skin, +and he scrubbed that skin, and he rubbed that skin just as full of old, +dry, stale, tickly cake-crumbs and some burned currants as ever it could +_possibly_ hold. Then he climbed to the top of his palm-tree and waited +for the Rhinoceros to come out of the water and put it on. + +[Illustration: THIS is the Parsee Pestonjee Bomonjee sitting in his +palm-tree and watching the Rhinoceros Strorks bathing near the beach +of the Altogether Uninhabited Island after Strorks had taken off his +skin. The Parsee has put the cake-crumbs into the skin, and he is +smiling to think how they will tickle Strorks when Strorks puts it on +again. The skin is just under the rocks below the palm-tree in a cool +place; that is why you can't see it. The Parsee is wearing a new +more-than-oriental-splendour hat of the sort that Parsees wear; and he +has a knife in his hand to cut his name on palm-trees. The black things +on the islands out at sea are bits of ships that got wrecked going down +the Red Sea; but all the passengers were saved and went home. + +The black thing in the water close to the shore is not a wreck at all. +It is Strorks the Rhinoceros bathing without his skin. He was just as +black underneath his skin as he was outside. I wouldn't ask anything +about the cooking-stove if _I_ were you.] + +And the Rhinoceros did. He buttoned it up with the three buttons, +and it tickled like cake-crumbs in bed. Then he wanted to scratch, but +that made it worse; and then he lay down on the sands and rolled and +rolled and rolled, and every time he rolled the cake-crumbs tickled him +worse and worse and worse. Then he ran to the palm-tree and rubbed and +rubbed and rubbed himself against it. He rubbed so much and so hard that +he rubbed his skin into a great fold over his shoulders, and another +fold underneath, where the buttons used to be (but he rubbed the buttons +off), and he rubbed some more folds over his legs. And it spoiled his +temper, but it didn't make the least difference to the cake-crumbs. They +were inside his skin and they tickled. So he went home, very angry +indeed and horribly scratchy; and from that day to this every rhinoceros +has great folds in his skin and a very bad temper, all on account of the +cake-crumbs inside. + +But the Parsee came down from his palm-tree, wearing his hat, from which +the rays of the sun were reflected in more-than-oriental splendour, +packed up his cooking-stove, and went away in the direction of Orotavo, +Amygdala, the Upland Meadows of Anantarivo, and the Marshes of Sonaput. + +[Illustration] + + + THIS Uninhabited Island + Is off Cape Gardafui, + By the Beaches of Socotra + And the Pink Arabian Sea: + But it's hot--too hot from Suez + For the likes of you and me + Ever to go + In a P. and O. + And call on the Cake-Parsee! + +[Illustration: How the Leopard Got His Spots] + + + + +HOW THE LEOPARD GOT HIS SPOTS + + +IN the days when everybody started fair, Best Beloved, the Leopard +lived in a place called the High Veldt. 'Member it wasn't the Low Veldt, +or the Bush Veldt, or the Sour Veldt, but the 'sclusively bare, hot, +shiny High Veldt, where there was sand and sandy-coloured rock and +'sclusively tufts of sandy-yellowish grass. The Giraffe and the Zebra +and the Eland and the Koodoo and the Hartebeest lived there; and they +were 'sclusively sandy-yellow-brownish all over; but the Leopard, he was +the 'sclusivest sandiest-yellowish-brownest of them all--a +greyish-yellowish catty-shaped kind of beast, and he matched the +'sclusively yellowish-greyish-brownish colour of the High Veldt to one +hair. This was very bad for the Giraffe and the Zebra and the rest of +them; for he would lie down by a 'sclusively yellowish-greyish-brownish +stone or clump of grass, and when the Giraffe or the Zebra or the Eland +or the Koodoo or the Bush-Buck or the Bonte-Buck came by he would +surprise them out of their jumpsome lives. He would indeed! And, also, +there was an Ethiopian with bows and arrows (a 'sclusively +greyish-brownish-yellowish man he was then), who lived on the High Veldt +with the Leopard; and the two used to hunt together--the Ethiopian with +his bows and arrows, and the Leopard 'sclusively with his teeth and +claws--till the Giraffe and the Eland and the Koodoo and the Quagga and +all the rest of them didn't know which way to jump, Best Beloved. They +didn't indeed! + +After a long time--things lived for ever so long in those days--they +learned to avoid anything that looked like a Leopard or an Ethiopian; +and bit by bit--the Giraffe began it, because his legs were the +longest--they went away from the High Veldt. They scuttled for days and +days and days till they came to a great forest, 'sclusively full of +trees and bushes and stripy, speckly, patchy-blatchy shadows, and there +they hid: and after another long time, what with standing half in the +shade and half out of it, and what with the slippery-slidy shadows of +the trees falling on them, the Giraffe grew blotchy, and the Zebra grew +stripy, and the Eland and the Koodoo grew darker, with little wavy grey +lines on their backs like bark on a tree trunk; and so, though you could +hear them and smell them, you could very seldom see them, and then only +when you knew precisely where to look. They had a beautiful time in the +'sclusively speckly-spickly shadows of the forest, while the Leopard and +the Ethiopian ran about over the 'sclusively greyish-yellowish-reddish +High Veldt outside, wondering where all their breakfasts and their +dinners and their teas had gone. At last they were so hungry that they +ate rats and beetles and rock-rabbits, the Leopard and the Ethiopian, +and then they had the Big Tummy-ache, both together; and then they met +Baviaan--the dog-headed, barking Baboon, who is Quite the Wisest Animal +in All South Africa. + +[Illustration: THIS is Wise Baviaan, the dog-headed Baboon, Who is +Quite the Wisest Animal in All South Africa. I have drawn him from a +statue that I made up out of my own head, and I have written his name on +his belt and on his shoulder and on the thing he is sitting on. I have +written it in what is not called Coptic and Hieroglyphic and Cuneiformic +and Bengalic and Burmic and Hebric, all because he is so wise. He is not +beautiful, but he is very wise; and I should like to paint him with +paint-box colours, but I am not allowed. The umbrella-ish thing about +his head is his Conventional Mane.] + +Said Leopard to Baviaan (and it was a very hot day), 'Where has all the +game gone?' + +And Baviaan winked. _He_ knew. + +Said the Ethiopian to Baviaan, 'Can you tell me the present habitat of +the aboriginal Fauna?' (That meant just the same thing, but the +Ethiopian always used long words. He was a grown-up.) + +And Baviaan winked. _He_ knew. + +Then said Baviaan, 'The game has gone into other spots; and my advice to +you, Leopard, is to go into other spots as soon as you can.' + +And the Ethiopian said, 'That is all very fine, but I wish to know +whither the aboriginal Fauna has migrated.' + +Then said Baviaan, 'The aboriginal Fauna has joined the aboriginal Flora +because it was high time for a change; and my advice to you, Ethiopian, +is to change as soon as you can.' + +That puzzled the Leopard and the Ethiopian, but they set off to look +for the aboriginal Flora, and presently, after ever so many days, they +saw a great, high, tall forest full of tree trunks all 'sclusively +speckled and sprottled and spottled, dotted and splashed and slashed and +hatched and cross-hatched with shadows. (Say that quickly aloud, and you +will see how _very_ shadowy the forest must have been.) + +'What is this,' said the Leopard, 'that is so 'sclusively dark, and yet +so full of little pieces of light?' + +'I don't know,' said the Ethiopian, 'but it ought to be the aboriginal +Flora. I can smell Giraffe, and I can hear Giraffe, but I can't see +Giraffe.' + +'That's curious,' said the Leopard. 'I suppose it is because we have +just come in out of the sunshine. I can smell Zebra, and I can hear +Zebra, but I can't see Zebra.' + +'Wait a bit,' said the Ethiopian. 'It's a long time since we've hunted +'em. Perhaps we've forgotten what they were like.' + +'Fiddle!' said the Leopard. 'I remember them perfectly on the High +Veldt, especially their marrow-bones. Giraffe is about seventeen feet +high, of a 'sclusively fulvous golden-yellow from head to heel; and +Zebra is about four and a half feet high, of a 'sclusively grey-fawn +colour from head to heel.' + +'Umm,' said the Ethiopian, looking into the speckly-spickly shadows of +the aboriginal Flora-forest. 'Then they ought to show up in this dark +place like ripe bananas in a smoke-house.' + +But they didn't. The Leopard and the Ethiopian hunted all day; and +though they could smell them and hear them, they never saw one of them. + +'For goodness' sake,' said the Leopard at tea-time, 'let us wait till it +gets dark. This daylight hunting is a perfect scandal.' + +So they waited till dark, and then the Leopard heard something breathing +sniffily in the starlight that fell all stripy through the branches, and +he jumped at the noise, and it smelt like Zebra, and it felt like Zebra, +and when he knocked it down it kicked like Zebra, but he couldn't see +it. So he said, 'Be quiet, O you person without any form. I am going to +sit on your head till morning, because there is something about you that +I don't understand.' + +Presently he heard a grunt and a crash and a scramble, and the Ethiopian +called out, 'I've caught a thing that I can't see. It smells like +Giraffe, and it kicks like Giraffe, but it hasn't any form.' + +'Don't you trust it,' said the Leopard. 'Sit on its head till the +morning--same as me. They haven't any form--any of 'em.' + + * * * * * + +So they sat down on them hard till bright morning-time, and then Leopard +said, 'What have you at your end of the table, Brother?' + +The Ethiopian scratched his head and said, 'It ought to be 'sclusively a +rich fulvous orange-tawny from head to heel, and it ought to be Giraffe; +but it is covered all over with chestnut blotches. What have you at +_your_ end of the table, Brother?' + +And the Leopard scratched his head and said, 'It ought to be 'sclusively +a delicate greyish-fawn, and it ought to be Zebra; but it is covered all +over with black and purple stripes. What in the world have you been +doing to yourself, Zebra? Don't you know that if you were on the High +Veldt I could see you ten miles off? You haven't any form.' + +'Yes,' said the Zebra, 'but this isn't the High Veldt. Can't you see?' + +'I can now,' said the Leopard. 'But I couldn't all yesterday. How is it +done?' + +'Let us up,' said the Zebra, 'and we will show you.' + +They let the Zebra and the Giraffe get up; and Zebra moved away to some +little thorn-bushes where the sunlight fell all stripy, and Giraffe +moved off to some tallish trees where the shadows fell all blotchy. + +'Now watch,' said the Zebra and the Giraffe. 'This is the way it's done. +One--two--three! And where's your breakfast?' + +Leopard stared, and Ethiopian stared, but all they could see were stripy +shadows and blotched shadows in the forest, but never a sign of Zebra +and Giraffe. They had just walked off and hidden themselves in the +shadowy forest. + +'Hi! Hi!' said the Ethiopian. 'That's a trick worth learning. Take a +lesson by it, Leopard. You show up in this dark place like a bar of soap +in a coal-scuttle.' + +'Ho! Ho!' said the Leopard. 'Would it surprise you very much to know +that you show up in this dark place like a mustard-plaster on a sack of +coals?' + +Well, calling names won't catch dinner, said the Ethiopian. 'The long +and the little of it is that we don't match our backgrounds. I'm going +to take Baviaan's advice. He told me I ought to change; and as I've +nothing to change except my skin I'm going to change that.' + +'What to?' said the Leopard, tremendously excited. + +'To a nice working blackish-brownish colour, with a little purple in it, +and touches of slaty-blue. It will be the very thing for hiding in +hollows and behind trees.' + +So he changed his skin then and there, and the Leopard was more excited +than ever; he had never seen a man change his skin before. + +'But what about me?' he said, when the Ethiopian had worked his last +little finger into his fine new black skin. + +'You take Baviaan's advice too. He told you to go into spots.' + +'So I did,' said the Leopard. 'I went into other spots as fast as I +could. I went into this spot with you, and a lot of good it has done +me.' + +'Oh,' said the Ethiopian, 'Baviaan didn't mean spots in South Africa. He +meant spots on your skin.' + +'What's the use of that?' said the Leopard. + +'Think of Giraffe,' said the Ethiopian. 'Or if you prefer stripes, +think of Zebra. They find their spots and stripes give them perfect +satisfaction.' + +'Umm,' said the Leopard. 'I wouldn't look like Zebra--not for ever so.' + +'Well, make up your mind,' said the Ethiopian, 'because I'd hate to go +hunting without you, but I must if you insist on looking like a +sun-flower against a tarred fence.' + +'I'll take spots, then,' said the Leopard; 'but don't make 'em too +vulgar-big. I wouldn't look like Giraffe--not for ever so.' + +'I'll make 'em with the tips of my fingers,' said the Ethiopian. +'There's plenty of black left on my skin still. Stand over!' + +Then the Ethiopian put his five fingers close together (there was plenty +of black left on his new skin still) and pressed them all over the +Leopard, and wherever the five fingers touched they left five little +black marks, all close together. You can see them on any Leopard's skin +you like, Best Beloved. Sometimes the fingers slipped and the marks got +a little blurred; but if you look closely at any Leopard now you will +see that there are always five spots--off five fat black finger-tips. + +[Illustration: THIS is the picture of the Leopard and the Ethiopian +after they had taken Wise Baviaan's advice and the Leopard had gone +into other spots and the Ethiopian had changed his skin. The Ethiopian +was really a negro, and so his name was Sambo. The Leopard was +called Spots, and he has been called Spots ever since. They are out +hunting in the spickly-speckly forest, and they are looking for Mr. +One-Two-Three-Where's-your-Breakfast. If you look a little you will see +Mr. One-Two-Three not far away. The Ethiopian has hidden behind a +splotchy-blotchy tree because it matches his skin, and the Leopard is +lying beside a spickly-speckly bank of stones because it matches his +spots. Mr. One-Two-Three-Where's-your-Breakfast is standing up eating +leaves from a tall tree. This is really a puzzle-picture like 'Find the +Cat.'] + +'Now you _are_ a beauty!' said the Ethiopian. 'You can lie out on +the bare ground and look like a heap of pebbles. You can lie out on the +naked rocks and look like a piece of pudding-stone. You can lie out on a +leafy branch and look like sunshine sifting through the leaves; and you +can lie right across the centre of a path and look like nothing in +particular. Think of that and purr!' + +'But if I'm all this,' said the Leopard, 'why didn't you go spotty too?' + +'Oh, plain black's best for a nigger,' said the Ethiopian. 'Now come +along and we'll see if we can't get even with Mr. +One-Two-Three-Where's-your-Breakfast!' + + * * * * * + +So they went away and lived happily ever afterward, Best Beloved. That +is all. + +Oh, now and then you will hear grown-ups say, 'Can the Ethiopian +change his skin or the Leopard his spots?' I don't think even grown-ups +would keep on saying such a silly thing if the Leopard and the Ethiopian +hadn't done it once--do you? But they will never do it again, Best +Beloved. They are quite contented as they are. + + + I AM the Most Wise Baviaan, saying in most wise tones, + 'Let us melt into the landscape--just us two by our lones.' + People have come--in a carriage--calling. But Mummy is there.... + Yes, I can go if you take me--Nurse says _she_ don't care. + Let's go up to the pig-sties and sit on the farmyard rails! + Let's say things to the bunnies, and watch 'em skitter their tails! + Let's--oh, _anything_, daddy, so long as it's you and me, + And going truly exploring, and not being in till tea! + Here's your boots (I've brought 'em), and here's your cap and stick, + And here's your pipe and tobacco. Oh, come along out of it--quick. + +[Illustration: The Elephant's Child] + + + + +THE ELEPHANT'S CHILD + + +IN the High and Far-Off Times the Elephant, O Best Beloved, had no +trunk. He had only a blackish, bulgy nose, as big as a boot, that he +could wriggle about from side to side; but he couldn't pick up things +with it. But there was one Elephant--a new Elephant--an Elephant's +Child--who was full of 'satiable curtiosity, and that means he asked +ever so many questions. _And_ he lived in Africa, and he filled all +Africa with his 'satiable curtiosities. He asked his tall aunt, the +Ostrich, why her tail-feathers grew just so, and his tall aunt the +Ostrich spanked him with her hard, hard claw. He asked his tall uncle, +the Giraffe, what made his skin spotty, and his tall uncle, the Giraffe, +spanked him with his hard, hard hoof. And still he was full of 'satiable +curtiosity! He asked his broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, why her eyes were +red, and his broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, spanked him with her broad, +broad hoof; and he asked his hairy uncle, the Baboon, why melons tasted +just so, and his hairy uncle, the Baboon, spanked him with his hairy, +hairy paw. And _still_ he was full of 'satiable curtiosity! He asked +questions about everything that he saw, or heard, or felt, or smelt, or +touched, and all his uncles and his aunts spanked him. And still he was +full of 'satiable curtiosity! + +One fine morning in the middle of the Precession of the Equinoxes this +'satiable Elephant's Child asked a new fine question that he had never +asked before. He asked, 'What does the Crocodile have for dinner?' Then +everybody said, 'Hush!' in a loud and dretful tone, and they spanked him +immediately and directly, without stopping, for a long time. + +By and by, when that was finished, he came upon Kolokolo Bird sitting +in the middle of a wait-a-bit thorn-bush, and he said, 'My father has +spanked me, and my mother has spanked me; all my aunts and uncles have +spanked me for my 'satiable curtiosity; and _still_ I want to know what +the Crocodile has for dinner!' + +Then Kolokolo Bird said, with a mournful cry, 'Go to the banks of the +great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, +and find out.' + +That very next morning, when there was nothing left of the Equinoxes, +because the Precession had preceded according to precedent, this +'satiable Elephant's Child took a hundred pounds of bananas (the little +short red kind), and a hundred pounds of sugar-cane (the long purple +kind), and seventeen melons (the greeny-crackly kind), and said to all +his dear families, 'Good-bye. I am going to the great grey-green, greasy +Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, to find out what the +Crocodile has for dinner.' And they all spanked him once more for luck, +though he asked them most politely to stop. + +Then he went away, a little warm, but not at all astonished, eating +melons, and throwing the rind about, because he could not pick it up. + +He went from Graham's Town to Kimberley, and from Kimberley to Khama's +Country, and from Khama's Country he went east by north, eating melons +all the time, till at last he came to the banks of the great grey-green, +greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, precisely as +Kolokolo Bird had said. + +Now you must know and understand, O Best Beloved, that till that very +week, and day, and hour, and minute, this 'satiable Elephant's Child had +never seen a Crocodile, and did not know what one was like. It was all +his 'satiable curtiosity. + +The first thing that he found was a Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake curled +round a rock. + +''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child most politely, 'but have you seen +such a thing as a Crocodile in these promiscuous parts?' + +'_Have_ I seen a Crocodile?' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, in +a voice of dretful scorn. 'What will you ask me next?' + +''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child, 'but could you kindly tell me +what he has for dinner?' + +Then the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake uncoiled himself very quickly +from the rock, and spanked the Elephant's Child with his scalesome, +flailsome tail. + +'That is odd,' said the Elephant's Child, 'because my father and my +mother, and my uncle and my aunt, not to mention my other aunt, the +Hippopotamus, and my other uncle, the Baboon, have all spanked me for my +'satiable curtiosity--and I suppose this is the same thing.' + +So he said good-bye very politely to the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, +and helped to coil him up on the rock again, and went on, a little warm, +but not at all astonished, eating melons, and throwing the rind about, +because he could not pick it up, till he trod on what he thought was a +log of wood at the very edge of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo +River, all set about with fever-trees. + +But it was really the Crocodile, O Best Beloved, and the Crocodile +winked one eye--like this! + +''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child most politely, 'but do you happen +to have seen a Crocodile in these promiscuous parts?' + +Then the Crocodile winked the other eye, and lifted half his tail out of +the mud; and the Elephant's Child stepped back most politely, because he +did not wish to be spanked again. + +'Come hither, Little One,' said the Crocodile. 'Why do you ask such +things?' + +''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child most politely, 'but my father has +spanked me, my mother has spanked me, not to mention my tall aunt, the +Ostrich, and my tall uncle, the Giraffe, who can kick ever so hard, as +well as my broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, and my hairy uncle, the Baboon, +_and_ including the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, with the scalesome, +flailsome tail, just up the bank, who spanks harder than any of them; +and _so_, if it's quite all the same to you, I don't want to be spanked +any more.' + +'Come hither, Little One,' said the Crocodile, 'for I am the Crocodile,' +and he wept crocodile-tears to show it was quite true. + +Then the Elephant's Child grew all breathless, and panted, and kneeled +down on the bank and said, 'You are the very person I have been looking +for all these long days. Will you please tell me what you have for +dinner?' + +'Come hither, Little One,' said the Crocodile, 'and I'll whisper.' + +Then the Elephant's Child put his head down close to the Crocodile's +musky, tusky mouth, and the Crocodile caught him by his little nose, +which up to that very week, day, hour, and minute, had been no bigger +than a boot, though much more useful. + +'I think,' said the Crocodile--and he said it between his teeth, like +this--'I think to-day I will begin with Elephant's Child!' + +At this, O Best Beloved, the Elephant's Child was much annoyed, and he +said, speaking through his nose, like this, 'Led go! You are hurtig be!' + +Then the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake scuffled down from the bank and +said, 'My young friend, if you do not now, immediately and instantly, +pull as hard as ever you can, it is my opinion that your acquaintance in +the large-pattern leather ulster' (and by this he meant the Crocodile) +'will jerk you into yonder limpid stream before you can say Jack +Robinson.' + +This is the way Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snakes always talk. + +Then the Elephant's Child sat back on his little haunches, and pulled, +and pulled, and pulled, and his nose began to stretch. And the Crocodile +floundered into the water, making it all creamy with great sweeps of his +tail, and _he_ pulled, and pulled, and pulled. + +And the Elephant's Child's nose kept on stretching; and the Elephant's +Child spread all his little four legs and pulled, and pulled, and +pulled, and his nose kept on stretching; and the Crocodile threshed his +tail like an oar, and _he_ pulled, and pulled, and pulled, and at each +pull the Elephant's Child's nose grew longer and longer--and it hurt him +hijjus! + +Then the Elephant's Child felt his legs slipping, and he said through +his nose, which was now nearly five feet long, 'This is too butch for +be!' + +Then the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake came down from the bank, and +knotted himself in a double-clove-hitch round the Elephant's Child's +hind legs, and said, 'Rash and inexperienced traveller, we will now +seriously devote ourselves to a little high tension, because if we do +not, it is my impression that yonder self-propelling man-of-war with the +armour-plated upper deck' (and by this, O Best Beloved, he meant the +Crocodile), 'will permanently vitiate your future career.' + +That is the way all Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snakes always talk. + +So he pulled, and the Elephant's Child pulled, and the Crocodile +pulled; but the Elephant's Child and the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake +pulled hardest; and at last the Crocodile let go of the Elephant's +Child's nose with a plop that you could hear all up and down the +Limpopo. + +Then the Elephant's Child sat down most hard and sudden; but first he +was careful to say 'Thank you' to the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake; and +next he was kind to his poor pulled nose, and wrapped it all up in cool +banana leaves, and hung it in the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo to +cool. + +'What are you doing that for?' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. + +''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child, 'but my nose is badly out of +shape, and I am waiting for it to shrink.' + +'Then you will have to wait a long time,' said the +Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. 'Some people do not know what is good for +them.' + +The Elephant's Child sat there for three days waiting for his nose to +shrink. But it never grew any shorter, and, besides, it made him squint. +For, O Best Beloved, you will see and understand that the Crocodile had +pulled it out into a really truly trunk same as all Elephants have +to-day. + +[Illustration: THIS is the Elephant's Child having his nose pulled +by the Crocodile. He is much surprised and astonished and hurt, and +he is talking through his nose and saying, 'Led go! You are hurtig +be!' He is pulling very hard, and so is the Crocodile; but the +Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake is hurrying through the water to help the +Elephant's Child. All that black stuff is the banks of the great +grey-green, greasy Limpopo River (but I am not allowed to paint these +pictures), and the bottly-tree with the twisty roots and the eight +leaves is one of the fever-trees that grow there. + +Underneath the truly picture are shadows of African animals walking +into an African ark. There are two lions, two ostriches, two oxen, two +camels, two sheep, and two other things that look like rats, but I think +they are rock-rabbits. They don't mean anything. I put them in because I +thought they looked pretty. They would look very fine if I were allowed +to paint them.] + +At the end of the third day a fly came and stung him on the shoulder, +and before he knew what he was doing he lifted up his trunk and hit that +fly dead with the end of it. + +''Vantage number one!' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. 'You +couldn't have done that with a mere-smear nose. Try and eat a little +now.' + +Before he thought what he was doing the Elephant's Child put out his +trunk and plucked a large bundle of grass, dusted it clean against his +fore-legs, and stuffed it into his own mouth. + +''Vantage number two!' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. 'You +couldn't have done that with a mear-smear nose. Don't you think the sun +is very hot here?' + +'It is,' said the Elephant's Child, and before he thought what he was +doing he schlooped up a schloop of mud from the banks of the great +grey-green, greasy Limpopo, and slapped it on his head, where it made a +cool schloopy-sloshy mud-cap all trickly behind his ears. + +''Vantage number three!' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. 'You +couldn't have done that with a mere-smear nose. Now how do you feel +about being spanked again?' + +''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child, 'but I should not like it at +all.' + +'How would you like to spank somebody?' said the +Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. + +'I should like it very much indeed,' said the Elephant's Child. + +'Well,' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, 'you will find that new +nose of yours very useful to spank people with.' + +'Thank you,' said the Elephant's Child, 'I'll remember that; and now I +think I'll go home to all my dear families and try.' + +So the Elephant's Child went home across Africa frisking and whisking +his trunk. When he wanted fruit to eat he pulled fruit down from a tree, +instead of waiting for it to fall as he used to do. When he wanted grass +he plucked grass up from the ground, instead of going on his knees as he +used to do. When the flies bit him he broke off the branch of a tree and +used it as a fly-whisk; and he made himself a new, cool, slushy-squshy +mud-cap whenever the sun was hot. When he felt lonely walking through +Africa he sang to himself down his trunk, and the noise was louder than +several brass bands. He went especially out of his way to find a broad +Hippopotamus (she was no relation of his), and he spanked her very hard, +to make sure that the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake had spoken the truth +about his new trunk. The rest of the time he picked up the melon rinds +that he had dropped on his way to the Limpopo--for he was a Tidy +Pachyderm. + +One dark evening he came back to all his dear families, and he coiled up +his trunk and said, 'How do you do?' They were very glad to see him, and +immediately said, 'Come here and be spanked for your 'satiable +curtiosity.' + +'Pooh,' said the Elephant's Child. 'I don't think you peoples know +anything about spanking; but _I_ do, and I'll show you.' + +Then he uncurled his trunk and knocked two of his dear brothers head +over heels. + +'O Bananas!' said they, 'where did you learn that trick, and what have +you done to your nose?' + +'I got a new one from the Crocodile on the banks of the great +grey-green, greasy Limpopo River,' said the Elephant's Child. 'I asked +him what he had for dinner, and he gave me this to keep.' + +[Illustration: THIS is just a picture of the Elephant's Child going +to pull bananas off a banana-tree after he had got his fine new long +trunk. I don't think it is a very nice picture; but I couldn't make it +any better, because elephants and bananas are hard to draw. The streaky +things behind the Elephant's Child mean squoggy marshy country somewhere +in Africa. The Elephant's Child made most of his mud-cakes out of the +mud that he found there. I think it would look better if you painted the +banana-tree green and the Elephant's Child red.] + +'It looks very ugly,' said his hairy uncle, the Baboon. + +'It does,' said the Elephant's Child. 'But it's very useful,' and he +picked up his hairy uncle, the Baboon, by one hairy leg, and hove him +into a hornet's nest. + +Then that bad Elephant's Child spanked all his dear families for a long +time, till they were very warm and greatly astonished. He pulled out his +tall Ostrich aunt's tail-feathers; and he caught his tall uncle, the +Giraffe, by the hind-leg, and dragged him through a thorn-bush; and he +shouted at his broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, and blew bubbles into her +ear when she was sleeping in the water after meals; but he never let any +one touch Kolokolo Bird. + +At last things grew so exciting that his dear families went off one by +one in a hurry to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo +River, all set about with fever-trees, to borrow new noses from the +Crocodile. When they came back nobody spanked anybody any more; and ever +since that day, O Best Beloved, all the Elephants you will ever see, +besides all those that you won't, have trunks precisely like the trunk +of the 'satiable Elephant's Child. + + + I KEEP six honest serving-men; + (They taught me all I knew) + Their names are What and Where and When + And How and Where and Who. + I send them over land and sea, + I send them east and west; + But after they have worked for me, + _I_ give them all a rest. + + _I_ let them rest from nine till five. + For I am busy then, + As well as breakfast, lunch, and tea, + For they are hungry men: + But different folk have different views; + I know a person small-- + She keeps ten million serving-men, + Who get no rest at all! + She sends 'em abroad on her own affairs, + From the second she opens her eyes-- + One million Hows, two million Wheres, + And seven million Whys! + +[Illustration: The Sing-song of Old Man Kangaroo] + + + + +THE SING-SONG OF OLD MAN KANGAROO + + +NOT always was the Kangaroo as now we do behold him, but a Different +Animal with four short legs. He was grey and he was woolly, and his +pride was inordinate: he danced on an outcrop in the middle of +Australia, and he went to the Little God Nqa. + +He went to Nqa at six before breakfast, saying, 'Make me different from +all other animals by five this afternoon.' + +Up jumped Nqa from his seat on the sand-flat and shouted, 'Go away!' + +He was grey and he was woolly, and his pride was inordinate: he danced +on a rock-ledge in the middle of Australia, and he went to the Middle +God Nquing. + +He went to Nquing at eight after breakfast, saying, 'Make me different +from all other animals; make me, also, wonderfully popular by five this +afternoon.' + +Up jumped Nquing from his burrow in the spinifex and shouted, 'Go away!' + +He was grey and he was woolly, and his pride was inordinate: he danced +on a sandbank in the middle of Australia, and he went to the Big God +Nqong. + +He went to Nqong at ten before dinner-time, saying, 'Make me different +from all other animals; make me popular and wonderfully run after by +five this afternoon.' + +Up jumped Nqong from his bath in the salt-pan and shouted, 'Yes, I +will!' + +Nqong called Dingo--Yellow-Dog Dingo--always hungry, dusty in the +sunshine, and showed him Kangaroo. Nqong said, 'Dingo! Wake up, Dingo! +Do you see that gentleman dancing on an ashpit? He wants to be popular +and very truly run after. Dingo, make him so!' + +Up jumped Dingo--Yellow-Dog Dingo--and said, 'What, _that_ cat-rabbit?' + +Off ran Dingo--Yellow-Dog Dingo--always hungry, grinning like a +coal-scuttle,--ran after Kangaroo. + +Off went the proud Kangaroo on his four little legs like a bunny. + +This, O Beloved of mine, ends the first part of the tale! + +He ran through the desert; he ran through the mountains; he ran through +the salt-pans; he ran through the reed-beds; he ran through the blue +gums; he ran through the spinifex; he ran till his front legs ached. + +He had to! + +Still ran Dingo--Yellow-Dog Dingo--always hungry, grinning like a +rat-trap, never getting nearer, never getting farther,--ran after +Kangaroo. + +He had to! + +Still ran Kangaroo--Old Man Kangaroo. He ran through the ti-trees; he +ran through the mulga; he ran through the long grass; he ran through the +short grass; he ran through the Tropics of Capricorn and Cancer; he ran +till his hind legs ached. + +He had to! + +[Illustration: THIS is a picture of Old Man Kangaroo when he was the +Different Animal with four short legs. I have drawn him grey and woolly, +and you can see that he is very proud because he has a wreath of flowers +in his hair. He is dancing on an outcrop (that means a ledge of rock) in +the middle of Australia at six o'clock before breakfast. You can see +that it is six o'clock, because the sun is just getting up. The thing +with the ears and the open mouth is Little God Nqa. Nqa is very much +surprised, because he has never seen a Kangaroo dance like that before. +Little God Nqa is just saying, 'Go away,' but the Kangaroo is so busy +dancing that he has not heard him yet. + +The Kangaroo hasn't any real name except Boomer. He lost it because +he was so proud.] + +Still ran Dingo--Yellow-Dog Dingo--hungrier and hungrier, grinning like +a horse-collar, never getting nearer, never getting farther; and they +came to the Wollgong River. + +Now, there wasn't any bridge, and there wasn't any ferry-boat, and +Kangaroo didn't know how to get over; so he stood on his legs and +hopped. + +He had to! + +He hopped through the Flinders; he hopped through the Cinders; he hopped +through the deserts in the middle of Australia. He hopped like a +Kangaroo. + +First he hopped one yard; then he hopped three yards; then he hopped +five yards; his legs growing stronger; his legs growing longer. He +hadn't any time for rest or refreshment, and he wanted them very much. + +Still ran Dingo--Yellow-Dog Dingo--very much bewildered, very much +hungry, and wondering what in the world or out of it made Old Man +Kangaroo hop. + +For he hopped like a cricket; like a pea in a saucepan; or a new rubber +ball on a nursery floor. + +He had to! + +[Illustration: THIS is the picture of Old Man Kangaroo at five in the +afternoon, when he had got his beautiful hind legs just as Big God Nqong +had promised. You can see that it is five o'clock, because Big God +Nqong's pet tame clock says so. That is Nqong, in his bath, sticking his +feet out. Old Man Kangaroo is being rude to Yellow-Dog Dingo. Yellow-Dog +Dingo has been trying to catch Kangaroo all across Australia. You can +see the marks of Kangaroo's big new feet running ever so far back over +the bare hills. Yellow-Dog Dingo is drawn black, because I am not +allowed to paint these pictures with real colours out of the paint-box; +and besides, Yellow-Dog Dingo got dreadfully black and dusty after +running through the Flinders and the Cinders. + +I don't know the names of the flowers growing round Nqong's bath. The +two little squatty things out in the desert are the other two gods that +Old Man Kangaroo spoke to early in the morning. That thing with the +letters on it is Old Man Kangaroo's pouch. He had to have a pouch just +as he had to have legs.] + +He tucked up his front legs; he hopped on his hind legs; he stuck out +his tail for a balance-weight behind him; and he hopped through the +Darling Downs. + +He had to! + +Still ran Dingo--Tired-Dog Dingo--hungrier and hungrier, very much +bewildered, and wondering when in the world or out of it would Old Man +Kangaroo stop. + +Then came Nqong from his bath in the salt-pans, and said, 'It's five +o'clock.' + +Down sat Dingo--Poor Dog Dingo--always hungry, dusky in the sunshine; +hung out his tongue and howled. + +Down sat Kangaroo--Old Man Kangaroo--stuck out his tail like a +milking-stool behind him, and said, 'Thank goodness _that's_ finished!' + +Then said Nqong, who is always a gentleman, 'Why aren't you grateful to +Yellow-Dog Dingo? Why don't you thank him for all he has done for you?' + +Then said Kangaroo--Tired Old Kangaroo--'He's chased me out of the +homes of my childhood; he's chased me out of my regular meal-times; he's +altered my shape so I'll never get it back; and he's played Old Scratch +with my legs.' + +Then said Nqong, 'Perhaps I'm mistaken, but didn't you ask me to make +you different from all other animals, as well as to make you very truly +sought after? And now it is five o'clock.' + +'Yes,' said Kangaroo. 'I wish that I hadn't. I thought you would do it +by charms and incantations, but this is a practical joke.' + +'Joke!' said Nqong from his bath in the blue gums. 'Say that again and +I'll whistle up Dingo and run your hind legs off.' + +'No,' said the Kangaroo. 'I must apologise. Legs are legs, and you +needn't alter 'em so far as I am concerned. I only meant to explain to +Your Lordliness that I've had nothing to eat since morning, and I'm very +empty indeed.' + +'Yes,' said Dingo--Yellow-Dog Dingo,--'I am just in the same situation. +I've made him different from all other animals; but what may I have for +my tea?' + +Then said Nqong from his bath in the salt-pan, 'Come and ask me about +it to-morrow, because I'm going to wash.' + +So they were left in the middle of Australia, Old Man Kangaroo and +Yellow-Dog Dingo, and each said, 'That's _your_ fault.' + + THIS is the mouth-filling song + Of the race that was run by a Boomer, + Run in a single burst--only event of its kind-- + Started by big God Nqong from Warrigaborrigarooma, + Old Man Kangaroo first: Yellow-Dog Dingo behind. + + Kangaroo bounded away, + His back-legs working like pistons-- + Bounded from morning till dark, + Twenty-five feet to a bound. + Yellow-Dog Dingo lay + Like a yellow cloud in the distance-- + Much too busy to bark. + My! but they covered the ground! + + Nobody knows where they went, + Or followed the track that they flew in, + For that Continent + Hadn't been given a name. + They ran thirty degrees, + From Torres Straits to the Leeuwin + (Look at the Atlas, please), + And they ran back as they came. + + S'posing you could trot + From Adelaide to the Pacific, + For an afternoon's run-- + Half what these gentlemen did-- + You would feel rather hot, + But your legs would develop terrific-- + Yes, my importunate son, + You'd be a Marvellous Kid! + +[Illustration: The Beginning of the Armadillos] + + + + +THE BEGINNING OF THE ARMADILLOS + + +THIS, O Best Beloved, is another story of the High and Far-Off Times. In +the very middle of those times was a Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog, and he +lived on the banks of the turbid Amazon, eating shelly snails and +things. And he had a friend, a Slow-Solid Tortoise, who lived on the +banks of the turbid Amazon, eating green lettuces and things. And so +_that_ was all right, Best Beloved. Do you see? + +But also, and at the same time, in those High and Far-Off Times, there +was a Painted Jaguar, and he lived on the banks of the turbid Amazon +too; and he ate everything that he could catch. When he could not catch +deer or monkeys he would eat frogs and beetles; and when he could not +catch frogs and beetles he went to his Mother Jaguar, and she told him +how to eat hedgehogs and tortoises. + +She said to him ever so many times, graciously waving her tail, 'My son, +when you find a Hedgehog you must drop him into the water and then he +will uncoil, and when you catch a Tortoise you must scoop him out of his +shell with your paw.' And so that was all right, Best Beloved. + +One beautiful night on the banks of the turbid Amazon, Painted Jaguar +found Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog and Slow-Solid Tortoise sitting under the +trunk of a fallen tree. They could not run away, and so Stickly-Prickly +curled himself up into a ball, because he was a Hedgehog, and Slow-Solid +Tortoise drew in his head and feet into his shell as far as they would +go, because he was a Tortoise; and so _that_ was all right, Best +Beloved. Do you see? + +'Now attend to me,' said Painted Jaguar, 'because this is very +important. My mother said that when I meet a Hedgehog I am to drop him +into the water and then he will uncoil, and when I meet a Tortoise I am +to scoop him out of his shell with my paw. Now which of you is Hedgehog +and which is Tortoise? because to save my spots, I can't tell.' + +'Are you sure of what your Mummy told you?' said Stickly-Prickly +Hedgehog. 'Are you quite sure? Perhaps she said that when you uncoil a +Tortoise you must shell him out of the water with a scoop, and when you +paw a Hedgehog you must drop him on the shell.' + +'Are you sure of what your Mummy told you?' said Slow-and-Solid +Tortoise. 'Are you quite sure? Perhaps she said that when you water a +Hedgehog you must drop him into your paw, and when you meet a Tortoise +you must shell him till he uncoils.' + +'I don't think it was at all like that,' said Painted Jaguar, but he +felt a little puzzled; 'but, please, say it again more distinctly.' + +'When you scoop water with your paw you uncoil it with a Hedgehog,' said +Stickly-Prickly. 'Remember that, because it's important.' + +'_But_,' said the Tortoise, 'when you paw your meat you drop it into a +Tortoise with a scoop. Why can't you understand?' + +[Illustration: THIS is an inciting map of the Turbid Amazon done in +Red and Black. It hasn't anything to do with the story except that there +are two Armadillos in it--up by the top. The inciting part are the +adventures that happened to the men who went along the road marked in +red. I meant to draw Armadillos when I began the map, and I meant to +draw manatees and spider-tailed monkeys and big snakes and lots of +Jaguars, but it was more inciting to do the map and the venturesome +adventures in red. You begin at the bottom left-hand corner and follow +the little arrows all about, and then you come quite round again to +where the adventuresome people went home in a ship called the _Royal +Tiger_. This is a most adventuresome picture, and all the adventures are +told about in writing, so you can be quite sure which is an adventure +and which is a tree or a boat.] + +'You are making my spots ache,' said Painted Jaguar; 'and besides, I +didn't want your advice at all. I only wanted to know which of you is +Hedgehog and which is Tortoise.' + +'I shan't tell you,' said Stickly-Prickly, 'but you can scoop me out of +my shell if you like.' + +'Aha!' said Painted Jaguar. 'Now I know you're Tortoise. You thought I +wouldn't! Now I will.' Painted Jaguar darted out his paddy-paw just as +Stickly-Prickly curled himself up, and of course Jaguar's paddy-paw was +just filled with prickles. Worse than that, he knocked Stickly-Prickly +away and away into the woods and the bushes, where it was too dark to +find him. Then he put his paddy-paw into his mouth, and of course the +prickles hurt him worse than ever. As soon as he could speak he said, +'Now I know he isn't Tortoise at all. But'--and then he scratched his +head with his un-prickly paw--'how do I know that this other is +Tortoise?' + +'But I _am_ Tortoise,' said Slow-and-Solid. 'Your mother was quite +right. She said that you were to scoop me out of my shell with your paw. +Begin.' + +'You didn't say she said that a minute ago,' said Painted Jaguar, +sucking the prickles out of his paddy-paw. 'You said she said something +quite different.' + +'Well, suppose you say that I said that she said something quite +different, I don't see that it makes any difference; because if she said +what you said I said she said, it's just the same as if I said what she +said she said. On the other hand, if you think she said that you were to +uncoil me with a scoop, instead of pawing me into drops with a shell, I +can't help that, can I?' + +'But you said you wanted to be scooped out of your shell with my paw,' +said Painted Jaguar. + +'If you'll think again you'll find that I didn't say anything of the +kind. I said that your mother said that you were to scoop me out of my +shell,' said Slow-and-Solid. + +'What will happen if I do?' said the Jaguar most sniffily and most +cautious. + +'I don't know, because I've never been scooped out of my shell before; +but I tell you truly, if you want to see me swim away you've only got to +drop me into the water.' + +'I don't believe it,' said Painted Jaguar. 'You've mixed up all the +things my mother told me to do with the things that you asked me whether +I was sure that she didn't say, till I don't know whether I'm on my head +or my painted tail; and now you come and tell me something I _can_ +understand, and it makes me more mixy than before. My mother told me +that I was to drop one of you two into the water, and as you seem so +anxious to be dropped I think you don't want to be dropped. So jump into +the turbid Amazon and be quick about it.' + +'I warn you that your Mummy won't be pleased. Don't tell her I didn't +tell you,' said Slow-Solid. + +'If you say another word about what my mother said--' the Jaguar +answered, but he had not finished the sentence before Slow-and-Solid +quietly dived into the turbid Amazon, swam under water for a long way, +and came out on the bank where Stickly-Prickly was waiting for him. + +'That was a very narrow escape,' said Stickly-Prickly. 'I don't like +Painted Jaguar. What did you tell him that you were?' + +'I told him truthfully that I was a truthful Tortoise, but he wouldn't +believe it, and he made me jump into the river to see if I was, and I +was, and he is surprised. Now he's gone to tell his Mummy. Listen to +him!' + +They could hear Painted Jaguar roaring up and down among the trees and +the bushes by the side of the turbid Amazon, till his Mummy came. + +'Son, son!' said his mother ever so many times, graciously waving her +tail, 'what have you been doing that you shouldn't have done?' + +'I tried to scoop something that said it wanted to be scooped out of its +shell with my paw, and my paw is full of per-ickles,' said Painted +Jaguar. + +'Son, son!' said his mother ever so many times, graciously waving her +tail, 'by the prickles in your paddy-paw I see that that must have been +a Hedgehog. You should have dropped him into the water.' + +'I did that to the other thing; and he said he was a Tortoise, and I +didn't believe him, and it was quite true, and he has dived under the +turbid Amazon, and he won't come up again, and I haven't anything at all +to eat, and I think we had better find lodgings somewhere else. They are +too clever on the turbid Amazon for poor me!' + +'Son, son!' said his mother ever so many times, graciously waving her +tail, 'now attend to me and remember what I say. A Hedgehog curls +himself up into a ball and his prickles stick out every which way at +once. By this you may know the Hedgehog.' + +'I don't like this old lady one little bit,' said Stickly-Prickly, under +the shadow of a large leaf. 'I wonder what else she knows?' + +'A Tortoise can't curl himself up,' Mother Jaguar went on, ever so many +times, graciously waving her tail. 'He only draws his head and legs into +his shell. By this you may know the Tortoise.' + +'I don't like this old lady at all--at all,' said Slow-and-Solid +Tortoise. 'Even Painted Jaguar can't forget those directions. It's a +great pity that you can't swim, Stickly-Prickly.' + +'Don't talk to me,' said Stickly-Prickly. 'Just think how much better it +would be if you could curl up. This _is_ a mess! Listen to Painted +Jaguar.' + +Painted Jaguar was sitting on the banks of the turbid Amazon sucking +prickles out of his paws and saying to himself-- + + 'Can't curl, but can swim-- + Slow-Solid, that's him! + Curls up, but can't swim-- + Stickly-Prickly, that's him!' + +'He'll never forget that this month of Sundays,' said Stickly-Prickly. +'Hold up my chin, Slow-and-Solid. I'm going to try to learn to swim. It +may be useful.' + +'Excellent!' said Slow-and-Solid; and he held up Stickly-Prickly's chin, +while Stickly-Prickly kicked in the waters of the turbid Amazon. + +'You'll make a fine swimmer yet,' said Slow-and-Solid. 'Now, if you can +unlace my back-plates a little, I'll see what I can do towards curling +up. It may be useful.' + +Stickly-Prickly helped to unlace Tortoise's back-plates, so that by +twisting and straining Slow-and-Solid actually managed to curl up a +tiddy wee bit. + +'Excellent!' said Stickly-Prickly; 'but I shouldn't do any more just +now. It's making you black in the face. Kindly lead me into the water +once again and I'll practise that side-stroke which you say is so easy.' +And so Stickly-Prickly practised, and Slow-Solid swam alongside. + +'Excellent!' said Slow-and-Solid. 'A little more practice will make you +a regular whale. Now, if I may trouble you to unlace my back and front +plates two holes more, I'll try that fascinating bend that you say is so +easy. Won't Painted Jaguar be surprised!' + +'Excellent!' said Stickly-Prickly, all wet from the turbid Amazon. 'I +declare, I shouldn't know you from one of my own family. Two holes, I +think, you said? A little more expression, please, and don't grunt quite +so much, or Painted Jaguar may hear us. When you've finished, I want to +try that long dive which you say is so easy. Won't Painted Jaguar be +surprised!' + +And so Stickly-Prickly dived, and Slow-and-Solid dived alongside. + +'Excellent!' said Slow-and-Solid. 'A leetle more attention to holding +your breath and you will be able to keep house at the bottom of the +turbid Amazon. Now I'll try that exercise of wrapping my hind legs round +my ears which you say is so peculiarly comfortable. Won't Painted Jaguar +be surprised!' + +'Excellent!' said Stickly-Prickly. 'But it's straining your back-plates +a little. They are all overlapping now, instead of lying side by side.' + +'Oh, that's the result of exercise,' said Slow-and-Solid. 'I've noticed +that your prickles seem to be melting into one another, and that you're +growing to look rather more like a pine-cone, and less like a +chestnut-burr, than you used to.' + +'Am I?' said Stickly-Prickly. 'That comes from my soaking in the water. +Oh, won't Painted Jaguar be surprised!' + +They went on with their exercises, each helping the other, till morning +came; and when the sun was high they rested and dried themselves. Then +they saw that they were both of them quite different from what they had +been. + +'Stickly-Prickly,' said Tortoise after breakfast, 'I am not what I was +yesterday; but I think that I may yet amuse Painted Jaguar.' + +'That was the very thing I was thinking just now,' said Stickly-Prickly. +'I think scales are a tremendous improvement on prickles--to say nothing +of being able to swim. Oh, _won't_ Painted Jaguar be surprised! Let's go +and find him.' + +By and by they found Painted Jaguar, still nursing his paddy-paw that +had been hurt the night before. He was so astonished that he fell three +times backward over his own painted tail without stopping. + +'Good morning!' said Stickly-Prickly. 'And how is your dear gracious +Mummy this morning?' + +'She is quite well, thank you,' said Painted Jaguar; 'but you must +forgive me if I do not at this precise moment recall your name.' + +'That's unkind of you,' said Stickly-Prickly, 'seeing that this time +yesterday you tried to scoop me out of my shell with your paw.' + +'But you hadn't any shell. It was all prickles,' said Painted Jaguar. 'I +know it was. Just look at my paw!' + +'You told me to drop into the turbid Amazon and be drowned,' said +Slow-Solid. 'Why are you so rude and forgetful to-day?' + +'Don't you remember what your mother told you?' said Stickly-Prickly,-- + + 'Can't curl, but can swim-- + Stickly-Prickly, that's him! + Curls up, but can't swim-- + Slow-Solid, that's him!' + +Then they both curled themselves up and rolled round and round Painted +Jaguar till his eyes turned truly cart-wheels in his head. + +Then he went to fetch his mother. + +[Illustration: THIS is a picture of the whole story of the Jaguar and +the Hedgehog and the Tortoise _and_ the Armadillo all in a heap. It +looks rather the same any way you turn it. The Tortoise is in the +middle, learning how to bend, and that is why the shelly plates on his +back are so spread apart. He is standing on the Hedgehog, who is waiting +to learn how to swim. The Hedgehog is a Japanesy Hedgehog, because I +couldn't find our own Hedgehogs in the garden when I wanted to draw +them. (It was daytime, and they had gone to bed under the dahlias.) +Speckly Jaguar is looking over the edge, with his paddy-paw carefully +tied up by his mother, because he pricked himself scooping the Hedgehog. +He is much surprised to see what the Tortoise is doing, and his paw is +hurting him. The snouty thing with the little eye that Speckly Jaguar is +trying to climb over is the Armadillo that the Tortoise and the Hedgehog +are going to turn into when they have finished bending and swimming. It +is all a magic picture, and that is one of the reasons why I haven't +drawn the Jaguar's whiskers. The other reason was that he was so young +that his whiskers had not grown. The Jaguar's pet name with his Mummy +was Doffles.] + +'Mother,' he said, 'there are two new animals in the woods to-day, +and the one that you said couldn't swim, swims, and the one that you +said couldn't curl up, curls; and they've gone shares in their prickles, +I think, because both of them are scaly all over, instead of one being +smooth and the other very prickly; and, besides that, they are rolling +round and round in circles, and I don't feel comfy.' + +'Son, son!' said Mother Jaguar ever so many times, graciously waving her +tail, 'a Hedgehog is a Hedgehog, and can't be anything but a Hedgehog; +and a Tortoise is a Tortoise, and can never be anything else.' + +'But it isn't a Hedgehog, and it isn't a Tortoise. It's a little bit of +both, and I don't know its proper name.' + +'Nonsense!' said Mother Jaguar. 'Everything has its proper name. I +should call it "Armadillo" till I found out the real one. And I should +leave it alone.' + +So Painted Jaguar did as he was told, especially about leaving them +alone; but the curious thing is that from that day to this, O Best +Beloved, no one on the banks of the turbid Amazon has ever called +Stickly-Prickly and Slow-Solid anything except Armadillo. There are +Hedgehogs and Tortoises in other places, of course (there are some in my +garden); but the real old and clever kind, with their scales lying +lippety-lappety one over the other, like pine-cone scales, that lived on +the banks of the turbid Amazon in the High and Far-Off Days, are always +called Armadillos, because they were so clever. + +So _that's_ all right, Best Beloved. Do you see? + +[Illustration] + + + I'VE never sailed the Amazon, + I've never reached Brazil; + But the _Don_ and _Magdalena_, + They can go there when they will! + + Yes, weekly from Southampton, + Great steamers, white and gold, + Go rolling down to Rio + (Roll down--roll down to Rio!) + And I'd like to roll to Rio + Some day before I'm old! + + I've never seen a Jaguar, + Nor yet an Armadill-- + O dilloing in his armour, + And I s'pose I never will, + + Unless I go to Rio + These wonders to behold-- + Roll down--roll down to Rio-- + Roll really down to Rio! + Oh, I'd love to roll to Rio + Some day before I'm old! + +[Illustration: How the First Letter Was Written] + + + + +HOW THE FIRST LETTER WAS WRITTEN + + +ONCE upon a most early time was a Neolithic man. He was not a Jute or +an Angle, or even a Dravidian, which he might well have been, Best +Beloved, but never mind why. He was a Primitive, and he lived cavily in +a Cave, and he wore very few clothes, and he couldn't read and he +couldn't write and he didn't want to, and except when he was hungry he +was quite happy. His name was Tegumai Bopsulai, and that means, +'Man-who-does-not-put-his-foot-forward-in-a-hurry'; but we, O Best +Beloved, will call him Tegumai, for short. And his wife's name was +Teshumai Tewindrow, and that means, 'Lady-who-asks-a-very-many-questions'; +but we, O Best Beloved, will call her Teshumai, for short. And his little +girl-daughter's name was Taffimai Metallumai, and that means, +'Small-person-without-any-manners-who-ought-to-be-spanked'; but I'm +going to call her Taffy. And she was Tegumai Bopsulai's Best Beloved and +her own Mummy's Best Beloved, and she was not spanked half as much as +was good for her; and they were all three very happy. As soon as Taffy +could run about she went everywhere with her Daddy Tegumai, and +sometimes they would not come home to the Cave till they were hungry, +and then Teshumai Tewindrow would say, 'Where in the world have you two +been to, to get so shocking dirty? Really, my Tegumai, you're no better +than my Taffy.' + +Now attend and listen! + +One day Tegumai Bopsulai went down through the beaver-swamp to the +Wagai river to spear carp-fish for dinner, and Taffy went too. Tegumai's +spear was made of wood with shark's teeth at the end, and before he had +caught any fish at all he accidentally broke it clean across by jabbing +it down too hard on the bottom of the river. They were miles and miles +from home (of course they had their lunch with them in a little bag), +and Tegumai had forgotten to bring any extra spears. + +'Here's a pretty kettle of fish!' said Tegumai. 'It will take me half +the day to mend this.' + +'There's your big black spear at home,' said Taffy. 'Let me run back to +the Cave and ask Mummy to give it me.' + +'It's too far for your little fat legs,' said Tegumai. 'Besides, you +might fall into the beaver-swamp and be drowned. We must make the best +of a bad job.' He sat down and took out a little leather mendy-bag, full +of reindeer-sinews and strips of leather, and lumps of bee's-wax and +resin, and began to mend the spear. Taffy sat down too, with her toes in +the water and her chin in her hand, and thought very hard. Then she +said-- + +'I say, Daddy, it's an awful nuisance that you and I don't know how to +write, isn't it? If we did we could send a message for the new spear.' + +'Taffy,' said Tegumai, 'how often have I told you not to use slang? +"Awful" isn't a pretty word,--but it _would_ be a convenience, now you +mention it, if we could write home.' + +Just then a Stranger-man came along the river, but he belonged to a far +tribe, the Tewaras, and he did not understand one word of Tegumai's +language. He stood on the bank and smiled at Taffy, because he had a +little girl-daughter of his own at home. Tegumai drew a hank of +deer-sinews from his mendy-bag and began to mend his spear. + +'Come here,' said Taffy. 'Do you know where my Mummy lives?' And the +Stranger-man said 'Um!'--being, as you know, a Tewara. + +'Silly!' said Taffy, and she stamped her foot, because she saw a shoal +of very big carp going up the river just when her Daddy couldn't use his +spear. + +'Don't bother grown-ups,' said Tegumai, so busy with his spear-mending +that he did not turn round. + +'I aren't,' said Taffy. 'I only want him to do what I want him to do, +and he won't understand.' + +'Then don't bother me,' said Tegumai, and he went on pulling and +straining at the deer-sinews with his mouth full of loose ends. The +Stranger-man--a genuine Tewara he was--sat down on the grass, and Taffy +showed him what her Daddy was doing. The Stranger-man thought, 'This is +a very wonderful child. She stamps her foot at me and she makes faces. +She must be the daughter of that noble Chief who is so great that he +won't take any notice of me.' So he smiled more politely than ever. + +'Now,' said Taffy, 'I want you to go to my Mummy, because your legs are +longer than mine, and you won't fall into the beaver-swamp, and ask for +Daddy's other spear--the one with the black handle that hangs over our +fireplace.' + +The Stranger-man (_and_ he was a Tewara) thought, 'This is a very, very +wonderful child. She waves her arms and she shouts at me, but I don't +understand a word of what she says. But if I don't do what she wants, I +greatly fear that that haughty Chief, Man-who-turns-his-back-on-callers, +will be angry.' He got up and twisted a big flat piece of bark off a +birch-tree and gave it to Taffy. He did this, Best Beloved, to show that +his heart was as white as the birch-bark and that he meant no harm; but +Taffy didn't quite understand. + +'Oh!' said she. 'Now I see! You want my Mummy's living address? Of +course I can't write, but I can draw pictures if I've anything sharp to +scratch with. Please lend me the shark's tooth off your necklace.' + +The Stranger-man (and _he_ was a Tewara) didn't say anything, so Taffy +put up her little hand and pulled at the beautiful bead and seed and +shark-tooth necklace round his neck. + +The Stranger-man (and he _was_ a Tewara) thought, 'This is a very, +very, very wonderful child. The shark's tooth on my necklace is a +magic shark's tooth, and I was always told that if anybody touched +it without my leave they would immediately swell up or burst, but +this child doesn't swell up or burst, and that important Chief, +Man-who-attends-strictly-to-his-business, who has not yet taken any +notice of me at all, doesn't seem to be afraid that she will swell up or +burst. I had better be more polite.' + +So he gave Taffy the shark's tooth, and she lay down flat on her tummy +with her legs in the air, like some people on the drawing-room floor +when they want to draw pictures, and she said, 'Now I'll draw you some +beautiful pictures! You can look over my shoulder, but you mustn't +joggle. First I'll draw Daddy fishing. It isn't very like him; but Mummy +will know, because I've drawn his spear all broken. Well, now I'll draw +the other spear that he wants, the black-handled spear. It looks as if +it was sticking in Daddy's back, but that's because the shark's tooth +slipped and this piece of bark isn't big enough. That's the spear I want +you to fetch; so I'll draw a picture of me myself 'splaining to you. My +hair doesn't stand up like I've drawn, but it's easier to draw that way. +Now I'll draw you. _I_ think you're very nice really, but I can't make +you pretty in the picture, so you mustn't be 'fended. Are you 'fended?' + +The Stranger-man (and he was _a_ Tewara) smiled. He thought, 'There must +be a big battle going to be fought somewhere, and this extraordinary +child, who takes my magic shark's tooth but who does not swell up or +burst, is telling me to call all the great Chief's tribe to help him. He +_is_ a great Chief, or he would have noticed me.' + +'Look,' said Taffy, drawing very hard and rather scratchily, 'now I've +drawn you, and I've put the spear that Daddy wants into your hand, just +to remind you that you're to bring it. Now I'll show you how to find my +Mummy's living-address. You go along till you come to two trees (those +are trees), and then you go over a hill (that's a hill), and then you +come into a beaver-swamp all full of beavers. I haven't put in all the +beavers, because I can't draw beavers, but I've drawn their heads, and +that's all you'll see of them when you cross the swamp. Mind you don't +fall in! Then our Cave is just beyond the beaver-swamp. It isn't as high +as the hills really, but I can't draw things very small. That's my Mummy +outside. She is beautiful. She is the most beautifullest Mummy there +ever was, but she won't be 'fended when she sees I've drawn her so +plain. She'll be pleased of me because I can draw. Now, in case you +forget, I've drawn the spear that Daddy wants _outside_ our Cave. It's +_inside_ really, but you show the picture to my Mummy and she'll give it +you. I've made her holding up her hands, because I know she'll be so +pleased to see you. Isn't it a beautiful picture? And do you quite +understand, or shall I 'splain again?' + +The Stranger-man (and he was a _Tewara_) looked at the picture and +nodded very hard. He said to himself, 'If I do not fetch this great +Chief's tribe to help him, he will be slain by his enemies who are +coming up on all sides with spears. Now I see why the great Chief +pretended not to notice me! He feared that his enemies were hiding in +the bushes and would see him deliver a message to me. Therefore he +turned his back, and let the wise and wonderful child draw the terrible +picture showing me his difficulties. I will away and get help for him +from his tribe.' He did not even ask Taffy the road, but raced off into +the bushes like the wind, with the birch-bark in his hand, and Taffy sat +down most pleased. + +Now this is the picture that Taffy had drawn for him! + +[Illustration] + +'What have you been doing, Taffy?' said Tegumai. He had mended his spear +and was carefully waving it to and fro. + +'It's a little berangement of my own, Daddy dear,' said Taffy. 'If you +won't ask me questions, you'll know all about it in a little time, and +you'll be surprised. You don't know how surprised you'll be, Daddy! +Promise you'll be surprised.' + +'Very well,' said Tegumai, and went on fishing. + +The Stranger-man--did you know he was a Tewara?--hurried away with the +picture and ran for some miles, till quite by accident he found Teshumai +Tewindrow at the door of her Cave, talking to some other Neolithic +ladies who had come in to a Primitive lunch. Taffy was very like +Teshumai, especially about the upper part of the face and the eyes, so +the Stranger-man--always a pure Tewara--smiled politely and handed +Teshumai the birch-bark. He had run hard, so that he panted, and his +legs were scratched with brambles, but he still tried to be polite. + +As soon as Teshumai saw the picture she screamed like anything and flew +at the Stranger-man. The other Neolithic ladies at once knocked him down +and sat on him in a long line of six, while Teshumai pulled his hair. +'It's as plain as the nose on this Stranger-man's face,' she said. 'He +has stuck my Tegumai all full of spears, and frightened poor Taffy so +that her hair stands all on end; and not content with that, he brings me +a horrid picture of how it was done. Look!' She showed the picture to +all the Neolithic ladies sitting patiently on the Stranger-man. 'Here is +my Tegumai with his arm broken; here is a spear sticking into his back; +here is a man with a spear ready to throw; here is another man throwing +a spear from a Cave, and here are a whole pack of people' (they were +Taffy's beavers really, but they did look rather like people) 'coming up +behind Tegumai. Isn't it shocking!' + +'Most shocking!' said the Neolithic ladies, and they filled the +Stranger-man's hair with mud (at which he was surprised), and they beat +upon the Reverberating Tribal Drums, and called together all the chiefs +of the Tribe of Tegumai, with their Hetmans and Dolmans, all Neguses, +Woons, and Akhoonds of the organisation, in addition to the Warlocks, +Angekoks, Juju-men, Bonzes, and the rest, who decided that before they +chopped the Stranger-man's head off he should instantly lead them down +to the river and show them where he had hidden poor Taffy. + +By this time the Stranger-man (in spite of being a Tewara) was really +annoyed. They had filled his hair quite solid with mud; they had rolled +him up and down on knobby pebbles; they had sat upon him in a long line +of six; they had thumped him and bumped him till he could hardly +breathe; and though he did not understand their language, he was almost +sure that the names the Neolithic ladies called him were not ladylike. +However, he said nothing till all the Tribe of Tegumai were assembled, +and then he led them back to the bank of the Wagai river, and there they +found Taffy making daisy-chains, and Tegumai carefully spearing small +carp with his mended spear. + +'Well, you _have_ been quick!' said Taffy. 'But why did you bring so +many people? Daddy dear, this is my surprise. _Are_ you surprised, +Daddy?' + +'Very,' said Tegumai; 'but it has ruined all my fishing for the day. +Why, the whole dear, kind, nice, clean, quiet Tribe is here, Taffy.' + +And so they were. First of all walked Teshumai Tewindrow and the +Neolithic ladies, tightly holding on to the Stranger-man, whose hair was +full of mud (although he was a Tewara). Behind them came the Head Chief, +the Vice-Chief, the Deputy and Assistant Chiefs (all armed to the upper +teeth), the Hetmans and Heads of Hundreds, Platoffs with their Platoons, +and Dolmans with their Detachments; Woons, Neguses, and Akhoonds ranking +in the rear (still armed to the teeth). Behind them was the Tribe in +hierarchical order, from owners of four caves (one for each season), a +private reindeer-run, and two salmon-leaps, to feudal and prognathous +Villeins, semi-entitled to half a bearskin of winter nights, seven yards +from the fire, and adscript serfs, holding the reversion of a scraped +marrow-bone under heriot (Aren't those beautiful words, Best Beloved?). +They were all there, prancing and shouting, and they frightened every +fish for twenty miles, and Tegumai thanked them in a fluid Neolithic +oration. + +Then Teshumai Tewindrow ran down and kissed and hugged Taffy very much +indeed; but the Head Chief of the Tribe of Tegumai took Tegumai by the +top-knot feathers and shook him severely. + +'Explain! Explain! Explain!' cried all the Tribe of Tegumai. + +'Goodness' sakes alive!' said Tegumai. 'Let go of my top-knot. Can't a +man break his carp-spear without the whole countryside descending on +him? You're a very interfering people.' + +'I don't believe you've brought my Daddy's black-handled spear after +all,' said Taffy. 'And what _are_ you doing to my nice Stranger-man?' + +They were thumping him by twos and threes and tens till his eyes turned +round and round. He could only gasp and point at Taffy. + +'Where are the bad people who speared you, my darling?' said Teshumai +Tewindrow. + +'There weren't any,' said Tegumai. 'My only visitor this morning was the +poor fellow that you are trying to choke. Aren't you well, or are you +ill, O Tribe of Tegumai?' + +'He came with a horrible picture,' said the Head Chief,--'a picture that +showed you were full of spears.' + +'Er--um--Pr'aps I'd better 'splain that I gave him that picture,' said +Taffy, but she did not feel quite comfy. + +'You!' said the Tribe of Tegumai all together. +'Small-person-with-no-manners-who-ought-to-be-spanked! You?' + +'Taffy dear, I'm afraid we're in for a little trouble,' said her Daddy, +and put his arm round her, so she didn't care. + +'Explain! Explain! Explain!' said the Head Chief of the Tribe of +Tegumai, and he hopped on one foot. + +'I wanted the Stranger-man to fetch Daddy's spear, so I drawded it,' +said Taffy. 'There wasn't lots of spears. There was only one spear. I +drawded it three times to make sure. I couldn't help it looking as if it +stuck into Daddy's head--there wasn't room on the birch-bark; and those +things that Mummy called bad people are my beavers. I drawded them to +show him the way through the swamp; and I drawded Mummy at the mouth of +the Cave looking pleased because he is a nice Stranger-man, and _I_ +think you are just the stupidest people in the world,' said Taffy. 'He +is a very nice man. Why have you filled his hair with mud? Wash him!' + +Nobody said anything at all for a long time, till the Head Chief +laughed; then the Stranger-man (who was at least a Tewara) laughed; then +Tegumai laughed till he fell down flat on the bank; then all the Tribe +laughed more and worse and louder. The only people who did not laugh +were Teshumai Tewindrow and all the Neolithic ladies. They were very +polite to all their husbands, and said 'idiot!' ever so often. + +Then the Head Chief of the Tribe of Tegumai cried and said and sang, 'O +Small-person-without-any-manners-who-ought-to-be-spanked, you've hit +upon a great invention!' + +'I didn't intend to; I only wanted Daddy's black-handled spear,' said +Taffy. + +'Never mind. It _is_ a great invention, and some day men will call it +writing. At present it is only pictures, and, as we have seen to-day, +pictures are not always properly understood. But a time will come, O +Babe of Tegumai, when we shall make letters--all twenty-six of 'em,--and +when we shall be able to read as well as to write, and then we shall +always say exactly what we mean without any mistakes. Let the Neolithic +ladies wash the mud out of the stranger's hair. + +'I shall be glad of that,' said Taffy, 'because, after all, though +you've brought every single other spear in the Tribe of Tegumai, you've +forgotten my Daddy's black-handled spear.' + +Then the Head Chief cried and said and sang, 'Taffy dear, the next time +you write a picture-letter, you'd better send a man who can talk our +language with it, to explain what it means. I don't mind it myself, +because I am a Head Chief, but it's very bad for the rest of the Tribe +of Tegumai, and, as you can see, it surprises the stranger.' + +Then they adopted the Stranger-man (a genuine Tewara of Tewar) into the +Tribe of Tegumai, because he was a gentleman and did not make a fuss +about the mud that the Neolithic ladies had put into his hair. But from +that day to this (and I suppose it is all Taffy's fault), very few +little girls have ever liked learning to read or write. Most of them +prefer to draw pictures and play about with their Daddies--just like +Taffy. + +[Illustration: THIS is the story of Taffimai Metallumai carved on an +old tusk a very long time ago by the Ancient Peoples. If you read my +story, or have it read to you, you can see how it is all told out on the +tusk. The tusk was part of an old tribal trumpet that belonged to the +Tribe of Tegumai. The pictures were scratched on it with a nail or +something, and then the scratches were filled up with black wax, but all +the dividing lines and the five little rounds at the bottom were filled +with red wax. When it was new there was a sort of network of beads and +shells and precious stones at one end of it; but now that has been +broken and lost--all except the little bit that you see. The letters +round the tusk are magic--Runic magic,--and if you can read them you +will find out something rather new. The tusk is of ivory--very yellow +and scratched. It is two feet long and two feet round, and weighs eleven +pounds nine ounces.] + + + THERE runs a road by Merrow Down-- + A grassy track to-day it is-- + An hour out of Guildford town, + Above the river Wey it is. + + Here, when they heard the horse-bells ring, + The ancient Britons dressed and rode + To watch the dark Phoenicians bring + Their goods along the Western Road. + + And here, or hereabouts, they met + To hold their racial talks and such-- + To barter beads for Whitby jet, + And tin for gay shell torques and such. + + But long and long before that time + (When bison used to roam on it) + Did Taffy and her Daddy climb + That down, and had their home on it. + + Then beavers built in Broadstonebrook + And made a swamp where Bramley stands: + And bears from Shere would come and look + For Taffimai where Shamley stands. + + The Wey, that Taffy called Wagai, + Was more than six times bigger then; + And all the Tribe of Tegumai + They cut a noble figure then! + +[Illustration: How the Alphabet Was Made] + + + + +HOW THE ALPHABET WAS MADE + + +THE week after Taffimai Metallumai (we will still call her Taffy, Best +Beloved) made that little mistake about her Daddy's spear and the +Stranger-man and the picture-letter and all, she went carp-fishing again +with her Daddy. Her Mummy wanted her to stay at home and help hang up +hides to dry on the big drying-poles outside their Neolithic Cave, but +Taffy slipped away down to her Daddy quite early, and they fished. +Presently she began to giggle, and her Daddy said, 'Don't be silly, +child.' + +'But wasn't it inciting!' said Taffy. 'Don't you remember how the Head +Chief puffed out his cheeks, and how funny the nice Stranger-man looked +with the mud in his hair?' + +'Well do I,' said Tegumai. 'I had to pay two deerskins--soft ones with +fringes--to the Stranger-man for the things we did to him.' + +'_We_ didn't do anything,' said Taffy. 'It was Mummy and the other +Neolithic ladies--and the mud.' + +'We won't talk about that,' said her Daddy. 'Let's have lunch.' + +Taffy took a marrow-bone and sat mousy-quiet for ten whole minutes, +while her Daddy scratched on pieces of birch-bark with a shark's tooth. +Then she said, 'Daddy, I've thinked of a secret surprise. You make a +noise--any sort of noise.' + +'Ah!' said Tegumai. 'Will that do to begin with?' + +'Yes,' said Taffy. 'You look just like a carp-fish with its mouth open. +Say it again, please.' + +'Ah! ah! ah!' said her Daddy. 'Don't be rude, my daughter.' + +'I'm not meaning rude, really and truly,' said Taffy. 'It's part of my +secret-surprise-think. _Do_ say _ah_, Daddy, and keep your mouth open at +the end, and lend me that tooth. I'm going to draw a carp-fish's mouth +wide-open.' + +'What for?' said her Daddy. + +'Don't you see?' said Taffy, scratching away on the bark. 'That will be +our little secret s'prise. When I draw a carp-fish with his mouth open +in the smoke at the back of our Cave--if Mummy doesn't mind--it will +remind you of that ah-noise. Then we can play that it was me jumped out +of the dark and s'prised you with that noise--same as I did in the +beaver-swamp last winter.' + +'Really?' said her Daddy, in the voice that grown-ups use when they are +truly attending. 'Go on, Taffy.' + +[Illustration: 1] + +'Oh bother!' she said. 'I can't draw all of a carp-fish, but I can draw +something that means a carp-fish's mouth. Don't you know how they stand +on their heads rooting in the mud? Well, here's a pretence carp-fish (we +can play that the rest of him is drawn). Here's just his mouth, and that +means _ah_.' And she drew this. (1.) + +'That's not bad,' said Tegumai, and scratched on his own piece of bark +for himself; but you've forgotten the feeler that hangs across his +mouth.' + +'But I can't draw, Daddy.' + +'You needn't draw anything of him except just the opening of his mouth +and the feeler across. Then we'll know he's a carp-fish, 'cause the +perches and trouts haven't got feelers. Look here, Taffy.' And he drew +this. (2.) + +[Illustration: 2] + +'Now I'll copy it.' said Taffy. 'Will you understand _this_ when you see +it?' And she drew this. (3.) + +[Illustration: 3] + +'Perfectly,' said her Daddy. 'And I'll be quite as s'prised when I see +it anywhere, as if you had jumped out from behind a tree and said "Ah!"' + +'Now, make another noise,' said Taffy, very proud. + +'Yah!' said her Daddy, very loud. + +'H'm,' said Taffy. 'That's a mixy noise. The end part is +_ah_-carp-fish-mouth; but what can we do about the front part? +_Yer-yer-yer_ and _ah! Ya!'_ + +'It's very like the carp-fish-mouth noise. Let's draw another bit of the +carp-fish and join 'em,' said her Daddy. _He_ was quite incited too. + +'No. If they're joined, I'll forget. Draw it separate. Draw his tail. If +he's standing on his head the tail will come first. 'Sides, I think I +can draw tails easiest,' said Taffy. + +'A good notion,' said Tegumai. 'Here's a carp-fish tail for the +_yer_-noise.' And he drew this. (4.) + +[Illustration: 4] + +'I'll try now,' said Taffy. ''Member I can't draw like you, Daddy. Will +it do if I just draw the split part of the tail, and the sticky-down +line for where it joins?' And she drew this. (5.) + +[Illustration: 5] + +Her Daddy nodded, and his eyes were shiny bright with 'citement. + +'That's beautiful,' she said. 'Now make another noise, Daddy.' + +'Oh!' said her Daddy, very loud. + +'That's quite easy,' said Taffy. 'You make your mouth all around like an +egg or a stone. So an egg or a stone will do for that.' + +'You can't always find eggs or stones. We'll have to scratch a round +something like one.' And he drew this. (6.) + +[Illustration: 6] + +'My gracious!' said Taffy, 'what a lot of noise-pictures we've +made,--carp-mouth, carp-tail, and egg! Now, make another noise, Daddy.' + +'Ssh!' said her Daddy, and frowned to himself, but Taffy was too incited +to notice. + +'That's quite easy,' she said, scratching on the bark. + +'Eh, what?' said her Daddy. 'I meant I was thinking, and didn't want to +be disturbed.' + +'It's a noise just the same. It's the noise a snake makes, Daddy, when +it is thinking and doesn't want to be disturbed. Let's make the +_ssh_-noise a snake. Will this do?' And she drew this. (7.) + +[Illustration: 7] + +'There,' she said. 'That's another s'prise-secret. When you draw a +hissy-snake by the door of your little back-cave where you mend the +spears, I'll know you're thinking hard; and I'll come in most +mousy-quiet. And if you draw it on a tree by the river when you're +fishing, I'll know you want me to walk most _most_ mousy-quiet, so as +not to shake the banks.' + +'Perfectly true,' said Tegumai. 'And there's more in this game than you +think. Taffy, dear, I've a notion that your Daddy's daughter has hit +upon the finest thing that there ever was since the Tribe of Tegumai +took to using shark's teeth instead of flints for their spear-heads. I +believe we've found out _the_ big secret of the world.' + +'Why?' said Taffy, and her eyes shone too with incitement. + +'I'll show,' said her Daddy. 'What's water in the Tegumai language?' + +'_Ya_, of course, and it means river too--like Wagai-_ya_--the Wagai +river.' + +'What is bad water that gives you fever if you drink it--black +water--swamp-water?' + +'_Yo_, of course.' + +'Now look,' said her Daddy. 'S'pose you saw this scratched by the side +of a pool in the beaver-swamp?' And he drew this. (8.) + +[Illustration: 8] + +'Carp-tail and round egg. Two noises mixed! _Yo_, bad water,' said +Taffy. ''Course I wouldn't drink that water because I'd know you said it +was bad.' + +'But I needn't be near the water at all. I might be miles away, hunting, +and still----' + +'And _still_ it would be just the same as if you stood there and said, +"G'way, Taffy, or you'll get fever." All that in a carp-fish-tail and a +round egg! O Daddy, we must tell Mummy, quick!' and Taffy danced all +round him. + +'Not yet,' said Tegumai; 'not till we've gone a little further. Let's +see. _Yo_ is bad water, but _so_ is food cooked on the fire, isn't it?' +And he drew this. (9.) + +[Illustration: 9] + +'Yes. Snake and egg,' said Taffy 'So that means dinner's ready. If you +saw that scratched on a tree you'd know it was time to come to the Cave. +So'd I.' + +'My Winkie!' said Tegumai. 'That's true too. But wait a minute. I see a +difficulty. _So_ means "come and have dinner," but _sho_ means the +drying-poles where we hang our hides.' + +'Horrid old drying-poles!' said Taffy. 'I hate helping to hang heavy, +hot, hairy hides on them. If you drew the snake and egg, and I thought +it meant dinner, and I came in from the wood and found that it meant I +was to help Mummy hang the two hides on the drying-poles, what _would_ I +do?' + +'You'd be cross. So'd Mummy. We must make a new picture for _sho_. We +must draw a spotty snake that hisses _sh-sh_, and we'll play that the +plain snake only hisses _ssss_.' + +'I couldn't be sure how to put in the spots,' said Taffy. 'And p'raps if +_you_ were in a hurry you might leave them out, and I'd think it was +_so_ when it was _sho_, and then Mummy would catch me just the same. +_No!_ I think we'd better draw a picture of the horrid high drying-poles +their very selves, and make _quite_ sure. I'll put them in just after +the hissy-snake. Look!' And she drew this. (10.) + +[Illustration: 10] + +'P'raps that's safest. It's very like our drying-poles, anyhow,' said +her Daddy, laughing. 'Now I'll make a new noise with a snake and +drying-pole sound in it. I'll say _shi_. That's Tegumai for spear, +Taffy.' And he laughed. + +'Don't make fun of me,' said Taffy, as she thought of her +picture-letter and the mud in the Stranger-man's hair. '_You_ draw it, +Daddy.' + +'We won't have beavers or hills this time, eh?' said her Daddy. 'I'll +just draw a straight line for my spear.' and he drew this, (11.) + +[Illustration: 11] + +'Even Mummy couldn't mistake that for me being killed.' + +'_Please_ don't, Daddy. It makes me uncomfy. Do some more noises. We're +getting on beautifully.' + +'Er-hm!' said Tegumai, looking up. 'We'll say _shu_. That means sky.' + +Taffy drew the snake and the drying-pole. Then she stopped. 'We must +make a new picture for that end sound, mustn't we?' + +'_Shu-shu-u-u-u!_' said her Daddy. 'Why, it's just like the +round-egg-sound made thin.' + +'Then s'pose we draw a thin round egg, and pretend it's a frog that +hasn't eaten anything for years.' + +'N-no,' said her Daddy. 'If we drew that in a hurry we might mistake it +for the round egg itself. _Shu-shu-shu!_ _I'll_ tell you what we'll do. +We'll open a little hole at the end of the round egg to show how the +O-noise runs out all thin, _ooo-oo-oo_. Like this.' And he drew this. +(12.) + +[Illustration: 12] + +'Oh, that's lovely! Much better than a thin frog. Go on,' said Taffy, +using her shark's tooth. + +Her Daddy went on drawing, and his hand shook with excitement. He went +on till he had drawn this. (13.) + +[Illustration: 13] + +'Don't look up, Taffy,' he said. 'Try if you can make out what that +means in the Tegumai language. If you can, we've found the Secret.' + +'Snake--pole--broken-egg--carp-tail and carp-mouth,' said Taffy. +'_Shu-ya._ Sky-water (rain).' Just then a drop fell on her hand, for the +day had clouded over. 'Why, Daddy, it's raining. Was _that_ what you +meant to tell me?' + +'Of course,' said her Daddy. 'And I told it you without saying a word, +didn't I?' + +'Well, I _think_ I would have known it in a minute, but that raindrop +made me quite sure. I'll always remember now. _Shu-ya_ means rain or "it +is going to rain." Why, Daddy!' She got up and danced round him. 'S'pose +you went out before I was awake, and drawed _shu-ya_ in the smoke on the +wall, I'd know it was going to rain and I'd take my beaver-skin hood. +Wouldn't Mummy be surprised!' + +Tegumai got up and danced. (Daddies didn't mind doing those things in +those days.) 'More than that! More than that!' he said. 'S'pose I wanted +to tell you it wasn't going to rain much and you must come down to the +river, what would we draw? Say the words in Tegumai-talk first.' + +'_Shu-ya-las, ya maru._ (Sky-water ending. River come to.) _What_ a lot +of new sounds! _I_ don't see how we can draw them.' + +'But I do--but I do!' said Tegumai. 'Just attend a minute, Taffy, and we +won't do any more to-day. We've got _shu-ya_ all right, haven't we? but +this _las_ is a teaser. _La-la-la!'_ and he waved his shark-tooth. + +'There's the hissy-snake at the end and the carp-mouth before the +snake--_as-as-as_. We only want _la-la_,' said Taffy. + +'I know it, but we have to make la-la. And we're the first people in all +the world who've ever tried to do it, Taffimai!' + +'Well,' said Taffy, yawning, for she was rather tired. '_Las_ means +breaking or finishing as well as ending, doesn't it?' + +'So it does,' said Tegumai. '_Yo-las_ means that there's no water in the +tank for Mummy to cook with--just when I'm going hunting, too.' + +'And _shi-las_ means that your spear is broken. If I'd only thought of +_that_ instead of drawing silly beaver pictures for the Stranger!' + +'_La! La! La!_' said Tegumai, waving his stick and frowning. 'Oh +bother!' + +'I could have drawn _shi_ quite easily,' Taffy went on. 'Then I'd have +drawn your spear all broken--this way!' And she drew. (14.) + +[Illustration: 14] + +[Illustration: 15] + +[Illustration: 16] + +'The very thing,' said Tegumai. 'That's _la_ all over. It isn't like any +of the other marks, either.' And he drew this. (15.) + +'Now for _ya_. Oh, we've done that before. Now for _maru_. +_Mum-mum-mum_. _Mum_ shuts one's mouth up, doesn't it? We'll draw a shut +mouth like this.' And he drew. (16.) + +'Then the carp-mouth open. That makes _Ma-ma-ma!_ But what about this +_rrrrr_-thing, Taffy?' + +'It sounds all rough and edgy, like your shark-tooth saw when you're +cutting out a plank for the canoe,' said Taffy. + +'You mean all sharp at the edges, like this?' said Tegumai. And he drew. +(17.) + +[Illustration: 17] + +''Xactly,' said Taffy. 'But we don't want all those teeth: only put +two.' + +'I'll only put in one,' said Tegumai. 'If this game of ours is going to +be what I think it will, the easier we make our sound-pictures the +better for everybody.' And he drew. (18.) + +[Illustration: 18] + +'_Now_ we've got it,' said Tegumai, standing on one leg. 'I'll draw 'em +all in a string like fish.' + +'Hadn't we better put a little bit of stick or something between each +word, so's they won't rub up against each other and jostle, same as if +they were carps?' + +'Oh, I'll leave a space for that,' said her Daddy. And very incitedly he +drew them all without stopping, on a big new bit of birch-bark. (19.) + +'_Shu-ya-las ya-maru_,' said Taffy, reading it out sound by sound. + +[Illustration] + +'That's enough for to-day,' said Tegumai. 'Besides, you're getting +tired, Taffy. Never mind, dear. We'll finish it all to-morrow, and then +we'll be remembered for years and years after the biggest trees you can +see are all chopped up for firewood.' + +So they went home, and all that evening Tegumai sat on one side of the +fire and Taffy on the other, drawing _ya's_ and _yo's_ and _shu's_ and +_shi's_ in the smoke on the wall and giggling together till her Mummy +said, 'Really, Tegumai, you're worse than my Taffy.' + +'Please don't mind,' said Taffy. 'It's only our secret-s'prise, Mummy +dear, and we'll tell you all about it the very minute it's done; but +_please_ don't ask me what it is now, or else I'll have to tell.' + +So her Mummy most carefully didn't; and bright and early next morning +Tegumai went down to the river to think about new sound-pictures, and +when Taffy got up she saw _Ya-las_ (water is ending or running out) +chalked on the side of the big stone water-tank, outside the Cave. + +'Um,' said Taffy. 'These picture-sounds are rather a bother! Daddy's +just as good as come here himself and told me to get more water for +Mummy to cook with.' She went to the spring at the back of the house and +filled the tank from a bark bucket, and then she ran down to the river +and pulled her Daddy's left ear--the one that belonged to her to pull +when she was good. + +'Now come along and we'll draw all the left-over sound-pictures,' said +her Daddy, and they had a most inciting day of it, and a beautiful lunch +in the middle, and two games of romps. When they came to T, Taffy said +that as her name, and her Daddy's, and her Mummy's all began with that +sound, they should draw a sort of family group of themselves holding +hands. That was all very well to draw once or twice; but when it came to +drawing it six or seven times, Taffy and Tegumai drew it scratchier and +scratchier, till at last the T-sound was only a thin long Tegumai with +his arms out to hold Taffy and Teshumai. You can see from these three +pictures partly how it happened. (20, 21, 22.) + +[Illustration: 20] + +[Illustration: 21] + +[Illustration: 22] + +[Illustration: 23] + +[Illustration: 24] + +[Illustration: 25] + +[Illustration: 26] + +[Illustration: 27] + +Many of the other pictures were much too beautiful to begin with, +especially before lunch, but as they were drawn over and over again on +birch-bark, they became plainer and easier, till at last even Tegumai +said he could find no fault with them. They turned the hissy-snake the +other way round for the Z-sound, to show it was hissing backwards in a +soft and gentle way (23); and they just made a twiddle for E, because it +came into the pictures so often (24); and they drew pictures of the +sacred Beaver of the Tegumais for the B-sound (25, 26, 27, 28); and +because it was a nasty, nosy noise, they just drew noses for the +N-sound, till they were tired (29); and they drew a picture of the big +lake-pike's mouth for the greedy Ga-sound (30); and they drew the pike's +mouth again with a spear behind it for the scratchy, hurty Ka-sound +(31); and they drew pictures of a little bit of the winding Wagai river +for the nice windy-windy Wa-sound (32, 33); and so on and so forth and +so following till they had done and drawn all the sound-pictures that +they wanted, and there was the Alphabet, all complete. + +[Illustration: 28] + +[Illustration: 29] + +[Illustration: 30] + +[Illustration: 31] + +[Illustration: 32] + +[Illustration: 33] + +And after thousands and thousands and thousands of years, and after +Hieroglyphics and Demotics, and Nilotics, and Cryptics, and Cufics, and +Runics, and Dorics, and Ionics, and all sorts of other ricks and tricks +(because the Woons, and the Neguses, and the Akhoonds, and the +Repositories of Tradition would never leave a good thing alone when they +saw it), the fine old easy, understandable Alphabet--A, B, C, D, E, and +the rest of 'em--got back into its proper shape again for all Best +Beloveds to learn when they are old enough. + +But _I_ remember Tegumai Bopsulai, and Taffimai Metallumai and +Teshumai Tewindrow, her dear Mummy, and all the days gone by. And it was +so--just so--a little time ago--on the banks of the big Wagai! + + ONE of the first things that Tegumai Bopsulai did + after Taffy and he had made the Alphabet was to + make a magic Alphabet-necklace of all the letters, + so that it could be put in the Temple of Tegumai + and kept for ever and ever. All the Tribe of + Tegumai brought their most precious beads and + beautiful things, and Taffy and Tegumai spent five + whole years getting the necklace in order. This is + a picture of the magic Alphabet-necklace. The + string was made of the finest and strongest + reindeer-sinew, bound round with thin copper wire. + + Beginning at the top, the first bead is an old + silver one that belonged to the Head Priest of the + Tribe of Tegumai; then come three black + mussel-pearls; next is a clay bead (blue and + gray); next a nubbly gold bead sent as a present + by a tribe who got it from Africa (but it must + have been Indian really); the next is a long + flat-sided glass bead from Africa (the Tribe of + Tegumai took it in a fight); then come two clay + beads (white and green), with dots on one, and + dots and bands on the other; next are three rather + chipped amber beads; then three clay beads (red + and white), two with dots, and the big one in the + middle with a toothed pattern. Then the letters + begin, and between each letter is a little whitish + clay bead with the letter repeated small. Here are + the letters-- + + A is scratched on a tooth--an elk-tusk I think. + + B is the Sacred Beaver of Tegumai on a bit of old glory. + + C is a pearly oyster-shell--inside front. + + D must be a sort of mussel-shell--outside front. + + E is a twist of silver wire. + + F is broken, but what remains of it is a bit of stag's horn. + + G is painted black on a piece of wood. (The bead after G is a small + shell, and not a clay bead. I don't know why they did that.) + + H is a kind of a big brown cowie-shell. + + I is the inside part of a long shell ground down by hand. (It took + Tegumai three months to grind it down.) + + J is a fish hook in mother-of-pearl. + + L is the broken spear in silver. (K ought to follow J of course, but + the necklace was broken once and they mended it wrong.) + + K is a thin slice of bone scratched and rubbed in black. + + M is on a pale gray shell. + + N is a piece of what is called porphyry with a nose scratched on it. + (Tegumai spent five months polishing this stone.) + + O is a piece of oyster-shell with a hole in the middle. + + P and Q are missing. They were lost, a long time ago, in a great + war, and the tribe mended the necklace with the dried rattles of + a rattlesnake, but no one ever found P and Q. That is how the + saying began, 'You must mind your P's. and Q's.' + + R is, of course, just a shark's tooth. + + S is a little silver snake. + + T is the end of a small bone, polished brown and shiny. + + U is another piece of oyster-shell. + + W is a twisty piece of mother-of-pearl that they found inside a big + mother-of-pearl shell, and sawed off with a wire dipped in sand + and water. It took Taffy a month and a half to polish it and drill + the holes. + + X is silver wire joined in the middle with a raw garnet. (Taffy + found the garnet.) + + Y is the carp's tail in ivory. + + Z is a bell-shaped piece of agate marked with Z-shaped stripes. They + made the Z-snake out of one of the stripes by picking out the soft + stone and rubbing in red sand and bee's-wax. Just in the mouth of + the bell you see the clay bead repeating the Z-letter. + + These are all the letters. + + The next bead is a small round greeny lump of + copper ore; the next is a lump of rough turquoise; + the next is a rough gold nugget (what they call + water-gold); the next is a melon-shaped clay bead + (white with green spots). Then come four flat ivory + pieces, with dots on them rather like dominoes; + then come three stone beads, very badly worn; then + two soft iron beads with rust-holes at the edges + (they must have been magic, because they look very + common); and last is a very very old African bead, + like glass--blue, red, white, black, and yellow. + Then comes the loop to slip over the big silver + button at the other end, and that is all. + + I have copied the necklace very carefully. It + weighs one pound seven and a half ounces. The black + squiggle behind is only put in to make the beads + and things look better. + +[Illustration] + + + OF all the Tribe of Tegumai + Who cut that figure, none remain,-- + On Merrow Down the cuckoos cry-- + The silence and the sun remain. + + But as the faithful years return + And hearts unwounded sing again, + Comes Taffy dancing through the fern + To lead the Surrey spring again. + + Her brows are bound with bracken-fronds, + And golden elf-locks fly above; + Her eyes are bright as diamonds + And bluer than the skies above. + + In mocassins and deer-skin cloak, + Unfearing, free and fair she flits, + And lights her little damp-wood smoke + To show her Daddy where she flits. + + For far--oh, very far behind, + So far she cannot call to him, + Comes Tegumai alone to find + The daughter that was all to him. + +[Illustration: The Crab that Played With the Sea] + + + + +THE CRAB THAT PLAYED WITH THE SEA + + +BEFORE the High and Far-Off Times, O my Best Beloved, came +the Time of the Very Beginnings; and that was in the days when +the Eldest Magician was getting Things ready. First he got the +Earth ready; then he got the Sea ready; and then he told all the +Animals that they could come out and play. And the Animals said, +'O Eldest Magician, what shall we play at?' and he said, 'I will +show you.' He took the Elephant--All-the-Elephant-there-was--and +said, 'Play at being an Elephant,' and All-the-Elephant-there-was +played. He took the Beaver--All-the-Beaver-there-was--and said, +'Play at being a Beaver,' and All-the-Beaver-there-was played. +He took the Cow--All-the-Cow-there-was--and said, 'Play at +being a Cow,' and All-the-Cow-there-was played. He took the +Turtle--All-the-Turtle-there-was--and said, 'Play at being a +Turtle,' and All-the-Turtle-there-was played. One by one he took +all the beasts and birds and fishes and told them what to play at. + +But towards evening, when people and things grow restless and tired, +there came up the Man (With his own little girl-daughter?)--Yes, with +his own best beloved little girl-daughter sitting upon his shoulder, and +he said, 'What is this play, Eldest Magician?' And the Eldest Magician +said, 'Ho, Son of Adam, this is the play of the Very Beginning; but you +are too wise for this play.' And the Man saluted and said, 'Yes, I am +too wise for this play; but see that you make all the Animals obedient +to me.' + +Now, while the two were talking together, Pau Amma the Crab, who was +next in the game, scuttled off sideways and stepped into the sea, saying +to himself, 'I will play my play alone in the deep waters, and I will +never be obedient to this son of Adam.' Nobody saw him go away except +the little girl-daughter where she leaned on the Man's shoulder. And the +play went on till there were no more Animals left without orders; and +the Eldest Magician wiped the fine dust off his hands and walked about +the world to see how the Animals were playing. + +He went North, Best Beloved, and he found All-the-Elephant-there-was +digging with his tusks and stamping with his feet in the nice new clean +earth that had been made ready for him. + +'_Kun?_' said All-the-Elephant-there-was, meaning, 'Is this right?' + +'_Payah kun_,' said the Eldest Magician, meaning, 'That is quite right'; +and he breathed upon the great rocks and lumps of earth that +All-the-Elephant-there-was had thrown up, and they became the great +Himalayan Mountains, and you can look them out on the map. + +He went East, and he found All-the-Cow-there-was feeding in the field +that had been made ready for her, and she licked her tongue round a +whole forest at a time, and swallowed it and sat down to chew her cud. + +[Illustration: THIS is a picture of Pau Amma the Crab running away +while the Eldest Magician was talking to the Man and his Little Girl +Daughter. The Eldest Magician is sitting on his magic throne, wrapped up +in his Magic Cloud. The three flowers in front of him are the three +Magic Flowers. On the top of the hill you can see +All-the-Elephant-there-was, and All-the-Cow-there-was, and +All-the-Turtle-there-was going off to play as the Eldest Magician told +them. The Cow has a hump, because she was All-the-Cow-there-was; so she +had to have all there was for all the cows that were made afterwards. +Under the hill there are Animals who have been taught the game they were +to play. You can see All-the-Tiger-there-was smiling at +All-the-Bones-there-were, and you can see All-the-Elk-there-was, and +All-the-Parrot-there-was, and All-the-Bunnies-there-were on the hill. +The other Animals are on the other side of the hill, so I haven't drawn +them. The little house up the hill is All-the-House-there-was. The +Eldest Magician made it to show the Man how to make houses when he +wanted to. The Snake round that spiky hill is All-the-Snake-there-was, +and he is talking to All-the-Monkey-there-was, and the Monkey is being +rude to the Snake, and the Snake is being rude to the Monkey. The Man is +very busy talking to the Eldest Magician. The Little Girl Daughter is +looking at Pau Amma as he runs away. That humpy thing in the water in +front is Pau Amma. He wasn't a common Crab in those days. He was a King +Crab. That is why he looks different. The thing that looks like bricks +that the Man is standing in, is the Big Miz-Maze. When the Man has done +talking with the Eldest Magician he will walk in the Big Miz-Maze, +because he has to. The mark on the stone under the Man's foot is a magic +mark; and down underneath I have drawn the three Magic Flowers all mixed +up with the Magic Cloud. All this picture is Big Medicine and Strong +Magic.] + +'_Kun?_' said All-the-Cow-there-was. + +'_Payah kun_,' said the Eldest Magician; and he breathed upon the bare +patch where she had eaten, and upon the place where she had sat down, +and one became the great Indian Desert, and the other became the Desert +of Sahara, and you can look them out on the map. + +He went West, and he found All-the-Beaver-there-was making a beaver-dam +across the mouths of broad rivers that had been got ready for him. + +'_Kun?_' said All-the-Beaver-there-was. + +'_Payah kun_,' said the Eldest Magician; and he breathed upon the fallen +trees and the still water, and they became the Everglades in Florida, +and you may look them out on the map. + +Then he went South and found All-the-Turtle-there-was scratching with +his flippers in the sand that had been got ready for him, and the sand +and the rocks whirled through the air and fell far off into the sea. + +'_Kun?_' said All-the-Turtle-there-was. + +'_Payah kun_,' said the Eldest Magician; and he breathed upon the sand +and the rocks, where they had fallen in the sea, and they became the +most beautiful islands of Borneo, Celebes, Sumatra, Java, and the rest +of the Malay Archipelago, and you can look _them_ out on the map! + +By and by the Eldest Magician met the Man on the banks of the Perak +river, and said, 'Ho! Son of Adam, are all the Animals obedient to you?' + +'Yes,' said the Man. + +'Is all the Earth obedient to you?' + +'Yes,' said the Man. + +'Is all the Sea obedient to you?' + +'No,' said the Man. 'Once a day and once a night the Sea runs up the +Perak river and drives the sweet-water back into the forest, so that my +house is made wet; once a day and once a night it runs down the river +and draws all the water after it, so that there is nothing left but mud, +and my canoe is upset. Is that the play you told it to play?' + +'No,' said the Eldest Magician. 'That is a new and a bad play.' + +'Look!' said the Man, and as he spoke the great Sea came up the mouth of +the Perak river, driving the river backwards till it overflowed all the +dark forests for miles and miles, and flooded the Man's house. + +'This is wrong. Launch your canoe and we will find out who is playing +with the Sea,' said the Eldest Magician. They stepped into the canoe; +the little girl-daughter came with them; and the Man took his _kris_--a +curving, wavy dagger with a blade like a flame,--and they pushed out on +the Perak river. Then the sea began to run back and back, and the canoe +was sucked out of the mouth of the Perak river, past Selangor, past +Malacca, past Singapore, out and out to the Island of Bingtang, as +though it had been pulled by a string. + +Then the Eldest Magician stood up and shouted, 'Ho! beasts, birds, and +fishes, that I took between my hands at the Very Beginning and taught +the play that you should play, which one of you is playing with the +Sea?' + +Then all the beasts, birds, and fishes said together, 'Eldest Magician, +we play the plays that you taught us to play--we and our children's +children. But not one of us plays with the Sea.' + +Then the Moon rose big and full over the water, and the Eldest Magician +said to the hunchbacked old man who sits in the Moon spinning a +fishing-line with which he hopes one day to catch the world, 'Ho! Fisher +of the Moon, are you playing with the Sea?' + +'No,' said the Fisherman, 'I am spinning a line with which I shall some +day catch the world; but I do not play with the Sea.' And he went on +spinning his line. + +Now there is also a Rat up in the Moon who always bites the old +Fisherman's line as fast as it is made, and the Eldest Magician said to +him, 'Ho! Rat of the Moon, are _you_ playing with the Sea?' + +And the Rat said, 'I am too busy biting through the line that this old +Fisherman is spinning. I do not play with the Sea.' And he went on +biting the line. + +Then the little girl-daughter put up her little soft brown arms with the +beautiful white shell bracelets and said, 'O Eldest Magician! when my +father here talked to you at the Very Beginning, and I leaned upon his +shoulder while the beasts were being taught their plays, one beast went +away naughtily into the Sea before you had taught him his play.' + +And the Eldest Magician said, 'How wise are little children who see and +are silent! What was the beast like?' + +And the little girl-daughter said, 'He was round and he was flat; and +his eyes grew upon stalks; and he walked sideways like this; and he was +covered with strong armour upon his back.' + +And the Eldest Magician said, 'How wise are little children who speak +truth! Now I know where Pau Amma went. Give me the paddle!' + +So he took the paddle; but there was no need to paddle, for the water +flowed steadily past all the islands till they came to the place called +Pusat Tasek--the Heart of the Sea--where the great hollow is that leads +down to the heart of the world, and in that hollow grows the Wonderful +Tree, Pauh Janggi, that bears the magic twin nuts. Then the Eldest +Magician slid his arm up to the shoulder through the deep warm water, +and under the roots of the Wonderful Tree he touched the broad back of +Pau Amma the Crab. And Pau Amma settled down at the touch, and all the +Sea rose up as water rises in a basin when you put your hand into it. + +'Ah!' said the Eldest Magician. 'Now I know who has been playing with +the Sea;' and he called out, 'What are you doing, Pau Amma?' + +And Pau Amma, deep down below, answered, 'Once a day and once a night I +go out to look for my food. Once a day and once a night I return. Leave +me alone.' + +Then the Eldest Magician said, 'Listen, Pau Amma. When you go out from +your cave the waters of the Sea pour down into Pusat Tasek, and all the +beaches of all the islands are left bare, and the little fish die, and +Raja Moyang Kaban, the King of the Elephants, his legs are made muddy. +When you come back and sit in Pusat Tasek, the waters of the Sea rise, +and half the little islands are drowned, and the Man's house is flooded, +and Raja Abdullah, the King of the Crocodiles, his mouth is filled with +the salt water. + +Then Pau Amma, deep down below, laughed and said, 'I did not know I was +so important. Henceforward I will go out seven times a day, and the +waters shall never be still.' + +And the Eldest Magician said, 'I cannot make you play the play you were +meant to play, Pau Amma, because you escaped me at the Very Beginning; +but if you are not afraid, come up and we will talk about it.' + +'I am not afraid,' said Pau Amma, and he rose to the top of the sea in +the moonlight. There was nobody in the world so big as Pau Amma--for he +was the King Crab of all Crabs. Not a common Crab, but a King Crab. One +side of his great shell touched the beach at Sarawak; the other touched +the beach at Pahang; and he was taller than the smoke of three +volcanoes! As he rose up through the branches of the Wonderful Tree he +tore off one of the great twin-fruits--the magic double-kernelled nuts +that make people young,--and the little girl-daughter saw it bobbing +alongside the canoe, and pulled it in and began to pick out the soft +eyes of it with her little golden scissors. + +'Now,' said the Magician, 'make a Magic, Pau Amma, to show that you are +really important.' + +Pau Amma rolled his eyes and waved his legs, but he could only stir up +the Sea, because, though he was a King Crab, he was nothing more than a +Crab, and the Eldest Magician laughed. + +[Illustration: THIS is the picture of Pau Amma the Crab rising out of +the sea as tall as the smoke of three volcanoes. I haven't drawn the +three volcanoes, because Pau Amma was so big. Pau Amma is trying to make +a Magic, but he is only a silly old King Crab, and so he can't do +anything. You can see he is all legs and claws and empty hollow shell. +The canoe is the canoe that the Man and the Girl Daughter and the Eldest +Magician sailed from the Perak river in. The sea is all black and +bobbly, because Pau Amma has just risen up out of Pusat Tasek. Pusat +Tasek is underneath, so I haven't drawn it. The Man is waving his curvy +_kris_-knife at Pau Amma. The Little Girl Daughter is sitting quietly in +the middle of the canoe. She knows she is quite safe with her Daddy. The +Eldest Magician is standing up at the other end of the canoe beginning +to make a Magic. He has left his magic throne on the beach, and he has +taken off his clothes so as not to get wet, and he has left the Magic +Cloud behind too, so as not to tip the boat over. The thing that looks +like another little canoe outside the real canoe is called an outrigger. +It is a piece of wood tied to sticks, and it prevents the canoe from +being tipped over. The canoe is made out of one piece of wood, and there +is a paddle at one end of it.] + +'You are not so important after all, Pau Amma,' he said. 'Now, let +_me_ try,' and he made a Magic with his left hand--with just the little +finger of his left hand--and--lo and behold, Best Beloved, Pau Amma's +hard, blue-green-black shell fell off him as a husk falls off a +cocoa-nut, and Pau Amma was left all soft--soft as the little crabs that +you sometimes find on the beach, Best Beloved. + +'Indeed, you are very important,' said the Eldest Magician. 'Shall I ask +the Man here to cut you with _kris_? Shall I send for Raja Moyang Kaban, +the King of the Elephants, to pierce you with his tusks, or shall I call +Raja Abdullah, the King of the Crocodiles, to bite you?' + +And Pau Amma said, 'I am ashamed! Give me back my hard shell and let me +go back to Pusat Tasek, and I will only stir out once a day and once a +night to get my food.' + +And the Eldest Magician said, 'No, Pau Amma, I will _not_ give you back +your shell, for you will grow bigger and prouder and stronger, and +perhaps you will forget your promise, and you will play with the Sea +once more.' + +Then Pau Amma said, 'What shall I do? I am so big that I can only hide +in Pusat Tasek, and if I go anywhere else, all soft as I am now, the +sharks and the dogfish will eat me. And if I go to Pusat Tasek, all soft +as I am now, though I may be safe, I can never stir out to get my food, +and so I shall die.' Then he waved his legs and lamented. + +'Listen, Pau Amma,' said the Eldest Magician. 'I cannot make you play +the play you were meant to play, because you escaped me at the Very +Beginning; but if you choose, I can make every stone and every hole and +every bunch of weed in all the seas a safe Pusat Tasek for you and your +children for always.' + +Then Pau Amma said, 'That is good, but I do not choose yet. Look! there +is that Man who talked to you at the Very Beginning. If he had not taken +up your attention I should not have grown tired of waiting and run away, +and all this would never have happened. What will _he_ do for me?' + +And the Man said, 'If you choose, I will make a Magic, so that both the +deep water and the dry ground will be a home for you and your +children--so that you shall be able to hide both on the land and in the +sea.' + +And Pau Amma said, 'I do not choose yet. Look! there is that girl who +saw me running away at the Very Beginning. If she had spoken then, the +Eldest Magician would have called me back, and all this would never have +happened. What will _she_ do for me?' + +And the little girl-daughter said, 'This is a good nut that I am eating. +If you choose, I will make a Magic and I will give you this pair of +scissors, very sharp and strong, so that you and your children can eat +cocoa-nuts like this all day long when you come up from the Sea to the +land; or you can dig a Pusat Tasek for yourself with the scissors that +belong to you when there is no stone or hole near by; and when the earth +is too hard, by the help of these same scissors you can run up a tree.' + +And Pau Amma said, 'I do not choose yet, for, all soft as I am, these +gifts would not help me. Give me back my shell, O Eldest Magician, and +then I will play your play.' + +And the Eldest Magician said, 'I will give it back, Pau Amma, for +eleven months of the year; but on the twelfth month of every year it +shall grow soft again, to remind you and all your children that I can +make magics, and to keep you humble, Pau Amma; for I see that if you can +run both under the water and on land, you will grow too bold; and if you +can climb trees and crack nuts and dig holes with your scissors, you +will grow too greedy, Pau Amma.' + +Then Pau Amma thought a little and said, 'I have made my choice. I will +take all the gifts.' + +Then the Eldest Magician made a Magic with the right hand, with all five +fingers of his right hand, and lo and behold, Best Beloved, Pau Amma +grew smaller and smaller and smaller, till at last there was only a +little green crab swimming in the water alongside the canoe, crying in a +very small voice, 'Give me the scissors!' + +And the girl-daughter picked him up on the palm of her little brown +hand, and sat him in the bottom of the canoe and gave him her scissors, +and he waved them in his little arms, and opened them and shut them and +snapped them, and said, 'I can eat nuts. I can crack shells. I can dig +holes. I can climb trees. I can breathe in the dry air, and I can find a +safe Pusat Tasek under every stone. I did not know I was so important. +_Kun?_' (Is this right?) + +'_Payah-kun_,' said the Eldest Magician, and he laughed and gave him +his blessing; and little Pau Amma scuttled over the side of the canoe +into the water; and he was so tiny that he could have hidden under the +shadow of a dry leaf on land or of a dead shell at the bottom of the +sea. + +'Was that well done?' said the Eldest Magician. + +'Yes,' said the Man. 'But now we must go back to Perak, and that is a +weary way to paddle. If we had waited till Pau Amma had gone out of +Pusat Tasek and come home, the water would have carried us there by +itself.' + +'You are lazy,' said the Eldest Magician. 'So your children shall be +lazy. They shall be the laziest people in the world. They shall be +called the Malazy--the lazy people;' and he held up his finger to the +Moon and said, 'O Fisherman, here is the Man too lazy to row home. Pull +his canoe home with your line, Fisherman.' + +'No,' said the Man. 'If I am to be lazy all my days, let the Sea work +for me twice a day for ever. That will save paddling.' + +And the Eldest Magician laughed and said, + +'_Payah kun_' (That is right). + +And the Rat of the Moon stopped biting the line; and the Fisherman let +his line down till it touched the Sea, and he pulled the whole deep Sea +along, past the Island of Bintang, past Singapore, past Malacca, past +Selangor, till the canoe whirled into the mouth of the Perak River +again. + +'_Kun?_' said the Fisherman of the Moon. + +'_Payah kun_,' said the Eldest Magician. 'See now that you pull the Sea +twice a day and twice a night for ever, so that the Malazy fishermen may +be saved paddling. But be careful not to do it too hard, or I shall make +a magic on you as I did to Pau Amma.' + +Then they all went up the Perak River and went to bed, Best Beloved. + +Now listen and attend! + +From that day to this the Moon has always pulled the sea up and down and +made what we call the tides. Sometimes the Fisher of the Sea pulls a +little too hard, and then we get spring-tides; and sometimes he pulls a +little too softly, and then we get what are called neap-tides; but +nearly always he is careful, because of the Eldest Magician. + +And Pau Amma? You can see when you go to the beach, how all Pau Amma's +babies make little Pusat Taseks for themselves under every stone and +bunch of weed on the sands; you can see them waving their little +scissors; and in some parts of the world they truly live on the dry land +and run up the palm trees and eat cocoa-nuts, exactly as the +girl-daughter promised. But once a year all Pau Ammas must shake off +their hard armour and be soft--to remind them of what the Eldest +Magician could do. And so it isn't fair to kill or hunt Pau Amma's +babies just because old Pau Amma was stupidly rude a very long time ago. + +Oh yes! And Pau Amma's babies hate being taken out of their little +Pusat Taseks and brought home in pickle-bottles. That is why they nip +you with their scissors, and it serves you right! + + + CHINA-GOING P. and O.'s + Pass Pau Amma's playground close, + And his Pusat Tasek lies + Near the track of most B.I.'s. + U.Y.K. and N.D.L. + Know Pau Amma's home as well + As the fisher of the Sea knows + 'Bens,' M.M.'s, and Rubattinos. + But (and this is rather queer) + A.T.L.'s can _not_ come here; + O. and O. and D.O.A. + Must go round another way. + Orient, Anchor, Bibby, Hall, + Never go that way at all. + U.C.S. would have a fit + If it found itself on it. + And if 'Beavers' took their cargoes + To Penang instead of Lagos, + Or a fat Shaw-Savill bore + Passengers to Singapore, + Or a White Star were to try a + Little trip to Sourabaya, + Or a B.S.A. went on + Past Natal to Cheribon, + Then great Mr. Lloyds would come + With a wire and drag them home! + + You'll know what my riddle means + When you've eaten mangosteens. + + Or if you can't wait till then, ask them to let + you have the outside page of the _Times_; turn + over to page 2, where it is marked 'Shipping' on + the top left hand; then take the Atlas (and that + is the finest picture-book in the world) and see + how the names of the places that the steamers go + to fit into the names of the places on the map. + Any steamer-kiddy ought to be able to do that; but + if you can't read, ask some one to show it you. + +[Illustration: The Cat that Walked by Himself] + + + + +THE CAT THAT WALKED BY HIMSELF + + +HEAR and attend and listen; for this befell and behappened and became +and was, O my Best Beloved, when the Tame animals were wild. The Dog was +wild, and the Horse was wild, and the Cow was wild, and the Sheep was +wild, and the Pig was wild--as wild as wild could be--and they walked in +the Wet Wild Woods by their wild lones. But the wildest of all the wild +animals was the Cat. He walked by himself, and all places were alike to +him. + +Of course the Man was wild too. He was dreadfully wild. He didn't even +begin to be tame till he met the Woman, and she told him that she did +not like living in his wild ways. She picked out a nice dry Cave, +instead of a heap of wet leaves, to lie down in; and she strewed clean +sand on the floor; and she lit a nice fire of wood at the back of the +Cave; and she hung a dried wild-horse skin, tail-down, across the +opening of the Cave; and she said, 'Wipe your feet, dear, when you come +in, and now we'll keep house.' + +That night, Best Beloved, they ate wild sheep roasted on the hot stones, +and flavoured with wild garlic and wild pepper; and wild duck stuffed +with wild rice and wild fenugreek and wild coriander; and marrow-bones +of wild oxen; and wild cherries, and wild grenadillas. Then the Man went +to sleep in front of the fire ever so happy; but the Woman sat up, +combing her hair. She took the bone of the shoulder of mutton--the big +fat blade-bone--and she looked at the wonderful marks on it, and she +threw more wood on the fire, and she made a Magic. She made the First +Singing Magic in the world. + +Out in the Wet Wild Woods all the wild animals gathered together where +they could see the light of the fire a long way off, and they wondered +what it meant. + +Then Wild Horse stamped with his wild foot and said, 'O my Friends and O +my Enemies, why have the Man and the Woman made that great light in that +great Cave, and what harm will it do us?' + +Wild Dog lifted up his wild nose and smelled the smell of roast mutton, +and said, 'I will go up and see and look, and say; for I think it is +good. Cat, come with me.' + +'Nenni!' said the Cat. 'I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all +places are alike to me. I will not come.' + +'Then we can never be friends again,' said Wild Dog, and he trotted off +to the Cave. But when he had gone a little way the Cat said to himself, +'All places are alike to me. Why should I not go too and see and look +and come away at my own liking.' So he slipped after Wild Dog softly, +very softly, and hid himself where he could hear everything. + +[Illustration: THIS is the picture of the Cave where the Man and the +Woman lived first of all. It was really a very nice Cave, and much +warmer than it looks. The Man had a canoe. It is on the edge of the +river, being soaked in the water to make it swell up. The +tattery-looking thing across the river is the Man's salmon-net to catch +salmon with. There are nice clean stones leading up from the river to +the mouth of the Cave, so that the Man and the Woman could go down for +water without getting sand between their toes. The things like +black-beetles far down the beach are really trunks of dead trees that +floated down the river from the Wet Wild Woods on the other bank. The +Man and the Woman used to drag them out and dry them and cut them up for +firewood. I haven't drawn the horse-hide curtain at the mouth of the +Cave, because the Woman has just taken it down to be cleaned. All those +little smudges on the sand between the Cave and the river are the marks +of the Woman's feet and the Man's feet. + +The Man and the Woman are both inside the Cave eating their dinner. They +went to another cosier Cave when the Baby came, because the Baby used to +crawl down to the river and fall in, and the Dog had to pull him out.] + +When Wild Dog reached the mouth of the Cave he lifted up the dried +horse-skin with his nose and sniffed the beautiful smell of the roast +mutton, and the Woman, looking at the blade-bone, heard him, and +laughed, and said, 'Here comes the first. Wild Thing out of the Wild +Woods, what do you want?' + +Wild Dog said, 'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy, what is this that +smells so good in the Wild Woods?' + +Then the Woman picked up a roasted mutton-bone and threw it to Wild Dog, +and said, 'Wild Thing out of the Wild Woods, taste and try.' Wild Dog +gnawed the bone, and it was more delicious than anything he had ever +tasted, and he said, 'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy, give me another.' + +The Woman said, 'Wild Thing out of the Wild Woods, help my Man to hunt +through the day and guard this Cave at night, and I will give you as +many roast bones as you need.' + +'Ah!' said the Cat, listening. This is a very wise Woman, but she is not +so wise as I am.' + +Wild Dog crawled into the Cave and laid his head on the Woman's lap, +and said, 'O my Friend and Wife of my Friend, I will help your Man to +hunt through the day, and at night I will guard your Cave.' + +'Ah!' said the Cat, listening. 'That is a very foolish Dog.' And he went +back through the Wet Wild Woods waving his wild tail, and walking by his +wild lone. But he never told anybody. + +When the Man waked up he said, 'What is Wild Dog doing here?' And the +Woman said, 'His name is not Wild Dog any more, but the First Friend, +because he will be our friend for always and always and always. Take him +with you when you go hunting.' + +Next night the Woman cut great green armfuls of fresh grass from the +water-meadows, and dried it before the fire, so that it smelt like +new-mown hay, and she sat at the mouth of the Cave and plaited a halter +out of horse-hide, and she looked at the shoulder of mutton-bone--at the +big broad blade-bone--and she made a Magic. She made the Second Singing +Magic in the world. + +Out in the Wild Woods all the wild animals wondered what had happened to +Wild Dog, and at last Wild Horse stamped with his foot and said, 'I will +go and see and say why Wild Dog has not returned. Cat, come with me.' + +'Nenni!' said the Cat. 'I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all +places are alike to me. I will not come.' But all the same he followed +Wild Horse softly, very softly, and hid himself where he could hear +everything. + +When the Woman heard Wild Horse tripping and stumbling on his long mane, +she laughed and said, 'Here comes the second. Wild Thing out of the Wild +Woods what do you want?' + +Wild Horse said, 'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy, where is Wild Dog?' + +The Woman laughed, and picked up the blade-bone and looked at it, and +said, 'Wild Thing out of the Wild Woods, you did not come here for Wild +Dog, but for the sake of this good grass.' + +And Wild Horse, tripping and stumbling on his long mane, said, 'That is +true; give it me to eat.' + +The Woman said, 'Wild Thing out of the Wild Woods, bend your wild head +and wear what I give you, and you shall eat the wonderful grass three +times a day.' + +'Ah,' said the Cat, listening, 'this is a clever Woman, but she is not +so clever as I am.' + +[Illustration: THIS is the picture of the Cat that Walked by Himself, +walking by his wild lone through the Wet Wild Woods and waving his wild +tail. There is nothing else in the picture except some toadstools. They +had to grow there because the woods were so wet. The lumpy thing on the +low branch isn't a bird. It is moss that grew there because the Wild +Woods were so wet. + +Underneath the truly picture is a picture of the cozy Cave that the Man +and the Woman went to after the Baby came. It was their summer Cave, and +they planted wheat in front of it. The Man is riding on the Horse to +find the Cow and bring her back to the Cave to be milked. He is holding +up his hand to call the Dog, who has swum across to the other side of +the river, looking for rabbits.] + +Wild Horse bent his wild head, and the Woman slipped the plaited +hide halter over it, and Wild Horse breathed on the Woman's feet and +said, 'O my Mistress, and Wife of my Master, I will be your servant for +the sake of the wonderful grass.' + +'Ah,' said the Cat, listening, 'that is a very foolish Horse.' And he +went back through the Wet Wild Woods, waving his wild tail and walking +by his wild lone. But he never told anybody. + +When the Man and the Dog came back from hunting, the Man said, 'What is +Wild Horse doing here?' And the Woman said, 'His name is not Wild Horse +any more, but the First Servant, because he will carry us from place to +place for always and always and always. Ride on his back when you go +hunting.' + +Next day, holding her wild head high that her wild horns should not +catch in the wild trees, Wild Cow came up to the Cave, and the Cat +followed, and hid himself just the same as before; and everything +happened just the same as before; and the Cat said the same things as +before, and when Wild Cow had promised to give her milk to the Woman +every day in exchange for the wonderful grass, the Cat went back through +the Wet Wild Woods waving his wild tail and walking by his wild lone, +just the same as before. But he never told anybody. And when the Man and +the Horse and the Dog came home from hunting and asked the same +questions same as before, the Woman said, 'Her name is not Wild Cow any +more, but the Giver of Good Food. She will give us the warm white milk +for always and always and always, and I will take care of her while you +and the First Friend and the First Servant go hunting.' + +Next day the Cat waited to see if any other Wild thing would go up to +the Cave, but no one moved in the Wet Wild Woods, so the Cat walked +there by himself; and he saw the Woman milking the Cow, and he saw the +light of the fire in the Cave, and he smelt the smell of the warm white +milk. + +Cat said, 'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy, where did Wild Cow go?' + +The Woman laughed and said, 'Wild Thing out of the Wild Woods, go back +to the Woods again, for I have braided up my hair, and I have put away +the magic blade-bone, and we have no more need of either friends or +servants in our Cave.' + +Cat said, 'I am not a friend, and I am not a servant. I am the Cat who +walks by himself, and I wish to come into your cave.' + +Woman said, 'Then why did you not come with First Friend on the first +night?' + +Cat grew very angry and said, 'Has Wild Dog told tales of me?' + +Then the Woman laughed and said, 'You are the Cat who walks by himself, +and all places are alike to you. You are neither a friend nor a servant. +You have said it yourself. Go away and walk by yourself in all places +alike.' + +Then Cat pretended to be sorry and said, 'Must I never come into the +Cave? Must I never sit by the warm fire? Must I never drink the warm +white milk? You are very wise and very beautiful. You should not be +cruel even to a Cat.' + +Woman said, 'I knew I was wise, but I did not know I was beautiful. So I +will make a bargain with you. If ever I say one word in your praise you +may come into the Cave.' + +'And if you say two words in my praise?' said the Cat. + +'I never shall,' said the Woman, 'but if I say two words in your +praise, you may sit by the fire in the Cave.' + +'And if you say three words?' said the Cat. + +'I never shall,' said the Woman, 'but if I say three words in your +praise, you may drink the warm white milk three times a day for always +and always and always.' + +Then the Cat arched his back and said, 'Now let the Curtain at the mouth +of the Cave, and the Fire at the back of the Cave, and the Milk-pots +that stand beside the Fire, remember what my Enemy and the Wife of my +Enemy has said.' And he went away through the Wet Wild Woods waving his +wild tail and walking by his wild lone. + +That night when the Man and the Horse and the Dog came home from +hunting, the Woman did not tell them of the bargain that she had made +with the Cat, because she was afraid that they might not like it. + +Cat went far and far away and hid himself in the Wet Wild Woods by his +wild lone for a long time till the Woman forgot all about him. Only the +Bat--the little upside-down Bat--that hung inside the Cave, knew where +Cat hid; and every evening Bat would fly to Cat with news of what was +happening. + +One evening Bat said, 'There is a Baby in the Cave. He is new and pink +and fat and small, and the Woman is very fond of him.' + +'Ah,' said the Cat, listening, 'but what is the Baby fond of?' + +'He is fond of things that are soft and tickle,' said the Bat. 'He is +fond of warm things to hold in his arms when he goes to sleep. He is +fond of being played with. He is fond of all those things.' + +'Ah,' said the Cat, listening, 'then my time has come.' + +Next night Cat walked through the Wet Wild Woods and hid very near the +Cave till morning-time, and Man and Dog and Horse went hunting. The +Woman was busy cooking that morning, and the Baby cried and interrupted. +So she carried him outside the Cave and gave him a handful of pebbles to +play with. But still the Baby cried. + +Then the Cat put out his paddy paw and patted the Baby on the cheek, and +it cooed; and the Cat rubbed against its fat knees and tickled it under +its fat chin with his tail. And the Baby laughed; and the Woman heard +him and smiled. + +Then the Bat--the little upside-down Bat--that hung in the mouth of the +Cave said, 'O my Hostess and Wife of my Host and Mother of my Host's +Son, a Wild Thing from the Wild Woods is most beautifully playing with +your Baby.' + +'A blessing on that Wild Thing whoever he may be,' said the Woman, +straightening her back, 'for I was a busy woman this morning and he has +done me a service.' + +The very minute and second, Best Beloved, the dried horse-skin Curtain +that was stretched tail-down at the mouth of the Cave fell +down--_woosh!_--because it remembered the bargain she had made with the +Cat, and when the Woman went to pick it up--lo and behold!--the Cat was +sitting quite comfy inside the Cave. + +'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy and Mother of my Enemy,' said the Cat, +'it is I: for you have spoken a word in my praise, and now I can sit +within the Cave for always and always and always. But still I am the Cat +who walks by himself, and all places are alike to me.' + +The Woman was very angry, and shut her lips tight and took up her +spinning-wheel and began to spin. + +But the Baby cried because the Cat had gone away, and the Woman could +not hush it, for it struggled and kicked and grew black in the face. + +'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy and Mother of my Enemy,' said the Cat, +'take a strand of the wire that you are spinning and tie it to your +spinning-whorl and drag it along the floor, and I will show you a magic +that shall make your Baby laugh as loudly as he is now crying.' + +'I will do so,' said the Woman, 'because I am at my wits' end; but I +will not thank you for it.' + +She tied the thread to the little clay spindle-whorl and drew it across +the floor, and the Cat ran after it and patted it with his paws and +rolled head over heels, and tossed it backward over his shoulder and +chased it between his hind-legs and pretended to lose it, and pounced +down upon it again, till the Baby laughed as loudly as it had been +crying, and scrambled after the Cat and frolicked all over the Cave till +it grew tired and settled down to sleep with the Cat in its arms. + +'Now,' said the Cat, 'I will sing the Baby a song that shall keep him +asleep for an hour.' And he began to purr, loud and low, low and loud, +till the Baby fell fast asleep. The Woman smiled as she looked down upon +the two of them and said, 'That was wonderfully done. No question but +you are very clever, O Cat.' + +That very minute and second, Best Beloved, the smoke of the fire at the +back of the Cave came down in clouds from the roof--_puff!_--because it +remembered the bargain she had made with the Cat, and when it had +cleared away--lo and behold!--the Cat was sitting quite comfy close to +the fire. + +'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy and Mother of My Enemy,' said the Cat, +'it is I, for you have spoken a second word in my praise, and now I can +sit by the warm fire at the back of the Cave for always and always and +always. But still I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all places are +alike to me.' + +Then the Woman was very very angry, and let down her hair and put more +wood on the fire and brought out the broad blade-bone of the shoulder of +mutton and began to make a Magic that should prevent her from saying a +third word in praise of the Cat. It was not a Singing Magic, Best +Beloved, it was a Still Magic; and by and by the Cave grew so still that +a little wee-wee mouse crept out of a corner and ran across the floor. + +'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy and Mother of my Enemy,' said the Cat, +'is that little mouse part of your magic?' + +'Ouh! Chee! No indeed!' said the Woman, and she dropped the blade-bone +and jumped upon the footstool in front of the fire and braided up her +hair very quick for fear that the mouse should run up it. + +'Ah,' said the Cat, watching, 'then the mouse will do me no harm if I +eat it?' + +'No,' said the Woman, braiding up her hair, 'eat it quickly and I will +ever be grateful to you.' + +Cat made one jump and caught the little mouse, and the Woman said, 'A +hundred thanks. Even the First Friend is not quick enough to catch +little mice as you have done. You must be very wise.' + +That very moment and second, O Best Beloved, the Milk-pot that stood by +the fire cracked in two pieces--_ffft_--because it remembered the +bargain she had made with the Cat, and when the Woman jumped down from +the footstool--lo and behold!--the Cat was lapping up the warm white +milk that lay in one of the broken pieces. + +'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy and Mother of my Enemy,' said the Cat, +'it is I; for you have spoken three words in my praise, and now I can +drink the warm white milk three times a day for always and always and +always. But _still_ I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all places +are alike to me.' + +Then the Woman laughed and set the Cat a bowl of the warm white milk and +said, 'O Cat, you are as clever as a man, but remember that your bargain +was not made with the Man or the Dog, and I do not know what they will +do when they come home.' + +'What is that to me?' said the Cat. 'If I have my place in the Cave by +the fire and my warm white milk three times a day I do not care what the +Man or the Dog can do.' + +That evening when the Man and the Dog came into the Cave, the Woman +told them all the story of the bargain while the Cat sat by the fire and +smiled. Then the Man said, 'Yes, but he has not made a bargain with _me_ +or with all proper Men after me.' Then he took off his two leather boots +and he took up his little stone axe (that makes three) and he fetched a +piece of wood and a hatchet (that is five altogether), and he set them +out in a row and he said, 'Now we will make _our_ bargain. If you do not +catch mice when you are in the Cave for always and always and always, I +will throw these five things at you whenever I see you, and so shall all +proper Men do after me.' + +'Ah,' said the Woman, listening, 'this is a very clever Cat, but he is +not so clever as my Man.' + +The Cat counted the five things (and they looked very knobby) and he +said, 'I will catch mice when I am in the Cave for always and always and +always; but _still_ I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all places +are alike to me.' + +'Not when I am near,' said the Man. 'If you had not said that last I +would have put all these things away for always and always and always; +but I am now going to throw my two boots and my little stone axe (that +makes three) at you whenever I meet you. And so shall all proper Men do +after me!' + +Then the Dog said, 'Wait a minute. He has not made a bargain with _me_ +or with all proper Dogs after me.' And he showed his teeth and said, 'If +you are not kind to the Baby while I am in the Cave for always and +always and always, I will hunt you till I catch you, and when I catch +you I will bite you. And so shall all proper Dogs do after me.' + +'Ah,' said the Woman, listening, 'this is a very clever Cat, but he is +not so clever as the Dog.' + +Cat counted the Dog's teeth (and they looked very pointed) and he said, +'I will be kind to the Baby while I am in the Cave, as long as he does +not pull my tail too hard, for always and always and always. But _still_ +I am the Cat that walks by himself, and all places are alike to me.' + +'Not when I am near,' said the Dog. 'If you had not said that last I +would have shut my mouth for always and always and always; but _now_ I +am going to hunt you up a tree whenever I meet you. And so shall all +proper Dogs do after me.' + +Then the Man threw his two boots and his little stone axe (that makes +three) at the Cat, and the Cat ran out of the Cave and the Dog chased +him up a tree; and from that day to this, Best Beloved, three proper Men +out of five will always throw things at a Cat whenever they meet him, +and all proper Dogs will chase him up a tree. But the Cat keeps his side +of the bargain too. He will kill mice and he will be kind to Babies when +he is in the house, just as long as they do not pull his tail too hard. +But when he has done that, and between times, and when the moon gets up +and night comes, he is the Cat that walks by himself, and all places are +alike to him. Then he goes out to the Wet Wild Woods or up the Wet Wild +Trees or on the Wet Wild Roofs, waving his wild tail and walking by his +wild lone. + + +[Illustration] + + PUSSY can sit by the fire and sing, + Pussy can climb a tree, + Or play with a silly old cork and string + To 'muse herself, not me. + But I like _Binkie_ my dog, because + He knows how to behave; + So, _Binkie's_ the same as the First Friend was + And I am the Man in the Cave. + + Pussy will play man-Friday till + It's time to wet her paw + And make her walk on the window-sill + (For the footprint Crusoe saw); + Then she fluffles her tail and mews, + And scratches and won't attend. + But _Binkie_ will play whatever I choose, + And he is my true First Friend. + + Pussy will rub my knees with her head + Pretending she loves me hard; + But the very minute I go to my bed + Pussy runs out in the yard, + And there she stays till the morning-light; + So I know it is only pretend; + But _Binkie_, he snores at my feet all night, + And he is my Firstest Friend! + +[Illustration] + +[Illustration: The Butterfly that Stamped] + + + + +THE BUTTERFLY THAT STAMPED + + +THIS, O my Best Beloved, is a story--a new and a wonderful story--a +story quite different from the other stories--a story about The Most +Wise Sovereign Suleiman-bin-Daoud--Solomon the Son of David. + +[Illustration] + +There are three hundred and fifty-five stories about Suleiman-bin-Daoud; +but this is not one of them. It is not the story of the Lapwing who +found the Water; or the Hoopoe who shaded Suleiman-bin-Daoud from the +heat. It is not the story of the Glass Pavement, or the Ruby with the +Crooked Hole, or the Gold Bars of Balkis. It is the story of the +Butterfly that Stamped. + +Now attend all over again and listen! + +Suleiman-bin-Daoud was wise. He understood what the beasts said, what +the birds said, what the fishes said, and what the insects said. He +understood what the rocks said deep under the earth when they bowed in +towards each other and groaned; and he understood what the trees said +when they rustled in the middle of the morning. He understood +everything, from the bishop on the bench to the hyssop on the wall, and +Balkis, his Head Queen, the Most Beautiful Queen Balkis, was nearly as +wise as he was. + +Suleiman-bin-Daoud was strong. Upon the third finger of the right +hand he wore a ring. When he turned it once, Afrits and Djinns came +out of the earth to do whatever he told them. When he turned it +twice, Fairies came down from the sky to do whatever he told them; +and when he turned it three times, the very great angel Azrael of +the Sword came dressed as a water-carrier, and told him the news of +the three worlds,--Above--Below--and Here. + +And yet Suleiman-bin-Daoud was not proud. He very seldom showed off, +and when he did he was sorry for it. Once he tried to feed all the +animals in all the world in one day, but when the food was ready an +Animal came out of the deep sea and ate it up in three mouthfuls. +Suleiman-bin-Daoud was very surprised and said, 'O Animal, who are you?' +And the Animal said, 'O King, live for ever! I am the smallest of thirty +thousand brothers, and our home is at the bottom of the sea. We heard +that you were going to feed all the animals in all the world, and my +brothers sent me to ask when dinner would be ready.' Suleiman-bin-Daoud +was more surprised than ever and said, 'O Animal, you have eaten all the +dinner that I made ready for all the animals in the world.' And the +Animal said, 'O King, live for ever, but do you really call that a +dinner? Where I come from we each eat twice as much as that between +meals.' Then Suleiman-bin-Daoud fell flat on his face and said, 'O +Animal! I gave that dinner to show what a great and rich king I was, and +not because I really wanted to be kind to the animals. Now I am ashamed, +and it serves me right.' Suleiman-bin-Daoud was a really truly wise man, +Best Beloved. After that he never forgot that it was silly to show off; +and now the real story part of my story begins. + +[Illustration: THIS is the picture of the Animal that came out of the +sea and ate up all the food that Suleiman-bin-Daoud had made ready for +all the animals in all the world. He was really quite a nice Animal, and +his Mummy was very fond of him and of his twenty-nine thousand nine +hundred and ninety-nine other brothers that lived at the bottom of the +sea. You know that he was the smallest of them all, and so his name was +Small Porgies. He ate up all those boxes and packets and bales and +things that had been got ready for all the animals, without ever once +taking off the lids or untying the strings, and it did not hurt him at +all. The sticky-up masts behind the boxes of food belong to +Suleiman-bin-Daoud's ships. They were busy bringing more food when Small +Porgies came ashore. He did not eat the ships. They stopped unloading +the foods and instantly sailed away to sea till Small Porgies had quite +finished eating. You can see some of the ships beginning to sail away by +Small Porgies' shoulder. I have not drawn Suleiman-bin-Daoud, but he is +just outside the picture, very much astonished. The bundle hanging from +the mast of the ship in the corner is really a package of wet dates for +parrots to eat. I don't know the names of the ships. That is all there +is in that picture.] + +He married ever so many wifes. He married nine hundred and +ninety-nine wives, besides the Most Beautiful Balkis; and they all lived +in a great golden palace in the middle of a lovely garden with +fountains. He didn't really want nine-hundred and ninety-nine wives, but +in those days everybody married ever so many wives, and of course the +King had to marry ever so many more just to show that he was the King. + +Some of the wives were nice, but some were simply horrid, and the horrid +ones quarrelled with the nice ones and made them horrid too, and then +they would all quarrel with Suleiman-bin-Daoud, and that was horrid for +him. But Balkis the Most Beautiful never quarrelled with +Suleiman-bin-Daoud. She loved him too much. She sat in her rooms in the +Golden Palace, or walked in the Palace garden, and was truly sorry for +him. + +Of course if he had chosen to turn his ring on his finger and call up +the Djinns and the Afrits they would have magicked all those nine +hundred and ninety-nine quarrelsome wives into white mules of the desert +or greyhounds or pomegranate seeds; but Suleiman-bin-Daoud thought that +that would be showing off. So, when they quarrelled too much, he only +walked by himself in one part of the beautiful Palace gardens and wished +he had never been born. + +One day, when they had quarrelled for three weeks--all nine hundred and +ninety-nine wives together--Suleiman-bin-Daoud went out for peace and +quiet as usual; and among the orange trees he met Balkis the Most +Beautiful, very sorrowful because Suleiman-bin-Daoud was so worried. And +she said to him, 'O my Lord and Light of my Eyes, turn the ring upon +your finger and show these Queens of Egypt and Mesopotamia and Persia +and China that you are the great and terrible King.' But +Suleiman-bin-Daoud shook his head and said, 'O my Lady and Delight of my +Life, remember the Animal that came out of the sea and made me ashamed +before all the animals in all the world because I showed off. Now, if I +showed off before these Queens of Persia and Egypt and Abyssinia and +China, merely because they worry me, I might be made even more ashamed +than I have been.' + +And Balkis the Most Beautiful said, 'O my Lord and Treasure of my Soul, +what will you do?' + +And Suleiman-bin-Daoud said, 'O my Lady and Content of my Heart, I +shall continue to endure my fate at the hands of these nine hundred and +ninety-nine Queens who vex me with their continual quarrelling.' + +So he went on between the lilies and the loquats and the roses and the +cannas and the heavy-scented ginger-plants that grew in the garden, till +he came to the great camphor-tree that was called the Camphor Tree of +Suleiman-bin-Daoud. But Balkis hid among the tall irises and the spotted +bamboos and the red lillies behind the camphor-tree, so as to be near +her own true love, Suleiman-bin-Daoud. + +Presently two Butterflies flew under the tree, quarrelling. + +Suleiman-bin-Daoud heard one say to the other, 'I wonder at your +presumption in talking like this to me. Don't you know that if I stamped +with my foot all Suleiman-bin-Daoud's Palace and this garden here would +immediately vanish in a clap of thunder.' + +Then Suleiman-bin-Daoud forgot his nine hundred and ninety-nine +bothersome wives, and laughed, till the camphor-tree shook, at the +Butterfly's boast. And he held out his finger and said, 'Little man, +come here.' + +The Butterfly was dreadfully frightened, but he managed to fly up to +the hand of Suleiman-bin-Daoud, and clung there, fanning himself. +Suleiman-bin-Daoud bent his head and whispered very softly, 'Little man, +you know that all your stamping wouldn't bend one blade of grass. What +made you tell that awful fib to your wife?--for doubtless she is your +wife.' + +The Butterfly looked at Suleiman-bin-Daoud and saw the most wise King's +eye twinkle like stars on a frosty night, and he picked up his courage +with both wings, and he put his head on one side and said, 'O King, live +for ever. She _is_ my wife; and you know what wives are like.' + +Suleiman-bin-Daoud smiled in his beard and said, 'Yes, _I_ know, little +brother.' + +'One must keep them in order somehow,' said the Butterfly, 'and she has +been quarrelling with me all the morning. I said that to quiet her.' + +And Suleiman-bin-Daoud said, 'May it quiet her. Go back to your wife, +little brother, and let me hear what you say.' + +Back flew the Butterfly to his wife, who was all of a twitter behind a +leaf, and she said, 'He heard you! Suleiman-bin-Daoud himself heard +you!' + +'Heard me!' said the Butterfly. 'Of course he did. I meant him to hear +me.' + +'And what did he say? Oh, what did he say?' + +'Well,' said the Butterfly, fanning himself most importantly, 'between +you and me, my dear--of course I don't blame him, because his Palace +must have cost a great deal and the oranges are just ripening,--he asked +me not to stamp, and I promised I wouldn't.' + +'Gracious!' said his wife, and sat quite quiet; but Suleiman-bin-Daoud +laughed till the tears ran down his face at the impudence of the bad +little Butterfly. + +Balkis the Most Beautiful stood up behind the tree among the red lilies +and smiled to herself, for she had heard all this talk. She thought, 'If +I am wise I can yet save my Lord from the persecutions of these +quarrelsome Queens,' and she held out her finger and whispered softly to +the Butterfly's Wife, 'Little woman, come here.' Up flew the Butterfly's +Wife, very frightened, and clung to Balkis's white hand. + +Balkis bent her beautiful head down and whispered, 'Little woman, do +you believe what your husband has just said?' + +The Butterfly's Wife looked at Balkis, and saw the most beautiful +Queen's eyes shining like deep pools with starlight on them, and she +picked up her courage with both wings and said, 'O Queen, be lovely for +ever. _You_ know what men-folk are like.' + +And the Queen Balkis, the Wise Balkis of Sheba, put her hand to her lips +to hide a smile and said, 'Little sister, _I_ know.' + +'They get angry,' said the Butterfly's Wife, fanning herself quickly, +'over nothing at all, but we must humour them, O Queen. They never mean +half they say. If it pleases my husband to believe that I believe he can +make Suleiman-bin-Daoud's Palace disappear by stamping his foot, I'm +sure _I_ don't care. He'll forget all about it to-morrow.' + +'Little sister,' said Balkis, 'you are quite right; but next time he +begins to boast, take him at his word. Ask him to stamp, and see what +will happen. _We_ know what men-folk are like, don't we? He'll be very +much ashamed.' + +Away flew the Butterfly's Wife to her husband, and in five minutes they +were quarrelling worse than ever. + +'Remember!' said the Butterfly. 'Remember what I can do if I stamp my +foot.' + +'I don't believe you one little bit,' said the Butterfly's Wife. 'I +should very much like to see it done. Suppose you stamp now.' + +'I promised Suleiman-bin-Daoud that I wouldn't,' said the Butterfly, +'and I don't want to break my promise.' + +'It wouldn't matter if you did,' said his wife. 'You couldn't bend a +blade of grass with your stamping. I dare you to do it,' she said. +'Stamp! Stamp! Stamp!' + +Suleiman-bin-Daoud, sitting under the camphor-tree, heard every word of +this, and he laughed as he had never laughed in his life before. He +forgot all about his Queens; he forgot all about the Animal that came +out of the sea; he forgot about showing off. He just laughed with joy, +and Balkis, on the other side of the tree, smiled because her own true +love was so joyful. + +Presently the Butterfly, very hot and puffy, came whirling back under +the shadow of the camphor-tree and said to Suleiman, 'She wants me to +stamp! She wants to see what will happen, O Suleiman-bin-Daoud! You know +I can't do it, and now she'll never believe a word I say. She'll laugh +at me to the end of my days!' + +'No, little brother,' said Suleiman-bin-Daoud, 'she will never laugh at +you again,' and he turned the ring on his finger--just for the little +Butterfly's sake, not for the sake of showing off,--and, lo and behold, +four huge Djinns came out of the earth! + +'Slaves,' said Suleiman-bin-Daoud, 'when this gentleman on my finger' +(that was where the impudent Butterfly was sitting) 'stamps his left +front forefoot you will make my Palace and these gardens disappear in a +clap of thunder. When he stamps again you will bring them back +carefully.' + +'Now, little brother,' he said, 'go back to your wife and stamp all +you've a mind to.' + +Away flew the Butterfly to his wife, who was crying, 'I dare you to do +it! I dare you to do it! Stamp! Stamp now! Stamp!' Balkis saw the four +vast Djinns stoop down to the four corners of the gardens with the +Palace in the middle, and she clapped her hands softly and said, 'At +last Suleiman-bin-Daoud will do for the sake of a Butterfly what he +ought to have done long ago for his own sake, and the quarrelsome Queens +will be frightened!' + +Then the Butterfly stamped. The Djinns jerked the Palace and the gardens +a thousand miles into the air: there was a most awful thunder-clap, and +everything grew inky-black. The Butterfly's Wife fluttered about in the +dark, crying, 'Oh, I'll be good! I'm so sorry I spoke. Only bring the +gardens back, my dear darling husband, and I'll never contradict again.' + +The Butterfly was nearly as frightened as his wife, and +Suleiman-bin-Daoud laughed so much that it was several minutes before he +found breath enough to whisper to the Butterfly, 'Stamp again, little +brother. Give me back my Palace, most great magician.' + +'Yes, give him back his Palace,' said the Butterfly's Wife, still flying +about in the dark like a moth. 'Give him back his Palace, and don't +let's have any more horrid magic.' + +'Well, my dear,' said the Butterfly as bravely as he could, 'you see +what your nagging has led to. Of course it doesn't make any difference +to _me_--I'm used to this kind of thing--but as a favour to you and to +Suleiman-bin-Daoud I don't mind putting things right.' + +[Illustration: THIS is the picture of the four gull-winged Djinns +lifting up Suleiman-bin-Daoud's Palace the very minute after the +Butterfly had stamped. The Palace and the gardens and everything came up +in one piece like a board, and they left a big hole in the ground all +full of dust and smoke. If you look in the corner, close to the thing +that looks like a lion, you will see Suleiman-bin-Daoud with his magic +stick and the two Butterflies behind him. The thing that looks like a +lion is really a lion carved in stone, and the thing that looks like a +milk-can is really a piece of a temple or a house or something. +Suleiman-bin-Daoud stood there so as to be out of the way of the dust +and the smoke when the Djinns lifted up the Palace. I don't know the +Djinns' names. They were servants of Suleiman-bin-Daoud's magic ring, +and they changed about every day. They were just common gull-winged +Djinns. + +The thing at the bottom is a picture of a very friendly Djinn called +Akraig. He used to feed the little fishes in the sea three times a day, +and his wings were made of pure copper. I put him in to show you what a +nice Djinn is like. He did not help to lift the Palace. He was busy +feeding little fishes in the Arabian Sea when it happened.] + +So he stamped once more, and that instant the Djinns let down the Palace +and the gardens, without even a bump. The sun shone on the dark-green +orange leaves; the fountains played among the pink Egyptian lilies; the +birds went on singing, and the Butterfly's Wife lay on her side under +the camphor-tree waggling her wings and panting, 'Oh, I'll be good! I'll +be good!' + +Suleiman-bin-Daoud could hardly speak for laughing. He leaned back all +weak and hiccoughy, and shook his finger at the Butterfly and said, 'O +great wizard, what is the sense of returning to me my Palace if at the +same time you slay me with mirth!' + +Then came a terrible noise, for all the nine hundred and ninety-nine +Queens ran out of the Palace shrieking and shouting and calling for +their babies. They hurried down the great marble steps below the +fountain, one hundred abreast, and the Most Wise Balkis went statelily +forward to meet them and said, 'What is your trouble, O Queens?' + +They stood on the marble steps one hundred abreast and shouted, '_What_ +is our trouble? We were living peacefully in our golden palace, as is +our custom, when upon a sudden the Palace disappeared, and we were left +sitting in a thick and noisome darkness; and it thundered, and Djinns +and Afrits moved about in the darkness! _That_ is our trouble, O Head +Queen, and we are most extremely troubled on account of that trouble, +for it was a troublesome trouble, unlike any trouble we have known.' + +Then Balkis the Most Beautiful Queen--Suleiman-bin-Daoud's Very Best +Beloved--Queen that was of Sheba and Sabie and the Rivers of the Gold of +the South--from the Desert of Zinn to the Towers of Zimbabwe--Balkis, +almost as wise as the Most Wise Suleiman-bin-Daoud himself, said, 'It is +nothing, O Queens! A Butterfly has made complaint against his wife +because she quarrelled with him, and it has pleased our Lord +Suleiman-bin-Daoud to teach her a lesson in low-speaking and humbleness, +for that is counted a virtue among the wives of the butterflies.' + +Then up and spoke an Egyptian Queen--the daughter of a Pharaoh--and she +said, 'Our Palace cannot be plucked up by the roots like a leek for the +sake of a little insect. No! Suleiman-bin-Daoud must be dead, and what +we heard and saw was the earth thundering and darkening at the news.' + +Then Balkis beckoned that bold Queen without looking at her, and said to +her and to the others, 'Come and see.' + +They came down the marble steps, one hundred abreast, and beneath his +camphor-tree, still weak with laughing, they saw the Most Wise King +Suleiman-bin-Daoud rocking back and forth with a Butterfly on either +hand, and they heard him say, 'O wife of my brother in the air, remember +after this, to please your husband in all things, lest he be provoked to +stamp his foot yet again; for he has said that he is used to this magic, +and he is most eminently a great magician--one who steals away the very +Palace of Suleiman-bin-Daoud himself. Go in peace, little folk!' And he +kissed them on the wings, and they flew away. + +Then all the Queens except Balkis--the Most Beautiful and Splendid +Balkis, who stood apart smiling--fell flat on their faces, for they +said, 'If these things are done when a Butterfly is displeased with his +wife, what shall be done to us who have vexed our King with our +loud-speaking and open quarrelling through many days?' + +Then they put their veils over their heads, and they put their hands +over their mouths, and they tiptoed back to the Palace most mousy-quiet. + +Then Balkis--The Most Beautiful and Excellent Balkis--went forward +through the red lilies into the shade of the camphor-tree and laid her +hand upon Suleiman-bin-Daoud's shoulder and said, 'O my Lord and +Treasure of my Soul, rejoice, for we have taught the Queens of Egypt and +Ethiopia and Abyssinia and Persia and India and China with a great and a +memorable teaching.' + +And Suleiman-bin-Daoud, still looking after the Butterflies where they +played in the sunlight, said, 'O my Lady and Jewel of my Felicity, when +did this happen? For I have been jesting with a Butterfly ever since I +came into the garden.' And he told Balkis what he had done. + +Balkis--The tender and Most Lovely Balkis--said, 'O my Lord and Regent +of my Existence, I hid behind the camphor-tree and saw it all. It was I +who told the Butterfly's Wife to ask the Butterfly to stamp, because I +hoped that for the sake of the jest my Lord would make some great magic +and that the Queens would see it and be frightened.' And she told him +what the Queens had said and seen and thought. + +Then Suleiman-bin-Daoud rose up from his seat under the camphor-tree, +and stretched his arms and rejoiced and said, 'O my Lady and Sweetener +of my Days, know that if I had made a magic against my Queens for the +sake of pride or anger, as I made that feast for all the animals, I +should certainly have been put to shame. But by means of your wisdom I +made the magic for the sake of a jest and for the sake of a little +Butterfly, and--behold--it has also delivered me from the vexations of +my vexatious wives! Tell me, therefore, O my Lady and Heart of my Heart, +how did you come to be so wise?' + +And Balkis the Queen, beautiful and tall, looked up into +Suleiman-bin-Daoud's eyes and put her head a little on one side, just +like the Butterfly, and said, 'First, O my Lord, because I loved you; +and secondly, O my Lord, because I know what women-folk are.' + +Then they went up to the Palace and lived happily ever afterwards. + +But wasn't it clever of Balkis? + + + THERE was never a Queen like Balkis, + From here to the wide world's end; + But Balkis talked to a butterfly + As you would talk to a friend. + + There was never a King like Solomon, + Not since the world began; + But Solomon talked to a butterfly + As a man would talk to a man. + + _She_ was Queen of Sabaea-- + And _he_ was Asia's Lord-- + But they both of 'em talked to butterflies + When they took their walks abroad! + + +[Illustration] + +THE COUNTRY LIFE PRESS GARDEN CITY, N. Y. + + * * * * * + +Transcriber's Notes: + +Obvious punctuation errors repaired. + +Page 157, "waiving" changed to "waving" (Tegumai, waving his) + +Page 159, caption "19" was added to illustration. + +Page 198, "you" changed to "your" (Wipe your feet) + +Page 211, "Your" changed to "You" (You are neither a) + +Page 213, "ths" changed to "the" (and the Woman heard him) + +Page 225, word "is" added to text (but this is not one) + +Page 244, "Pharoah" changed to "Pharaoh" (daughter of a Pharaoh) + +Page 278, "Sueliman" changed to "Suleiman" (Then Suleiman-bin-Daoud +rose up) + + + + + +End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of Just So Stories, by Rudyard Kipling + +*** END OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK JUST SO STORIES *** + +***** This file should be named 32488.txt or 32488.zip ***** +This and all associated files of various formats will be found in: + https://www.gutenberg.org/3/2/4/8/32488/ + +Produced by Suzanne Shell, Emmy and the Online Distributed +Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was +produced from images generously made available by The +Internet Archive/American Libraries.) + + +Updated editions will replace the previous one--the old editions +will be renamed. + +Creating the works from public domain print editions means that no +one owns a United States copyright in these works, so the Foundation +(and you!) can copy and distribute it in the United States without +permission and without paying copyright royalties. Special rules, +set forth in the General Terms of Use part of this license, apply to +copying and distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works to +protect the PROJECT GUTENBERG-tm concept and trademark. Project +Gutenberg is a registered trademark, and may not be used if you +charge for the eBooks, unless you receive specific permission. If you +do not charge anything for copies of this eBook, complying with the +rules is very easy. You may use this eBook for nearly any purpose +such as creation of derivative works, reports, performances and +research. They may be modified and printed and given away--you may do +practically ANYTHING with public domain eBooks. Redistribution is +subject to the trademark license, especially commercial +redistribution. + + + +*** START: FULL LICENSE *** + +THE FULL PROJECT GUTENBERG LICENSE +PLEASE READ THIS BEFORE YOU DISTRIBUTE OR USE THIS WORK + +To protect the Project Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting the free +distribution of electronic works, by using or distributing this work +(or any other work associated in any way with the phrase "Project +Gutenberg"), you agree to comply with all the terms of the Full Project +Gutenberg-tm License (available with this file or online at +https://gutenberg.org/license). + + +Section 1. General Terms of Use and Redistributing Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic works + +1.A. By reading or using any part of this Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work, you indicate that you have read, understand, agree to +and accept all the terms of this license and intellectual property +(trademark/copyright) agreement. If you do not agree to abide by all +the terms of this agreement, you must cease using and return or destroy +all copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in your possession. +If you paid a fee for obtaining a copy of or access to a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work and you do not agree to be bound by the +terms of this agreement, you may obtain a refund from the person or +entity to whom you paid the fee as set forth in paragraph 1.E.8. + +1.B. "Project Gutenberg" is a registered trademark. It may only be +used on or associated in any way with an electronic work by people who +agree to be bound by the terms of this agreement. There are a few +things that you can do with most Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works +even without complying with the full terms of this agreement. See +paragraph 1.C below. There are a lot of things you can do with Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works if you follow the terms of this agreement +and help preserve free future access to Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. See paragraph 1.E below. + +1.C. The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation ("the Foundation" +or PGLAF), owns a compilation copyright in the collection of Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic works. Nearly all the individual works in the +collection are in the public domain in the United States. If an +individual work is in the public domain in the United States and you are +located in the United States, we do not claim a right to prevent you from +copying, distributing, performing, displaying or creating derivative +works based on the work as long as all references to Project Gutenberg +are removed. Of course, we hope that you will support the Project +Gutenberg-tm mission of promoting free access to electronic works by +freely sharing Project Gutenberg-tm works in compliance with the terms of +this agreement for keeping the Project Gutenberg-tm name associated with +the work. You can easily comply with the terms of this agreement by +keeping this work in the same format with its attached full Project +Gutenberg-tm License when you share it without charge with others. + +1.D. The copyright laws of the place where you are located also govern +what you can do with this work. Copyright laws in most countries are in +a constant state of change. If you are outside the United States, check +the laws of your country in addition to the terms of this agreement +before downloading, copying, displaying, performing, distributing or +creating derivative works based on this work or any other Project +Gutenberg-tm work. The Foundation makes no representations concerning +the copyright status of any work in any country outside the United +States. + +1.E. Unless you have removed all references to Project Gutenberg: + +1.E.1. The following sentence, with active links to, or other immediate +access to, the full Project Gutenberg-tm License must appear prominently +whenever any copy of a Project Gutenberg-tm work (any work on which the +phrase "Project Gutenberg" appears, or with which the phrase "Project +Gutenberg" is associated) is accessed, displayed, performed, viewed, +copied or distributed: + +This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with +almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or +re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included +with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.org + +1.E.2. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is derived +from the public domain (does not contain a notice indicating that it is +posted with permission of the copyright holder), the work can be copied +and distributed to anyone in the United States without paying any fees +or charges. If you are redistributing or providing access to a work +with the phrase "Project Gutenberg" associated with or appearing on the +work, you must comply either with the requirements of paragraphs 1.E.1 +through 1.E.7 or obtain permission for the use of the work and the +Project Gutenberg-tm trademark as set forth in paragraphs 1.E.8 or +1.E.9. + +1.E.3. If an individual Project Gutenberg-tm electronic work is posted +with the permission of the copyright holder, your use and distribution +must comply with both paragraphs 1.E.1 through 1.E.7 and any additional +terms imposed by the copyright holder. Additional terms will be linked +to the Project Gutenberg-tm License for all works posted with the +permission of the copyright holder found at the beginning of this work. + +1.E.4. Do not unlink or detach or remove the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License terms from this work, or any files containing a part of this +work or any other work associated with Project Gutenberg-tm. + +1.E.5. Do not copy, display, perform, distribute or redistribute this +electronic work, or any part of this electronic work, without +prominently displaying the sentence set forth in paragraph 1.E.1 with +active links or immediate access to the full terms of the Project +Gutenberg-tm License. + +1.E.6. You may convert to and distribute this work in any binary, +compressed, marked up, nonproprietary or proprietary form, including any +word processing or hypertext form. However, if you provide access to or +distribute copies of a Project Gutenberg-tm work in a format other than +"Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other format used in the official version +posted on the official Project Gutenberg-tm web site (www.gutenberg.org), +you must, at no additional cost, fee or expense to the user, provide a +copy, a means of exporting a copy, or a means of obtaining a copy upon +request, of the work in its original "Plain Vanilla ASCII" or other +form. Any alternate format must include the full Project Gutenberg-tm +License as specified in paragraph 1.E.1. + +1.E.7. Do not charge a fee for access to, viewing, displaying, +performing, copying or distributing any Project Gutenberg-tm works +unless you comply with paragraph 1.E.8 or 1.E.9. + +1.E.8. You may charge a reasonable fee for copies of or providing +access to or distributing Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works provided +that + +- You pay a royalty fee of 20% of the gross profits you derive from + the use of Project Gutenberg-tm works calculated using the method + you already use to calculate your applicable taxes. The fee is + owed to the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark, but he + has agreed to donate royalties under this paragraph to the + Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation. Royalty payments + must be paid within 60 days following each date on which you + prepare (or are legally required to prepare) your periodic tax + returns. Royalty payments should be clearly marked as such and + sent to the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation at the + address specified in Section 4, "Information about donations to + the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation." + +- You provide a full refund of any money paid by a user who notifies + you in writing (or by e-mail) within 30 days of receipt that s/he + does not agree to the terms of the full Project Gutenberg-tm + License. You must require such a user to return or + destroy all copies of the works possessed in a physical medium + and discontinue all use of and all access to other copies of + Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +- You provide, in accordance with paragraph 1.F.3, a full refund of any + money paid for a work or a replacement copy, if a defect in the + electronic work is discovered and reported to you within 90 days + of receipt of the work. + +- You comply with all other terms of this agreement for free + distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm works. + +1.E.9. If you wish to charge a fee or distribute a Project Gutenberg-tm +electronic work or group of works on different terms than are set +forth in this agreement, you must obtain permission in writing from +both the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation and Michael +Hart, the owner of the Project Gutenberg-tm trademark. Contact the +Foundation as set forth in Section 3 below. + +1.F. + +1.F.1. Project Gutenberg volunteers and employees expend considerable +effort to identify, do copyright research on, transcribe and proofread +public domain works in creating the Project Gutenberg-tm +collection. Despite these efforts, Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works, and the medium on which they may be stored, may contain +"Defects," such as, but not limited to, incomplete, inaccurate or +corrupt data, transcription errors, a copyright or other intellectual +property infringement, a defective or damaged disk or other medium, a +computer virus, or computer codes that damage or cannot be read by +your equipment. + +1.F.2. LIMITED WARRANTY, DISCLAIMER OF DAMAGES - Except for the "Right +of Replacement or Refund" described in paragraph 1.F.3, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation, the owner of the Project +Gutenberg-tm trademark, and any other party distributing a Project +Gutenberg-tm electronic work under this agreement, disclaim all +liability to you for damages, costs and expenses, including legal +fees. YOU AGREE THAT YOU HAVE NO REMEDIES FOR NEGLIGENCE, STRICT +LIABILITY, BREACH OF WARRANTY OR BREACH OF CONTRACT EXCEPT THOSE +PROVIDED IN PARAGRAPH F3. YOU AGREE THAT THE FOUNDATION, THE +TRADEMARK OWNER, AND ANY DISTRIBUTOR UNDER THIS AGREEMENT WILL NOT BE +LIABLE TO YOU FOR ACTUAL, DIRECT, INDIRECT, CONSEQUENTIAL, PUNITIVE OR +INCIDENTAL DAMAGES EVEN IF YOU GIVE NOTICE OF THE POSSIBILITY OF SUCH +DAMAGE. + +1.F.3. LIMITED RIGHT OF REPLACEMENT OR REFUND - If you discover a +defect in this electronic work within 90 days of receiving it, you can +receive a refund of the money (if any) you paid for it by sending a +written explanation to the person you received the work from. If you +received the work on a physical medium, you must return the medium with +your written explanation. The person or entity that provided you with +the defective work may elect to provide a replacement copy in lieu of a +refund. If you received the work electronically, the person or entity +providing it to you may choose to give you a second opportunity to +receive the work electronically in lieu of a refund. If the second copy +is also defective, you may demand a refund in writing without further +opportunities to fix the problem. + +1.F.4. Except for the limited right of replacement or refund set forth +in paragraph 1.F.3, this work is provided to you 'AS-IS' WITH NO OTHER +WARRANTIES OF ANY KIND, EXPRESS OR IMPLIED, INCLUDING BUT NOT LIMITED TO +WARRANTIES OF MERCHANTIBILITY OR FITNESS FOR ANY PURPOSE. + +1.F.5. Some states do not allow disclaimers of certain implied +warranties or the exclusion or limitation of certain types of damages. +If any disclaimer or limitation set forth in this agreement violates the +law of the state applicable to this agreement, the agreement shall be +interpreted to make the maximum disclaimer or limitation permitted by +the applicable state law. The invalidity or unenforceability of any +provision of this agreement shall not void the remaining provisions. + +1.F.6. INDEMNITY - You agree to indemnify and hold the Foundation, the +trademark owner, any agent or employee of the Foundation, anyone +providing copies of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works in accordance +with this agreement, and any volunteers associated with the production, +promotion and distribution of Project Gutenberg-tm electronic works, +harmless from all liability, costs and expenses, including legal fees, +that arise directly or indirectly from any of the following which you do +or cause to occur: (a) distribution of this or any Project Gutenberg-tm +work, (b) alteration, modification, or additions or deletions to any +Project Gutenberg-tm work, and (c) any Defect you cause. + + +Section 2. Information about the Mission of Project Gutenberg-tm + +Project Gutenberg-tm is synonymous with the free distribution of +electronic works in formats readable by the widest variety of computers +including obsolete, old, middle-aged and new computers. It exists +because of the efforts of hundreds of volunteers and donations from +people in all walks of life. + +Volunteers and financial support to provide volunteers with the +assistance they need are critical to reaching Project Gutenberg-tm's +goals and ensuring that the Project Gutenberg-tm collection will +remain freely available for generations to come. In 2001, the Project +Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation was created to provide a secure +and permanent future for Project Gutenberg-tm and future generations. +To learn more about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation +and how your efforts and donations can help, see Sections 3 and 4 +and the Foundation web page at https://www.pglaf.org. + + +Section 3. Information about the Project Gutenberg Literary Archive +Foundation + +The Project Gutenberg Literary Archive Foundation is a non profit +501(c)(3) educational corporation organized under the laws of the +state of Mississippi and granted tax exempt status by the Internal +Revenue Service. The Foundation's EIN or federal tax identification +number is 64-6221541. Its 501(c)(3) letter is posted at +https://pglaf.org/fundraising. Contributions to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation are tax deductible to the full extent +permitted by U.S. federal laws and your state's laws. + +The Foundation's principal office is located at 4557 Melan Dr. S. +Fairbanks, AK, 99712., but its volunteers and employees are scattered +throughout numerous locations. Its business office is located at +809 North 1500 West, Salt Lake City, UT 84116, (801) 596-1887, email +business@pglaf.org. Email contact links and up to date contact +information can be found at the Foundation's web site and official +page at https://pglaf.org + +For additional contact information: + Dr. Gregory B. Newby + Chief Executive and Director + gbnewby@pglaf.org + + +Section 4. Information about Donations to the Project Gutenberg +Literary Archive Foundation + +Project Gutenberg-tm depends upon and cannot survive without wide +spread public support and donations to carry out its mission of +increasing the number of public domain and licensed works that can be +freely distributed in machine readable form accessible by the widest +array of equipment including outdated equipment. Many small donations +($1 to $5,000) are particularly important to maintaining tax exempt +status with the IRS. + +The Foundation is committed to complying with the laws regulating +charities and charitable donations in all 50 states of the United +States. Compliance requirements are not uniform and it takes a +considerable effort, much paperwork and many fees to meet and keep up +with these requirements. We do not solicit donations in locations +where we have not received written confirmation of compliance. To +SEND DONATIONS or determine the status of compliance for any +particular state visit https://pglaf.org + +While we cannot and do not solicit contributions from states where we +have not met the solicitation requirements, we know of no prohibition +against accepting unsolicited donations from donors in such states who +approach us with offers to donate. + +International donations are gratefully accepted, but we cannot make +any statements concerning tax treatment of donations received from +outside the United States. U.S. laws alone swamp our small staff. + +Please check the Project Gutenberg Web pages for current donation +methods and addresses. Donations are accepted in a number of other +ways including including checks, online payments and credit card +donations. To donate, please visit: https://pglaf.org/donate + + +Section 5. General Information About Project Gutenberg-tm electronic +works. + +Professor Michael S. Hart was the originator of the Project Gutenberg-tm +concept of a library of electronic works that could be freely shared +with anyone. For thirty years, he produced and distributed Project +Gutenberg-tm eBooks with only a loose network of volunteer support. + + +Project Gutenberg-tm eBooks are often created from several printed +editions, all of which are confirmed as Public Domain in the U.S. +unless a copyright notice is included. Thus, we do not necessarily +keep eBooks in compliance with any particular paper edition. + + +Most people start at our Web site which has the main PG search facility: + + https://www.gutenberg.org + +This Web site includes information about Project Gutenberg-tm, +including how to make donations to the Project Gutenberg Literary +Archive Foundation, how to help produce our new eBooks, and how to +subscribe to our email newsletter to hear about new eBooks. |