Rudyard
Rudyard
Rudyard
RUDYARD KI
REFERENCE
By
RUDYARD KIPLING
New York
Doubleday, Page & Company
1902
Copyright. 1902, by Rudyr\rd Kiplinj;
"
Just So Stories," have also been copy-
righted separately as follows: How the
Whale Got His Tiny Throat. Copyright.
1897, by the Century Company. How the
Camel Got His Hump. Copyright, 1897,
by the Century Company. How the Rhin-
oceros Got His Wrinkly Skin. Copyright,
1898, by the Century Company. The Ele-
phant's Child. Copyright, 1900, by Rudyard
Kipling; Copyright, 1900, by the Curtis
Publishing Company. The Beginning of the
Armadillos. Copyright, 1900. by Rudyard
Kipling. The Sing Song of Old Man Kan-
garoo. Copyright, 1900, by Rudyard Kip-
ling. How the Leopard Got His Spots.
Copyright, 1901, by Rudyard Kipling. How
the First Letter Was Written. Copyright
1901, by Rudyard Kipling. The Cat that
Walked by Himself. Copyright, 1902, by
Rudyard Kipling.
CONTENTS
' '
sagacity.)
Then the Whale opened his mouth back and
back and back till it nearly touched his tail, and
he swallowed the shipwrecked Mariner, and the
raft he was sitting on, and his blue canvas
breeches, and the suspenders (which you must
not forget), and the jack-knife He swallowed
them all down warm, dark, inside cup-
into his
boards, and then he smacked his lips so, and
turned round three times on his tail.
But as soon as the Mariner, who was a man
of infinite-resource-and-sagacity, found himself
truly inside the Whale's warm, dark, inside cup-
boards, stumped and he jumped and he
he
thumped and he bumped, and he pranced and
he danced, and he banged and he clanged, and
he hit and he bit, and he leaped and he creeped,
and he prowled and he howled, and he hopped
and he dropped, and he cried and he sighed,
and he crawled and he bawled, and he stepped
and he lepped, and he danced hornpipes
where he shouldn't, and the Whale felt most
unhappy indeed. (Have you forgotten the
suspenders ?)
'
and-sagacity.'
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 ;
Fitchburg Road
'
and just as he said
;
Fitch
the Mariner walked out of his mouth. But while
the Whale had been swimming, the Mariner, who
was indeed a person of infinite-resource-and-
HERE is the Whale looking for the little 'Stute Fish, who is hiding under
the Door-sills of the Equator. The little 'Stute Fish's name was Pingle.
He is hiding among the roots of the big seaweed that grows in front of
the Doors of the Equator. have drawn the Doors of the Equator.
I They
are shut. They are always kept shut, because a door ought always to be
things that look like rocks are the two giants Moar and Koar, that keep
the Equator in order. They drew the shadow-pictures on the doors of the
Equator, and they carved all those twisty fishes under the Doors. The
beaky-fish are called beaked Dolphins, and the other fish with the queer
heads are called Hammer-headed Sharks. The Whale never found the
little 'Stute Fish till he got over his temper, and then they became good
friends again.
8
How the Whale got his Throat 1 1
By means of a grating
I have stopped your ating.
'
Just !
1 6 Just So Stories
Presently the Horse came to him on
Monday morning, with a saddle on his back and
mouth, and said, Camel, O Camel,
'
a bit in his
come out and trot like the rest of us.'
said the Camel
' '
in his
and fetch and carry like the rest of us.'
'
Ox went
:
new-and-all ?
*
Whew !
'
said the Djinn, whistling,
'
that's
He says
'
Humph !
'
he made an egg you can see them both at the bottom of the picture
and then there was a magic pumpkin that turned into a big white flame.
Then the Djinn took his magic fan and fanned that flame till the flame
turned into a
magic by itself. It was a good Magic and a very kind Magic
really, though it had to give the Camel a Humph because the Camel was
lazy. The Djinn in charge of All Deserts was one of the nicest of the
Djinns, so he would never do anything really unkind.
18
How the Camel got his Hump 21
* ; "
Only Humph !
;
and he won't plough,'
said the Ox.
'Very good,' said the Djinn. 'I'll humph
7
him if you will kindly wait a minute.
The Djinn rolled himself up in his dust-
cloak,and took a bearing across the desert,
and found the Camel most 'scruciatingly idle,
looking at his own reflection in a pool of water.
My
(
'
Humph ! said the Camel.
shouldn't say that again if
I I were you,'
'
Humph !
'
again ;
but
HERE is the picture of the Djinn in charge of All Deserts guiding the
Magic with his magic fan. The camel is eating a twig of acacia, and he
has just finished saying 'humph" once too often (the Djinn told him he
would), and so the Humph is coming. The long towelly-thing growing
out of the thing like an onion is theMagic, and you can see the Humph
on its shoulder. The Humph fits on the flat part of the Camel's back.
The Camel is too busy looking at his own beautiful self in the pool of
water to know what is going to happen to him.
Underneath the truly picture is a picture of the World-so-new-and-all.
There are two smoky volcanoes in it, some other mountains and some
stones and a lake and a black island and a twisty river and a lot of other
things, as well as a Noah's Ark. I couldn't draw all the deserts that the
Djinn was in charge of, so I only drew one, but it is a most deserty desert.
22
How the Camel got his Hump 25
no sooner had he said it than he saw his back,
that he was so proud of, puffing up and puffing
That's
your very own humph that you've brought upon
your very own self by not working. To-day
is Thursday, and you've done no work since
Monday, when the work began. Now you are
going to work.'
How can I,' said the Camel,
' '
with this
'
humph on my back ?
'
That's made
a-purpose,' said the Djinn, all
because you missed those three days. You will
be able to work now for three days without
eating, because you can live on your humph ;
And then you will find that the sun and the wind,
And the Djinn of the Garden too,
Have lifted the hump
The horrible hump
The hump that is black and blue !
27
HOW THE RHINOCEROS GOT HIS
SKIN
V> \ vti \x
-J f
33
How the Rhino got his Skin 35
Then he went to his camp and filled his hat
with cake-crumbs, for the Parsee never ate any-
thing but cake, and never swept out his camp.
He took that skin, and he shook that skin, and
he scrubbed that skin, and he rubbed that skin
just as full of old, dry, stale, tickly cake-crumbs
and some burned currants as ever it could
possibly hold. Then he climbed to the top of
his palm-tree and waited for the Rhinoceros to
come out of the water and put it on.
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
;
sort that Parsees wear and he has a knife in his hand to cut his name on
;
palm-trees. The
things on the islands out
black at sea are bits of ships
that got wrecked going down the Red Sea but ;
all the passengers were
saved and went home.
The black thing in the water close to the shore is not a wreck at all.
yellowish
- brownest of them all
a greyish-yellowish catty-shaped kind of beast,
and he matched the 'sclusively yellowish -
43
44 Just So Stories
greyish brownish colour of the High Veldt to
-
46
47
How the Leopard got his Spots 49
Said Leopard to Baviaan (and it was a very
'
hot day), Where has all the game gone ?
''
light ?
1 '
remember
'
any form.'
*
Don't you trust it,' said the Leopard.
52 Just So Stories
'
table, Brother?
And the Leopard scratched his head and said,
1
couldn't all
yesterday. How
is it done ?
'
Would it
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 to-
gether. You can see them on any Leopard's
skin you like, Best Beloved. Sometimes the
fingers slipped and the marks got a little blurred ;
lie
'
Ethiopian.
*
Where's-your-Breakfast !
there.
Let's say things to the bunnies, and watch ''em skitter their tails!
Here's your boots (I've brought 'em), and here's your cap and
stick,
And here's your pipe and tobacco. Oh, come along out of it
quick.
61
THE ELEPHANT'S CHILD
in a loud and
dretful tone, and they spanked him immediately
and without stopping, for a long time.
directly,
By and by, when that was finished, he came
upon Kolokolo Bird sitting in the middle of a
'
'
Then the Bi -
Coloured -
Python - Rock -
politely, but my
has spanked me,father
mother has spanked me, not to mention my tall
upper deck
*
meant the Crocodile), will permanently vitiate
' '
Thank you to
Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock- the
Snake and next he was kind to his poor pulled
;
Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake.
' *
72
73
The Elephant's Child 75
At the end of the third day a fly came and
stung him on the shoulder, and before he knew
what he was doing he lifted up his trunk and
hit that fly dead with the end of it.
'
number two!
'Vantage said the Bi-
Coloured- Python -Rock -Snake. You couldn't
have done that with a mear-smear nose. Don't
'
said the Bi -
said they,
*
where did you
learn that trick, and what have you done to
'
your nose ?
'
8.1
THE SING-SONG OF OLD MAN
KANGAROO
danced on an outcrop
in the middle of Aus-
and he went to the
tralia, Little God Nqa.
He went to Nqa at six before breakfast,
saying,
'
!
'
saying,
animals make me, also, wonderfully popular
;
like a -
always hungry, grinning coal-scuttle,
ran after Kangaroo.
Off went the proud Kangaroo on his four
little legs like a bunny.
This, O
Beloved of mine, ends the first
and hopped.
He had to !
and besides, Yellow Dingo got dreadfully black and dusty after
-
Dog
running through the Flinders and the Cinders.
I don't know the names of the flowers growing round Nqong's bath.
The two little squatty things out in the desert are the other two gods
that Old Man Kangaroo spoke to early in the morning. That thing with
the letters on it is Old Man Kangaroo's pouch. He had to have a pouch
just as he had to have legs.
93
Old Man Kangaroo 95
He had to !
finished !
o'clock.'
'Yes,' said Kangaroo. 'I wish that I
hadn't. I thought you would do it by charms
and incantations, but this is a practical
joke.'
' '
Yes, my
importunate son,
You'd be a Marvellous Kid !
99
THE BEGINNING OF THE
ARMADILLOS
you ? said -
Stickly Prickly Hedgehog. Are
you quite sure ? Perhaps she said that when
you uncoil a Tortoise you must shell him out
of the water with a scoop, and when you paw a
draw Armadillos when I began the map, and I meant to draw manatees
and spider-tailed monkeys and big snakes and lots of Jaguars, but it was
more inciting to do the map and the venturesome adventures in red. You
begin at the bottom left-hand corner and follow the little arrows all
about, and then you come quite round again to where the adventuresome
people went home in a ship called the l{pyal Tiger. This is a most
adventuresome picture, and all the adventures are told about in writing,
so you can be quite sure which is an adventure and which is a tree or
a boat.
104
-
Iffr" flllj \
AMAZQ^
K^-yTmJ-^/,,^/-^
105
Beginning of the Armadillos 107
You are making my spots ache,' said Painted
*
Aha !
'
Now I know
you're Tortoise. You thought I wouldn't !
'
Mummy *
came.
'
my paw '
is full of per-ickles,' said Painted Jaguar.
'
* '
'
' '
Painted Jaguar.'
Painted Jaguar was sitting on the banks of
the turbid Amazon sucking prickles out of his
paws and saying to himself-
'
Hold up my chin,
'
1 '
surprised !
Excellent
'
said Slow-and-Solid.
!
'
A leetle
more attention to holding your breath and you
will be able to keep house at the bottom of the
turbid Amazon. Now I'll try that exercise of
4 ' '
Am I ?
'
find him.
By and by they found Painted Jaguar, still
without stopping.
*
Good morning !
'
said Stickly
-
Prickly.
Beginning of the Armadillos 115
*
morning ?
*
Hedgehogs in the garden when I wanted to draw them. (It was daytime,
and they had gone to bed under the dahlias.) Speckly Jaguar is looking
over the edge, with his paddy-paw carefully tied up by his mother, because
he pricked himself scooping the Hedgehog. He is much surprised to see
what the Tortoise is doing, and his paw is hurting him. The snouty
thing with the little eye that Speckly Jaguar is trying to climb over is the
Armadillo the Tortoise and the Hedgehog are going to turn into
that
when they have finished bending and swimming. It is all a magic picture,
and that is one of the reasons why I haven't drawn the Jaguar's whiskers.
The other reason was that he was so young that his whiskers had not
grown. The Jaguar's pet name with his Mummy was Doffles.
116
Beginning of the Armadillos 119
couldn't swim, swims, and the one that you said
couldn't curl up, curls and they've gone shares ;
Armadillo
'
Unless I go to Rio
These wonders to behold
Roll down roll down to Rio-
Roll really down to Rio !
121
HOW THE FIRST LETTER WAS
WRITTEN
123
124 J ust So Stories
wife's name was Teshumai Tewindrow, and that
*
to-be-spanked ;
but I'm going to her Taffy. call
Taffy.
Mummy '
to give it me.'
It's too far for your little fat legs,' said
'
Do you know
where my Mummy lives ? And the Stranger- '
man said
'
Um !
'
-
being, as you know, a
Tewara.
' '
said she. !
' '
Now I see ! You want
my Mummy's living address ? Of course I can't
128 Just So Stories
'
'
prised, Daddy ?
'Very,' said Tegumai; 'but it has ruined all
The First Letter i
35
my fishing for the day. Why, the whole dear,
kind, nice, clean, quiet Tribe is here, Taffy.'
And so they were. First of all walked
Teshumai Tewindrow and the Neolithic ladies,
tightly holding on to the Stranger-man, whose
hair was full of mud (although he was a Tewara).
Behind them came the Head Chief, the Vice-
Chief, the Deputy and Assistant Chiefs (all
armed to the upper teeth), the Hetmans and
Heads of Hundreds, Platoffs with their Platoons,
and Dolmans with their Detachments Woons, ;
Explain Explain ! !
Explain ! cried all the
Tribe of Tegumai.
' ' '
'
'
read to you, you can see how it is all told out on the tusk. The tusk was
part of an old tribal trumpet that belonged to the Tribe of Tegumai.
The pictures were scratched on it with a nail or something, and then the
scratches were filled up with black wax, but all the dividing lines and the
five little rounds at the bottom were filled with red wax. When it was
new there was a network of beads and shells and precious stones
sort of
at one end of it but now that has been broken and lost all except the
;
little bit that you see. The letters round the tusk are magic Runic
magic, and if you can read them you will find out something rather new.
The tusk is of ivory very yellow and scratched. It is two feet long and
140
THERE runs a road by Merrow Down
A grassy track to-day it is
An hour out of Guildford town,
Above the river Wey it is.
H5
146 Just So Stories
* '
Well do had
;
begin with ?
'
and ah I Ta !
How the Alphabet was Made 149
*
'
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.'
'
What
1
Y0, of course.'
1
S'pose you
saw scratched by the side of a
this
Carp -
tail and round egg.
Two noises mixed Yo, bad
!
'
Mummy, quick !
him.
'Not yet,' said Tegumai; 'not till we've
gone a little further. Let's To is bad
see.
what would I do ?
You'd be cross. So'd Mummy. We must
1
Daddy.'
154 J ust So Stories
'
'
If we drew that
*
Daddy.
N-no,' said her
in a hurry we might mistake it for the round
up,
Try
(13.)
iff (HA
if you can make out what that means in the
6
Of course/ said her Daddy. 'And I told
'
it you without saying a word, didn't I?
'
'
'
Oh bother !
'
1
could have drawn shi quite easily,' Taffy
1
'
i6
14 15
Taffy ?
158 Just So Stories
'
sounds all rough and edgy, like your
It
up for firewood.'
So home, and all that evening
they went
Tegumai sat on one side of the fire and Taffy
on the other, drawing yas and yo's and shus
and skis in the smoke on the wall and giggling
'
I
20 21 22 23
24 25 26 27
(23) ;
and they just made a twiddle for E, be-
cause came into the pictures so often (24) and
it ;
28 29 30
31 32 33
mussel-pearls; next is a clay bead (blue and gray); next a nubbly gold
bead sent as a present by a tribe who got it from Africa (but it
must have been Indian really) the next is a long flat-sided
; glass bead
from Africa (the Tribe of Tegumai took it in a fight) then come two ;
clay beads (white and green), with dots on one, and dots and bands on
the other next are three rather chipped amber beads
;
then three clay ;
beads (red and white), two with dots, and the big one in the middle with a
toothed pattern. Then the letters begin, and between each letter is a little
whitish clay bead with the letter repeated small. Here are the letters
A is scratched on a tooth an elk-tusk I think.
B is the Sacred Beaver of Tegumai on a bit of old glory.
165
1 66 Just So Stories
M is on a pale gray shell.
N is a piece of what is called porphyry with a nose scratched on it
the holes.
X is silver wire joined in the middle with a raw garnet. (Taffy
found the garnet.)
Y is the carp's tail in ivory.
Z, is a bell-shaped piece of agate marked with Z-shaped stripes. They
made the Z-snake out of one of the stripes by picking out the soft
stone and rubbing in red sand and bee's-wax. Just in the mouth of
the bell you see the clay bead repeating the Z-letter.
is a lump of rough turquoise ; the next is a rough gold nugget (what they
call water-gold) ;
the next is a melon-shaped clay bead (white with green
spots). Then come ivory pieces, with dots on them rather like
four flat
iron beads with rust-holes at the edges (they must have been magic, because
glass blue, red, white, black, and yellow. Then comes the loop to slip over
the big silver button at the other end, and that is all.
1 have copied the necklace very carefully. It weighs one pound seven
and a half ounces. The black squiggle behind is only put in to make the
beads and things look better.
167
OF all the Tribe of Tegumai
Who cut that figure, none remain,
On Merrow Down the cuckoos cry
The silence and the sun remain.
169
THE CRAB THAT PLAYED WITH
THE SEA
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
'
Magician was talking to the Man and his Little Girl Daughter. The
Eldest Magician is sitting on his magic throne, wrapped up Magic in his
Cloud. The three flowers in front of him are the three Magic Flowers.
On the top of the hill you can see All-the-Elephant-there-was, and All-
the-Cow-there-was, and All-the-Turtle-there-was going off to play as the
Eldest Magician told them. The Cow has a hump, because she was
All-the-Cow-there-was ;
so she had to have all there was for all the cows
that were made afterwards. Under the hill there are Animals who have
been taught the game they were to play. You can see All-the-Tiger-
there-was smiling at All-the-Bones-there-were, and you can see All-the-
Elk- there -was, and All -the - Parrot- there - was, and All-the-Bunnies-there-
were on the hill. The other Animals are on the other side of the hill, so I
Monkey is being rude to the Snake, and the Snake is being rude to the
Monkey. The Man is very busy talking to the Eldest Magician. The
Little Girl Daughter is looking at Pau Amma as he runs away. That
humpy thing in the water in front is Pau Amma. He wasn't a common
Crab in those days. He was a King Crab. That is why he looks differ-
ent. The thing that looks like bricks that the Man is standing in, is the
Big Miz-Maze. When the Man has done talking with the Eldest
Magician he will walk in the Big Miz-Maze, because he has to. The
mark on the stone under the Man's foot is a magic mark and down ;
underneath I have drawn the three Magic Flowers all mixed up with the
Magic Cloud. All this picture is Big Medicine and Strong Magic.
174
The Crab that Played 177
'
Pay ah
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-Turtle-there-was.
Ho !
This is wrong.
The Crab that Played 179
will find out who playing with the Sea,' said
is
'
'
the Sea ?
And the Rat busy biting
said,
'
I am too
through the line that this old Fisherman is spin-
'
He was
round and he was flat ;
and his eyes grew upon
The Crab that Played 181
paddle !
What Pau
:
Eldest Magician.
cut you with kris? Shall I send for Raja
Moyang Kaban, the King of the Elephants, to
you ?
And Pau Amma am ashamed Give
'
said, I !
always.'
Then Pau Amma said, That is good, but I
If
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 ;
' '
And if Beavers
'
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 !
Or you can't wait till then, ask them to let you have the
if
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.
195
THE CAT THAT WALKED BY
HIMSELF
happened and
became and
was, O my
Best Beloved,
when the Tame
animals were wild. The Dog was and the
wild,
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
197
198 Just So Stories
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 ;
O my Friends and O my
Enemies, why have the Man and the Woman
made that great light in that great Cave, and
'
Nenni !
'
hide curtain at the mouth of the Cave, because the Woman has just taken
it down to be cleaned. All those little smudges on the sand between the
Cave and the river are the marks of the Woman's feet and the Man's feet.
The Man and the Woman are both inside the Cave eating their
dinner. They went to another cosier Cave when the Baby came, because
the Baby used to crawl down to the river and fall in, and the Dog had to
pull him out.
2OO
T
2OI
The Cat that Walked 203
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
'
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
said,
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
'
'
2O6
207
The Cat that Walked 209
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 walk-
ing 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 not Wild Horse any more, but the First
is
Baby fond of ?
'
and smiled.
Then the Bat the little upside-down Bat
214 J st So Stories
Cave said, O my
*
back, was a
for I busy woman this morning
and he has done me a service.'
The very minute and second, Best Beloved,
the dried horse-skin Curtain that was stretched
tail-down at the mouth of the Cave fell down
woosh ! because it remembered the bargain she
had made with the Cat, and when the Woman
went to pick it up lo and behold the Cat !
'
am at my wits' end ;
but I will not thank you
for it.'
*
Mother of My Enemy,' said the Cat, is I, for it
! ! !
'
you.'
Cat made one jump and caught the little
A hundred thanks.
Even the First Friend
not quick enough to
is
Mother of my
Enemy,' said the Cat, it is I for ;
223
THE BUTTERFLY THAT STAMPED
225
226 Just So Stories
Now attend all over again and listen !
gave that !
untying the strings, and it did not hurt him at all. The sticky-up masts
behind the boxes of food belong to Suleiman-bin-Daoud's ships. They
were busy bringing more food when Small Porgies came ashore. He did
not eat the ships. They stopped unloading the foods and instantly sailed
away to sea till Small Porgies had quite finished eating. You can see
some of the ships beginning to sail away by Small Porgies' shoulder. I
228
j
^7^^^i*yL^?jfed
229
The Butterfly that Stamped 231
nine hundred and ninety-nine wives, besides the
Most Beautiful Balkisand they all lived in a
;
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
'
O my
Lord and Treasure of my Soul, what will you
do?'
And Suleiman-bin-Daoud said, O my Lady
*
other, I wonder
your presumption in talk-
at
quiet her.'
And Suleiman-bin-Daoud said, May it quiet '
you !
The Butterfly that Stamped 235
'
Heard me Of course
'
!
the Butterfly.
'
Re-
member what I can do stamp if I my foot.'
'
Stamp !
Stamp !
Stamp !
my days !
do it Stamp now
'
to Stamp !
Stamp ! ! !
WT
ell, my dear,' said the Butterfly as bravely
*
Suleiman-bin-Daoud with his magic stick and the two Butterflies behind
him. thing that looks like a lion is really a lion carved in stone, and
The
the thing looks like a milk-can is really a piece of a temple or a house
that
or something. Suleiman-bin-Daoud stood there so as to be out of the way
of the dust and the smoke when the Djinns lifted up the Palace. I don't
know the Djinns' names. They were servants of Suleiman-bin-Daoud's
magic ring, and they changed about every day. They were just common
gull-winged Djinns.
The thing at the bottom is a picture of a very friendly Djinn called
Akraig. He used to feed the little fishes in the sea three times a day,
and his wings were made of pure copper. I put him in to show you what
a nice Djinn is like. He did not help to lift the Palace. He was busy
feeding little fishes in the Arabian Sea when it happened.
240
241
The Butterfly that Stamped 243
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
*
'
be good !
It is nothing, O Queens !
of
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.
249