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And the little girl-daughter said, ‘This is a good nut that I am eating. If you choose, I will make a Magic and I will give you this pair of scissors, very sharp and strong, so that you and your children can eat cocoa-nuts like this all day long when you come up from the sea to the land. |
This is from ”The Crab that Played with the Sea”, in the Just So Stories. It tells how Pau Amma the crab is made to behave himself in the Very Beginning by being made very small, with a hard shell that falls off once a year. But he is also given sharp little nippers to help him dig holes and protect himself. |
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He asked his tall aunt, the Ostrich, why her tail-feathers grew just so, and his tall aunt the Ostrich spanked him with her hard, hard claw. He asked his tall uncle, the Giraffe, what made his skin spotty, and his tall uncle, the Giraffe, spanked him with his hard, hard hoof. And still he was full of ‘satiable curtiosity! |
This is from “The Elephant’s Child” in the Just So Stories. He goes to the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, to find out what the Crocodile has for dinner. After nearly perishing he comes home with a new trunk, and does some spanking on his own account. |
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He was grey and he was woolly, and his pride was inordinate: he danced on an outcrop in the middle of Australia, and he went to the Little God Nqa. He went to Nqa at six before breakfast, saying, ‘Make me different from all other animals by five this afternoon.’ |
This is from “The Sing -Song of Old Man Kangaroo” in the Just So Stories. It tells how Kangaroo got his long jumping legs after being chased all over Australia by Yellow Dog Dingo. To escape he had learned to jump like no other animal. |
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