The Elephant's Child

Tonight, I am reading The Elephant's Child. 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. Enjoy this bedtime tale!

Transcript

The Elephant's Child by Rudyard Kipling In the high and far-off times,

The elephant,

Oh,

Best beloved,

Had no trunk.

He had only a blackish,

Bulgy nose,

As big as a boot,

That he could wriggle about from side to side,

But he couldn't pick things up with it.

But there was one elephant,

A new elephant,

An elephant's child,

Who was full of satiable curiosity,

And that means he asked ever so many questions.

And he lived in Africa,

And he filled all Africa with his satiable curiosities.

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 curiosity.

He asked his broad aunt,

The hippopotamus,

Why her eyes were red,

And his broad aunt,

The hippopotamus,

Spanked him with her broad,

Broad hoof.

And he asked his hairy uncle,

The baboon,

Why melons tasted just so,

And his hairy uncle,

The baboon,

Spanked him with his hairy,

Hairy paw,

And still he was full of satiable curiosity.

He asked questions about everything that he saw,

Or heard,

Or felt,

Or smelt,

Or touched,

And all his uncles and his aunts spanked him,

And still he was full of satiable curiosity.

One fine morning in the middle of the procession of the equinoxes,

This satiable elephant's child asked a new fine question that he had never asked before.

He asked,

What does the crocodile have for dinner?

Then everybody said,

Hush,

In a loud and dreadful tone,

Bye and bye.

He came upon a kolokolo bird sitting in the middle of a weight-a-bit thornbrush,

And he said,

I still want to know what the crocodile has for dinner.

The kolokolo bird said with a mournful cry,

Go to the banks of the great,

Gray-green,

Greasy Limpopo River,

All set about with fever trees,

And find out.

The very next morning,

When there was nothing left of the equinoxes,

Because the procession had proceeded according to precedent,

This satiable elephant's child took a hundred pounds of bananas,

The little short red kind,

And a hundred pounds of cane sugar,

The long purple kind,

And seventeen melons,

The greeny crackly kind,

And said to his dear families,

Goodbye,

I am going to the great,

Gray-green,

Greasy Limpopo River,

All set about with fever trees,

To find out what the crocodile has for dinner.

Then he went away,

A little warm,

But not at all astonished,

Eating melons.

Throwing the rind about,

Because he could not pick it up,

He went from Gramstown to Kimberley,

And from Kimberley to Karmastown,

And from Karmastown he went east by north,

Eating melons all the time,

Till at last he came to the banks of the great,

Gray-green,

Greasy Limpopo River,

All set about with fever trees,

Precisely as the kolokolo bird had said.

Now you must know and understand,

Oh best beloved,

That till that very week,

And day,

And hour,

And minute,

This satiable elephant's child had never seen a crocodile,

And did not know what one looked like.

It was all his satiable curiosity.

The first thing he found was a bicolored python rock snake curled around a rock.

Excuse me,

Said the elephant's child,

Most politely,

But have you seen a thing such as a crocodile and these promiscuous parts?

Have I seen a crocodile,

Said the bicolored python rock snake,

In a voice of dreadful scorn?

What will you ask me next?

Excuse me,

Said the elephant's child,

But could you kindly tell me what he has for dinner?

Then the bicolored python rock snake,

Uncoiled himself very quickly from the rock,

And spanked the elephant's child with his scalesome,

Flailsome tail.

That is odd,

Said the elephant's child,

Because my father,

And my mother,

And my uncle,

And my aunt,

Not to mention my other aunt,

The hippopotamus,

And my other uncle,

The baboon,

Have all spanked me for my satiable curiosity,

And I suppose this is the same thing.

So he said goodbye very politely to the bicolored python rock snake,

And helped to coil him up on the rock again,

And went on,

A little warm,

But not at all astonished,

Eating melons and throwing the rind about,

Because he could not pick it up,

Till he trod on what he thought was a log of wood at the very edge of the great gray-green,

Greasy Limpopo River,

All set about with fever trees.

But it was really a crocodile,

Oh,

Best beloved,

And the crocodile winked one eye,

Like this.

Excuse me,

Said the elephant's child,

Most politely,

But do you happen to have seen a crocodile in these promiscuous parts?

Then the crocodile winked the other eye,

And lifted half his tail out of the mud,

And the elephant's child stepped back,

Most politely,

Because he did not wish to be spanked again.

Come hither,

Little one,

Said the crocodile,

Why do you ask such things?

Excuse me,

Said the elephant's child,

Most politely,

But my father has spanked me,

My mother has spanked me,

Not to mention my tall aunt,

The ostrich,

And my tall uncle,

The giraffe,

Who can kick ever so hard,

As well as my broad aunt,

The hippopotamus,

And my hairy uncle,

The baboon,

And including the bicolored python rock snake,

With the scalesome,

Flailsome tail,

Just up the bank,

Who spanks harder than any of them.

And so,

If it's quite all the same to you,

I don't want to be spanked anymore.

Come hither,

Little one,

Said the crocodile,

For I am the crocodile,

And he wept crocodile tears to show it was quite true.

Then the elephant's child grew all breathless and panted and kneeled down the bank and said,

You are the very person I've been looking for all these long days.

Will you please tell me what you have for dinner?

Come hither,

Little one,

Said the crocodile,

And I'll whisper.

Then the crocodile's child put his head down close to the crocodile's musky,

Tusky mouth,

And the crocodile caught him by his little nose,

Which up to that very week,

Day,

Hour,

And minute had been no bigger than a boot,

Though much more useful.

I think,

Said the crocodile,

And he said it between his teeth like this,

I think today I will begin with the elephant's child.

At this,

Oh best beloved,

The elephant's child was much annoyed,

And he said,

Speaking through his nose like this,

Let go,

You're hurting me.

Then the bicolored python rock snake scuffled down the bank and said,

My young friend,

If you do not now immediately and instantly pull as hard as ever you can,

It is my opinion that your acquaintance in the large patterned leather ulster,

And by this he meant the crocodile,

Will jerk you into yonder limpid stream before you can say,

Jack Robinson.

This is the way bicolored python rock snakes always talk.

Then the elephant's child sat back on his little haunches and pulled and pulled and pulled,

And his nose began to stretch,

And the crocodile floundered into the water,

Making it all creamy with great sweeps of his tail,

And he pulled and pulled and pulled,

And the elephant's child's nose kept on stretching,

And the elephant's child spread all his little four legs and pulled and pulled and pulled,

And his nose kept on stretching,

And the crocodile thrust his tail like an oar,

And he pulled and pulled and pulled,

And at each pull the elephant's child's nose grew larger and longer.

Then the elephant's child felt his legs slipping,

And he said through his nose,

Which was now nearly five feet long,

This is too much for me.

Then the bicolored python rock snake came down from the bank and knotted himself in a double clove hitch around the elephant's child's hind legs and says,

Rash and inexperienced traveler,

We will now seriously devote ourselves to a little high tension,

Because if we do not,

It is my impression that yonder self-propelling man of war with the armor-plated upper deck,

And by this,

Oh best beloved,

He meant the crocodile,

Will permanently vitiate your future career.

That is the way all bicolored python rock snakes always talk.

So he pulled,

And the elephant's child pulled,

And the crocodile pulled,

But the elephant's child and the bicolored python rock snake pulled hardest,

And at last the crocodile let go of the elephant's child's nose with a plop that you could hear all up and down the limpopo.

Then the elephant's child sat down,

Most hard and sudden,

But first he was careful to say thank you to the bicolored python rock snake,

And next he was kind to his poor pulled nose,

And wrapped it up in cool banana leaves,

And hung it in the great gray-green greasy limpopo to cool.

What are you doing that for,

Said the bicolored python rock snake.

Excuse me,

Said the elephant's child,

But my nose is badly out of shape,

And I'm waiting for it to shrink.

Then you will have to wait a long time,

Said the bicolored python rock snake.

Some people do not know what is good for them.

The elephant's child sat there for three days waiting for his nose to shrink,

But it never grew any shorter,

For,

Oh best beloved,

You will see and understand that the crocodile had pulled it into a really truly trunk,

Same as all elephants have today.

At the end of the third day,

A fly came and stung him on the shoulder,

And before he knew what he was doing,

He lifted up his trunk and hit that fly dead with the end of it.

Vantage number one,

Said bicolored python rock snake.

You couldn't have done that with the mere shmear nose.

Try and eat a little now.

Before he thought what he was doing,

The elephant's child put out his trunk and plucked a large bundle of grass,

Dusted it clean against his forelegs,

And stuffed it into his own mouth.

Vantage number two,

Said bicolored python rock snake.

You couldn't have done that with the mere shmear nose.

Don't you think the sun is very hot here?

It is,

Said the elephant's child,

And before he thought about what he was doing,

He slooped up a sloop of mud from the banks of the great gray-green greasy Limpopo and slapped it on his head,

Where it made a cool sloopy sloshy mud cap all trickly behind his ears.

Vantage number three,

Said the bicolored python rock snake.

You couldn't have done that with the mere shmear nose.

Now how do you feel about being spanked again?

Excuse me,

Said the elephant's child,

But I should not like it at all.

How would you like to spank somebody,

Said the bicolored python rock snake.

I should like it very much indeed,

Said the elephant's child.

Well,

Said the bicolored python rock snake,

You will find that new nose of yours very useful to spank people with.

Thank you,

Said the elephant's child.

I'll remember that,

And now I think I'll go home to all my dear families and try.

So the elephant's child went home across Africa frisking and whisking his drunk.

When he wanted fruit to eat,

He pulled down fruit from a tree instead of waiting for it fall as he used to.

When he wanted grass,

He plucked grass up from the ground instead of going on his knees as he used to.

When the flies bit him,

He broke off the branch of the tree and used it as a fly whisk,

And he made himself a new cool slushy squishy mud cap whenever the sun was hot.

When he felt lonely walking through Africa,

He sang to himself down his trunk,

And the noise was louder than several brass bands.

He went especially out of his way to find a broad hippopotamus.

She was of no relation to his,

And he spanked her to make sure that the bicolored python rock snake had spoken the truth about his new trunk.

The rest of the time he picked up the melon rinds that he had dropped on his way to Limpopo,

For he was a tidy pachyderm.

One dark evening he came back to all his dear families,

And he coiled up his trunk and said,

How do you do?

They were very glad to see him and immediately said,

Come here and be spanked for your satiable curiosity.

Poo,

Said the elephant's child.

I don't think you peoples know anything about spanking,

But I do,

And I'll show you.

Then he uncurled his trunk and knocked two of his dear brothers head over heels.

Oh,

Bananas,

Said they,

Where did you learn that trick,

And what have you done to your nose?

I got a new one from the crocodile on the banks of the great,

Gray-green,

Greasy Limpopo river,

Said the elephant's child.

I asked him what he had for dinner,

And he gave me this to keep.

It looks very ugly,

Said the hairy uncle the baboon.

It does,

Said the elephant's child,

But it's very useful,

And he picked up his hairy uncle the baboon by one hairy leg and hove him into the hornet's nest.

Then the bad elephant's child spanked all his dear families for a long time till they were very warm and greatly astonished.

He pulled out his tall ostrich ant's tail feathers,

And he caught his tall uncle the giraffe by the hind leg and dragged him through a thorn bush,

And he shouted at his broad aunt the hippopotamus and blew bubbles into her ear when she was sleeping in the water after meals,

But he never let anyone touch Kolokolu bird.

At last,

Things grew so exciting that his dear families went off one by one in a hurry to the banks of the great,

Gray-green,

Greasy Limpopo river,

All set about with fever trees to borrow new noses from the crocodile.

When they came back,

Nobody spanked anybody anymore,

And ever since that day,

Oh best beloved,

All the elephants you will ever see,

Besides all those that you won't,

Have trunks precisely like the trunk of the satiable elephant's child.

I keep six honest serving men.

They taught me all I knew.

Their names are what and where and when and how and why and who.

I send them over land and sea.

I send them east and west,

But after they have worked for me,

I give them all a rest.

I let them rest from nine till five,

For I am busy then,

As well as breakfast,

Lunch,

And tea,

For they are hungry men.

But different folk have different views.

I know a person small.

She keeps ten million serving men,

Who get no rest at all.

She sends them abroad on her own affairs.

From the second she opens her eyes,

One million hows,

Two million wheres,

And seven million whys.

And that is the end of our story this evening.

Until next time,

Sweet dreams.