Elephant  

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This tale was told to me by an auntie of mine. It was a long time later before I learned that a very famous writer, Rudyard Kipling wrote and published this story in 1900. Nearly 100 years ago!

The Elephant’s Child. In Africa, when elephants first walked the earth, the elephants had no trunks. That is to say that they had noses but they were short stubby ones, like ours. This is a story of how they came to have their trunks that they are so famous for now. In the jungle forest lived a little elephant child who was filled with insatiable curiosity. He would pester his aunties and uncles with his insatiable curiosity. Why does uncle giraffe have spots? Why does auntie ostrich have such tail feathers? Why does auntie hippopotamus have red eyes? Why does uncle baboon have such a hairy body? And on and on. Truly the little elephant child had insatiable curiosity! His uncles and aunties would try as they might to be patient but eventually they would swat him and chase him away. One day the elephant child asked a new question that he had not asked before. He asked, "What does the Crocodile have for dinner?" At this all of his relatives told him to be quiet and swatted him quite earnestly! You would have thought that the little elephant child had had enough of that! But right afterwards, a little distant from his relatives, he happened upon a Kolokolo Bird. When he asked the Kolokolo bird, "What does the Crocodile have for dinner?" the Kolokolo Bird replied," Go to the banks of the great grey-green greasy Limpopo River and you’ll find out!" Well our little elephant child certainly had insatiable curiosity, cause that’s just what he did! When he got to the banks of the great grey-green greasy Limpopo River he asked a strange looking log thing that was floating in the water,"Excuse me, but have you seen a Crocodile?" The strange looking log thing said, "Come a little closer, elephant child. Why do you want to know?" The elephant child came a little closer and said," I want to ask the Crocodile a question." The Crocodile replied,"Come a little more closer elephant child for I am the Crocodile," and wept his Crocodile tears to show that this was true. At this, the elephant child came a little closer and exclaimed, "Why you are just the person I wished to see! Will you please tell me what you have for dinner?" The Crocodile said sweetly,"Come a little closer elephant child and I shall whisper in your ear." The little elephant child put his head down close to the Crocodile’s mouth. The Crocodile said, " I think today I will begin with Elephant’s Child!" and the Crocodile caught ahold of the little elephant child’s nose. Well, elephant’s child might have insatiable curiousity but he was not all that willing to find out how it would be to be Crocodile’s dinner! He pulled back with all his strength, but the Crocodile pulled with all of his. Well, elephant child was a lucky child indeed. For one of his relatives, Auntie python was close by and grabbed ahold of elephant child’s tail so that at long last the Crocodile gave up and let go of the elephant child’s nose. But a curious thing had happened. The elephant child’s nose was all swollen and stretched out and despite soaking it in water and mud it never did shrink. And as for what the Crocodile eats for dinner…well, go to the banks of the great grey-green greasy Limpopo River and you’ll find out!