Just So Stories
by
Ruyard Kipling

Part 2 out of 2



doesn't mind--it will remind you of that ah-noise. Then we can
play that it was me jumped out of the dark and s'prised you with
that noise--same as I did in the beaver-swamp last winter.'

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

'Oh bother!' she said. 'I can't draw all of a carp-fish, but I
can draw something that means a carp-fish's mouth. Don't you know
how they stand on their heads rooting in the mud? Well, here's a
pretence carp-fish (we can play that the rest of him is drawn).
Here's just his mouth, and that means ah.' And she drew this.
(1.)

'That's not bad,' said Tegumai, and scratched on his own piece of
bark for himself; but you've forgotten the feeler that hangs
across his mouth.'

'But I can't draw, Daddy.'

'You needn't draw anything of him except just the opening of his
mouth and the feeler across. Then we'll know he's a carp-fish,
'cause the perches and trouts haven't got feelers. Look here,
Taffy.' And he drew this. (2.)

'Now I'll copy it.' said Taffy. 'Will you understand this when
you see it?'

'Perfectly,' said her Daddy.

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 behind a tree and said
'"Ah!"'

'Now, make another noise,' said Taffy, very proud.

'Yah!' said her Daddy, very loud.

'H'm,' said Taffy. 'That's a mixy noise. The end part is
ah-carp-fish-mouth; but what can we do about the front part? Yer-
yer-yer and ah! Ya!'

'It's very like the carp-fish-mouth noise. Let's draw another
bit of the carp-fish and join 'em,' said her Daddy. He was quite
incited too.

'No. If they're joined, I'll forget. Draw it separate. Draw his
tail. If he's standing on his head the tail will come first.
'Sides, I think I can draw tails easiest,' said Taffy.

'A good notion,' said Tegumai. "Here's a carp-fish tail for the
yer-noise.' And he drew this. (4.)

'I'll try now,' said Taffy. ''Member I can't draw like you,
Daddy. Will it do if I just draw the split part of the tail, and
the sticky-down line for where it joins?' And she drew this. (5.)

Her Daddy nodded, and his eyes were shiny bright with 'citement.

'That's beautiful,' she said. 'Now make another noise, Daddy.'

'Oh!' said her Daddy, very loud.

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

'You can't always find eggs or stones. We'll have to scratch a
round something like one.' And he drew this. (6.)

'My gracious!' said Taffy, 'what a lot of noise-pictures we've
made,--carp-mouth, carp-tail, and egg! Now, make another noise,
Daddy.'

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

'That's quite easy,' she said, scratching on the bark.

'Eh, what?' said her Daddy. 'I meant I was thinking, and didn't
want to be disturbed.'

'It's a noise just the same. It's the noise a snake makes,
Daddy, when it is thinking and doesn't want to be disturbed.
Let's make the ssh-noise a snake. Will this do?' And she drew
this. (7.)

'There,' she said. 'That's another s'prise-secret. When you draw
a hissy-snake by the door of your little back-cave where you mend
the spears, I'll know you're thinking hard; and I'll come in most
mousy-quiet. And if you draw it on a tree by the river when you
are fishing, I'll know you want me to walk most most mousy-quiet,
so as not to shake the banks.'

'Perfectly true,' said Tegumai. And there's more in this game
than you think. Taffy, dear, I've a notion that your Daddy's
daughter has hit upon the finest thing that there ever was since
the Tribe of Tegumai took to using shark's teeth instead of
flints for their spear-heads. I believe we've found out the big
secret of the world.'

'Why?' said Taffy, and her eyes shone too with incitement.

'I'll show,' said her Daddy. 'What's water in the Tegumai
language?'

'Ya, of course, and it means river too--like Wagai-ya--the Wagai
river.'

'What is bad water that gives you fever if you drink
it--black water--swamp-water?'

'Yo, of course.'

'Now look,' said her Daddy. 'S'pose you saw this scratched by the
side of a pool in the beaver-swamp?' And he drew this. (8.)

'Carp-tail and round egg. Two noises mixed! Yo, bad water,'
said Taffy. ''Course I wouldn't drink that water because I'd
know you said it was bad.'

'But I needn't be near the water at all. I might be miles away,
hunting, and still--'

'And still it would be just the same as if you stood there and
said, "G'way, Taffy, or you'll get fever." All that in a
carp-fish-tail and a round egg! O Daddy, we must tell Mummy,
quick!' and Taffy danced all round him.

'Not yet,' said Tegumai; 'not till we've gone a little further.
Let's see. Yo is bad water, but So is food cooked on the fire,
isn't it?' And he drew this. (9.)

'Yes. Snake and egg,' said Taffy 'So that means dinner's ready.
If you saw that scratched on a tree you'd know it was time to
come to the Cave. So'd I.'

'My Winkie!' said Tegumai. 'That's true too. But wait a minute.
I see a difficulty. SO means "come and have dinner," but sho
means the drying-poles where we hang our hides.'

'Horrid old drying-poles!' said Taffy. 'I hate helping to hang
heavy, hot, hairy hides on them. If you drew the snake and egg,
and I thought it meant dinner, and I came in from the wood and
found that it meant I was to help Mummy hang the two hides on the
drying-poles, what would I do?'

'You'd be cross. So'd Mummy. We must make a new picture for sho.
We must draw a spotty snake that hisses sh-sh, and we'll play
that the plain snake only hisses ssss.'

'I couldn't be sure how to put in the spots,' said Taffy. 'And
p'raps if you were in a hurry you might leave them out, and I'd
think it was so when it was sho, and then Mummy would catch me
just the same. No! I think we'd better draw a picture of the
horrid high drying-poles their very selves, and make quite sure.
I'll put them in just after the hissy-snake. Look!' And she
drew this. (10.)

'P'raps that's safest. It's very like our drying-poles, anyhow,'
said her Daddy, laughing. 'Now I'll make a new noise with a
snake and drying-pole sound in it. I'll say shi. That's Tegumai
for spear, Taffy.' And he laughed.

'Don't make fun of me,' said Taffy, as she thought of her
picture-letter and the mud in the Stranger-man's hair. 'You draw
it, Daddy.'

'We won't have beavers or hills this time, eh?' said her Daddy,
'I'll just draw a straight line for my spear.' and he drew this.
(11.)

'Even Mummy couldn't mistake that for me being killed.'

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

'Er-hm!' said Tegumai, looking up. 'We'll say shu. That means
sky.'

Taffy drew the snake and the drying-pole. Then she stopped. 'We
must make a new picture for that end sound, mustn't we?'

'Shu-shu-u-u-u!' said her Daddy. 'Why, it's just like the
round-egg-sound made thin.'

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

'N-no,' said her Daddy. 'If we drew that in a hurry we might
mistake it for the round egg itself. Shu-shu-shu! 'I tell you
what we'll do. We'll open a little hole at the end of the round
egg to show how the O-noise runs out all thin, ooo-oo-oo. Like
this.' And he drew this. (12.)

'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, we've found the
Secret.'

'Snake--pole--broken--egg--carp--tail and carp-mouth,' said
Taffy. 'Shu-ya. Sky-water (rain).' Just then a drop fell on her
hand, for the day had clouded over. 'Why, Daddy, it's raining.
Was that what you meant to tell me?'

'Of course,' said her Daddy. 'And I told it you without saying a
word, didn't I?'

'Well, I think I would have known it in a minute, but that
raindrop made me quite sure. I'll always remember now. Shu-ya
means rain, or "it is going to rain." Why, Daddy!' She got up and
danced round him. 'S'pose you went out before I was awake, and
drawed shu-ya in the smoke on the wall, I'd know it was going to
rain and I'd take my beaver-skin hood. Wouldn't Mummy be
surprised?'

Tegumai got up and danced. (Daddies didn't mind doing those
things in those days.) 'More than that! More than that!' he said.
'S'pose I wanted to tell you it wasn't going to rain much and you
must come down to the river, what would we draw? Say the words
in Tegumai-talk first.'

'Shu-ya-las, ya maru. (Sky-water ending. River come to.) what a
lot of new sounds! I don't see how we can draw them.'

'But I do--but I do!' said Tegumai. 'Just attend a minute, Taffy,
and we won't do any more to-day. We've got shu-ya all right,
haven't we? But this las is a teaser. La-la-la' and he waved his
shark-tooth.

'There's the hissy-snake at the end and the carp-mouth before the
snake--as-as-as. We only want la-la,' said Taffy.

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

'Well,' said Taffy, yawning, for she was rather tired. 'Las
means breaking or finishing as well as ending, doesn't it?'

'So it does,' said Tegumai. 'To-las means that there's no water
in the tank for Mummy to cook with--just when I'm going hunting,
too.'

'And shi-las means that your spear is broken. If I'd only thought
of that instead of drawing silly beaver pictures for the
Stranger!'

'La! La! La!' said Tegumai, waiving his stick and frowning. 'Oh
bother!'

'I could have drawn shi quite easily,' Taffy went on. 'Then I'd
have drawn your spear all broken--this way!' And she drew. (14.)

'The very thing,' said Tegumai. 'That's la all over. It isn't
like any of the other marks either.' And he drew this. (15.)

'Now for ya. Oh, we've done that before. Now for maru.
Mum-mum-mum. Mum shuts one's mouth up, doesn't it? We'll draw a
shut mouth like this.' And he drew. (16.)

'Then the carp-mouth open. That makes Ma-ma-ma! But what about
this rrrrr-thing, Taffy?'

'It sounds all rough and edgy, like your shark-tooth saw when
you're cutting out a plank for the canoe,' said Taffy.

'You mean all sharp at the edges, like this?' said Tegumai. And
he drew. (17.)

''Xactly,' said Taffy. 'But we don't want all those teeth: only
put two.'

'I'll only put in one,' said Tegumai. 'If this game of ours is
going to be what I think it will, the easier we make our sound-
pictures the better for everybody.' And he drew. (18.)

'Now, we've got it,' said Tegumai, standing on one leg. 'I'll
draw 'em all in a string like fish.'

'Hadn't we better put a little bit of stick or something between
each word, so's they won't rub up against each other and jostle,
same as if they were carps?'

'Oh, I'll leave a space for that,' said her Daddy. And very
incitedly he drew them all without stopping, on a big new bit of
birch-bark. (19.)

'Shu-ya-las ya-maru,' said Taffy, reading it out sound by sound.


'That's enough for to-day,' said Tegumai. 'Besides, you're
getting tired, Taffy. Never mind, dear. We'll finish it all to-
morrow, and then we'll be remembered for years and years after
the biggest trees you can see are all chopped up for firewood.'

So they went home, and all that evening Tegumai sat on one side
of the fire and Taffy on the other, drawing ya's and yo's and
shu's and shi's in the smoke on the wall and giggling together
till her Mummy said, 'Really, Tegumai, you're worse than my
Taffy.'

'Please don't mind,' said Taffy. 'It's only our
secret-s'prise, Mummy dear, and we'll tell you all about it the
very minute it's done; but please don't ask me what it is now, or
else I'll have to tell.'

So her Mummy most carefully didn't; and bright and early next
morning Tegumai went down to the river to think about new sound
pictures, and when Taffy got up she saw Ya-las (water is ending
or running out) chalked on the side of the big stone water-tank,
outside the Cave.

'Um,' said Taffy. 'These picture-sounds are rather a bother!
Daddy's just as good as come here himself and told me to get more
water for Mummy to cook with.' She went to the spring at the back
of the house and filled the tank from a bark bucket, and then she
ran down to the river and pulled her Daddy's left ear--the one
that belonged to her to pull when she was good.

'Now come along and we'll draw all the left-over sound-pictures,'
said her Daddy, and they had a most inciting day of it, and a
beautiful lunch in the middle, and two games of romps. When they
came to T, Taffy said that as her name, and her Daddy's, and her
Mummy's all began with that sound, they should draw a sort of family
group of themselves holding hands. That was all very well to draw
once or twice; but when it came to drawing it six or seven
times, Taffy and Tegumai drew it scratchier and scratchier, till
at last the T-sound was only a thin long Tegumai with his arms
out to hold Taffy and Teshumai. You can see from these three
pictures partly how it happened. (20, 21, 22.)

Many of the other pictures were much too beautiful to begin with,
especially before lunch, but as they were drawn over and over
again on birch-bark, they became plainer and easier, till at last
even Tegumai said he could find no fault with them. They turned
the hissy-snake the other way round for the Z-sound, to show it
was hissing backwards in a soft and gentle way (23); and they
just made a twiddle for E, because it came into the pictures so
often (24); and they drew pictures of the sacred Beaver of the
Tegumais for the B-sound (25, 26, 27, 28); and because it was a
nasty, nosy noise, they just drew noses for the N-sound, till
they were tired (29); and they drew a picture of the big lake-pike's
mouth for the greedy Ga-sound (30); and they drew the pike's mouth
again with a spear behind it for the scratchy, hurty Ka-sound (31);
and they drew pictures of a little bit of the winding Wagai river
for the nice windy-windy Wa-sound (32, 33); and so on and so forth
and so following till they had done and drawn all the sound-pictures
that they wanted, and there was the Alphabet, all complete.

And after thousands and thousands and thousands of years, and
after Hieroglyphics and Demotics, and Nilotics, and Cryptics, and
Cufics, and Runics, and Dorics, and Ionics, and all sorts of
other ricks and tricks (because the Woons, and the Neguses, and
the Akhoonds, and the Repositories of Tradition would never leave
a good thing alone when they saw it), the fine old easy,
understandable Alphabet--A, B, C, D, E, and the rest of 'em--got
back into its proper shape again for all Best Beloveds to learn
when they are old enough.

But I remember Tegumai Bopsulai, and Taffimai Metallumai and
Teshumai Tewindrow, her dear Mummy, and all the days gone by. And
it was so--just so--a little time ago--on the banks of the big
Wagai!

OF all the Tribe of Tegumai
Who cut that figure, none remain,--
On Merrow Down the cuckoos cry
The silence and the sun remain.

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

Her brows are bound with bracken-fronds,
And golden elf-locks fly above;
Her eyes are bright as diamonds
And bluer than the skies above.

In mocassins and deer-skin cloak,
Unfearing, free and fair she flits,
And lights her little damp-wood smoke
To show her Daddy where she flits.

For far--oh, very far behind,
So far she cannot call to him,
Comes Tegumai alone to find
The daughter that was all to him.




THE CRAB THAT PLAYED WITH THE SEA

BEFORE the High and Far-Off Times, O my Best Beloved, came the
Time of the Very Beginnings; and that was in the days when the
Eldest Magician was getting Things ready. First he got the Earth
ready; then he got the Sea ready; and then he told all the
Animals that they could come out and play. And the Animals said,
'O Eldest Magician, what shall we play at?' and he said, 'I will
show you. He took the Elephant--All-the-Elephant-there-was--and
said, 'Play at being an Elephant,' and All-the-Elephant-there-was
played. He took the Beaver--All-the-Beaver-there-was and said,
'Play at being a Beaver,' and All-the Beaver-there-was played.
He took the Cow--All-the Cow-there-was--and said, 'Play at being
a Cow,' and All-the-Cow-there-was played. He took the
Turtle--All-the-Turtle there-was and said, 'Play at being a
Turtle,' and All-the-Turtle-there-was played. One by one he took
all the beasts and birds and fishes and told them what to play at.

But towards evening, when people and things grow restless and
tired, there came up the Man (With his own little
girl-daughter?)--Yes, with his own best beloved little
girl-daughter sitting upon his shoulder, and he said, 'What is
this play, Eldest Magician?' And the Eldest Magician said, 'Ho,
Son of Adam, this is the play of the Very Beginning; but you are
too wise for this play.' And the Man saluted and said, 'Yes, I am
too wise for this play; but see that you make all the Animals
obedient to me.'

Now, while the two were talking together, Pau Amma the Crab, who
was next in the game, scuttled off sideways and stepped into the
sea, saying to himself, 'I will play my play alone in the deep
waters, and I will never be obedient to this son of Adam.' Nobody
saw him go away except the little girl-daughter where she leaned
on the Man's shoulder. And the play went on till there were no
more Animals left without orders; and the Eldest Magician wiped
the fine dust off his hands and walked about the world to see how
the Animals were playing.

He went North, Best Beloved, and he found
All-the-Elephant-there-was digging with his tusks and stamping
with his feet in the nice new clean earth that had been made
ready for him.

'Kun?' said All-the-Elephant-there-was, meaning, 'Is this right?'

'Payah kun,' said the Eldest Magician, meaning, 'That is quite
right'; and he breathed upon the great rocks and lumps of earth
that All-the-Elephant-there-was had thrown up, and they became
the great Himalayan Mountains, and you can look them out on the
map.

He went East, and he found All-the-Cow there-was feeding in the
field that had been made ready for her, and she licked her tongue
round a whole forest at a time, and swallowed it and sat down to
chew her cud.

'Kun?' said All-the-Cow-there-was.

'Payah kun,' said the Eldest Magician; and he breathed upon the
bare patch where she had eaten, and upon the place where she had
sat down, and one became the great Indian Desert, and the other
became the Desert of Sahara, and you can look them out on the
map.

He went West, and he found All-the-Beaver-there-was making a
beaver-dam across the mouths of broad rivers that had been got
ready for him.

'Kun?' said All-the-Beaver-there-was.

'Payah kun,' said the Eldest Magician; and he breathed upon the
fallen trees and the still water, and they became the Everglades
in Florida, and you may look them out on the map.

Then he went South and found All-the-Turtle-there-was scratching
with his flippers in the sand that had been got ready for him,
and the sand and the rocks whirled through the air and fell far
off into the sea.

'Kun?' said All-the-Turtle-there-was.

'Payah kun,' said the Eldest Magician; and he breathed upon the
sand and the rocks, where they had fallen in the sea, and they
became the most beautiful islands of Borneo, Celebes, Sumatra,
Java, and the rest of the Malay Archipelago, and you can look
them out on the map!

By and by the Eldest Magician met the Man on the banks of the
Perak river, and said, 'Ho! Son of Adam, are all the Animals
obedient to you?'

'Yes,' said the Man.

'Is all the Earth obedient to you?'

'Yes,' said the Man.

'Is all the Sea obedient to you?'

'No,' said the Man. 'Once a day and once a night the Sea runs up
the Perak river and drives the sweet-water back into the forest,
so that my house is made wet; once a day and once a night it runs
down the river and draws all the water after it, so that there is
nothing left but mud, and my canoe is upset. Is that the play you
told it to play?'

'No,' said the Eldest Magician. 'That is a new and a bad play.'

'Look!' said the Man, and as he spoke the great Sea came up the
mouth of the Perak river, driving the river backwards till it
overflowed all the dark forests for miles and miles, and flooded
the Man's house.

'This is wrong. Launch your canoe and we will find out who is
playing with the Sea,' said the Eldest Magician. They stepped
into the canoe; the little girl-daughter came with them; and the
Man took his kris--a curving, wavy dagger with a blade like a
flame,--and they pushed out on the Perak river. Then the sea
began to run back and back, and the canoe was sucked out of the
mouth of the Perak river, past Selangor, past Malacca, past
Singapore, out and out to the Island of Bingtang, as though it
had been pulled by a string.

Then the Eldest Magician stood up and shouted, 'Ho! beasts,
birds, and fishes, that I took between my hands at the Very
Beginning and taught the play that you should play, which one of
you is playing with the Sea?'

Then all the beasts, birds, and fishes said together, 'Eldest
Magician, we play the plays that you taught us to play--we and
our children's children. But not one of us plays with the Sea.'

Then the Moon rose big and full over the water, and the Eldest
Magician said to the hunchbacked old man who sits in the Moon
spinning a fishing-line with which he hopes one day to catch the
world, 'Ho! Fisher of the Moon, are you playing with the Sea?'

'No,' said the Fisherman, 'I am spinning a line with which I
shall some day catch the world; but I do not play with the Sea.'
And he went on spinning his line.

Now there is also a Rat up in the Moon who always bites the old
Fisherman's line as fast as it is made, and the Eldest Magician
said to him, 'Ho! Rat of the Moon, are you playing with the Sea?'

And the Rat said, 'I am too busy biting through the line that
this old Fisherman is spinning. I do not play with the Sea.' And
he went on biting the line.

Then the little girl-daughter put up her little soft brown arms
with the beautiful white shell bracelets and said, 'O Eldest
Magician! when my father here talked to you at the Very
Beginning, and I leaned upon his shoulder while the beasts were
being taught their plays, one beast went away naughtily into the
Sea before you had taught him his play.

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

And the little girl-daughter said, 'He was round and he was flat;
and his eyes grew upon stalks; and he walked sideways like this ;
and he was covered with strong armour upon his back.'

And the Eldest Magician said, 'How wise are little children who
speak truth! Now I know where Pau Amma went. Give me the paddle!'

So he took the paddle; but there was no need to paddle, for the
water flowed steadily past all the islands till they came to the
place called Pusat Tasek--the Heart of the Sea--where the great
hollow is that leads down to the heart of the world, and in that
hollow grows the Wonderful Tree, Pauh Janggi, that bears the magic
twin nuts. Then the Eldest Magician slid his arm up to the shoulder
through the deep warm water, and under the roots of the Wonderful
Tree he touched the broad back of Pau Amma the Crab. And Pau Amma
settled down at the touch, and all the Sea rose up as water rises
in a basin when you put your hand into it.

'Ah!' said the Eldest Magician. 'Now I know who has been playing
with the Sea;' and he called out, 'What are you doing, Pau Amma?'

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

Then the Eldest Magician said, 'Listen, Pau Amma. When you go out
from your cave the waters of the Sea pour down into Pusat Tasek,
and all the beaches of all the islands are left bare, and the
little fish die, and Raja Moyang Kaban, the King of the
Elephants, his legs are made muddy. When you come back and sit in
Pusat Tasek, the waters of the Sea rise, and half the little
islands are drowned, and the Man's house is flooded, and Raja
Abdullah, the King of the Crocodiles, his mouth is filled with
the salt water.

Then Pau Amma, deep down below, laughed and said, 'I did not know
I was so important. Henceforward I will go out seven times a day,
and the waters shall never be still.'

And the Eldest Magician said, 'I cannot make you play the play
you were meant to play, Pau Amma, because you escaped me at the
Very Beginning; but if you are not afraid, come up and we will
talk about it.'

'I am not afraid,' said Pau Amma, and he rose to the top of the
sea in the moonlight. There was nobody in the world so big as Pau
Amma--for he was the King Crab of all Crabs. Not a common Crab,
but a King Crab. One side of his great shell touched the beach at
Sarawak; the other touched the beach at Pahang; and he was taller
than the smoke of three volcanoes! As he rose up through the
branches of the Wonderful Tree he tore off one of the great twin
fruits--the magic double kernelled nuts that make people young,--
and the little girl-daughter saw it bobbing alongside the canoe,
and pulled it in and began to pick out the soft eyes of it with
her little golden scissors.

'Now,' said the Magician, 'make a Magic, Pau Amma, to show that
you are really important.'

Pau Amma rolled his eyes and waved his legs, but he could only
stir up the Sea, because, though he was a King Crab, he was
nothing more than a Crab, and the Eldest Magician laughed.

'You are not so important after all, Pau Amma,' he said. 'Now,
let me try,' and he made a Magic with his left hand--with just
the little finger of his left hand--and--lo and behold,
Best Beloved, Pau Amma's hard, blue-green-black shell fell off
him as a husk falls off a cocoa-nut, and Pau Amma was left all
soft--soft as the little crabs that you sometimes find on the
beach, Best Beloved.

'Indeed, you are very important,' said the Eldest Magician.
'Shall I ask the Man here to cut you with kris? Shall I send for
Raja Moyang Kaban, the King of the Elephants, to pierce you with
his tusks, or shall I call Raja Abdullah, the King of the Crocodiles,
to bite you?'

And Pau Amma said, 'I am ashamed! Give me back my hard shell and
let me go back to Pusat Tasek, and I will only stir out once a
day and once a night to get my food.'

And the Eldest Magician said, 'No, Pau Amma, I will not give you
back your shell, for you will grow bigger and prouder and
stronger, and perhaps you will forget your promise, and
you will play with the Sea once more.

Then Pau Amma said, 'What shall I do? I am so big that I can only
hide in Pusat Tasek, and if I go anywhere else, all soft as I am
now, the sharks and the dogfish will eat me. And if I go to Pusat
Tasek, all soft as I am now, though I may be safe, I can never
stir out to get my food, and so I shall die.' Then he waved his
legs and lamented.

'Listen, Pau Amma,' said the Eldest Magician. 'I cannot make you
play the play you were meant to play, because you escaped me at
the Very Beginning; but if you choose, I can make every stone and
every hole and every bunch of weed in all the seas a safe Pusat
Tasek for you and your children for always.'

Then Pau Amma said, 'That is good, but I do not choose yet. Look!
there is that Man who talked to you at the Very Beginning. If he
had not taken up your attention I should not have grown tired of
waiting and run away, and all this would never have happened.
What will he do for me?'

And the Man said, 'If you choose, I will make a Magic, so that
both the deep water and the dry ground will be a home for you and
your children--so that you shall be able to hide both on the land
and in the sea.'

And Pau Amma said, 'I do not choose yet. Look! there is that girl
who saw me running away at the Very Beginning. If she had spoken
then, the Eldest Magician would have called me back, and all this
would never have happened. What will she do for me?'

And the little girl-daughter said, 'This is a good nut that I am
eating. If you choose, I will make a Magic and I will give you
this pair of scissors, very sharp and strong, so that you and
your children can eat cocoa-nuts like this all day long when you
come up from the Sea to the land; or you can dig a Pusat Tasek
for yourself with the scissors that belong to you when there is
no stone or hole near by; and when the earth is too hard, by the
help of these same scissors you can run up a tree.'

And Pau Amma said, 'I do not choose yet, for, all soft as I am,
these gifts would not help me. Give me back my shell, O Eldest
Magician, and then I will play your play.'

And the Eldest Magician said, 'I will give it back, Pau Amma, for
eleven months of the year; but on the twelfth month of every year
it shall grow soft again, to remind you and all your children
that I can make magics, and to keep you humble, Pau Amma; for I
see that if you can run both under the water and on land, you
will grow too bold; and if you can climb trees and crack nuts and
dig holes with your scissors, you will grow too greedy, Pau
Amma.'

Then Pau Amma thought a little and said, 'I have made my choice.
I will take all the gifts.'

Then the Eldest Magician made a Magic with the right hand, with
all five fingers of his right hand, and lo and behold, Best
Beloved, Pau Amma grew smaller and smaller and smaller, till at
last there was only a little green crab swimming in the water
alongside the canoe, crying in a very small voice, 'Give me the
scissors!'

And the girl-daughter picked him up on the palm of her little
brown hand, and sat him in the bottom of the canoe and gave him
her scissors, and he waved them in his little arms, and opened
them and shut them and snapped them, and said, 'I can eat nuts. I
can crack shells. I can dig holes. I can climb trees. I can
breathe in the dry air, and I can find a safe Pusat Tasek under
every stone. I did not know I was so important. Kun?' (Is this
right?)

'Payah-kun,' said the Eldest Magician, and he laughed and gave
him his blessing; and little Pau Amma scuttled over the side of
the canoe into the water; and he was so tiny that he could have
hidden under the shadow of a dry leaf on land or of a dead shell
at the bottom of the sea.

'Was that well done?' said the Eldest Magician.

'Yes,' said the Man. 'But now we must go back to Perak, and that
is a weary way to paddle. If we had waited till Pau Amma had gone
out of Pusat Tasek and come home, the water would have carried us
there by itself.'

'You are lazy,' said the Eldest Magician. 'So your children shall
be lazy. They shall be the laziest people in the world. They
shall be called the Malazy--the lazy people;' and he held up his
finger to the Moon and said, 'O Fisherman, here is the Man too
lazy to row home. Pull his canoe home with your line, Fisherman.'

'No,' said the Man. 'If I am to be lazy all my days, let the Sea
work for me twice a day for ever. That will save paddling.'

And the Eldest Magician laughed and said, 'Payah kun' (That is
right).

And the Rat of the Moon stopped biting the line; and the
Fisherman let his line down till it touched the Sea, and he
pulled the whole deep Sea along, past the Island of Bintang, past
Singapore, past Malacca, past Selangor, till the canoe whirled
into the mouth of the Perak River again. Kun?' said the Fisherman
of the Moon.

'Payah kun,' said the Eldest Magician. 'See now that you pull the
Sea twice a day and twice a night for ever, so that the Malazy
fishermen may be saved paddling. But be careful not to do it too
hard, or I shall make a magic on you as I did to Pau Amma.'

Then they all went up the Perak River and went to bed, Best
Beloved.

Now listen and attend!

From that day to this the Moon has always pulled the sea up and
down and made what we call the tides. Sometimes the Fisher of the
Sea pulls a little too hard, and then we get spring tides; and
sometimes he pulls a little too softly, and then we get what are
called neap-tides; but nearly always he is careful, because of
the Eldest Magician.

And Pau Amma? You can see when you go to the beach, how all Pau
Amma's babies make little Pusat Taseks for themselves under every
stone and bunch of weed on the sands; you can see them waving
their little scissors; and in some parts of the world they truly
live on the dry land and run up the palm trees and eat cocoa-nuts,
exactly as the girl-daughter promised. But once a year all
Pau Ammas must shake off their hard armour and be soft-to remind
them of what the Eldest Magician could do. And so it isn't fair
to kill or hunt Pau Amma's babies just because old Pau Amma was
stupidly rude a very long time ago.

Oh yes! And Pau Amma's babies hate being taken out of their
little Pusat Taseks and brought home in pickle-bottles. That is
why they nip you with their scissors, and it serves you right!


CHINA-GOING P's and O's
Pass Pau Amma's playground close,
And his Pusat Tasek lies
Near the track of most B.I.'s.
U.Y.K. and N.D.L.
Know Pau Amma's home as well
As the fisher of the Sea knows
'Bens,' M.M.'s, and Rubattinos.
But (and this is rather queer)
A.T.L.'s can not come here;
O. and O. and D.O.A.
Must go round another way.
Orient, Anchor, Bibby, Hall,
Never go that way at all.
U.C.S. would have a fit
If it found itself on it.
And if 'Beavers' took their cargoes
To Penang instead of Lagos,
Or a fat Shaw-Savill bore
Passengers to Singapore,
Or a White Star were to try a
Little trip to Sourabaya,
Or a B.S.A. went on
Past Natal to Cheribon,
Then great Mr. Lloyds would come
With a wire and drag them home!

You'll know what my riddle means
When you've eaten mangosteens.

Or if you can't wait till then, ask them to let you have the
outside page of the Times; turn over to page 2 where it is marked
'Shipping' on the top left hand; then take the Atlas (and that is
the finest picture-book in the world) and see how the names of
the places that the steamers go to fit into the names of the
places on the map. Any steamer-kiddy ought to be able to do that;
but if you can't read, ask some one to show it you.




THE CAT THAT WALKED BY HIMSELF

HEAR and attend and listen; for this befell and behappened and
became and was, O my Best Beloved, when the Tame animals were
wild. The Dog was wild, and the Horse was wild, and the Cow was
wild, and the Sheep was wild, and the Pig was wild--as wild
as wild could be--and they walked in the Wet Wild Woods by
their wild lones. But the wildest of all the wild animals was
the Cat. He walked by himself, and all places were alike to him.

Of course the Man was wild too. He was dreadfully wild. He didn't
even begin to be tame till he met the Woman, and she told him
that she did not like living in his wild ways. She picked out a
nice dry Cave, instead of a heap of wet leaves, to lie down in;
and she strewed clean sand on the floor; and she lit a nice fire
of wood at the back of the Cave; and she hung a dried wild-horse
skin, tail-down, across the opening of the Cave; and she said,
'Wipe 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 marrow-bones of wild oxen; and wild cherries, and
wild grenadillas. Then the Man went to sleep in front of the fire
ever so happy; but the Woman sat up, combing her hair. She took
the bone of the shoulder of mutton--the big fat blade-bone--and
she looked at the wonderful marks on it, and she threw more wood
on the fire, and she made a Magic. She made the First Singing
Magic in the world.

Out in the Wet Wild Woods all the wild animals gathered together
where they could see the light of the fire a long way off, and
they wondered what it meant.

Then Wild Horse stamped with his wild foot and said, 'O my
Friends and O my Enemies, why have the Man and the Woman made
that great light in that great Cave, and what harm will it do
us?'

Wild Dog lifted up his wild nose and smelled the smell of roast
mutton, and said, 'I will go up and see and look, and say; for I
think it is good. Cat, come with me.'

'Nenni!' said the Cat. 'I am the Cat who walks by himself, and
all places are alike to me. I will not come.'

'Then we can never be friends again,' said Wild Dog, and he
trotted off to the Cave. But when he had gone a little way the
Cat said to himself, 'All places are alike to me. Why should I
not go too and see and look and come away at my own liking.' So
he slipped after Wild Dog softly, very softly, and hid himself
where he could hear everything.

When Wild Dog reached the mouth of the Cave he lifted up the
dried horse-skin with his nose and sniffed the beautiful smell of
the roast mutton, and the Woman, looking at the blade-bone, heard
him, and laughed, and said, 'Here comes the first. Wild Thing out
of the Wild Woods, what do you want?'

Wild Dog said, 'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy, what is this
that smells so good in the Wild Woods?'

Then the Woman picked up a roasted mutton-bone and threw it to
Wild Dog, and said, 'Wild Thing out of the Wild Woods,
taste and try.' Wild Dog gnawed the bone, and it was more
delicious than anything he had ever tasted, and he said, 'O my
Enemy and Wife of my Enemy, give me another.'

The Woman said, 'Wild Thing out of the Wild Woods, help my Man to
hunt through the day and guard this Cave at night, and I will
give you as many roast bones as you need.'

'Ah!' said the Cat, listening. 'This is a very wise Woman, but
she is not so wise as I am.'

Wild Dog crawled into the Cave and laid his head on the Woman's
lap, and said, 'O my Friend and Wife of my Friend, I will help
Your Man to hunt through the day, and at night I will guard your
Cave.'

'Ah!' said the Cat, listening. 'That is a very foolish Dog.' And
he went back through the Wet Wild Woods waving his wild tail, and
walking by his wild lone. But he never told anybody.

When the Man waked up he said, 'What is Wild Dog doing here?' And
the Woman said, 'His name is not Wild Dog any more, but the First
Friend, because he will be our friend for always and always and
always. Take him with you when you go hunting.'

Next night the Woman cut great green armfuls of fresh grass from
the water-meadows, and dried it before the fire, so that it smelt
like new-mown hay, and she sat at the mouth of the Cave and
plaited a halter out of horse-hide, and she looked at the
shoulder of mutton-bone--at the big broad blade-bone--and she
made a Magic. She made the Second Singing Magic in the world.

Out in the Wild Woods all the wild animals wondered what had
happened to Wild Dog, and at last Wild Horse stamped with his
foot and said, 'I will go and see and say why Wild Dog has not
returned. Cat, come with me.'

'Nenni!' said the Cat. 'I am the Cat who walks by himself, and
all places are alike to me. I will not come.' But all the same he
followed Wild Horse softly, very softly, and hid himself where he
could hear everything.

When the Woman heard Wild Horse tripping and stumbling on his
long mane, she laughed and said, 'Here comes the second. Wild
Thing out of the Wild Woods what do you want?'

Wild Horse said, 'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy, where is Wild
Dog?'

The Woman laughed, and picked up the blade-bone and looked at it,
and said, 'Wild Thing out of the Wild Woods, you did not come
here for Wild Dog, but for the sake of this good grass.'

And Wild Horse, tripping and stumbling on his long mane, said,
'That is true; give it me to eat.'

The Woman said, 'Wild Thing out of the Wild Woods, bend your wild
head and wear what I give you, and you shall eat the wonderful
grass three times a day.'

'Ah,' said the Cat, listening, 'this is a clever Woman, but she
is not so clever as I am.' Wild Horse bent his wild head, and the
Woman slipped the plaited hide halter over it, and Wild Horse
breathed on the Woman's feet and said, 'O my Mistress, and Wife
of my Master, I will be your servant for the sake of the
wonderful grass.'

'Ah,' said the Cat, listening, 'that is a very foolish Horse.'
And he went back through the Wet Wild Woods, waving his wild tail
and walking by his wild lone. But he never told anybody.

When the Man and the Dog came back from hunting, the Man said,
'What is Wild Horse doing here?' And the Woman said, 'His name is
not Wild Horse any more, but the First
Servant, because he will carry us from place to place for always
and always and always. Ride on his back when you go hunting.

Next day, holding her wild head high that her wild horns should
not catch in the wild trees, Wild Cow came up to the Cave, and
the Cat followed, and hid himself just the same as
before; and everything happened just the same as before; and the
Cat said the same things as before, and when Wild Cow had
promised to give her milk to the Woman every day in exchange for
the wonderful grass, the Cat went back through the Wet Wild Woods
waving his wild tail and walking by his wild lone, just the same
as before. But he never told anybody. And when the Man and the
Horse and the Dog came home from hunting and asked the same
questions same as before, the Woman said, 'Her name is not Wild
Cow any more, but the Giver of Good Food. She will give us the
warm white milk for always and always and always, and I will take
care of her while you and the First Friend and the First Servant
go hunting.

Next day the Cat waited to see if any other Wild thing would go
up to the Cave, but no one moved in the Wet Wild Woods, so the
Cat walked there by himself; and he saw the Woman milking the
Cow, and he saw the light of the fire in the Cave, and he smelt
the smell of the warm white milk.

Cat said, 'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy, where did Wild Cow
go?'

The Woman laughed and said, 'Wild Thing out of the Wild Woods, go
back to the Woods again, for I have braided up my hair, and I
have put away the magic blade-bone, and we have no more need of
either friends or servants in our Cave.

Cat said, 'I am not a friend, and I am not a servant. I am the
Cat who walks by himself, and I wish to come into your cave.'

Woman said, 'Then why did you not come with First Friend on the
first night?'

Cat grew very angry and said, 'Has Wild Dog told tales of me?'

Then the Woman laughed and said, 'You are the Cat who walks by
himself, and all places are alike to you. Your are neither a
friend nor a servant. You have said it yourself. Go away and walk
by yourself in all places alike.'

Then Cat pretended to be sorry and said, 'Must I never come into
the Cave? Must I never sit by the warm fire? Must I never drink
the warm white milk? You are very wise and very beautiful. You
should not be cruel even to a Cat.'

Woman said, 'I knew I was wise, but I did not know I was
beautiful. So I will make a bargain with you. If ever I say one
word in your praise you may come into the Cave.'

'And if you say two words in my praise?' said the Cat.

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

'And if you say three words?' said the Cat.

'I never shall,' said the Woman, 'but if I say three words in
your praise, you may drink the warm white milk three times a day
for always and always and always.'

Then the Cat arched his back and said, 'Now let the Curtain at
the mouth of the Cave, and the Fire at the back of the Cave, and
the Milk-pots that stand beside the Fire, remember what my Enemy
and the Wife of my Enemy has said.' And he went away through the
Wet Wild Woods waving his wild tail and walking by his wild lone.

That night when the Man and the Horse and the Dog came home from
hunting, the Woman did not tell them of the bargain that she had
made with the Cat, because she was afraid that they might not
like it.

Cat went far and far away and hid himself in the Wet Wild Woods
by his wild lone for a long time till the Woman forgot all about
him. Only the Bat--the little upside-down
Bat--that hung inside the Cave, knew where Cat hid; and every
evening Bat would fly to Cat with news of what was happening.

One evening Bat said, 'There is a Baby in the Cave. He is new and
pink and fat and small, and the Woman is very fond of him.'

'Ah,' said the Cat, listening, 'but what is the Baby fond of?'

'He is fond of things that are soft and tickle,' said the Bat.
'He is fond of warm things to hold in his arms when he goes to
sleep. He is fond of being played with. He is fond of all those
things.'

'Ah,' said the Cat, listening, 'then my time has come.'

Next night Cat walked through the Wet Wild Woods and hid very
near the Cave till morning-time, and Man and Dog and Horse went
hunting. The Woman was busy cooking that morning, and the Baby
cried and interrupted. So she carried him outside the Cave and
gave him a handful of pebbles to play with. But still the Baby
cried.

Then the Cat put out his paddy paw and patted the Baby on the
cheek, and it cooed; and the Cat rubbed against its fat knees and
tickled it under its fat chin with his tail. And the Baby
laughed; and the Woman heard him and smiled.

Then the Bat--the little upside-down bat--that hung in the mouth
of the Cave said, 'O my Hostess and Wife of my Host and Mother of
my Host's Son, a Wild Thing from the Wild Woods is most
beautifully playing with your Baby.'

'A blessing on that Wild Thing whoever he may be,' said the
Woman, straightening her back, 'for I was a busy woman this
morning and he has done me a service.'

That very minute and second, Best Beloved, the dried
horse-skin Curtain that was stretched tail-down at the mouth of
the Cave fell down--whoosh!--because it remembered the bargain
she had made with the Cat, and when the Woman went to pick it up--
lo and behold!--the Cat was sitting quite comfy inside the Cave.

'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy and Mother of my Enemy,' said
the Cat, 'it is I: for you have spoken a word in my praise, and
now I can sit within the Cave for always and always and always.
But still I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all places are
alike to me.'

The Woman was very angry, and shut her lips tight and took up her
spinning-wheel and began to spin. But the Baby cried because the
Cat had gone away, and the Woman could not hush it, for it
struggled and kicked and grew black in the face.

'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy and Mother of my Enemy,' said
the Cat, 'take a strand of the wire that you are spinning and tie
it to your spinning-whorl and drag it along the floor, and I will
show you a magic that shall make your Baby laugh as loudly as he
is now crying.'

'I will do so,' said the Woman, 'because I am at my wits' end;
but I will not thank you for it.'

She tied the thread to the little clay spindle whorl and drew it
across the floor, and the Cat ran after it and patted it with his
paws and rolled head over heels, and tossed it backward over his
shoulder and chased it between his hind-legs and pretended to
lose it, and pounced down upon it again, till the Baby laughed as
loudly as it had been crying, and scrambled after the Cat and
frolicked all over the Cave till it grew tired and settled down
to sleep with the Cat in its arms.

'Now,' said the Cat, 'I will sing the Baby a song that shall keep
him asleep for an hour. And he began to purr, loud and low, low
and loud, till the Baby fell fast asleep. The Woman smiled as she
looked down upon the two of them and said, 'That was wonderfully
done. No question but you are very clever, O Cat.'

That very minute and second, Best Beloved, the smoke of the fire
at the back of the Cave came down in clouds from the roof--puff!--
because it remembered the bargain she had made with the Cat, and
when it had cleared away--lo and behold!--the Cat was sitting quite
comfy close to the fire.

'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy and Mother of My Enemy,' said
the Cat, 'it is I, for you have spoken a second word in my
praise, and now I can sit by the warm fire at the back of the
Cave for always and always and always. But still I am the Cat who
walks by himself, and all places are alike to me.'

Then the Woman was very very angry, and let down her hair and put
more wood on the fire and brought out the broad blade-bone of the
shoulder of mutton and began to make a Magic that should prevent
her from saying a third word in praise of the Cat. It was not a
Singing Magic, Best Beloved, it was a Still Magic; and by and by
the Cave grew so still that a little wee-wee mouse crept out of a
corner and ran across the floor.

'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy and Mother of my Enemy,' said
the Cat, 'is that little mouse part of your magic?'

'Ouh! Chee! No indeed!' said the Woman, and she dropped the
blade-bone and jumped upon the footstool in front of the fire and
braided up her hair very quick for fear that the mouse should run
up it.

'Ah,' said the Cat, watching, 'then the mouse will do me no harm
if I eat it?'

'No,' said the Woman, braiding up her hair, 'eat it quickly and I
will ever be grateful to you.'

Cat made one jump and caught the little mouse, and the Woman
said, 'A hundred thanks. Even the First Friend is not quick
enough to catch little mice as you have done. You must be very
wise.'

That very moment and second, O Best Beloved, the Milk-pot that
stood by the fire cracked in two pieces--ffft--because it
remembered the bargain she had made with the Cat, and when the
Woman jumped down from the footstool--lo and behold!--the Cat was
lapping up the warm white milk that lay in one of the broken
pieces.

'O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy and Mother of my Enemy, said the
Cat, 'it is I; for you have spoken three words in my praise, and
now I can drink the warm white milk three times a day for always
and always and always. But still I am the Cat who walks by
himself, and all places are alike to me.'

Then the Woman laughed and set the Cat a bowl of the warm white
milk and said, 'O Cat, you are as clever as a man, but remember
that your bargain was not made with the Man or the Dog, and I do
not know what they will do when they come home.'

'What is that to me?' said the Cat. 'If I have my place in the
Cave by the fire and my warm white milk three times a day I do
not care what the Man or the Dog can do.'

That evening when the Man and the Dog came into the Cave, the
Woman told them all the story of the bargain while the Cat sat by
the fire and smiled. Then the Man said, 'Yes, but he has not made
a bargain with me or with all proper Men after me.' Then he took
off his two leather boots and he took up his little stone axe
(that makes three) and he fetched a piece of wood and a hatchet
(that is five altogether), and he set them out in a row and he
said, 'Now we will make our bargain. If you do not catch mice
when you are in the Cave for always and always and always, I will
throw these five things at you whenever I see you, and so shall
all proper Men do after me.'

'Ah,' said the Woman, listening, 'this is a very clever Cat, but
he is not so clever as my Man.'

The Cat counted the five things (and they looked very knobby) and
he said, 'I will catch mice when I am in the Cave for always and
always and always; but still I am the Cat who walks by himself,
and all places are alike to me.'

'Not when I am near,' said the Man. 'If you had not said that
last I would have put all these things away for always and always
and always; but I am now going to throw my two boots and my
little stone axe (that makes three) at you whenever I meet you.
And so shall all proper Men do after me!'

Then the Dog said, 'Wait a minute. He has not made a bargain with
me or with all proper Dogs after me.' And he showed his teeth and
said, 'If you are not kind to the Baby while I am in the Cave for
always and always and always, I will hunt you till I catch you,
and when I catch you I will bite you. And so shall all proper
Dogs do after me.'

'Ah,' said the Woman, listening, 'this is a very clever Cat, but
he is not so clever as the Dog.'

Cat counted the Dog's teeth (and they looked very pointed) and he
said, 'I will be kind to the Baby while I am in the Cave, as long
as he does not pull my tail too hard, for always and always and
always. But still I am the Cat that walks by himself, and all
places are alike to me.'

'Not when I am near,' said the Dog. 'If you had not said that
last I would have shut my mouth for always and always and always;
but now I am going to hunt you up a tree whenever I meet you. And
so shall all proper Dogs do after me.'

Then the Man threw his two boots and his little stone axe (that
makes three) at the Cat, and the Cat ran out of the Cave and the
Dog chased him up a tree; and from that day to this, Best
Beloved, three proper Men out of five will always throw things at
a Cat whenever they meet him, and all proper Dogs will chase him
up a tree. But the Cat keeps his side of the bargain too. He will
kill mice and he will be kind to Babies when he is in the house,
just as long as they do not pull his tail too hard. But when he
has done that, and between times, and when the moon gets up and
night comes, he is the Cat that walks by himself, and all places
are alike to him. Then he goes out to the Wet Wild Woods or up
the Wet Wild Trees or on the Wet Wild Roofs, waving his wild tail
and walking by his wild lone.


PUSSY can sit by the fire and sing,
Pussy can climb a tree,
Or play with a silly old cork and string
To'muse herself, not me.
But I like Binkie my dog, because
He Lnows how to behave;
So, Binkie's the same as the First Friend was,
And I am the Man in the Cave.

Pussy will play man-Friday till
It's time to wet her paw
And make her walk on the window-sill
(For the footprint Crusoe saw);
Then she fluffles her tail and mews,
And scratches and won't attend.
But Binkie will play whatever I choose,
And he is my true First Friend.

Pussy will rub my knees with her head
Pretending she loves me hard;
But the very minute I go to my bed
Pussy runs out in the yard,
And there she stays till the morning-light;
So I know it is only pretend;
But Binkie, he snores at my feet all night,
And he is my Firstest Friend!




THE BUTTERFLY THAT STAMPED

THIS, O my Best Beloved, is a story--a new and a wonderful story--a
story quite different from the other stories--a story about
The Most Wise Sovereign Suleiman-bin-Daoud--Solomon the Son of David.

There are three hundred and fifty-five stories about Suleiman-
bin-Daoud; but this is not one of them. It is not the story of
the Lapwing who found the Water; or the Hoopoe who shaded
Suleimanbin-Daoud from the heat. It is not the story of the Glass
Pavement, or the Ruby with the Crooked Hole, or the Gold Bars of
Balkis. It is the story of the Butterfly that Stamped.

Now attend all over again and listen!

Suleiman-bin-Daoud was wise. He understood what the beasts said,
what the birds said, what the fishes said, and what the insects
said. He understood what the rocks said deep under the earth when
they bowed in towards each other and groaned; and he understood
what the trees said when they rustled in the middle of the
morning. He understood everything, from the bishop on the bench
to the hyssop on the wall, and Balkis, his Head Queen, the Most
Beautiful Queen Balkis, was nearly as wise as he was.

Suleiman-bin-Daoud was strong. Upon the third finger of the right
hand he wore a ring. When he turned it once, Afrits and Djinns
came Out of the earth to do whatever he told them. When he turned
it twice, Fairies came down from the sky to do whatever he told
them; and when he turned it three times, the very great angel
Azrael of the Sword came dressed as a water-carrier, and told him
the news of the three worlds,--Above--Below--and Here.

And yet Suleiman-bin-Daoud was not proud. He very seldom showed
off, and when he did he was sorry for it. Once he tried to feed
all the animals in all the world in one day, but when the food
was ready an Animal came out of the deep sea and ate it up in
three mouthfuls. Suleiman-bin-Daoud was very surprised and said,
'O Animal, who are you?' And the Animal said, 'O King, live for
ever! I am the smallest of thirty thousand brothers, and our home
is at the bottom of the sea. We heard that you were going to feed
all the animals in all the world, and my brothers sent me to ask
when dinner would be ready.' Suleiman-bin-Daoud was more
surprised than ever and said, 'O Animal, you have eaten all the
dinner that I made ready for all the animals in the world.' And
the Animal said, 'O King, live for ever, but do you really call
that a dinner? Where I come from we each eat twice as much as
that between meals.' Then Suleiman-bin-Daoud fell flat on his
face and said, 'O Animal! I gave that dinner to show what a great
and rich king I was, and not because I really wanted to be kind
to the animals. Now I am ashamed, and it serves me right.
Suleiman-bin-Daoud was a really truly wise man, Best Beloved.
After that he never forgot that it was silly to show off; and
now the real story part of my story begins.

He married ever so many wifes. He married nine hundred and
ninety-nine wives, besides the Most Beautiful Balkis; and they
all lived in a great golden palace in the middle of a lovely
garden with fountains. He didn't really want nine-hundred and
ninety-nine wives, but in those days everybody married ever so
many wives, and of course the King had to marry ever so many
more just to show that he was the King.

Some of the wives were nice, but some were simply horrid, and the
horrid ones quarrelled with the nice ones and made them horrid
too, and then they would all quarrel with Suleiman-bin-Daoud, and
that was horrid for him. But Balkis the Most Beautiful never
quarrelled with Suleiman-bin-Daoud. She loved him too much. She
sat in her rooms in the Golden Palace, or walked in the Palace
garden, and was truly sorry for him.

Of course if he had chosen to turn his ring on his finger and
call up the Djinns and the Afrits they would have magicked all
those nine hundred and ninety-nine quarrelsome wives into white
mules of the desert or greyhounds or pomegranate seeds; but
Suleiman-bin-Daoud thought that that would be showing off. So,
when they quarrelled too much, he only walked by himself in one
part of the beautiful Palace gardens and wished he had never been
born.

One day, when they had quarrelled for three weeks--all nine
hundred and ninety-nine wives together--Suleiman-bin-Daoud went
out for peace and quiet as usual; and among the orange trees he
met Balkis the Most Beautiful, very sorrowful because Suleiman-
bin-Daoud was so worried. And she said to him, 'O my Lord and
Light of my Eyes, turn the ring upon your finger and show these
Queens of Egypt and Mesopotamia and Persia and China that you are
the great and terrible King.' But Suleiman-bin-Daoud shook his
head and said, 'O my Lady and Delight of my Life, remember the
Animal that came out of the sea and made me ashamed before all
the animals in all the world because I showed off. Now, if I
showed off before these Queens of Persia and Egypt and Abyssinia
and China, merely because they worry me, I might be made even
more ashamed than I have been.'

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

And Suleiman-bin-Daoud said, 'O my Lady and Content of my Heart,
I shall continue to endure my fate at the hands of these nine
hundred and ninety-nine Queens who vex me with their continual
quarrelling.'

So he went on between the lilies and the loquats and the roses
and the cannas and the heavy-scented ginger-plants that grew in
the garden, till he came to the great camphor-tree that was
called the Camphor Tree of Suleiman-bin-Daoud. But Balkis hid
among the tall irises and the spotted bamboos and the red lillies
behind the camphor-tree, so as to be near her own true love,
Suleiman-bin-Daoud.

Presently two Butterflies flew under the tree, quarrelling.

Suleiman-bin-Daoud heard one say to the other, 'I wonder at your
presumption in talking like this to me. Don't you know that if I
stamped with my foot all Suleiman-bin-Daoud's Palace and this
garden here would immediately vanish in a clap of thunder.'

Then Suleiman-bin-Daoud forgot his nine hundred and ninety-nine
bothersome wives, and laughed, till the camphor-tree shook, at
the Butterfly's boast. And he held out his finger and said,
'Little man, come here.'

The Butterfly was dreadfully frightened, but he managed to fly up
to the hand of Suleiman-bin-Daoud, and clung there, fanning
himself. Suleiman-bin-Daoud bent his head and whispered very
softly, 'Little man, you know that all your stamping wouldn't
bend one blade of grass. What made you tell that awful fib to
your wife?--for doubtless she is your wife.'

The Butterfly looked at Suleiman-bin-Daoud and saw the most wise
King's eye twinkle like stars on a frosty night, and he picked up
his courage with both wings, and he put his head on one side and
said, 'O King, live for ever. She is my wife; and you know what
wives are like.

Suleiman-bin-Daoud smiled in his beard and said, 'Yes, I know,
little brother.

'One must keep them in order somehow, said the Butterfly, and she
has been quarrelling with me all the morning. I said that to
quiet her.'

And Suleiman-bin-Daoud said, 'May it quiet her. Go back to your
wife, little brother, and let me hear what you say.'

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

'Heard me!' said the Butterfly. 'Of course he did. I meant him to
hear me.'

'And what did he say? Oh, what did he say?'

'Well,' said the Butterfly, fanning himself most importantly,
'between you and me, my dear--of course I don't blame him,
because his Palace must have cost a great deal and the oranges
are just ripening,--he asked me not to stamp, and I promised I
wouldn't.'

'Gracious!' said his wife, and sat quite quiet; but
Suleiman-bin-Daoud laughed till the tears ran down his face at
the impudence of the bad little Butterfly.

Balkis the Most Beautiful stood up behind the tree among the red
lilies and smiled to herself, for she had heard all this talk.
She thought, 'If I am wise I can yet save my Lord from the
persecutions of these quarrelsome Queens,' and she held out her
finger and whispered softly to the Butterfly's Wife, 'Little
woman, come here.' Up flew the Butterfly's Wife, very frightened,
and clung to Balkis's white hand.

Balkis bent her beautiful head down and whispered, 'Little woman,
do you believe what your husband has just said?'

The Butterfly's Wife looked at Balkis, and saw the most beautiful
Queen's eyes shining like deep pools with starlight on them, and
she picked up her courage with both wings and said, 'O Queen, be
lovely for ever. You know what men-folk are like.'

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

'They get angry,' said the Butterfly's Wife, fanning herself
quickly, 'over nothing at all, but we must humour them, O Queen.
They never mean half they say. If it pleases my husband to
believe that I believe he can make Suleiman-bin-Daoud's Palace
disappear by stamping his foot, I'm sure I don't care. He'll
forget all about it to-morrow.'

'Little sister,' said Balkis, 'you are quite right; but next time
he begins to boast, take him at his word. Ask him to stamp, and
see what will happen. We know what men-folk are like, don't we?
He'll be very much ashamed.'

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

'Remember!' said the Butterfly. 'Remember what I can do if I
stamp my foot.'

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

'I promised Suleiman-bin-Daoud that I wouldn't,' said the
Butterfly, 'and I don't want to break my promise.'

'It wouldn't matter if you did,' said his wife. 'You couldn't
bend a blade of grass with your stamping. I dare you to do it,'
she said. Stamp! Stamp! Stamp!'

Suleiman-bin-Daoud, sitting under the camphor-tree, heard every
word of this, and he laughed as he had never laughed in his life
before. He forgot all about his Queens; he forgot all about the
Animal that came out of the sea; he forgot about showing off. He
just laughed with joy, and Balkis, on the other side of the tree,
smiled because her own true love was so joyful.

Presently the Butterfly, very hot and puffy, came whirling back
under the shadow of the camphor-tree and said to Suleiman, 'She
wants me to stamp! She wants to see what will happen,
O Suleiman-bin-Daoud! You know I can't do it, and now she'll
never believe a word I say. She'll laugh at me to the end of
my days!'

'No, little brother,' said Suleiman-bin-Daoud, 'she will never
laugh at you again,' and he turned the ring on his finger--just
for the little Butterfly's sake, not for the sake of showing
off,--and, lo and behold, four huge Djinns came out of the earth!

'Slaves,' said Suleiman-bin-Daoud, 'when this gentleman on my
finger' (that was where the impudent Butterfly was sitting)
'stamps his left front forefoot you will make my Palace and these
gardens disappear in a clap of thunder. When he stamps again you
will bring them back carefully.'

'Now, little brother,' he said, 'go back to your wife and stamp
all you've a mind to.'

Away flew the Butterfly to his wife, who was crying, 'I dare you
to do it! I dare you to do it! Stamp! Stamp now! Stamp!' Balkis
saw the four vast Djinns stoop down to the four corners of the
gardens with the Palace in the middle, and she clapped her hands
softly and said, 'At last Suleiman-bin-Daoud will do for the sake
of a Butterfly what he ought to have done long ago for his own
sake, and the quarrelsome Queens will be frightened!'

The the butterfly stamped. The Djinns jerked the Palace and the
gardens a thousand miles into the air: there was a most awful
thunder-clap, and everything grew inky-black. The Butterfly's
Wife fluttered about in the dark, crying, 'Oh, I'll be good! I'm
so sorry I spoke. Only bring the gardens back, my dear darling
husband, and I'll never contradict again.'

The Butterfly was nearly as frightened as his wife, and
Suleiman-bin-Daoud laughed so much that it was several minutes
before he found breath enough to whisper to the Butterfly,
'Stamp again, little brother. Give me back my Palace, most
great magician.'

'Yes, give him back his Palace,' said the Butterfly's Wife, still
flying about in the dark like a moth. 'Give him back his Palace,
and don't let's have any more horrid.magic.'

'Well, my dear,' said the Butterfly as bravely as he could, 'you
see what your nagging has led to. Of course it doesn't make any
difference to me--I'm used to this kind of thing--but as a favour
to you and to Suleiman-bin-Daoud I don't mind putting things right.'

So he stamped once more, and that instant the Djinns let down the
Palace and the gardens, without even a bump. The sun shone on the
dark-green orange leaves; the fountains played among the pink
Egyptian lilies; the birds went on singing, and the Butterfly's
Wife lay on her side under the camphor-tree waggling her wings and
panting, 'Oh, I'll be good! I'll be good!'

Suleiman-bin-Daolld could hardly speak for laughing. He leaned
back all weak and hiccoughy, and shook his finger at the
Butterfly and said, 'O great wizard, what is the sense of
returning to me my Palace if at the same time you slay me with
mirth!'

Then came a terrible noise, for all the nine hundred and
ninety-nine Queens ran out of the Palace shrieking and shouting
and calling for their babies. They hurried down the great marble
steps below the fountain, one hundred abreast, and the Most Wise
Balkis went statelily forward to meet them and said, 'What is
your trouble, O Queens?'

They stood on the marble steps one hundred abreast and shouted,
'What is our trouble? We were living peacefully in our golden
palace, as is our custom, when upon a sudden the Palace
disappeared, and we were left sitting in a thick and noisome
darkness; and it thundered, and Djinns and Afrits moved about in
the darkness! That is our trouble, O Head Queen, and we are most
extremely troubled on account of that trouble, for it was a
troublesome trouble, unlike any trouble we have known.'

Then Balkis the Most Beautiful Queen--Suleiman-bin-Daoud's Very
Best Beloved--Queen that was of Sheba and Sable and the Rivers of
the Gold of the South--from the Desert of Zinn to the Towers of
Zimbabwe--Balkis, almost as wise as the Most Wise Suleiman-bin-Daoud
himself, said, 'It is nothing, O Queens! A Butterfly has made
complaint against his wife because she quarrelled with him, and it
has pleased our Lord Suleiman-bin-Daoud to teach her a lesson in
low-speaking and humbleness, for that is counted a virtue among
the wives of the butterflies.'

Then up and spoke an Egyptian Queen--the daughter of a Pharoah--and
she said, 'Our Palace cannot be plucked up by the roots like a
leek for the sake of a little insect. No! Suleiman-bin-Daoud
must be dead, and what we heard and saw was the earth thundering
and darkening at the news.'

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

They came down the marble steps, one hundred abreast, and beneath
his camphor-tree, still weak with laughing, they saw the Most
Wise King Suleiman-bin-Daoud rocking back and forth with a
Butterfly on either hand, and they heard him say, 'O wife of my
brother in the air, remember after this, to please your husband
in all things, lest he be provoked to stamp his foot yet again;
for he has said that he is used to this magic, and he is most
eminently a great magician--one who steals away the very Palace
of Suleirnan-bin-Daoud himself. Go in peace, little folk!' And he
kissed them on the wings, and they flew away.

Then all the Queens except Balkis--the Most Beautiful and
Splendid Balkis, who stood apart smiling--fell flat on their
faces, for they said, 'If these things are done when a Butterfly
is displeased with his wife, what shall be done to us who have
vexed our King with our loud-speaking and open quarrelling
through many days?'

Then they put their veils over their heads, and they put their
hands over their mouths, and they tiptoed back to the Palace most
mousy-quiet.

Then Balkis--The Most Beautiful and Excellent Balkis--went
forward through the red lilies into the shade of the camphor-tree
and laid her hand upon Suleiman-bin-Daoud's shoulder and said, 'O
my Lord and Treasure of my Soul, rejoice, for we have taught the
Queens of Egypt and Ethiopia and Abyssinia and Persia and India
and China with a great and a memorable teaching.'

And Suleiman-bin-Daoud, still looking after the Butterflies where
they played in the sunlight, said, 'O my Lady and Jewel of my
Felicity, when did this happen? For I have been jesting with a
Butterfly ever since I came into the garden.' And he told Balkis
what he had done.

Balkis--The tender and Most Lovely Balkis--said, 'O my Lord and
Regent of my Existence, I hid behind the camphor-tree and saw it
all. It was I who told the Butterfly's Wife to ask the Butterfly
to stamp, because I hoped that for the sake of the jest my Lord
would make some great magic and that the Queens would see it and
be frightened.' And she told him what the Queens had said and
seen and thought.

Then Suleiman-bin-Daoud rose up from his seat under the
camphor-tree, and stretched his arms and rejoiced and said,
'O my Lady and Sweetener of my Days, know that if I had made
a magic against my Queens for the sake of pride or anger, as I
made that feast for all the animals, I should certainly have
been put to shame. But by means of your wisdom I made the magic
for the sake of a jest and for the sake of a little Butterfly,
and--behold--it has also delivered me from the vexations of my
vexatious wives! Tell me, therefore, O my Lady and Heart of my
Heart, how did you come to be so wise?' And Balkis the Queen,
beautiful and tall, looked up into Suleiman-bin-Daoud's eyes and
put her head a little on one side, just like the Butterfly, and
said, 'First, O my Lord, because I loved you; and secondly, O my
Lord, because I know what women-folk are.'

Then they went up to the Palace and lived happily ever
afterwards.

But wasn't it clever of Balkis?


THERE was never a Queen like Balkis,
From here to the wide world's end;
But Balkis tailed to a butterfly
As you would talk to a friend.

There was never a King like Solomon,
Not since the world began;
But Solomon talked to a butterfly
As a man would talk to a man.

She was Queen of Sabaea--
And he was Asia's Lord--
But they both of 'em talked to butterflies
When they took their walks abroad!







 


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