The Elephant's Child

"The Elephant's Child" is a charming children's story by Rudyard Kipling, part of his "Just So Stories." It tells the tale of a curious young elephant who, driven by an insatiable desire to understand the world around him, embarks on an adventure that leads him to ask numerous questions. His relentless inquiries irritate the other animals, prompting them to tease him. Eventually, his quest for knowledge leads to a fateful encounter with a crocodile, resulting in a transformative experience that explains how elephants came to have their distinctive long trunks. Through whimsical narration and imaginative storytelling, Kipling explores themes of curiosity, identity, and the beauty of learning.

• Children

								
IN the High and Far-Off Times the Elephant, O 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 up things
with it. But there was one Elephant--a new Elephant--an Elephant's
Child--who was full of 'satiable curtiosity, and that means he asked
ever so many questions. And he lived in Africa, and he filled all Africa
with his 'satiable curtiosities. 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! 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 curtiosity! 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 curtiosity!

One fine morning in the middle of the Precession 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 dretful tone, and they spanked him
immediately and directly, without stopping, for a long time.

By and by, when that was finished, he came upon Kolokolo Bird sitting
in the middle of a wait-a-bit thorn-bush, and he said, 'My father has
spanked me, and my mother has spanked me; all my aunts and uncles have
spanked me for my 'satiable curtiosity; and still I want to know what
the Crocodile has for dinner!'

Then Kolokolo Bird said, with a mournful cry, 'Go to the banks of the
great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees,
and find out.'

That very next morning, when there was nothing left of the Equinoxes,
because the Precession had preceded according to precedent, this
'satiable Elephant's Child took a hundred pounds of bananas (the little
short red kind), and a hundred pounds of sugar-cane (the long purple
kind), and seventeen melons (the greeny-crackly kind), and said to all
his dear families, 'Goodbye. I am going to the great grey-green, greasy
Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, to find out what the
Crocodile has for dinner.' And they all spanked him once more for luck,
though he asked them most politely to stop.

Then he went away, a little warm, but not at all astonished, eating
melons, and throwing the rind about, because he could not pick it up.

He went from Graham's Town to Kimberley, and from Kimberley to Khama's
Country, and from Khama's Country he went east by north, eating melons
all the time, till at last he came to the banks of the great grey-green,
greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees, precisely as
Kolokolo Bird had said.

Now you must know and understand, O 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 was like. It was all
his 'satiable curtiosity.

The first thing that he found was a Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake curled
round a rock.

''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child most politely, 'but have you seen
such a thing as a Crocodile in these promiscuous parts?'

'Have I seen a Crocodile?' said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake, in a
voice of dretful scorn. 'What will you ask me next?'

''Scuse me,' said the Elephant's Child, 'but could you kindly tell me
what he has for dinner?'

Then the Bi-Coloured-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 curtiosity--and I suppose this is the same thing.

So he said good-bye very politely to the Bi-Coloured-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 grey-green, greasy Limpopo
River, all set about with fever-trees.

But it was really the Crocodile, O Best Beloved, and the Crocodile
winked one eye--like this!

''Scuse 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?'

''Scuse 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 Bi-Coloured-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
any more.'

'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 on the bank and said, 'You are the very person I have 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 Elephant'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 to-day I will begin with Elephant's Child!'

At this, O Best Beloved, the Elephant's Child was much annoyed, and he
said, speaking through his nose, like this, 'Led go! You are hurtig be!'

Then the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake scuffled down from 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-pattern 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 Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snakes always talk.

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