Just So Stories quotes

“No,” said the Whale. “What is it like?”

“Nice,” said the small ’Stute Fish. “Nice but nubbly.”

“Then fetch me some,” said the Whale, and he made the sea froth up with his tail.

“Very good,” said the Djinn. “

I’ll humph him if you will kindly wait a minute.

”

In those days the Rhinoceros’s skin fitted him quite tight. There were no wrinkles in it anywhere. He looked exactly like a Noah’s Ark Rhinoceros, but of course much bigger.

All the same, he had no manners then, and he has no manners now, and he never will have any manners.

He said, “How!” and the Parsee left that cake and climbed to the top of a palm tree with nothing on but his hat, from which the rays of the sun were always reflected in more-than-oriental splendour.

And the Rhinoceros did.

He buttoned it up with the three buttons, and it tickled like cake-crumbs in bed.

Then he wanted to scratch, but that made it worse; and then he lay down on the sands and rolled and rolled and rolled, and every time he rolled the cake-crumbs tickled him worse and worse and worse.

“Umm,” 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.

”

“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.

”

You can lie out on a leafy branch and look like sunshine sifting through the leaves; and you can lie right across the centre of a path and look like nothing in particular.

Think of that and purr!

”

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.

“Then you will have to wait a long time,” said the Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake. “

Some people do not know what is good for them.

”

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 curtiosity.”

“Pooh,” 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.

Not always was the Kangaroo as now we do behold him, but a Different Animal with four short legs.

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.

Still ran Dingo—Yellow-Dog Dingo—very much bewildered, very much hungry, and wondering what in the world or out of it made Old Man Kangaroo hop.

For he hopped like a cricket; like a pea in a saucepan; or a new rubber ball on a nursery floor.

He tucked up his front legs; he hopped on his hind legs; he stuck out his tail for a balance-weight behind him; and he hopped through the Darling Downs.

“Yes,” said Kangaroo. “I wish that I hadn’t.

I thought you would do it by charms and incantations, but this is a practical joke.

”

… was a Tortoise, and I didn’t believe him, and it was quite true, and he has dived under the turbid Amazon, and he won’t come up again, and I haven’t anything at all to eat, and I think we had better find lodgings somewhere else.

They are too clever on the turbid Amazon for poor me!

”

Then they adopted the Stranger-man (a genuine Tewara of Tewar) into the Tribe of Tegumai, because he was a gentleman and did not make a fuss about the mud that the Neolithic ladies had put into his hair.

But from that day to this (and I suppose it is all Taffy’s fault), very few little girls have ever liked learning to read or write.

Most of them prefer to draw pictures and play about with their Daddies—just like Taffy.

And the Eldest Magician said, “

How wise are little children who see and are silent!

What was the beast like?”

Then Pau Amma, deep down below, laughed and said, “

I did not know I was so important.

Henceforward I will go out seven times a day, and the waters shall never be still.”

But once a year all Pau Ammas must shake off their hard armour and be soft—to remind them of what the Eldest Magician could do.

And so it isn’t fair to kill or hunt Pau Amma’s babies just because old Pau Amma was stupidly rude a very long time ago.

Oh yes! And Pau Amma’s babies hate being taken out of their little Pusat Taseks and brought home in pickle-bottles. That is why they nip you with their scissors, and it serves you right!

But the wildest of all the wild animals was the Cat.

He walked by himself, and all places were alike to him.

Of course the Man was wild too. He was dreadfully wild. He didn’t even begin to be tame till he met the Woman, and she told him that she did not like living in his wild ways.

But the wildest of all the wild animals was the Cat. He walked by himself, and all places were alike to him.

Of course the Man was wild too. He was dreadfully wild.

He didn’t even begin to be tame till he met the Woman, and she told him that she did not like living in his wild ways. She picked out a nice dry Cave, instead of a heap of wet leaves, to lie down in;

and she strewed clean sand on the floor; and she lit a nice fire of wood at the back of the Cave; and she hung a dried wild-horse skin, tail-down, across the opening of the Cave; and she said,

“Wipe your feet, dear, when you come in, and now we’ll keep house.”

That night, Best Beloved, they ate wild sheep roasted on the hot stones, and flavoured with wild garlic and wild pepper; and wild duck stuffed with wild rice and wild fenugreek and wild coriander; and marrowbones of wild oxen; and wild cherries, and wild grenadillas.

“Nenni!” said the Cat. “

I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all places are alike to me.

I will not come.”

“Ah!” said the Cat, listening.

“This is a very wise Woman, but she is not so wise as I am.”

Wild Dog crawled into the Cave and laid his head on the Woman’s lap, and said, “O my Friend and Wife of my Friend, I will help your Man to hunt through the day, and at night I will guard your Cave.”

Woman said, “

I knew I was wise, but I did not know I was beautiful.

So I will make a bargain with you. If ever I say one word in your praise you may come into the Cave.”

He married ever so many wives. He married nine hundred and ninety-nine wives, besides the Most Beautiful Balkis; and they all lived in a great golden palace in the middle of a lovely garden with fountains.

He didn’t really want nine-hundred and ninety-nine wives, but in those days everybody married ever so many wives, and of course the King had to marry ever so many more just to show that he was the King.

Some of the wives were nice, but some were simply horrid, and the horrid ones quarrelled with the nice ones and made them horrid too, and then they would all quarrel with Suleiman-bin-Daoud, and that was horrid for him.

He didn’t really want nine-hundred and ninety-nine wives, but in those days everybody married ever so many wives, and of course the King had to marry ever so many more just to show that he was the King.

Some of the wives were nice, but some were simply horrid, and the horrid ones quarrelled with the nice ones and made them horrid too, and then they would all quarrel with Suleiman-bin-Daoud, and that was horrid for him.

But Balkis the Most Beautiful never quarrelled with Suleiman-bin-Daoud. She loved him too much. She sat in her rooms in the Golden Palace, or walked in the Palace garden, and was truly sorry for him.

The Butterfly looked at Suleiman-bin-Daoud and saw the most wise King’s eye twinkle like stars on a frosty night, and he picked up his courage with both wings, and he put his head on one side and said, “O King, live for ever.

She is my wife; and you know what wives are like.

”