Just So Stories.....................................................................................................................................................1

Rudyard Kipling......................................................................................................................................1

HOW THE WHALE GOT HIS THROAT ..............................................................................................1

HOW THE CAMEL GOT HIS HUMP ...................................................................................................3

HOW THE RHINOCEROS GOT HIS SKIN ..........................................................................................5

HOW THE LEOPARD GOT HIS SPOTS..............................................................................................6

THE ELEPHANT'S CHILD ..................................................................................................................10

THE SINGSONG OF OLD MAN KANGAROO ...............................................................................15

THE BEGINNING OF THE ARMADILLOS......................................................................................18

HOW THE FIRST LETTER WAS WRITTEN .....................................................................................22

HOW THE ALPHABET WAS MADE .................................................................................................28

THE CRAB THAT PLAYED WITH THE SEA ...................................................................................34

THE CAT THAT WALKED BY HIMSELF........................................................................................40

THE BUTTERFLY THAT STAMPED................................................................................................46

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 twirlywhirly eel. All the fishes he could find in all the sea

he ate with his mouthso! 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

'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 infiniteresourceandsagacity.'

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 jackknife, 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 resourceandsagacity.)

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 jackknifeHe swallowed them all down into his warm, dark, inside

cupboards, and then he smacked his lipsso, and turned round three times on his tail.

But as soon as the Mariner, who was a man of infiniteresource andsagacity, 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

So he said to the 'Stute Fish, 'This man is very nubbly, and besides he is making me hiccough. What shall I

So the Whale called down his own throat to the shipwrecked Mariner, 'Come out and behave yourself. I've

'Nay, nay!' said the Mariner. 'Not so, but far otherwise. Take me to my natalshore and the

whitecliffsofAlbion, 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

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 natalshore and the whitecliffsofAlbion, and he rushed

halfway 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 infiniteresourceandsagacity, had taken his jackknife 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

For the Mariner he was also an Hibernian. 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

The small 'Stute Fish went and hid himself in the mud under the Doorsills of the Equator. He was afraid that

The Sailor took the jackknife 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.

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

Presently the Dog came to him, with a stick in his mouth, and said, 'Camel, O Camel, come and fetch and

Presently the Ox came to him, with the yoke on his neck and said, 'Camel, O Camel, come and plough like

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 newandall); but that Humphthing 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 doubletime to make up

That made the Three very angry (with the world so newandall), and they held a palaver, and an _indaba_,

and a _punchayet_, and a powwow on the edge of the Desert; and the Camel came chewing on 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 powpow with the Three.

'Djinn of All Deserts,' said the Horse, 'is it right for any one to be idle, with the world so newandall?'

'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?'

The Djinn rolled himself up in his dustcloak, and took a bearing across the desert, and found the Camel

'My long and bubbling friend,' said the Djinn, 'what's this I hear of your doing no work, with the world so

The Djinn sat down, with his chin in his hand, and began to think a Great Magic, while the Camel looked at

'You've given the Three extra work ever since Monday morning, all on account of your 'scruciating idleness,'

'I shouldn't say that again if I were you,' said the Djinn; you might say it once too often. Bubbles, I want you

And the Camel said 'Humph!' again; but no sooner had he said it than he saw his back, that he was so proud

'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. Today is Thursday, and you've done no work since Monday, when the work began. Now

'That's made apurpose,' 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

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 morethanoriental splendour. And the Parsee lived by the Red Sea

with nothing but his hat and his knife and a cookingstove 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 stove because he was allowed to cook on the 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 morethanoriental splendour. And the Rhinoceros upset the oilstove 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 Promontories of the Larger Equinox. Then the Parsee came down from his

palmtree and put the stove on its legs and recited the following Sloka, which, as you have not heard, I will

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

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 cakecrumbs, 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 cakecrumbs and some burned currants as ever it could possibly hold. Then he climbed to the top

of his palmtree and waited for the Rhinoceros to come out of the water and put it on.

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

palmtree 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 cakecrumbs. 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

But the Parsee came down from his palmtree, wearing his hat, from which the rays of the sun were reflected

in morethanoriental splendour, packed up his cookingstove, and went away in the direction of Orotavo,

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 sandycoloured 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 sandyyellowbrownish all over; but the Leopard, he was the 'sclusivest

sandiestyellowishbrownest of them alla greyishyellowish cattyshaped kind of beast, and he matched

the 'sclusively yellowishgreyishbrownish 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

yellowishgreyishbrownish stone or clump of grass, and when the Giraffe or the Zebra or the Eland or the

Koodoo or the BushBuck or the BonteBuck 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

greyishbrownishyellowish man he was then), who lived on the High Veldt with the Leopard; and the two

used to hunt togetherthe Ethiopian with his bows and arrows, and the Leopard 'sclusively with his teeth

and clawstill the Giraffe and the Eland and the Koodoo and the Quagga and all the rest of them didn't

After a long timethings lived for ever so long in those daysthey learned to avoid anything that looked

like a Leopard or an Ethiopian; and bit by bitthe Giraffe began it, because his legs were the longestthey

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, patchyblatchy 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 slipperyslidy

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 specklyspickly shadows of the forest,

while the Leopard and the Ethiopian ran about over the 'sclusively greyishyellowishreddish 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 rockrabbits, the Leopard and the Ethiopian, and then they had the

Big Tummyache, both together; and then they met Baviaanthe dogheaded, barking Baboon, who is

Said Leopard to Baviaan (and it was a very hot day), 'Where has all the game gone?'

Said the Ethiopian to Baviaan, 'Can you tell me the present habitat of the aboriginal Fauna?' (That meant just

Then said Baviaan, 'The game has gone into other spots; and my advice to you, Leopard, is to go into other

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

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 crosshatched 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

'That's curious,' said the Leopard. 'I suppose it is because we have just come in out of the sunshine. I can

'Wait a bit, said the Ethiopian. 'It's a long time since we've hunted 'em. Perhaps we've forgotten what they

'Fiddle!' said the Leopard. 'I remember them perfectly on the High Veldt, especially their marrowbones.

Giraffe is about seventeen feet high, of a 'sclusively fulvous goldenyellow from head to heel; and Zebra is

about four and a half feet high, of a'sclusively greyfawn colour from head to heel.'

'Umm, said the Ethiopian, looking into the specklyspickly shadows of the aboriginal Floraforest. 'Then

But they didn't. The Leopard and the Ethiopian hunted all day; and though they could smell them and hear

'For goodness' sake,' said the Leopard at teatime, 'let us wait till it gets dark. This daylight hunting is a

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

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 morningsame as me. They haven't any

So they sat down on them hard till bright morningtime, and then Leopard said, 'What have you at your end

The Ethiopian scratched his head and said, 'It ought to be 'sclusively a rich fulvous orangetawny from head

to heel, and it ought to be Giraffe; but it is covered all over with chestnut blotches. What have you at your

And the Leopard scratched his head and said, 'It ought to be 'sclusively a delicate greyishfawn, 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

They let the Zebra and the Giraffe get up; and Zebra moved away to some little thornbushes 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. Onetwothree! And where's your

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

'Hi! Hi!' said the Ethiopian. 'That's a trick worth learning. Take a lesson by it, Leopard. You show up in this

'Ho! Ho!' said the Leopard. 'Would it surprise you very much to know that you show up in this dark place like

'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

'To a nice working blackishbrownish colour, with a little purple in it, and touches of slatyblue. It will be

So he changed his skin then and there, and the Leopard was more excited than ever; he had never seen a man

'But what about me?' he said, when the Ethiopian had worked his last little finger into his fine new black skin.

'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

'Oh,' said the Ethiopian, 'Baviaan didn't mean spots in South Africa. He meant spots on your skin.'

'Think of Giraffe,' said the Ethiopian. 'Or if you prefer stripes, think of Zebra. They find their spots and

'Well, make up your mind,' said the Ethiopian, 'because I'd hate to go hunting without you, but I must if you

'I'll take spots, then,' said the Leopard; 'but don't make 'em too vulgarbig. I wouldn't look like Giraffenot

'I'll make 'em with the tips of my fingers,' said the Ethiopian. 'There's plenty of black left on my skin still.

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

'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 puddingstone. 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

'Oh, plain black's best for a nigger,' said the Ethiopian. 'Now come along and we'll see if we can't get even

Oh, now and then you will hear grownups say, 'Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots?'

I don't think even grownups would keep on saying such a silly thing if the Leopard and the Ethiopian hadn't

done it oncedo you? But they will never do it again, Best Beloved. They are quite contented as they are.

IN the High and FarOff 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 Elephanta new Elephantan Elephant's Childwho 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 tailfeathers 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

By and by, when that was finished, he came upon Kolokolo Bird sitting in the middle of a waitabit

thornbush, 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 greygreen, greasy Limpopo

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 sugarcane (the long purple kind), and seventeen melons (the greenycrackly

kind), and said to all his dear families, 'Goodbye. I am going to the great greygreen, greasy Limpopo River,

all set about with fevertrees, to find out what the Crocodile has for dinner.' And they all spanked him once

Then he went away, a little warm, but not at all astonished, eating melons, and throwing the rind about,

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

greygreen, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fevertrees, 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

The first thing that he found was a BiColouredPythonRockSnake 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

'Have I seen a Crocodile?' said the BiColouredPythonRockSnake, in a voice of dretful scorn. 'What will

''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child, 'but could you kindly tell me what he has for dinner?'

Then the BiColouredPythonRockSnake uncoiled himself very quickly from the rock, and spanked the

'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

So he said goodbye very politely to the BiColouredPythonRockSnake, 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

But it was really the Crocodile, O Best Beloved, and the Crocodile winked one eyelike this!

''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child most politely, 'but do you happen to have seen a Crocodile in these

Then the Crocodile winked the other eye, and lifted half his tail out of the mud; and the Elephant's Child

''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

BiColouredPythonRockSnake, 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 crocodiletears to show it

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

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

'I think, said the Crocodileand he said it between his teeth, like this'I think today I will begin with

At this, O Best Beloved, the Elephant's Child was much annoyed, and he said, speaking through his nose, like

Then the BiColouredPythonRockSnake 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 largepattern leather ulster' (and by this he meant the Crocodile) 'will jerk you into yonder limpid

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

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

Then the Elephant's Child felt his legs slipping, and he said through his nose, which was now nearly five feet

Then the BiColouredPythonRockSnake came down from the bank, and knotted himself in a

doubleclovehitch 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 selfpropelling manofwar with the armourplated upper deck' (and by this, O Best Beloved, he

So he pulled, and the Elephant's Child pulled, and the Crocodile pulled; but the Elephant's Child and the

BiColouredPythonRockSnake pulled hardest; and at last the Crocodile let go of the Elephant's Child's

Then the Elephant's Child sat down most hard and sudden; but first he was careful to say 'Thank you' to the

BiColouredPythonRockSnake; and next he was kind to his poor pulled nose, and wrapped it all up in

''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 BiColouredPythonRockSnake. 'Some people do not

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

At the end of the third day a fly came and stung him on the shoulder, and before he knew what he was doing

''Vantage number one!' said the BiColouredPythonRockSnake. 'You couldn't have done that with a

Before he thought what he was doing the Elephant's Child put out his trunk and plucked a large bundle of

'Vantage number two!' said the BiColouredPythonRockSnake. 'You couldn't have done that with a

'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 greygreen, greasy Limpopo, and slapped it on his head, where it made a cool

'Vantage number three!' said the BiColouredPythonRockSnake. 'You couldn't have done that with a

'Well,' said the BiColouredPythonRockSnake, 'you will find that new nose of yours very useful to spank

'Thank you,' said the Elephant's Child, 'I'll remember that; and now I think I'll go home to all my dear families

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 flywhisk; and he made himself a new, cool, slushysqushy

mudcap whenever the sun was hot. When he felt lonely walking through Africa he sang to himself down his

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 BiColouredPythonRockSnake 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 Limpopofor

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

'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 greygreen, greasy Limpopo River,' said the

Elephant's Child. 'I asked him what he had for dinner, and he gave me this to keep.'

'It does,' said the Elephant's Child. 'But it's very useful,' and he picked up his hairy uncle, the Baboon, by one

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 tailfeathers; and he caught his tall uncle, the Giraffe,

by the hindleg, and dragged him through a thornbush; 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

At last things grew so exciting that his dear families went off one by one in a hurry to the banks of the great

greygreen, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fevertrees, 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

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

He went to Nqa at six before breakfast, saying, 'Make me different from all other animals by five this

He was grey and he was woolly, and his pride was inordinate: he danced on a rockledge in the middle of

He went to Nquing at eight after breakfast, saying, ' Make me different from all other animals; make me, also,

He was grey and he was woolly, and his pride was inordinate: he danced on a sandbank in the middle of

He went to Nqong at ten before dinnertime, saying, 'Make me different from all other animals; make me

Nqong called DingoYellowDog Dingoalways 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

Off ran DingoYellowDog Dingoalways hungry, grinning like a coalscuttle,ran after Kangaroo.

He ran through the desert; he ran through the mountains; he ran through the saltpans; he ran through the

reedbeds; he ran through the blue gums; he ran through the spinifex; he ran till his front legs ached.

Still ran DingoYellowDog Dingoalways hungry, grinning like a rattrap, never getting nearer, never

Still ran KangarooOld Man Kangaroo. He ran through the titrees; 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

Still ran DingoYellowDog Dingohungrier and hungrier, grinning like a horsecollar, never getting

Now, there wasn't any bridge, and there wasn't any ferryboat, and Kangaroo didn't know how to get over; so

He hopped through the Flinders; he hopped through the Cinders; he hopped through the deserts in the middle

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 DingoYellowDog Dingovery much bewildered, very much hungry, and wondering what in

For he hopped like a cricket; like a pea in a saucepan; or a new rubber ball on a nursery floor.

He tucked up his front legs; he hopped on his hind legs; he stuck out his tail for a balanceweight behind

Still ran DingoTiredDog Dingohungrier and hungrier, very much bewildered, and wondering when in

Down sat DingoPoor Dog Dingoalways hungry, dusky in the sunshine; hung out his tongue and howled.

Down sat KangarooOld Man Kangaroostuck out his tail like a milkingstool behind him, and said,

Then said Nqong, who is always a gentleman, 'Why aren't you grateful to YellowDog Dingo? Why don't

Then said KangarooTired Old KangarooHe's chased me out of the homes of my childhood; he's chased

me out of my regular mealtimes; he's altered my shape so I'll never get it back; and he's played Old Scratch

Then said Nqong, 'Perhaps I'm mistaken, but didn't you ask me to make you different from all other animals,

'Yes,' said Kangaroo. 'I wish that I hadn't. I thought you would do it by charms and incantations, but this is a

'Joke!' said Nqong from his bath in the blue gums. 'Say that again and I'll whistle up Dingo and run your hind

'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

'Yes,' said DingoYellowDog Dingo,'I am just in the same situation. I've made him different from all

Then said Nqong from his bath in the saltpan, 'Come and ask me about it tomorrow, because I'm going to

So they were left in the middle of Australia, Old Man Kangaroo and YellowDog Dingo, and each said,

THIS, O Best Beloved, is another story of the High and FarOff 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

But also, and at the same time, in those High and FarOff 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

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

One beautiful night on the banks of the turbid Amazon, Painted Jaguar found SticklyPrickly Hedgehog and

SlowSolid Tortoise sitting under the trunk of a fallen tree. They could not run away, and so SticklyPrickly

curled himself up into a ball, because he was a Hedgehog, and SlowSolid 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

'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

'Are you sure of what your Mummy told you?' said SticklyPrickly Hedgehog. 'Are you quite sure? Perhaps

she said that when you uncoil a Tortoise you must shell him out the water with a scoop, and when you paw a

'Are you sure of what your Mummy told you?' said SlowandSolid 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

'I don't think it was at all like that,' said Painted Jaguar, but he felt a little puzzled; 'but, please, say it again

'When you scoop water with your paw you uncoil it with a Hedgehog,' said SticklyPrickly. 'Remember that,

'But,' said the Tortoise, 'when you paw your meat you drop it into a Tortoise with a scoop. Why can't you

'You are making my spots ache,' said Painted Jaguar; 'and besides, I didn't want your advice at all. I only

'I shan't tell you,' said SticklyPrickly. '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 paddypaw just as SticklyPrickly curled himself up, and of course Jaguar's paddypaw was

just filled with prickles. Worse than that, he knocked SticklyPrickly away and away into the woods and the

bushes, where it was too dark to find him. Then he put his paddypaw 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 unprickly paw'how do I know that this other is Tortoise?'

'But I am Tortoise,' said SlowandSolid. Your mother was quite right. She said that you were to scoop me

'You didn't say she said that a minute ago, said Painted Jaguar, sucking the prickles out of his paddypaw.

'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

'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

'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

'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 SlowSolid.

'If you say another word about what my mother said' the Jaguar answered, but he had not finished the

sentence before SlowandSolid quietly dived into the turbid Amazon, swam under water for a long way,

'That was a very narrow escape,' said SticklyPrickly. 'I don't rib Painted Jaguar. What did you tell him that

'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

'Son, son!' said his mother ever so many times, graciously waving her tail, 'what have you been doing that

'I tried to scoop something that said it wanted to be scooped out of its shell with my paw, and my paw is full

'Son, son!' said his mother ever so many times, graciously waving her tail, 'by the prickles in your paddypaw

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

'I don't like this old lady one little bit,' said SticklyPrickly, under the shadow of a large leaf. 'I wonder what

'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 allat all,' said SlowandSolid Tortoise. 'Even Painted Jaguar can't forget those

'Don't talk to me,' said SticklyPrickly. 'Just think how much better it would be if you could curl up. This is a

Painted Jaguar was sitting on the banks of the turbid Amazon sucking prickles out of his Paws and saying to

'Can't curl, but can swim SlowSolid, that's him! Curls up, but can't swim SticklyPrickly, that's him!'

'He'll never forget that this month of Sundays,' said SticklyPrickly. 'Hold up my chin, SlowandSolid. I'm

'Excellent!' said SlowandSolid; and he held up SticklyPrickly's chin, while SticklyPrickly kicked in the

'You'll make a fine swimmer yet,' said SlowandSolid. 'Now, if you can unlace my backplates a little, I'll

SticklyPrickly helped to unlace Tortoise's backplates, so that by twisting and straining SlowandSolid

'Excellent!' said SticklyPrickly; '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 practice that sidestroke which you say is so easy.' And so

'Excellent!' said SlowandSolid. '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

'Excellent!' said SticklyPrickly, 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

'Excellent!' said SlowandSolid. '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 putting my hind legs round my ears

'Excellent!' said SticklyPrickly. 'But it's straining your backplates a little. They are all overlapping now,

'Oh, that's the result of exercise,' said SlowandSolid. 'I've noticed that your prickles seem to be melting

into one another, and that you're growing to look rather more like a pinecone, and less like a chestnutburr,

'Am I?' said SticklyPrickly. 'That comes from my soaking in the water. Oh, won't Painted Jaguar be

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

'SticklyPrickly,' said Tortoise after breakfast, 'I am not what I was yesterday; but I think that I may yet

'That was the very thing I was thinking just now,' said Stickly Prickly. 'I think scales are a tremendous

improvement on pricklesto say nothing of being able to swim. Oh, won't Painted Jaguar be surprised! Let's

By and by they found Painted Jaguar, still nursing his paddypaw 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 SticklyPrickly. '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

'That's unkind of you,' said SticklyPrickly, 'seeing that this time yesterday you tried to scoop me out of my

'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 SlowSolid. 'Why are you so rude and

'Can't curl, but can swim SticklyPrickly, that's him! Curls up, but can't swim SlowSolid, that's him!'

Then they both curled themselves up and rolled round and round Painted Jaguar till his eyes turned truly

'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

'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

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 SticklyPrickly

and SlowSolid 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 lippetylappety one

over the other, like pinecone scales, that lived on the banks of the turbid Amazon in the High and FarOff

I'VE never sailed the Amazon, I've never reached Brazil; But the Don and Magdelana, They can go there

Yes, weekly from Southampton, Great steamers, white and gold, Go rolling down to Rio (Roll downroll

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 downroll down to Rio Roll really down to Rio! Oh,

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,

'Manwhodoesnotputhisfoot forwardinahurry'; but we, O Best Beloved, will call him Tegumai,

'Ladywhoasksaverymanyquestions'; but we, O Best Beloved, will call her Teshumai, for short. And

'Smallpersonwithoutanymannerswhooughttobespanked'; 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

One day Tegumai Bopsulai went down through the beaverswamp to the Wagai river to spear carpfish 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

'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

'It's too far for your little fat legs,' said Tegumai. 'Besides, you might fall into the beaverswamp and be

drowned. We must make the best of a bad job.' He sat down and took out a little leather mendybag, full of

reindeersinews and strips of leather, and lumps of bee'swax 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

'Taffy,' said Tegumai, 'how often have I told you not to use slang? "Awful" isn't a pretty word, but it could be

Just then a Strangerman 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 girldaughter Of his own at home. Tegumai drew a hank of deersinews from his mendybag and

'Come here, said Taffy. 'Do you know where my Mummy lives?' And the Strangerman said 'Um!' being, as

'Silly!' said Taffy, and she stamped her foot, because she saw a shoal of very big carp going up the river just

'Don't bother grownups,' said Tegumai, so busy with his spearmending 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 deersinews with his mouth

full of loose ends. The Strangermana genuine Tewara he wassat down on the grass, and Taffy showed

him what her Daddy was doing. The Strangerman 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

'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 beaverswamp, and ask for Daddy's other spearthe one with the black handle that hangs over

The Strangerman (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, Manwhoturnshisbackoncallers, will be angry.' He got up and

twisted a big flat piece of bark off a birchtree and gave it to Taffy. He did this, Best Beloved, to show that

his heart was as white as the birchbark and that he meant no harm; but Taffy didn't quite understand.

'Oh!' said she. 'Now I see! You want my Mummy's livingaddress? 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 Strangerman (and he was a Tewara) didn't say anything, So Taffy put up her little hand and pulled at

The Strangerman (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, Manwhoattendsstrictlytohisbusiness, 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 drawingroom 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 blackhandled 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

The Strangerman (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

'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 livingaddress. 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 beaverswamp 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 beaverswamp. 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

The Strangerman (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. Therefore he turned to me his back, and let the wise and wondetful

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 birchbark in his hand,

'What have you been doing, Taffy?' said Tegumai. He had mended his spear and was carefully waving it to

'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

The Strangermandid 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 Strangermanalways a pure Tewarasmiled politely and

handed Teshumai the birchbark. He had run hard, so that he panted, and his legs were scratched with

As soon as Teshumai saw the picture she screamed like anything and flew at the Strangerman. The other

Neolithic ladies at once knocked him down and sat on him in a long line of six, while Teshumai pulled his

'It's as plain as the nose on this Strangerman'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

Strangerman. '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.

'Most shocking!' said the Neolithic ladies, and they filled the Strangerman'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, Jujumen, Bonzes, and the rest, who decided that before they chopped

the Strangerman's head off he should instantly lead them down to the river and show them where he had

By this time the Strangerman (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 daisychains, and Tegumai carefully spearing small carp

'Well, you have been quick!' said Taffy. 'But why did you bring so many people? Daddy dear, this is my

'Very,' said Tegumai; 'but it has ruined all my fishing for the day. Why, the whole dear, kind, nice, clean,

And so they were. First of all walked Teshumai Tewindrow and the Neolithic ladies, tightly holding on to the

Strangerman, whose hair was full of mud (although he was a Tewara). Behind them came the Head Chief,

the ViceChief, 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 reindeerrun, and two salmonleaps, to feudal and

prognathous Villeins, semientitled to half a bearskin of winter nights, seven yards from the fire, and adscript

serfs, holding the reversion of a scraped marrowbone 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

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 topknot feathers and shook him severely.

'Goodness' sakes alive!' said Tegumai. 'Let go of my topknot. Can't a man break his carpspear without the

'I don't believe you've brought my Daddy's blackhandled spear after all,' said Taffy. 'And what are you

They were thumping him by twos and threes and tens till his eyes turned round and round. He could only

'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

'He came with a horrible picture,' said the Head Chief,'a picture that showed you were full of spears.'

'ErumPr'aps I'd better 'splain that I gave him that picture,' said Taffy, but she did not feel quite comfy.

'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

'Explain! Explain! Explain!' said the Head Chief of the Tribe of Tegumai, and he hopped on one foot.

'I wanted the Strangerman 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 headthere wasn't room on the birchbark; 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 Strangerman, 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 longtime, till the Head Chief laughed; then the Strangerman (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.

Smallpersonwithoutanymannerswhooughttobespanked, you've hit upon a great invention!'

'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 today, pictures are not always properly understood. But a time will come, O Babe of

Tegumai, when we shall make lettersall twentysix 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

'I shall be glad of that,' said Taffy, 'because, after all, though you've brought every single other spear in the

Then the Head Chief cried and said and sang, 'Taffy dear, the next time you write a pictureletter, 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

Then they adopted the Strangerman (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 Daddiesjust like Taffy.

THE week after Taffimai Metallumai (we will still call her Taffy, Best Beloved) made that little mistake

about her Daddy's spear and the Strangerman and the pictureletter and all, she went carpfishing again

with her Daddy. Her Mummy wanted her to stay at home and help hang up hides to dry on the big

dryingpoles 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

'Well do I,' said Tegumai. 'I had to pay two deerskinssoft ones with fringesto the Strangerman for the

'We didn't do anything,' said Taffy. 'It was Mummy and the other Neolithic ladiesand the mud.'

Taffy took a marrowbone and sat mousyquiet for ten whole minutes, while her Daddy scratched on pieces

of birchbark with a shark's tooth. Then she said, 'Daddy, I've thinked of a secret surprise. You make a

'Yes,' said Taffy. 'You look just like a carpfish with its mouth open. Say it again, please.'

'I'm not meaning rude, really and truly,' said Taffy. 'It's part of my secretsurprisethink. Do say ah, Daddy,

and keep your mouth open at the end, and lend me that tooth. I'm going to draw a carpfish's mouth

'Don't you see?' said Taffy, scratching away on the bark. 'That will be our little secret s'prise. When I draw a

carpfish with his mouth open in the smoke at the back of our Caveif Mummy doesn't mindit will

remind you of that ahnoise. Then we can play that it was me jumped out of the dark and s'prised you with

'Really?' said her Daddy, in the voice that grownups use when they are truly attending. 'Go on, Taffy.'

'Oh bother!' she said. 'I can't draw all of a carpfish, but I can draw something that means a carpfish's

mouth. Don't you know how they stand on their heads rooting in the mud? Well, here's a pretence carpfish

(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

'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 carpfish, 'cause the perches and trouts haven't got feelers. Look here, Taffy.' And he drew this.

And she drew this. (3.) 'And I'll be quite as s'prised when I see it anywhere, as if you had jumped out from

'H'm,' said Taffy. 'That's a mixy noise. The end part is ahcarpfishmouth; but what can we do about the

'It's very like the carpfishmouth noise. Let's draw another bit of the carpfish and join 'em,' said her

'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

'A good notion,' said Tegumai. "Here's a carpfish tail for the yernoise.' And he drew this. (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

'That's quite easy,' said Taffy. 'You make your mouth all around like an egg or a stone. So an egg or a stone

'You can't always find eggs or stones. We'll have to scratch a round something like one.' And he drew this.

'My gracious!' said Taffy, 'what a lot of noisepictures we've made,carpmouth, carptail, and egg! Now,

'Ssh!' said her Daddy, and frowned to himself, but Taffy was too incited to notice.

'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 sshnoise a snake. Will this do?' And she drew this. (7.)

'There,' she said. 'That's another s'prisesecret. When you draw a hissysnake by the door of your little

backcave where you mend the spears, I'll know you're thinking hard; and I'll come in most mousyquiet.

And if you draw it on a tree by the river when you are fishing, I'll know you want me to walk most most

'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 spearheads. I believe we've found out the big secret of the

'Now look,' said her Daddy. 'S'pose you saw this scratched by the side of a pool in the beaverswamp?' And

'Carptail and round egg. Two noises mixed! Yo, bad water,' said Taffy. ''Course I wouldn't drink that water

'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 carpfishtail 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

'Yes. Snake and egg,' said Taffy 'So that means dinner's ready. If you saw that scratched on a tree you'd know

'My Winkie!' said Tegumai. 'That's true too. But wait a minute. I see a difficulty. SO means "come and have

'Horrid old dryingpoles!' 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

'You'd be cross. So'd Mummy. We must make a new picture for sho. We must draw a spotty snake that hisses

'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 dryingpoles their very selves, and make quite sure. I'll put

'P'raps that's safest. It's very like our dryingpoles, anyhow,' said her Daddy, laughing. 'Now I'll make a new

noise with a snake and dryingpole 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 pictureletter and the mud in the Strangerman's

'We won't have beavers or hills this time, eh?' said her Daddy, 'I'll just draw a straight line for my spear.' and

'Please don't, Daddy. It makes me uncomfy. Do some more noises. We're getting on beautifully.'

Taffy drew the snake and the dryingpole. Then she stopped. 'We must make a new picture for that end

'Then s'pose we draw a thin round egg, and pretend it's a frog that hasn't eaten anything for years.'

'Nno,' said her Daddy. 'If we drew that in a hurry we might mistake it for the round egg itself. Shushushu!

'I tell you what we'll do. We'll open a little hole at the end of the round egg to show how the Onoise runs out

'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 incitement. He went on till he had drawn this. (13.)

'Don't look up, Taffy,' he said. 'Try if you can make out what that means in the Tegumai language. If you can,

'Snakepolebrokeneggcarptail and carpmouth,' said Taffy. 'Shuya. Skywater (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

'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. Shuya means rain, or "it is going to rain." Why, Daddy!' She gotup and danced round him. 'S'pose you

went out before I was awake, and drawed shuya in the smoke on the wall, I'd know it was going to rain and

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

'Shuyalas, ya maru. (Skywater ending. River come to.) what a lot of new sounds! I don't see how we can

'But I dobut I do!' said Tegumai. 'Just attend a minute, Taffy, and we won't do any more today. We've got

shuya all right, haven't we? But this las is a teaser. Lalala' and he waved his sharktooth.

'There's the hissysnake at the end and the carpmouth before the snakeasasas. We only want lala,'

'I know it, but we have to make lala. And we're the first people in all the world who've ever tried to do it,

'Well,' said Taffy, yawning, for she was rather tired. 'Las means breaking or finishing as well as ending,

'So it does,' said Tegumai. 'Tolas means that there's no water in the tank for Mummy to cook withjust

'And shilas means that your spear is broken. If I'd only thought of that instead of drawing silly beaver

'I could have drawn shi quite easily,' Taffy went on. 'Then I'd have drawn your spear all brokenthis way!'

'The very thing,' said Tegumai. 'That's la all over. It isn't like any of the other marks either.' And he drew this.

'Now for ya. Oh, we've done that before. Now for maru. Mummummum. Mum shuts one's mouth up,

'Then the carpmouth open. That makes Mamama! But what about this rrrrrthing, Taffy?'

'It sounds all rough and edgy, like your sharktooth saw when you're cutting out a plank for the canoe,' said

'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

'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

'Oh, I'll leave a space for that,' said her Daddy. And very incitedly he drew them all without stopping, on a

'That's enough for today,' 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

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,

'Please don't mind,' said Taffy. 'It's only our secrets'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 Yalas (water is ending or running out)

'Um,' said Taffy. 'These picturesounds 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 earthe

'Now come along and we'll draw all the leftover soundpictures,' 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 Tsound

was only a thin long Tegumai with his arms out to hold Taffy and Teshumai. You can see from these three

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 birchbark, they became plainer and easier, till at last even Tegumai said he

could find no fault with them. They turned the hissysnake the other way round for the Zsound, 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 Bsound (25,

26, 27, 28); and because it was a nasty, nosy noise, they just drew noses for the Nsound, till they were tired

(29); and they drew a picture of the big lakepike's mouth for the greedy Gasound (30); and they drew the

pike's mouth again with a spear behind it for the scratchy, hurty Kasound (31); and they drew pictures of a

little bit of the winding Wagai river for the nice windywindy Wasound (32, 33); and so on and so forth and

so following till they had done and drawn all the soundpictures that they wanted, and there was the

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 AlphabetA, B, C, D, E, and

the rest of 'emgot 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 sojust soa little time agoon the banks of the big Wagai!

OF all the Tribe of Tegumai Who cut that figure, none remain, On Merrow Down the cuckoos cry The

But as the faithful years return And hearts unwounded sing again, Comes Taffy dancing through the fern To

Her brows are bound with brackenfronds, And golden elflocks fly above; Her eyes are bright as diamonds

In mocassins and deerskin cloak, Unfearing, free and fair she flits, And lights her little dampwood smoke

For faroh, very far behind, So far she cannot call to him, Comes Tegumai alone to find The daughter that

BEFORE the High and FarOff 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

AlltheElephanttherewas played. He took the BeaverAlltheBeavertherewas and said, 'Play at

being a Beaver,' and Allthe Beavertherewas played. He took the CowAllthe Cowtherewasand

said, 'Play at being a Cow,' and AlltheCowtherewas played. He took the TurtleAlltheTurtle

therewas and said, 'Play at being a Turtle,' and AlltheTurtletherewas played. One by one he took all

But towards evening, when people and things grow restless and tired, there came up the Man (With his own

little girldaughter?)Yes, with his own best beloved little girldaughter 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

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 girldaughter 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

He went North, Best Beloved, and he found AlltheElephanttherewas digging with his tusks and

stamping with his feet in the nice new clean earth that had been made ready for him.

'Payah kun,' said the Eldest Magician, meaning, 'That is quite right'; and he breathed upon the great rocks and

lumps of earth that AlltheElephanttherewas had thrown up, and they became the great Himalayan

He went East, and he found AlltheCow therewas 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.

'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

He went West, and he found AlltheBeavertherewas making a beaverdam across the mouths of broad

'Payah kun,' said the Eldest Magician; and he breathed upon the fallen trees and the still water, and they

Then he went South and found AlltheTurtletherewas 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.

'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

By and by the Eldest Magician met the Man on the banks of the Perak river, and said, 'Ho! Son of Adam, are

'No,' said the Man. 'Once a day and once a night the Sea runs up the Perak river and drives the sweetwater

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

'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 girldaughter came with them; and the Man took his krisa

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

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 fishingline with which he hopes one day to catch the world, 'Ho! Fisher of

'No,' said the Fisherman, 'I am spinning a line with which I shall some day catch the world; but I do not play

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

Then the little girldaughter 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

And the Eldest Magician said, 'How wise are little children who see and are silent! What was the beast like?'

And the little girldaughter 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

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 Tasekthe Heart of the Seawhere 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

And Pau Amma, deep down below, answered, 'Once a day and once a night I go out to look for my food.

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

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 Ammafor 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 fruitsthe magic double kernelled nuts that make people young, and the little

girldaughter saw it bobbing alongside the canoe, and pulled it in and began to pick out the soft eyes of it

'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

'You are not so important after all, Pau Amma,' he said. 'Now, let me try,' and he made a Magic with his left

handwith just the little finger of his left handandlo and behold, Best Beloved, Pau Amma's hard,

bluegreenblack shell fell off him as a husk falls off a cocoanut, and Pau Amma was left all softsoft as

'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

And Pau Amma said, 'I am ashamed! Give me back my hard shell and let me go back to Pusat Tasek, and I

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

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

'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 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 childrenso 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

And the little girldaughter 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 cocoanuts

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

And Pau Amma said, 'I do not choose yet, for, all soft as I am, these gifts would not help me. Give me back

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

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 girldaughter 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

'Payahkun,' 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

'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 Malazythe 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

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

'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

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 neaptides; but nearly always he is careful, because of the

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

cocoanuts, exactly as the girldaughter promised. But once a year all Pau Ammas must shake off their hard

armour and be softto 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

picklebottles. That is why they nip you with their scissors, and it serves you right!

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 picturebook 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 steamerkiddy ought to be able to do that; but if you can't read, ask some one to show it you.

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 wildas wild as wild could beand 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

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 wildhorse skin, taildown, across the opening of the

Cave; and she said, 'Wipe you 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 marrowbones

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 muttonthe big fat

bladeboneand she looked at the wonderful marks on it, and she threw more wood on the fire, and she

Out in the Wet Wild Woods all the wild animals gathered together where they could see the light of the fire a

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

'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

When Wild Dog reached the mouth of the Cave he lifted up the dried horseskin with his nose and sniffed

the beautiful smell of the roast mutton, and the Woman, looking at the bladebone, 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 muttonbone 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

The Woman said, 'Wild Thing out of the Wild Woods, help my Man to hunt through the day and guard this

'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

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.

Next night the Woman cut great green armfuls of fresh grass from the watermeadows, and dried it before

the fire, so that it smelt like newmown hay, and she sat at the mouth of the Cave and plaited a halter out of

horsehide, and she looked at the shoulder of muttonboneat the big broad bladeboneand she made a

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

'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

The Woman laughed, and picked up the bladebone 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

'Ah,' said the Cat, listening, 'this is a clever Woman, but she is not so clever as I am.' 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

'Ah,' said the Cat, listening, 'that is a very foolish Horse.' And he went back through the Wet Wild Woods,

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

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

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 bladebone, and we have no more need of either friends

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

Then the Woman laughed and said, 'You are the Cat who walks by himself, and all places are alike to you.

Your are neither a friend nor a servant. You have said it yourself. Go away and walk by yourself in all places

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

Woman said, 'I knew I was wise, but I did not know I was beautiful. So I will make a bargain with you. If

'I never shall,' said the Woman, 'but if I say two words in your praise, you may sit by the fire in the Cave.'

'I never shall,' said the Woman, 'but if I say three words in your praise, you may drink the warm white milk

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 Milkpots 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

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 Batthe little upsidedown Batthat 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

'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.'

Next night Cat walked through the Wet Wild Woods and hid very near the Cave till morningtime, 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

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

Then the Batthe little upsidedown batthat 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

'A blessing on that Wild Thing whoever he may be,' said the Woman, straightening her back, 'for I was a busy

That very minute and second, Best Beloved, the dried horseskin Curtain that was stretched taildown at the

mouth of the Cave fell downwhoosh!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

The Woman was very angry, and shut her lips tight and took up her spinningwheel 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

'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 spinningwhorl and drag it along the floor, and I will show you a magic

'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 hindlegs 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

'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 roofpuff! because it remembered the bargain she had made with the Cat, and when it

had cleared awaylo 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 bladebone 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 weewee 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

'Ouh! Chee! No indeed!' said the Woman, and she dropped the bladebone 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.

'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 Milkpot that stood by the fire cracked in two

piecesffftbecause it remembered the bargain she had made with the Cat, and when the Woman jumped

down from the footstoollo and behold!the Cat was lapping up the warm white milk that lay in one of the

'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

'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

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

'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

'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

'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

'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

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

THIS, O my Best Beloved, is a storya new and a wonderful storya story quite different from the other

storiesa story about The Most Wise Sovereign SuleimanbinDaoudSolomon the Son of David.

There are three hundred and fiftyfive stories about Suleiman binDaoud; but this is not one of them. It is

not the story of the Lapwing who found the Water; or the Hoopoe who shaded SuleimanbinDaoud from the

heat. It is not the story of the Glass Pavement, or the Ruby with the Crooked Hole, or the Gold Bars of

SuleimanbinDaoud 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

SuleimanbinDaoud 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 watercarrier, and told him the news of the three

And yet SuleimanbinDaoud 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. SuleimanbinDaoud 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.' SuleimanbinDaoud 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 SuleimanbinDaoud 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. SuleimanbinDaoud 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

He married ever so many wifes. He married nine hundred and ninetynine 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 ninehundred and ninetynine 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 SuleimanbinDaoud, and that was horrid

for him. But Balkis the Most Beautiful never quarrelled with SuleimanbinDaoud. 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 ninetynine quarrelsome wives into white mules of the desert or

greyhounds or pomegranate seeds; but SuleimanbinDaoud 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

One day, when they had quarrelled for three weeksall nine hundred and ninetynine wives

togetherSuleimanbinDaoud went out for peace and quiet as usual; and among the orange trees he met

Balkis the Most Beautiful, very sorrowful because Suleiman binDaoud 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 SuleimanbinDaoud 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

And Balkis the Most Beautiful said, 'O my Lord and Treasure of my Soul, what will you do?'

And SuleimanbinDaoud said, 'O my Lady and Content of my Heart, I shall continue to endure my fate at

the hands of these nine hundred and ninetynine 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 heavyscented

gingerplants that grew in the garden, till he came to the great camphortree that was called the Camphor

Tree of SuleimanbinDaoud. But Balkis hid among the tall irises and the spotted bamboos and the red lillies

SuleimanbinDaoud 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 SuleimanbinDaoud's Palace and this garden here would

Then SuleimanbinDaoud forgot his nine hundred and ninetynine bothersome wives, and laughed, till the

camphortree 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 SuleimanbinDaoud, and

clung there, fanning himself. SuleimanbinDaoud 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

The Butterfly looked at SuleimanbinDaoud 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

'One must keep them in order somehow, said the Butterfly, and she has been quarrelling with me all the

And SuleimanbinDaoud said, 'May it quiet her. Go back to your wife, little brother, and let me hear what

Back flew the Butterfly to his wife, who was all of a twitter behind a leaf, and she said, 'He heard you!

'Well,' said the Butterfly, fanning himself most importantly, 'between you and me, my dearof course I don't

blame him, because his Palace must have cost a great deal and the oranges are just ripening,he asked me

'Gracious!' said his wife, and sat quite quiet; but SuleimanbinDaoud laughed till the tears ran down his

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

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

And the Queen Balkis, the Wise Balkis of Sheba, put her hand to her lips to hide a smile and said, 'Little

'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

SuleimanbinDaoud's Palace disappear by stamping his foot, I'm sure I don't care. He'll forget all about it

'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 menfolk are like, don't we? He'll be very much

Away flew the Butterfly's Wife to her husband, and in five minutes they were quarrelling worse than ever.

'I don't believe you one little bit,' said the Butterfly's Wife. 'I should very much like to see it done. Suppose

'I promised SuleimanbinDaoud 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

SuleimanbinDaoud, sitting under the camphortree, 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,

Presently the Butterfly, very hot and puffy, came whirling back under the shadow of the camphortree and

said to Suleiman, 'She wants me to stamp! She wants to see what will happen, O SuleimanbinDaoud! 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 SuleimanbinDaoud, 'she will never laugh at you again,' and he turned the ring on

his fingerjust for the little Butterfly's sake, not for the sake of showing off,and, lo and behold, four huge

'Slaves,' said SuleimanbinDaoud, '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

'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 SuleimanbinDaoud 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

The the butterfly stamped. The Djinns jerked the Palace and the gardens a thousand miles into the air: there

was a most awful thunderclap, and everything grew inkyblack. 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,

The Butterfly was nearly as frightened as his wife, and SuleimanbinDaoud laughed so much that it was

several minutes before he found breath enough to whisper to the Butterfly, 'Stamp again, little brother. Give

'Yes, give him back his Palace,' said the Butterfly's Wife, still flying about in the dark like a moth. 'Give him

'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 meI'm used to this kind of thingbut as a favour to you and to

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 darkgreen 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 camphortree waggling her

SuleimanbinDaolld 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

Then came a terrible noise, for all the nine hundred and ninetynine 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

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,

Then Balkis the Most Beautiful QueenSuleimanbinDaoud's Very Best BelovedQueen that was of

Sheba and Sable and the Rivers of the Gold of the Southfrom the Desert of Zinn to the Towers of

ZimbabweBalkis, almost as wise as the Most Wise SuleimanbinDaoud 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 SuleimanbinDaoud to teach her a lesson in lowspeaking and humbleness, for that is counted a

Then up and spoke an Egyptian Queenthe daughter of a Pharoahand she said, 'Our Palace cannot be

plucked up by the roots like a leek for the sake of a little insect. No! SuleimanbinDaoud must be dead, and

Then Balkis beckoned that bold Queen without looking at her, and said to her and to the others, 'Come and

They came down the marble steps, one hundred abreast, and beneath his camphortree, still weak with

laughing, they saw the Most Wise King SuleimanbinDaoud 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 magicianone who steals away the very Palace of

SuleirnanbinDaoud himself. Go in peace, little folk!' And he kissed them on the wings, and they flew

Then all the Queens except Balkisthe Most Beautiful and Splendid Balkis, who stood apart smilingfell

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 loudspeaking and open quarrelling through many

Then they put their veils over their heads, and they put their hands over their mouths, and they tiptoed back to

Then BalkisThe Most Beautiful and Excellent Balkiswent forward through the red lilies into the shade

of the camphortree and laid her hand upon SuleimanbinDaoud'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 SuleimanbinDaoud, 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

BalkisThe tender and Most Lovely Balkissaid, 'O my Lord and Regent of my Existence, I hid behind

the camphortree 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 SuleimanbinDaoud rose up from his seat under the camphortree, 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, andbeholdit 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 SuleimanbinDaoud'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