Thursday - October 28, 2010

He Does Exist!

Back in 1902 Rudyard Kipling published his Just So stories for little children. Stories that are wonderful to read aloud to very small ones, and give good answers to questions of Why. Plus you get to do the silly voices, wave your arms around, and roll his alliterative phrases trippingly off your tongue, to the impression and delight of the tiny folk. Great moments in parenting. Plus there’s free poetry at the end. With luck you’ll kick-start a lifelong love of reading.

Some of us love Kipling. Others have never kippled. Stoke your own ‘satiable curtiosity if you haven’t, because you are missing something grand. Disney utterly destroyed The Jungle Book when they took it over. Gutted it. Took out all the blood and danger, two elements essential for any real children’s stories. The original printed tale that Kipling wrote is a different world.

The Elephant’s Child is one of tales that are Just So. It’s a story about a small one who asks questions endlessly. Perhaps you’ve known a two year old just like him?

IN the High and Far-Off Times the Elephant, O Best Beloved, had no trunk. He had only a blackish, bulgy nose, as big as a boot, that he could wriggle about from side to side; but he couldn’t pick up things with it. But there was one Elephant--a new Elephant--an Elephant’s Child--who was full of ‘satiable curtiosity, and that means he asked ever so many questions. And he lived in Africa, and he filled all Africa with his ‘satiable curtiosities. He asked his tall aunt, the Ostrich, why her tail-feathers grew just so, and his tall aunt the Ostrich spanked him with her hard, hard claw. He asked his tall uncle, the Giraffe, what made his skin spotty, and his tall uncle, the Giraffe, spanked him with his hard, hard hoof. And still he was full of ‘satiable curtiosity! He asked his broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, why her eyes were red, and his broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, spanked him with her broad, broad hoof; and he asked his hairy uncle, the Baboon, why melons tasted just so, and his hairy uncle, the Baboon, spanked him with his hairy, hairy paw. And still he was full of ‘satiable curtiosity! He asked questions about everything that he saw, or heard, or felt, or smelt, or touched, and all his uncles and his aunts spanked him. And still he was full of ‘satiable curtiosity!

One fine morning in the middle of the Precession of the Equinoxes this ‘satiable Elephant’s Child asked a new fine question that he had never asked before. He asked, ‘What does the Crocodile have for dinner?’ Then everybody said, ‘Hush!’ in a loud and dretful tone, and they spanked him immediately and directly, without stopping, for a long time.

By and by, when that was finished, he came upon Kolokolo Bird sitting in the middle of a wait-a-bit thorn-bush, and he said, ‘My father has spanked me, and my mother has spanked me; all my aunts and uncles have spanked me for my ‘satiable curtiosity; and still I want to know what the Crocodile has for dinner!’

Then Kolokolo Bird said, with a mournful cry, ‘Go to the banks of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, and find out.’

That very next morning, when there was nothing left of the Equinoxes, because the Precession had preceded according to precedent, this ‘satiable Elephant’s Child took a hundred pounds of bananas (the little short red kind), and a hundred pounds of sugar-cane (the long purple kind), and seventeen melons (the greeny-crackly kind), and said to all his dear families, ‘Goodbye. I am going to the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, to find out what the Crocodile has for dinner.’ And they all spanked him once more for luck, though he asked them most politely to stop.

Then he went away, a little warm, but not at all astonished, eating melons, and throwing the rind about, because he could not pick it up.

[excerpt from later on in the story] Then the Elephant’s Child grew all breathless, and panted, and kneeled down on the bank and said, ‘You are the very person I have been looking for all these long days. Will you please tell me what you have for dinner?’

‘Come hither, Little One,’ said the Crocodile, ‘and I’ll whisper.’

Then the Elephant’s Child put his head down close to the Crocodile’s musky, tusky mouth, and the Crocodile caught him by his little nose, which up to that very week, day, hour, and minute, had been no bigger than a boot, though much more useful.

‘I think,’ said the Crocodile--and he said it between his teeth, like this--’I think to-day I will begin ... with Elephant’s Child!’

At this, O Best Beloved, the Elephant’s Child was much annoyed, and he said, speaking through his nose, like this, ‘Led go! You are hurtig be!’

and today in the news we have this:

This baby elephant was given quite a shock when the camouflaged crocodile gave a tug on its trunk while it went for a drink with its family.
...
The extraordinary scene was captured by amateur photographer Johan Opperman while taking pictures of a family of African Bush elephants grazing by a water hole and cooling down.

Under the watchful eye of its family, the young elephant headed to the edge of the waterhole to grab itself a drink.

However, in what has been described by experts as very rare behaviour, a crocodile pounced on the youngster, hoping for a kill by locking its jaws around its trunk.

Hearing the baby’s distress calls, the herd of elephants, which are known for being very protective of their young, immediately came to its rescue, scaring off the croc by trumpeting and stamping around.

After the attack the herd stayed with the youngster. When the baby had been tended to and the herd decided all was well, they crossed the dam together, just metres from where the crocodile had been hiding.

So now, O Best Beloved, you have photographic proof for when your own ‘satiable Elephant’s Child turns into a Doubting Thomas. And you can find the great grey-green greasy Limpopo River on the map; it’s the border between South Africa, Botswana, and Zimbabwe. I’ve even given you a sign. Just so.

Posted by Drew458     on 10/28/2010 at 06:31 PM   
Filed Under: • Animals •  
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