How The Leopard Got His Spots

Tonight, I am reading How the Leopard Got His Spots. This tall tale is from Rudyard Kipling's "Just So" stories. Allow this reading to help you relax and fall into a deep, restorative sleep. I hope you enjoy this story!

Transcript

How the Leopard Got His Spots by Rudyard Kipling In the days when everybody started fair,

Best beloved,

The leopard lived in a place called the High Veldt.

Remember,

It wasn't the Low Veldt or the Bush Veldt or the Sour Veldt,

But the exclusively bare,

Hot,

Shiny High Veldt,

Where they said was sand and sandy-colored rock and exclusively tufts of sandy,

Yellowish grass.

The giraffe and the zebra and the eland and the kudu and the hartebeest lived there,

And they were exclusively sandy-yellow-brownish all over.

But the leopard,

He was the exclusivest,

Sandiest,

Yellowish-brownish of them all.

A grayish-yellowish,

Catty-shaped kind of beast,

And he matched the exclusively yellowish-grayish-brownish color of the High Veldt to one hair.

This was very bad for the giraffe and the zebra and the rest of them,

For he would lie down by a clump of grass,

And when the giraffe or the zebra or the eland or the kudu or the bushbuck or the bontobuck came by,

He would surprise them out of one of their jumpsome lives.

He would indeed.

And also there was an Ethiopian with bows and arrows who lived in the High Veldt with the leopard,

And the two used to hunt together.

The Ethiopian with his bows and arrows and the leopard with his teeth and claws to the giraffe and the eland and the kudu and the quagga and the rest of them didn't know which way to jump,

Best beloved.

They didn't indeed.

After a long time,

Things lived forever so long in those days,

They learned to avoid anything that looked like a leopard or an Ethiopian.

And bit by bit,

The giraffe began it,

Because his legs were the longest.

They went away from the High Veldt.

They scuttled for days and days and days until they came to a great forest full of trees and bushes and stripy,

Speckly,

Patchy,

Blatchy shadows.

And there they hid.

And after another long time,

What withstanding half in the shade and half out of it,

And with their slippery,

Slidey shadows of the trees falling on them like bark on a tree trunk.

And so though you could hear them and smell them,

You could very seldom see them.

And then only when you knew precisely where to look.

They had a beautiful time in that shadow of the forest while the leopard and the Ethiopian ran over the High Veldt outside,

Wondering where all their breakfast and their dinners and their teas had gone.

Alas,

They were so hungry that they ate rats and beetles and rock rabbits.

The leopard and the Ethiopian.

And then they had big tummy aches,

Both together.

And then they met Bavian,

A dog-headed,

Barking baboon who is quite the wisest animal in all South Africa.

Said Leopard to Bavian,

And it was a very hot day,

Where has all the game gone?

And Bavian winked,

He knew.

Said the Ethiopian to Bavian,

Can you tell me the present habitat of the aboriginal fauna?

That meant just the same thing,

But Ethiopian always used long words.

He was a grown-up.

And Bavian winked and knew.

Then said Bavian,

The game has gone into other spots,

And my advice to you,

Leopard,

Is to go into other spots as soon as you can.

And the Ethiopian said,

That is all very fine,

But I wish to know whether the aboriginal fauna has migrated.

Then said Bavian,

The aboriginal fauna has joined the aboriginal flora because it was high time for a change.

And my advice to you,

Ethiopian,

Is to change as soon as you can.

That puzzled the Leopard and the Ethiopian,

But they set off to look for the aboriginal flora.

And presently,

After so many days,

They saw a great,

High,

Tall forest full of tree trunks,

All speckled and sprouted and spotted,

Dotted and splashed and slashed and hatched,

And cross-hatched with shadows.

Say that quickly aloud,

And you will see how very shadowy the forest must have been.

What is this?

Said the Leopard.

This is so exclusively dark and yet so full of little pieces of light.

I don't know,

Said the Ethiopian,

But it ought to be the aboriginal flora.

I can smell giraffe.

I can hear giraffe.

But I can't see giraffe.

That's curious,

Said the Leopard.

I suppose it's because we have just come out of the sunshine.

I can smell zebra and hear zebra,

But I can't see zebra.

Wait a bit,

Said the Ethiopian.

It's a long time since we've hunted them.

Perhaps we've forgotten what they look like.

Fiddle,

Said the Leopard.

I remember them perfectly on the high veld,

Especially their morrow bones.

Giraffe is about seventeen feet high,

Exclusively fulves,

Gold and yellow,

From head to heel.

And zebra is about four and a half feet high,

Exclusively gray fawn color from head to heel.

Hmm,

Said the Ethiopian,

Looking into the speckly,

Spickly shadows of the aboriginal flora forest.

Then they ought to show up in this dark place,

Like ripe bananas in a smokehouse.

But they didn't.

The Leopard and the Ethiopian hunted all day,

And though they could smell them and hear them,

They never saw one of them.

For goodness sake,

Said the Leopard at tea time,

Let us wait till it gets dark.

The daylight hunting is a perfect scandal.

So they waited till dark,

And then the Leopard heard something breathing sniffily in the starlight,

That felt all stripey through the branches,

And he jumped at the noise.

And it smelled like zebra,

And it felt like zebra,

And when he knocked it down,

It kicked like zebra,

But he couldn't see it.

So he said,

Be quiet,

Oh you person without any form.

I'm going to sit on you till morning,

Because there is something about you that I don't understand.

Presently he heard a grunt and a crash and a scramble,

And the Ethiopian called out,

I've caught a thing that I can't see.

It smells like giraffe,

And it kicks like giraffe,

But it hasn't any form.

Don't you trust it?

Said the Leopard.

Sit on it till the morning,

Same as me.

They haven't any form,

Any of them.

So they sat down on them till bright morning time,

And then Leopard said,

What have you at your end of the table,

Brother?

The Ethiopian scratched his head and said,

It ought to be exclusively a delicate grayish fawn,

And it ought to be zebra,

But it is covered all over with black and purple stripes.

What in the world have you been doing to yourself,

Zebra?

Don't you know that if you're on the high velt,

I could see you ten miles off?

You haven't any form.

Yes,

Said the Zebra,

But this isn't high velt.

Can't you see?

I can now,

Said the Leopard,

But I couldn't all yesterday.

How is it done?

Let us up,

Said the Zebra,

And we'll show you.

They let the Zebra and the Giraffe get up,

And Zebra moved away to some little thorn bushes where the sunlight fell all stripy,

And Giraffe moved off to some tallest trees where the shadows fell all blotchy.

Now watch,

Said the Zebra and the Giraffe.

This is the way it's done.

One,

Two,

Three.

And where's your breakfast?

Leopard stared,

And Ethiopian stared,

But all they could see were stripy shadows and blotched shadows in the forest,

But never a sign of Zebra or Giraffe.

They had just walked off and hidden themselves in the shadowy forest.

Hi,

Hi,

Said the Ethiopian.

That's a trick worth learning.

Take a lesson by it,

Leopard.

You show up in this dark place like a bar of soap in a coal scuttle.

Ho,

Ho,

Said the Leopard.

Would it surprise you very much to know that you show up in this dark place like a mustard plaster on a sack of coals?

Well,

Calling names won't catch dinner,

Said the Ethiopian.

The long and the little of it is that we don't match our backgrounds.

I'm going to take Bavian's advice.

He told me I ought to change,

And as I've nothing to change except my skin,

I'm going to change that.

What,

Too,

Said the Leopard,

Tremendously excited,

To a nice working blackish-brownish color with a little purple in it and touches of slatey blue.

It will be the very thing for hiding in hallows and behind trees.

So he changed his skin there,

And the Leopard was more excited than ever.

He had never seen a man change his skin before.

But what about me,

He said.

Then the Ethiopian had worked his last little finger into his new fine black skin.

You take Bavian's advice,

Too.

He told you to go into spots.

So I did,

Said the Leopard.

I went into other spots as fast as I could.

I went into this spot with you,

And a lot of good it's done me.

Oh,

Said the Ethiopian.

Bavian didn't mean spots in South Africa.

He meant spots on your skin.

What's the use of that,

Said the Leopard.

Think of giraffes,

Said the Ethiopian.

Or if you prefer stripes,

Think of zebra.

They find their spots in stripes,

Give them perfect satisfaction.

Hmm,

Said the Leopard.

I want to look like zebra.

Not forever so.

Well,

Make up your mind,

Said the Ethiopian,

Because I'd hate to go hunting without you.

But I must if you insist on looking like a sunflower against a tarred fence.

I'll take spots then,

Said the Leopard.

But don't make them too vulgar big.

I want to look like giraffe.

Not forever so.

I'll make them with the tips of my fingers,

Said the Ethiopian.

There's plenty of black left on my skin still.

Stand over.

Then the Ethiopian put his five fingers close together.

There was plenty of black left on his new skin.

And pressed them all over the Leopard.

And wherever the five fingers touched,

They left five little black marks all close together.

You can see them on any Leopard skins you like,

Best beloved.

Sometimes the fingers slipped and the marks get a little blurred.

But if you look closely at any Leopard now,

You'll see that there are always five spots off five fat black fingertips.

Now you're a beauty,

Said the Ethiopian.

You can lie out on the bare ground and look like a heap of pebbles.

You can lie out on the naked rocks and look like a piece of pudding stone.

You can lie on a leafy branch and look like sunshine sifting through the leaves.

And you can lie right across the center of a path and look like nothing in particular.

Think of that and purr.

So they went away and lived happily ever after,

Best beloved.

That is all.

And now when you hear grown-ups say,

Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots?

I don't think even grown-ups would keep on saying such a silly thing if the Leopard and the Ethiopian hadn't done it once,

Do you?

But they will never do it again,

Best beloved.

They are quite contented,

As they are.

I am the most wise Bavian,

Saying in most wise tones,

Let us melt into the landscape,

Just us two by our loans.

People have come in,

A carriage calling,

But mummy is there.

Yes,

I can go if you take me,

Nurse.

She says she doesn't care.

Let's go up to the pigsties and sit on the farmyard grails.

Let's say things to the bunnies and watch them skitter their tails.

Let's oh,

Anything,

Daddy,

So long as it's you and me.

And going truly exploring and not being in till tea.

Here's your boots,

I've brought them.

And here's your cap and stick.

And here's your pipe and tobacco.

Oh,

Come along out of it quick.

And that is the end of our story this evening.

Until next time,

Sweet dreams.