Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling Chapter 8 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org Read by Tim Bulkley of BigBible.org Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling Chapter 8 How the alphabet was made The week after Taffy my metallumai, we will still call her Taffy best beloved, made that little mistake about her daddy's spear and the stranger man and the picture letter and all, she went carp fishing again with her daddy. Her mummy wanted to stay at home and help hang up hides to dry on the big drying poles outside their neolithic cave. But Taffy slipped away down to her daddy quite early, and they fished.  But wasn't it inciting? said Taffy.  Well I do, said Tegrumai. I had to pay two dear skins, soft ones with fringes to the stranger man for the things we did to him. We didn't do anything, said Taffy. It was mummy and the other neolithic ladies, and the mud. We won't talk about that, said her daddy. Let's have lunch. Taffy took a marrow bone and sat mousy quiet for ten whole minutes, while her daddy scratched on pieces of birch bark with a shark's tooth. Then she said, Daddy, I've think of a secret surprise. You make a noise, any sort of noise. Ah, said Tegrumai. Will that do to begin with? Yes, said Taffy.  Say it again, please. Ah, ah, ah, ah, said her daddy.  I'm not meaning rude really and truly, said Taffy. It's part of my secret surprise thing. Do say ah, daddy, and keep your mouth open at the end, and lend me that tooth.  What for? said her daddy. Don't you see? said Taffy, scratching away on the bark. That would be our little secret surprise.  Then we can play that it was me jumped out of the dark and surprised 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 truly are 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 pretend 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. One. That's not bad, said Togomai, and scratched on his own piece of bark for himself.  But I can't draw, daddy.  Then we'll know he's a carp fish, because the perches and trouts haven't got feelers. Look here, Taffy, and he drew this. Two. Now I'll copy it, said Taffy. Will you understand this when you see it? Perfectly, said her daddy. And she drew this. Three. And I'll be quite as surprised when I see it anywhere, as if you jumped out from behind a tree and said ah. Now make another noise, said Taffy, very proud. Yah! said her daddy, very loud. Hmm, said Taffy. Sixty noise. The end part is ah, carp fish mouth. But what can we do about the front part? Yah, yah, yah, and ah. Yah! It's very like the carp fish mouth noise. Let's draw another bit of the carp fish and join them. Said her daddy. He was quite incited, too. Now if they joined, I'll forget. Draw it separate, daddy. Draw his tail. If he's standing on his head, the tail will come first. Right. I think I can draw tails easiest, said Taffy. A good notion, said Tegumai. Here's a carp fish tail for the yah noise. And he drew this. Four. I'll try now, said Taffy.  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. Five. The daddy nodded. His eyes were shiny bright with sightment. That's beautiful, she said. Now make another noise, daddy. Oh! said daddy, very loud. That's quite easy, said Taffy.  So an egg or a stone will do for that. You can't always find eggs or stones. We'll have to scratch around something like this one. And he drew this. Six. My gracious, said Taffy. There's a lot of noise pictures we've made. Carp mouth, carp tail and egg. Now make another noise, daddy. Sh! said her daddy and frowned to himself. But Taffy was too incited to notice. That's quite easy, she said, scratching on the bark. Hey, what? said her daddy. I meant I was thinking and I didn't want to be disturbed. It's a noise just the same. It's the noise a snake makes, daddy, when it's thinking and doesn't want to be disturbed. Well, this do. And she drew this. Seven. There, she said. That's another surprise secret. When you draw hissy snake by the door of your little back cave where you mend the spears, I'll know you're thinking hard and I'll come in most mousy quiet. And if you draw it on a tree by the river when you're fishing, I'll know you want me to walk most, most mousy quiet. So as not to shake the banks. Perfectly true, said Tegumai. And there's more to this game than you think, Taffy dear. I have a notion that your daddy's daughter has hit upon the finest thing that there ever was since the tribe of Tegumai took to using shark's teeth instead of flints for their spearheads. I believe we've found out the big secret of the world. Why? said Taffy, and her eye 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? Blackwater, swamp water. Yo, of course. Now look, said her daddy. Suppose you saw this scratched by the side of a pool in the beaver swamp, and he drew this. Eight. Carp tail and round egg. Two noises mixed. Yo, bad water, said Taffy. Of course I wouldn't drink that water because I know you said it was bad. But I needn't be near the water at all. I might be miles away hunting. Still, it will be just the same as if you stood there and said, Go away, Taffy, or you'll get fever. All that and a carp fish tail and a round egg. Oh, daddy, we must tell Mummy quick. And Taffy danced all round him. Not yet, said Tegumai, not to be gone a little further. Yo is bad water, and so is food cooked on the fire, isn't it? And he drew this. Nine. 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 die. My winky, said Tegumai. That's true, too. But wait a minute, I see a difficulty. So means come and have dinner, but show means the drying poles where we hang our hides. Hurry, 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 show. We must draw a spotty snake that hisses, shh, shh. And we'll play that the plain snake only hisses sss. I couldn't be sure how to put in the spots, said Taffy. And perhaps if I'm in a hurry, you might just leave them out. I'd think it was so when it was show. 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. Ten. Perhaps it's safest. It's like our drying poles anyhow, said her daddy, laughing. Now I'll make a new noise with the snake and the drying poles sound in it. I'll say, shh, that's Tegelmae for spear, Taffy. And he laughed. Don't make fun of me, said Taffy, as she thought of her picture letter and the mud on the stranger man's hair. You draw it, Daddy. We won't have beavers or hills this time, eh? said her daddy. I'll draw a straight line for my spear. And he drew this. Eleven. Even Mummy couldn't mistake that for me being killed. Please, don't, Daddy. It makes me uncomfortable. Do some more noises. We're getting on beautifully. Er, hmm. It's a Tegelmae looking up. We'll say, shh, that means sky. Taffy drew the snake and the drying pole, then she stopped. We must make a new picture for that end sound, shh, shh, ooh, ooh, ooh. Said her daddy. Why, it's just like the round egg sound made thin. Then suppose we draw a thin round egg and pretend it's a frog that hasn't eaten anything for years. No. Said her daddy. If we drew that in a hurry, we might mistake it for the round egg itself. Shh, shh, I'll tell you what we'll do. We'll open a little hole in the end of the round egg to show how the oh, noise runs out all thin. Ooh, ooh, ooh. 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'd drawn this. 13. Taffy, he said, Try if you can make out what that means in the Tegomai language. If you can, we found the secret. Snake, pole, broken egg, carp tail, and carp mouth, said Taffy. Shoo-ya! Sky water, rain! Just then, a drop fell on her hand for the day it clouded over. Why, daddy, it's raining. Was that what you meant to tell me? And I told 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. Shoo-ya! means rain. Or it's going to rain. Why, daddy, she got up and danced around him. Suppose you went out before I was awake and drawed Shoo-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? Tegomai got up and danced. Daddy's didn't mind doing those things in those days. More than that, more than that, he said. Suppose I wanted to tell you it wasn't going to rain much and you must come down to the river. What will we draw? Say the words in Tegomai talk first. Shoo-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, Tegomai. Just a ten minute, Tafi. And we won't do any more today. We've got Shoo-ya all right, haven't we? But this las is a teaser. La-la-la. And he waved his shark's 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 Tafi. I know it, but we have to make la-la. We're the first people in all the world who've tried to do it, Tafi-mai. Well, said Tafi, yawning, for she was rather tired. Las means breaking or finishing as well as ending, doesn't it? So it does, said Tegomai. To-las means there's no water in the tank for me to cook with. Just when I'm going hunting, too. And she-las means that your spear is broken. If only I'd thought of that instead of drawing silly beaver pictures for the stranger. La-la-la, said Tegomai, waving his stick and frowning. Oh, bother. I could have drawn she quite easily, Tafi went on. Then I'd have drawn your spear all broken this way. And she drew. Fourteen. The very thing, said Tegomai. That's la all over. It isn't like any of the other marks, either. And he drew this. Fifteen. Now for ya. Oh, we've done that before. Now for maru. Mum-mum-mum-mum-mum. Shuts one's mouth up, doesn't it?  And he drew. Sixteen. Then the cart mouth open. That makes ma-ma-ma. But what's this rr-r thing, Tafi? Sounds all rough and edgy, like your shark tooth saw when you're cutting out a plank for the canoe, said Tafi. You've been all sharp at the edges, like this, and he drew. Seventeen. Exactly, said Tafi. But we don't want all those teeth. Only put two. I'll only put in one, said Tegomai. 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. Eighteen. Now we've got it, said Tegomai, standing on one leg. I'll draw them all in a string, like fish. A stick or something between each word, so as 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 and a big new bit of birch bark. Nineteen. Shou-ya-las-ya-maru, said Tafi, reading it out sound by sound. That's enough for today, said Tegomai. Besides, you're getting tired, Tafi. Never mind, dear. We'll finish it all tomorrow. 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 that evening, Tegomai sat on one side of the fire and Tafi on the other, drawing yars and yoes and shoes and shees in the smoke on the wall and giggling together, till her mummy said, Really, Tegomai, you're worse than my Tafi. Please don't mind, said Tafi. It's only our secret surprise, 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'd have to tell. So her mummy most carefully didn't and brightened early next morning. Tegomai went down to the river to think about new sound pictures. And when Tafi 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 Tafi. 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 at her daddy. It was an exciting day of it and a beautiful lunch in the middle and two games of romps. When they came to tea Tafi said that her name and her daddy's and her mummies all began with that sound and they should draw sort of family group of themselves holding hands. That was all very well to draw once or twice. But when he came to drawing it six or seven times, Tafi and Tegomai drew it scratchier and scratchier till at last the tea sound was only a thin long Tegomai with his arms out to hold Tafi and Tegomai. 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 Park they became planer and easier till at last even Tegomai said you could find no fault with them. They turned the hissy snake the other way round 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 Tegomais 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 a big lake pike's mouth for the greedy gah sound 30 and they drew the pike's mouth again with a spear behind it for the scratchy herty gah sound 31 and they drew pictures of a little bit of the winding wagai river for the nice windy, windy, war sound 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 nylotics and cryptics and kufics and runics and dorics and ionics and all sorts of other ricks and tricks because the wounds, the neguses and the arcoons 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 them got back into its proper shape again for all the best beloveds to learn when they're old enough but I remember Tegumai Bopsulai and Tafimai Matalumai and Teshumai Tumindro 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 Bero down the cuckoo's cry the silence and the sun remain but as the faithful years return and hearts unwounded sing again comes Tafi dancing through the fern to lead the surrey spring again her brows are bound with bracken fronds and golden elf flocks fly above her eyes are bright as diamonds and bluer than the skies above in moccasins and deerskin cloak unfearing free and fair she flits and lights a little damp wood smoke to show her daddy where she flits for far over a far behind so far she cannot call to him comes Tegumai alone to find the daughter that was old to him picture of the magic alphabet necklace described by the author one of the first things that Tegumai Bopsuli did after Tafi and he had made the alphabet was to make a magic alphabet necklace of all the letters so that it could be put in the temple of Tegumai and kept forever and ever the tribe of Tegumai brought their most precious beads and beautiful things and Tafi and Tegumai spent five whole years getting the necklace in order this is a picture of the magic alphabet necklace the string was made of the finest and strongest reindeer sinew bound round with thin copper wire beginning at the top the first bead is an old silver one that belonged to the head priest of the tribe of Tegumai then come three black muscle 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 whiteish 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 with the letter repeated small here are the letters A is scratched on a tooth an elk tusk I think B is the sacred beaver of Tegumai on a bit of old glory C is a pearly oyster shell inside front D must be a sort of muscle shell outside front E is a twist of silver wire F is broken but what remains of it is a bit of stag's horn G is painted on a piece of wood the bead after G is a small shell and not a clay bead I don't know why they did that H is a kind of big brown cowy shell I is the inside part of a long shell ground down by hand it took Tegumai three months to grind it down J is a fish hook in mother of pearl is the broken spear in silver K ought to follow J of course but the necklace was broken once and they mended it wrong K is a thin slice of bone scratched and rubbed in black M is on a pale grey shell N is a piece of what is called porphyry with a nose scratched on it Tegumai spent five months polishing this stone O is a piece of oyster shell with a hole in the middle P and Q are missing they were lost a long time ago in a great war and the tribe mended the necklace with dried rattles of a rattlesnake but no one ever found P and Q that is how the saying began you must mind your P's and Q's R is of course just a shark's tooth S is a little silver snake T is the end of a small bone polished brown and shiny U is another piece of oyster shell W is a twisty piece of mother of pearl that they found inside a big mother of pearl shell and soared off with a wire dipped in sand and water it took Taffy a month and a half to polish it and drill the holes X is silver wire joined in the middle with a raw garnet Taffy found the garnet Y is a 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 beeswax just in the mouth of the bell you see the clay bead repeating the Z letter these are all the letters the next bead is a small round greenie lump of copper ore the next is a lump of rough turquoise the next is a rough gold nugget what they call water gold the next is a melon shaped clay bead white with green spots then come four flat ivory pieces with dots on them rather like dominoes then come three stone beads very badly worn then two soft iron beads with rust holes at the edges they must be magic because they look very common and last is a very very old African bead like glass blue, red, white, black and yellow then comes the loop to slip over the big silver button at the other end and that is all I've copied the necklace very carefully it weighs one pound, seven and a half ounces the black squiggle behind it is only put in to make the beads and things look better end of how the alphabet was made read by Tim Bulkley of bigbible.org just so stories by Richard Kipling chapter 10 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Tim Bulkley of bigbible.org the crab that played with the sea before the high and far off times oh my best beloved came the time of the very beginnings and that was in the days when the oldest magician was getting things ready first he got the earth ready then he got the sea ready then he told all the animals that they could come out and play and the animals said oh well this 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 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 kings grow restless and tired. There came up the man. With his own little girl-daughter?  And he said, What is this play, eldest magician? And the eldest magician said, Oh, 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, Pao 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. Coon, said all the elephant there was, meaning, Is this right? Paya Coon, 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.  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. Coon, said all the beaver there was, Paya Coon, 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. Coon, said all the turtle there was. Paya Coon, 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 all 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, Oh, 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 there's 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 until it overflowed all the dark forests for miles and miles and flooded the man's house. This is wrong. Lawnshaw canoe, when we will find out who is playing with the sea, said the eldest magician. They stepped into the canoe.  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 Bintang as though it had been pulled by a string. Then the eldest magician stood up and shouted, Oh, beasts, birds and fishes, that I took from between my hands at the very beginning and taught the play you should play.  Then all the beasts, birds and fishes said together, eldest magician, we play the plays you taught us to play. We and our children's children, but none of us plays with the sea. Then the moon rose big and full over the water and the eldest magician said to the hunchback old man who sits in the moon, spinning a fishing line with which he hopes one day to catch the world. Oh, fisher of the moon, are you playing with the sea? No, said the fisherman, I'm spinning a line with which I shall someday 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, Oh, rat of the moon, are you playing with the sea? And the rat said, I'm 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.  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 armor upon his back. And the eldest magician said, How wise are little children who speak truth? Now I know where Pal Amar 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, Pao Jangi, that bears the magic twin nuts. Then the eldest magician slid his arm up to the shoulder through the deep water and under the roots of the wonderful tree he touched the broad back of Pal Amar the crab. And Pal Amar 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's been playing with the sea. And he called out, What are you doing, Pao Amar? And Pao Amar, 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, Pao Amar, 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 completely bare and the little fish die. And Raja Moyang Kaban, the king of the elephants, his legs are made muddy.  Then Pao Amar, deep down below, laughed and said, I did not know I was so important. Henceforth 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, Pao Amar, because you escaped me at the very beginning. But if you are not afraid, come up and we will talk about it. I'm not afraid, said Pao Amar, and he rose to the top of the sea in the moonlight. There was nobody in the world so big as Pao Amar, for he was the king crab of all crabs. Not a common crab, but a king crab. One side of his shell touched the beach at Sarawak, the other 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-curned nuts that make people young. And the little girl daughter saw him 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, Pao Amar, and show that you are really important. Pao Amar 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 oldest magician laughed. You're not so important after all, Pao Amar. 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, Pao Amar's hard blue-green-black shell fell off him as a husk falls off a coconut. And Pao Amar was left all soft, soft as the little crabs you sometimes find on the beach, best beloved. Indeed, you are very important, said the oldest magician. Shall I ask the man here to cut you with Chris? Shall I send for Raja Moyankaban, 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 Pao Amar 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.  Perhaps you will forget your promise and you will play with the sea once more. Then Pao Amar said, what shall I do? I'm so big 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.   Then Pao Amar 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 should be able to hide both on the land and in the sea. And Pao Amar 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'm 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 coco nuts like this all day long when you come up from the sea to the land or you can dig a pus at Tasek for yourself for the scissors that belong to you when there is no stone or hole nearby. And when the earth is too hard by the help of these same scissors, you can run up a tree. And Pao Amar said, I do not choose yet. For all soft as I am, these gifts would not help me.  And the eldest magician said, I will give it back, Pao Amar, for 11 months of the year. But on the 12th 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, Pao Amar. 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 those scissors, you will grow greedy, Pao Amar. Then Pao Amar thought little and said, I have made my choice. I will take all the gifts. Then the eldest magician made a magic with his right hand, with all five fingers of his right hand. And lo and behold, best beloved, Pao Amar grew smaller and smaller and smaller. Till at last there was only a little green crab, swimming in the water alongside the canoe, crying out 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.  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. Cool? Is this right? Paiha Kun said the eldest magician and he laughed and gave him his blessing. And the little Pao Amar 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. For that is a weary way to paddle. If we had waited till Pao Amar had gone out of pusat tasek and come home, the water would have carried us there by itself.  So your children shall be lazy. They shall be the laziest people in the world. They shall be called the Malayzi, the lazy people.  Pull his canoe home with your line, fisherman. No, said the man. If I'm to be lazy all my days, let the sea work for me twice a day forever. That will save paddling. And the eldest magician laughed and said, Payakun, 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. Korn, said the fisherman of the moon. Payakun, said the eldest magician. See now that you pull the sea twice a day and twice a night forever, so that the Malayzi fisherman 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 Pao Amma. Then they all went up the Perak River and went to bed, best beloved. Now, listen to the tend. 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 neep tides. But nearly always he's careful because of the eldest magician.  And 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 coconuts exactly as the girl daughter promised. But once a year, all Pao Amma's must shake off their hard armor and be soft to remind them of what the eldest magician could do. So it isn't fair to kill or hunt Pao Amma's babies just because old Pao Amma was stupidly rude a very long time ago.  That's why they nip you with their scissors. And it serves you right. China going P&O's pass Pao Amma's playground close. And his pusatasek lies near the track of most BI's. UYK and NDL know Pao Amma's home as well as the Fisher of the Sea knows Ben's, MM's and Rupertino's. But, and this is rather queer, ATL's cannot come here. O and O and DOA must go round another way. Orient anchor, Bibby Hall, never go that way at all. UCS would have a fit if it found itself on it. And if beavers took their cargoes to Penang instead of Lagos, or a fat, sure-savile boar, passengers to Singapore, or a white star were to try, a little trip to Surabaya, or a BSA went on past Natal to Cherrybone, then great Mr. Lloyds would come with a wire and drag them home. You all 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 two where it is marked Shipping, on the top left hand, and 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 fit into the names of the places on the map. Any steamer kid you ought to be able to do that. But if you can't read, ask someone to show it to you. Pictures described by the author. One. This is a picture of Palama the Crab running away while the Eldest Magician was talking to the man and his little girl daughter. The Eldest Magician is sitting on his magic throne, wrapped up in his magic cloud.  At the top of the hill, you can see all the elephant there was, and all the cow there was, and all the turtle there was, going off to play as the Eldest Magician told them. The cow has a hump, because she was all the cow there was. So she had to have all there was for all the cows that were made afterwards. Under the hill, there are animals who have been taught the game they were to play. You can see all the tiger there was, smiling at all the bones there were. And you can see all the elk there was, and all the parrot there was, and all the bunnies there were on the hill. The other animals are on the other side of the hill, so I haven't drawn them. The little house up the hill is all the house there was. The Eldest Magician made it to show the man how to make houses when he wanted to.  The man is very busy talking to the Eldest Magician. The little girl daughter is looking at Palama as he runs away. That humpy thing in the water in front is Palama. He wasn't a common crab in those days. He was a king crab. That's why he looks different. The thing that looks like bricks that the man is standing in is the Big Mismaze. When the man is done talking with the Eldest Magician, he will walk in the Big Mismaze 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. Two. This is the picture of Palama the crab rising out of the sea as tall as the smoke of three volcanoes. I haven't drawn the three volcanoes because Palama is so big. Palama is trying to make a magic, but he is only a silly old king crab, so he can't do anything. You can see he is all eggs and claws and empty hollow shell. The canoe is the canoe that the man and the girl daughter and the Eldest Magician sailed from the Perak River in. The sea is all black and bobbly because Palama has just risen up out of Pusatasek. Pusatasek is underneath, so I haven't drawn it. The man is waving his curvy Christknife at Palama. The little girl daughter is sitting quietly in the middle of the canoe. She knows she is quite safe with her daddy. The Eldest Magician is standing up at the other end of the canoe beginning to make a magic. He has left his magic throne on the beach and he has taken off his clothes so as not to get wet and he has left the magic cloud behind too so as not to tip the boat over. The thing looks like another little canoe outside the real canoe is called an outrigger. It's a piece of wood tied to sticks and it prevents the canoe from being tipped over. The canoe is made out of one piece of wood and there is a paddle at one end of it. End of The Crab that played with the sea by Rudyard Kipling read by Tim Bulkley of BigBible.org The Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org recording by Tim Bulkley of BigBible.org Chapter 11 The Cat that Walked by Himself Here and Attend and Listen For this befell and be happened and became and was, though 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 like 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.  That night, best beloved, they ate wild sheep roasted on the hot stones and flavoured with wild garlic and wild pepper and wild dark stuffed with wild rice and a Greek and wild coriander and marrow bones of wild oxen and wild cherries and wild grenadillas.  She took the bone of the shoulder of mutton the big fat blade bone and she looked at the wonderful marks on it and 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 the wild horse stamped his wild foot and said oh my friends and oh 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 nanny 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 these are alike to me why should I not go to and see and look and come away at my own liking so he slipped after wild dog softly, very softly and hit himself where he could hear everything when wild dog reached the mouth of the cave he lifted up the dried horsekin 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 first wild thing out of the wild woods what do you want wild dog said oh 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 the 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 oh my enemy and wife of my enemy give me another the woman said wild thing out of the wild woods helped 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 my friend I will help your man hunt through the day and at night I will guard your cave gnaw 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 bone but he never told anybody when the man wakes up he said what is wild dog doing here and the woman said his name is not wild dog anymore but the first friend because he will be our friend for always and always and always take him with you when you go hunting that night the woman cut great green armfuls of fresh grass from the water meadows and dried it before the fire so that it smelled like pneumone hay and she sat at the mouth of the cave and platted a halter out of horse hide and looked at the shoulder of mutton bone the big broad blade bone and she made a magic she made the second singing magic in the world out of 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 nanny said the cat I am the cat who walks by himself all places are alike to me I will not come but all the same he followed wild horse softly very softly and hit himself for 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 my home my enemy and wife of my enemy 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 hold her over it and the wild horse breathed on the woman's feet and said oh 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 loan 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 anymore but the first servant because he will carry us from place to place 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 hit himself just the same as before and everything happened just the same as before and the cat said the same things as before and then wild cow 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 loan 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 anymore but the giver of good food she will give us the warm white milk for always and always and always I will take care of her while you and the first friend and the first servant go hunting the 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 oh 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 braided up my hair and I 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 as wild dog told tales of me then the woman laughed and said you are the cat who walks by himself and all places are alike to you you are neither a friend nor a servant you've said it yourself go away and walk by yourself in all places alike then the 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'll make a bargain with you if I ever 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 share hell 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 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 the 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 lawn that night when the man and the horse and the dog came home from hunting 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 lawn 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 he 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 the 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 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 patty 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 oh my hostess and wife of my host and mother of my host 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 he 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 quite comfy inside the cave no 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 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 no my enemy and wife of my enemy and mother of my enemy said the cat and take a strand of the wire that you are spinning and tie it to your spinning wall 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 might be a witsend but I will not thank you for it she tied the thread to the little clay spindle-wall 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 backwards 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 waved 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 she said to the cat that was a very clever 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 low and behold the cat was sitting quite comfy close to the fire no my enemy and wife of my enemy and mother of my enemy 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 my ward on the fire and brought out the 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 by and by the cave grew so still that a little wee, wee mouse crept out of a corner and ran across the floor oh my enemy and wife of my enemy and mother of my enemy is that little mouse part of your magic oh gee no indeed said the woman and she dropped the blade bone and jumped up 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 for 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 oh best beloved the milk pot that stood by the fire cracked in two pieces because it remembered the bargain she had made with the cat and when the woman jumped down from the footstool low and behold the cat was lapping up the warm white milk that lay in one of the broken pieces oh 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 said the cat a bowl of warm white milk and said oh 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 all together and he set them out in a row and said the woman 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 knobbly and he said I will catch mice when I am in the cave but still I am the cat who walks by himself and all places are alike to me not when I am near to the man if you had not said that last I would have put all these things away for always and always and always but now I am 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 is not made a bargain with me 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 said do you want me 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 while I am near to 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 the man through 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 so long as they do not pull his tail too hard and when he has done that between times when the moon gets up and the 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 in the wet wild trees or on the wet wild roofs waving his wild wild tail and walking by his wild lone but he can sit by the fire and sing but he can climb a tree and sing to miss herself, not me but I like Binky my dog because he knows how to behave so Binky is the same as the first friend was and I am the man in the cave but he will play Man Friday till it is time to wet her paw and make her walk on the window sill for the footprint Cruso saw then she fluffles her tail and muse and scratches and won't attend but Binky will play whatever I choose for 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 Binky he snores at my feet all night and he is my firstest friend pictures described by the author Man This is the picture of the cave where the man and the woman lived first of all it was really a very nice cave and much warmer than it looks the man had a canoe it is up on the edge of the river being soaked in the water to make it swell up the tattery looking thing across the river is the man's salmon net to catch salmon with there are nice clean stones leading up from the river to the mouth of the cave the man and the woman could go down for water without getting sand between their toes the things like black beetles far down the beach are really trunks of dead trees that floated down the river from the wet wild woods on the other bank the man and the woman used to drag them out and dry them and cut them up for firewood I haven't drawn the horse hide curtain at the mouth of the cave because the woman has just taken it down to be cleaned all those smudges on the sand 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 too this is the picture of the cat that walked by himself walking by his wild loan through the wet wild woods and waving his wild tail there's nothing else in the picture except some toadstools they had to grow there because the woods were so wet the lumpy thing on the low branch isn't a bird it is moss that grew there because the wet wild woods were so wet underneath the truly picture is a picture of the cosy cave that the man and the woman went to after the baby came it was their summer cave and they planted wheat in front of it the man is riding on the horse to find the cow and bring her back to the cave to be milked he is holding up his hand to call the dog who has swum across to the other side of the river looking for rabbits end of The Cat That Walked By Himself The Taboo Tale the most important thing about Tegumai Bopsulai and his dear daughter Tafimai Metallumai was the taboos of Tegumai which were all Bopsulai listen and attend and remember O Best Beloved because we know about taboos you and I Metallumai, but you can still call her Tafi went out into the woods hunting with Tegumai she never kept still she kept very unstill she danced among the dead leaves she did, she snapped dry branches off she did she slid down banks and pits she did quarries and pits of sand she did she splashed through swamps and bogs she did and she made a horrible noise so all the animals that they hunted squirrels, beavers, otters, badgers and deer and the rabbits knew when Tafi and her daddy were coming and ran away then Tafi said I'm awfully sorry daddy dear then Tegumai said what's the use of being sorry the squirrels have gone and the beavers have dived the deer have jumped and the rabbits are deep in their buries you ought to be beaten no daughter of Tegumai and I would too if I didn't happen to love you just then he saw a squirrel kinking and prinking round the trunk of an ash tree and he said there's a lunch Tafi if you'll only keep quiet Tafi said where, where, show me show she said it and her raspy raspy whispered would have frightened a steam cow and she skitted about in the bracken being a sightable child and the squirrel flicked his tail and went off in large free loopy laps to about the middle of Sussex before he ever stopped Tegumai was severely angry he stood quite still making up his mind whether it would be better to boil Tafi or skin Tafi or tattoo Tafi or cut her hair or sent her to bed for one night without being kissed and while he was thinking the head chief of the tribe of Tegumai came through the woods all in his eagle feathers he was the head chief of the high and the low and the middle medicine for the whole tribe of Tegumai and he and Tafi were rather friends he said to Tegumai what is the matter O Chiefest of Bopsulai you look angry I am angry said Tegumai and he told the head chief all about Tafi's very unstillness in the woods and about the way she frightened the game and about her falling into swamps because she would look behind her when she ran and about her falling out of trees because she wouldn't take good hold on both sides of her and about her getting her legs all greeny with duckweed from ponds and places and bringing it sploshing into the cave the head chief shook his head till the eagle feathers and the little shells on his forehead rattled then he said well well I'll see about it later the head chief said Tegumai and they both sat down politely Observe and take notice O Tegumai the tribe of Tegumai have been fishing the Wagai river for ever so long and ever so much too much consequence is that there's hardly any carp of any size left in it and even the little carps are going away quite so O Tegumai said the head chief what do you think of putting the big tribal taboo on it so as to stop everyone from fishing there for six months that's a good plan O head chief said Tegumai but what will the consequences be if any of our people break the taboo consequence will be O Tegumai said the head chief that we will make them understand it with sticks and stinging metals and dobs of mud and if that doesn't teach them we'll draw fine freehand tribal patterns on their backs with the cutty edges of muscle shells come along with me O Tegumai and we will proclaim the tribal taboo on the Wagai river then they went up to the head chief's head house where all the tribal magic of Tegumai belonged and they brought out the big tribal taboo pole made of wood the tribal beaver of Tegumai and all the other animals carved on top and all the tribal taboo marks carved underneath then they called up the tribe of Tegumai with the big tribal horn that roars and blaws and the middle tribal couch that squeaks and squawks and the little tribal drum that taps and wraps they made a lovely noise and Taffy was allowed to beat the little tribal drum because she was rather friends with the head chief when all the tribe had come together in front of the head chief's house the head chief stood up and said and sang O tribe of Tegumai the Wagai river has been fished too much and the carp fish are getting frightened nobody must fish in the Wagai river for six months it is taboo both sides and the middle on all islands and mud banks it is taboo to bring a fishing spear nearer than ten manstrides of the river it is taboo it is most specially taboo O tribe of Tegumai it is taboo for this month and next month and next month and next month and next month and next month now go and put up the taboo pole by the river and don't let anybody pretend that they haven't understood then the tribe of Tegumai shouted and put up the taboo pole by the banks of the Wagai river and swiftly they ran down both banks half the tribe on one side and half on the other and chased away all the small boys who hadn't attended the meeting because they were looking for crayfish in the river and then they all praised the head chief and Tegumai bopsulai Tegumai went home after this but Taffy stayed with the head chief because they were rather friends she was very much surprised she had never seen a taboo put on anything before and she said to the head chief what does taboo mean exactly the head chief said taboo doesn't mean anything till you break it oh only daughter of Tegumai but when you break it it means sticks and stingy needles and fine freehand treble patterns drawn on your back with the cutty edges of muscle shells then Taffy said could I have a taboo of my own a little small taboo to play with then the head chief said I'll give you a little taboo of your own just because you made up that picture writing which will one day grow into the ABC you remember how Taffy and Tegumai made up the alphabet that was why she and the head chief were rather friends he took off one of his magic necklaces he had 22 of them and he was made of bits of pink coral and he said if you put this necklace on anything that belongs to you your own self no one can touch that thing until you take the necklace off it will only work inside your own cave and if you have left anything of yours lying about where you shouldn't the taboo won't work till you have put that thing back in its proper place thank you very much indeed said Taffy now what do you truly suppose it will do to my daddy I'm not quite sure said the head chief he may throw himself down on the floor and shout or he may have cramps or he may just flop or he may take three sorrowful steps and say sorrowful words and then you can pull his hair three times if you like and what will it do to my mummy said Taffy there aren't any taboos on people's mummies said the head chief why not because if there were taboos on people's mummies people's mummies could put taboos on breakfasts and dinners and teas and that would be bad for the tribe long and long ago the tribe decided not to have any taboos on people's mummies anywhere for anything well said Taffy do you know if my daddy has any taboos of his own that will work on me supposing I broke a taboo by accident you don't mean to say said the head chief that your daddy has never put any taboos on you yet no said Taffy don't and gets angry ah I suppose he thought you were a kiddie said the head chief now if you show him that you have a real taboo of your own I shouldn't be surprised if he put several real taboos on you thank you said Taffy but I have a little garden of my very own outside the cave and if you don't mind I should like you to make this taboo necklace work so that if I hang it up the wild roses in front of the garden and people go inside they won't be able to come out till they've said they are sorry oh certainly certainly said the head chief of course you can taboo your very own garden thank you said Taffy and now I'll go home and see if this taboo truly works when she got back to the cave it was nearly time for dinner and when she came to the door she heard dear mummy instead of saying where have you been Taffy said oh daughter of Tegwami come in and eat same as if she had been a grown up person that was because she saw a taboo necklace on Taffy's neck her daddy was sitting in front of the fire waiting for dinner and he said the very same thing and Taffy felt most important she looked all round the cave to see that her own things her mother's teeth and the bone needles and the dear sinew thread her mud shoes of birch bark her spear and her throwing stick and her lunch basket were all in their proper places and then she slipped off her taboo necklace quite quickly and hung it over the handle of the little wooden water bucket that she used to draw water with then her mummy said to Tegwami her daddy quite accidental won't you get us some fresh drinking water for dinner certainly said Tegwami and he jumped up and lifted Taffy's bucket with the taboo necklace on it next minute he fell down flat on the floor and shouted then curled himself up and rolled round the cave then he stood up and flopped several times my dear said Teshami to Windrow it looks to me as if you had rather broken somebody's taboo somehow does it hurt horribly said Tegwami then he took three sorrowful steps and put his head on one side and shouted I broke taboo I broke taboo I broke taboo I broke taboo Taffy dear that must be your taboo said Teshami to Windrow you better pull his hair three times or he will have to go on shouting till evening and you know what daddy is like once he begins Tegwami stooped down and Taffy pulled his hair three times and he wiped his face and said my tribal word that's a dreadful strong taboo of yours Taffy where did you get it from a chief gave it to me he told me you'd have cramps and flops if you broke it said Taffy he was quite right but he didn't tell you anything about signed taboos did he no said Taffy he said that if I showed you I had a real taboo of my own you'd most likely put some real taboos on me quite right my only daughter dear Tegwami I'll give you some taboos that will simply amaze you stinging nettle taboos signed taboos, black and white taboos dozens of taboos now attend to me do you know what this means Tegwami skiffled his forefinger in the air snakey fashion that's taboo one wriggling when you're eating your dinner it is an important taboo and if you break it you'll have cramps the same as I did or else I'll have to tattoo you all over Taffy said quite still and then Tegwami held up his right hand in front of him the fingers close together that's the still taboo Taffy whenever I do that you must stop as you are whatever you're doing if you're sewing you must stop with the needle halfway through the deer skin if you're walking you stop on one foot if you're climbing you stop on one branch you don't move again until you see me go like this Tegwami put up his right hand and waved it in front of his face two or three times that's the sign for carry on you can go on with whatever you're doing when you see me make that are there any necklaces for that taboo? said Taffy yes there's a red and black necklace of course but how can I come tramping through the fern to give you a still taboo necklace every time I see a deer or a rabbit and want you to be quiet? said Tegwami I thought you were a better hunter than that why? I might have to shoot an arrow over your head the minute after I had put a still taboo on you but how would I know what you were shooting at? said Taffy watch my hand said Tegwami you know the three little jumps a deer gives before he starts to run off like this he looped his forefinger three times in the air and Taffy nodded to that you'll know we found a deer a little jiggle of the forefinger means a rabbit yes rabbits run like that said Taffy and jiggled her forefinger the same way squirrels a long climby up twist in the air like this same as squirrels kinking round trees I see said Taffy otters a long smooth straight wave in the air like this same as otters swimming in a pool I see said Taffy and beavers just as if I was smacking somebody with my open hand same as beavers tails smacking on the water when they're frightened I see those aren't taboos they're just signs to show you what I'm hunting the still taboo is the thing you must watch because it's a big taboo I can put the still taboo on too said Teshemite a windroke who was sewing deer skins together I can put it on you Taffy when you get too rowdy in the bed what happens if I break it said Taffy you can't break a taboo except by accident but suppose I did said Taffy you'd lose your own taboo necklace you'd have to take it back to the head chief and you'd just be called Taffy again and not daughter of Tegumai or perhaps we'd change your name to Tabumai Scalumsuli the bad thing who can't keep a taboo very likely you wouldn't be kissed for a day and night um said Taffy I don't think taboos are fun at all well take your taboo necklace back to the head chief and say you want to be a kitty again oh only daughter of Tegumai no tell me more about taboos can't I have some more of my own my very own strong taboos that give people tribal fits no you aren't old enough to be allowed to give people tribal fits that pink necklace will do quite well for you then tell me more about taboos said Taffy but I'm sleepy daughter dear I'll just put taboo on anyone talking to me till the sun gets behind that hill and we'll go out in the evening and see if we can catch rabbits ask mommy about the other taboos it's a great comfort that you're a taboo girl because now I shan't have to tell you anything more than once Taffy talked quietly to her mommy till the sun was in the right position then she waked Tegumai and they got all their hunting things ready and went out into the woods but just as she passed her little garden outside the cave Taffy took off her taboo necklace and hung it on a rose bush her garden border was only marked with white stones called the rose the real gate into it and all the tribe knew it who do you suppose you'll catch said Tegumai wait and see till we come back said Taffy the head chief said that anyone who breaks that taboo will have to stay in my garden till I let him out they went along through the woods and crossed the Wagai river on a fallen tree and they climbed up to the top of a big bear hill remember you're a taboo girl now said Tegumai when Taffy began to skitter about and ask questions instead of hunting for rabbits and he made the still taboo sign and Taffy stopped as if she had been turned into solid stone she was stooping to tie up a shoestring and she stayed still with her hand on the string we know that kind of taboo don't be best beloved only she looked hard at her daddy which you always must do when the still taboo is on presently when he had walked a long way off he turned around and made the carry on sign so she walked forward quietly through the bracken always looking at her daddy and a rabbit jumped up in front of her she was just going to throw her stick when she saw Tegumai make the still taboo sign and she stopped with her mouth half open with her throwing stick in her hand the rabbit ran towards Tegumai and Tegumai caught it then he came across the fern and kissed her and said that's what I call a superior girl-daughter it's some pleasure to hump with you now Taffy a little while afterwards a rabbit jumped up where Tegumai could not see it but Taffy could and she knew it was coming towards her if Tegumai did not frighten it so she held up her hand and he would know that she wasn't in fun and then she put the still taboo on her own daddy she did indeed she did best beloved Tegumai stopped with one foot half lifted to climb over an old tree trunk the rabbit ran past Taffy and Taffy killed it with her throwing stick but she was so excited that she forgot to take off the still taboo for quite two minutes and all that time Tegumai stood on one leg not daring to put his other foot down then he came and kissed her and threw her up in the air and put her on his shoulder and danced and said my tribal word and testimony this is what I call having a daughter that is a daughter a only daughter of Tegumai and Taffy was most tremendously and wonder hugely pleased it was almost dark when they went home they had five rabbits and two squirrels as well as a water rat Taffy wanted the water rat skin for a shell purse people had to kill water rats in those days because they couldn't buy purses but we know that water rats are just as much taboo these particular days for you and me as anything else that is alive I think I've kept you out a little too late said Tegumai when they were near home and mummy won't be pleased with us run home Taffy you can see the k-fire from here Taffy ran along and that very minute Tegumai heard something crackle in the bushes and a big lean grey wolf jumped out and began to trot quietly after Taffy now all the Tegumai people hated wolves and killed them whenever they could and Tegumai had never seen one so close to his cave before he hurried after Taffy but the wolf heard him and jumped back into the bushes those wolves were afraid of grown-ups but they used to try to catch the children of the tribe Taffy was swinging the water rat and singing to herself her daddy had taken off all taboos so she didn't notice anything there was a little meadow close to the cave and by the mouth of the cave Taffy saw a tall man standing in her rose garden but it was too dark to make out properly I do believe my taboo necklace has truly caught somebody she said and she was still running up to look when she heard her daddy say still Taffy still taboo till I take it off she stopped where she was the water rat in one hand and the throwing stick in the other only turning her head towards her daddy to be ready for the carry on sign it was the longest still taboo she had had put on her all that day Taffy had stepped back close to the wood and was holding his stone throwing hatchet in one hand and with the other he was making the still taboo sign then she thought she saw something black creeping sideways at her across the grass it came nearer and nearer then it moved back a little and then it crawled closer then she heard her daddy's stone throwing hatchet were past her shoulder just like a partridge and at the same time another hatchet whirled out from the rose garden and there was a howl and a big grey wolf lay kicking on the grass quite dead then Taffy picked her up and kissed her seven times my tribal word and testimony Taffy but you are a daughter to be proud of did you know what it was I'm not sure I said Taffy but I think I guessed it was a wolf I knew you wouldn't let it hurt me good girl, said Tegelma and he stooped over the wolf and picked up both hatchets why? here's the head chief's hatchet he said and he held up the head chief's magic throwing hatchet with the big green stone head yes said the head chief from inside Taffy's rose garden and I'd be very much obliged if you would bring it back to me I came to call on you this afternoon and accidentally I stepped into Taffy's garden before I saw her taboo necklace on the rose tree so of course I had to wait till Taffy came back to let me out then the head chief all in his feathers and shells took the three sorrowful steps with his head on one side and said I broke taboo I broke taboo I broke taboo and bowed solemnly and statelyly before Taffy till his tall eagle feathers nearly touched the ground and he said and sang oh daughter of Tegelmae I saw everything that happened you are a true taboo girl I am very pleased at you at first I wasn't pleased because I had to wait in your garden since six o'clock and I know you only put taboo on your garden for fun no, not fun said Taffy I truly wanted to see if my taboo would catch anybody but I didn't know that a little taboo like mine would work on a big head chief like you oh head chief I told you it worked I gave it to you myself said the head chief of course it would work but I don't mind I want to tell you Taffy my dear that I wouldn't have minded staying in your garden from twelve o'clock instead of only six o'clock luckily you kept that last still taboo that your daddy put on you I give you my chiefly word Taffy, that a great many men in the tribe wouldn't have kept that taboo as you kept it with that wolf crawling up to you across the grass what are you going to do with the wolf skin oh head chief said Tegelmae because any animal that the head chief threw his hatchet at belonged to the head chief by the tribal custom of Tegelmae I'm going to give it to Taffy of course I'll make her a magic necklace of her very own out of the teeth and claws said the head chief and I'm going to have the story of Taffy and the still taboo painted on wood on the tribal taboo count so that all the girl daughters of the tribe can see and know and remember and understand then all three went into the cave and Tegelmae to Windrow gave them a most beautiful supper and the head chief took off his eagle head feathers and all his necklaces and when it was time for Taffy to go to bed in her own little cave Tegelmae and the head chief came in to say good night and they romped all round the cave and dragged Taffy over the floor on a deer skin same as some people are dragged about on a hearthrug and they finished by throwing the otterskin cushions about and knocking down a lot of old spears and fishing rods that were hung on the walls at last things grew so rowdy that Tessha might of Windrow came in and said STILL still taboo on every one of you how do you expect that child to go to sleep and they said the really good night and Taffy went to sleep after that what happened oh Taffy learned all the taboos just like some people we know she learned the white shark taboo which made her eat up her dinner instead of playing with it and that goes with the green and white necklace you know she learned the grown up taboo which prevented her from talking when Neolithic ladies came to call and you know a blue and white necklace goes with that she learned the owl taboo which prevented her staring at strangers and a black and blue necklace goes with that she learned the open hand taboo and we know a white necklace goes with that which prevented her snapping and snarling when people borrowed things that belonged to her and she learned five other taboos but the chief thing she learned and the one that she never broke not even by accident was the still taboo that was why she was taken everywhere that her daddy went pictures described by the author one this is a picture of the tribal totem pole which was put up on the banks of the Waggai river that fat thing at the top is the tribal beaver of the tribe of Tegwami it is carved from limewood and though you can't see the nails it is nailed onto the rest of the pole which is all in one piece below the beaver are four birds two ducks one of them looking at an egg a sparrow bird and a bird whose name I don't know below them is a rabbit below the rabbit is a weasel below the weasel a fox or dog I'm not quite sure which and below the dog two fishes on the other side of the pole is an otter a badger a bison and a wild horse the rope that steadies the pole is looped round next to the fishes this shows that the taboo is a fish taboo if the head chief wanted to taboo the tribe killing rabbits or duck he would have put the rope next to the rabbit or the duck carving and so on with the other animals and birds the two black figures below the rope are meant for the bad man who didn't keep taboo and so grew all knobbly and uncomfy and the good man who kept taboo and grew fat and round they are painted on the pole with a paint made from oak-apples and pounded up pieces of iron at the very bottom of the pole but there was not room to put it in the picture are six copper rings to show that the taboo was to last for six months you will see that there is nobody at all in the woods and hills behind that is because the taboo is a strong taboo and nobody would break it two this is the picture that the head chief made of taffy keeping the still taboo it is done in the head chiefly style of the tribe of tegomai and it is full of taboo meanings and signs the wolf is lying under what is meant to be a taboo tree he is made squarely because that was the head chiefly way of drawing all that wavy curly stuff underneath him is the taboo way of drawing grass and below the grass is a thing like a piece of stone wall which is the taboo way of drawing earth taffy is always drawn an outline, quite white you will see her over to the right keeping the still taboo very hard I do not know why they did not draw the water rat that she was carrying but I think it was because it wouldn't look pretty in the picture tegomai is standing over at the left throwing his hatchet at the wolf he is dressed in a cloak embroidered with the sacred beaver of the tribe all turned into a pattern to show that he belonged to the tribe of tegomai he has a quiver with two arrows and a bow stuck into it he is hunting he is making the still taboo sign with his left hand up above in the right hand corner you will see the head chief standing in taffy's garden throwing his axe at the wolf it is not a portrait of the head chief but a sort of picture writing of all the head chief there was the square cap and the feathers behind show that it is a head chief and the sacred beaver drawn on the edge of his cloak he is the head chief of the tegomai's there is no face because the face of a head chief does not matter the double headed beaver right in the middle of taffy's garden shows that there is a taboo on the garden which is why the head chief couldn't get out the black door on the left is supposed to be the door into taffy's cave and those step things behind are hills and rocks drawn in the taboo way the curly things under the eight roses in pots are the taboo way of drawing short grass and turf this is a picture that really ought to be coloured because half the meaning is lost without the colours end of taboo tale by Rajad Kipling read by Tim Bulkley of bigbible.org