Beginning of the Armadilloes E-book

                                      1902

                      JUST SO STORIES FOR LITTLE CHILDREN

                        THE BEGINNING OF THE ARMADILLOES

                               by Rudyard Kipling






Electronically Enhanced Text (c) Copyright 1996, World Library(R)



                             THE BEGINNING OF THE ARMADILLOES
-
  ž€KIPL79.cifž€THIS, O Best Beloved, is another story of the High and Far-Off
Times. In the very middle of those times was a Stickly-Prickly
Hedgehog, and he lived on the banks of the turbid Amazon, eating
shelly snails and things. And he had a friend, a Slow-Solid
Tortoise, who lived on the banks of the turbid Amazon, eating green
lettuces and things. And so that was all right, Best Beloved. Do
you see?
  But also, and at the same time, in those High and Far-Off Times,
there was a Painted Jaguar, and he lived on the banks of the turbid
Amazon too; and he ate everything that he could catch. When he could
not catch deer or monkeys he would eat frogs and beetles; and when
he could not catch frogs and beetles he went to his Mother Jaguar, and
she told him how to eat hedgehogs and tortoises.
  She said to him ever so many times, graciously waving her tail,
'My son, when you find a Hedgehog you must drop him into the water and
then he will uncoil, and when you catch a Tortoise you must scoop
him out of his shell with your paw.' And so that was all right, Best
Beloved.
                                     
  One beautiful night on the banks of the turbid Amazon, Painted
Jaguar found Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog and Slow-Solid Tortoise
sitting under the trunk of a fallen tree. They could not run away, and
so Stickly-Prickly curled himself up into a ball, because he was a
Hedgehog, and Slow-Solid Tortoise drew in his head and feet into his
shell as far as they would go, because he was a Tortoise; and so
that was all right, Best Beloved. Do you see?
  'Now attend to me,' said Painted Jaguar, 'because this is very
important. My mother said that when I meet a Hedgehog I am to drop him
into the water and then he will uncoil, and when I meet a Tortoise I
am to scoop him out of his shell with my paw. Now which of you is
Hedgehog and which is Tortoise? because, to save my spots I can't
tell.'
  'Are you sure of what your Mummy told you?' said Stickly-Prickly
Hedgehog. 'Are you quite sure? Perhaps she said that when you
uncoil. a Tortoise you must shell him out of the water with a scoop,
and when you paw a Hedgehog you must drop him on the shell.'
  'Are you sure of what your Mummy told you?' said Slow-and-Solid
Tortoise. 'Are you quite sure? Perhaps she said that when you water
a Hedgehog you must drop him into your paw, and when you meet a
Tortoise you must shell him till he uncoils.'
  'I don't think it was at all like that,' said Painted Jaguar, but he
felt a little puzzled; 'but, please, say it again more distinctly.'
                                    
  'When you scoop water with your paw you uncoil it with a
Hedgehog,' said Stickly-Prickly. 'Remember that, because it's
important.'
  'But,' said the Tortoise, 'when you paw your meat you drop it into
a Tortoise with a scoop. Why can't you understand?'
  'You are making my spots ache,' said Painted Jaguar; 'and besides, I
didn't want your advice at all. I only wanted to know which of you
is Hedgehog and which is Tortoise.'
  'I shan't tell you,' said Stickly-Prickly. 'But you can scoop me out
of my shell if you like.'
  'Aha!' said Painted Jaguar. 'Now I know you're Tortoise. You thought
I wouldn't! Now I will.' Painted Jaguar darted out his paddy-paw
just as Stickly-Prickly curled himself up, and of course Jaguar's
paddy-paw was just filled with prickles. Worse than that, he knocked
Stickly-Prickly away and away into the woods and the bushes, where
it was too dark to find him. Then he put his paddy-paw into his mouth,
and of course the prickles hurt him worse than ever. As soon as he
could speak he said, 'Now I know he isn't Tortoise at all. But'- and
then he scratched his head with his un-prickly paw- 'how do I know
that this other is Tortoise?'
                                    
  'But I am Tortoise,' said Slow-and-Solid. 'Your mother was quite
right. She said that you were to scoop me out of my shell with your
paw. Begin.'
  'You didn't say she said that a minute ago,' said Painted Jaguar,
sucking the prickles out of his paddy-paw. 'You said she said
something quite different.'
  'Well, suppose you say that I said that she said something quite
different, I don't see that it makes any difference; because if she
said what you said I said she said, it's just the same as if I said
what she said she said. On the other hand, if you think she said
that you were to uncoil me with a scoop, instead of pawing me into
drops with a shell, I can't help that, can I?'
  'But you said you wanted to be scooped out of your shell with my
paw,' said Painted Jaguar.
  'If you'll think again you'll find that I didn't say anything of the
kind. I said that your mother said that you were to scoop me out of my
shell,' said Slow-and-Solid.
                                    
  'What will happen if I do?' said the Jaguar most sniffily and most
cautious.
  'I don't know, because I've never been scooped out of my shell
before; but I tell you truly, if you want to see me swim away you've
only got to drop me into the water.'
  'I don't believe it,' said Painted Jaguar. 'You've mixed up all
the things my mother told me to do with the things that you asked me
whether I was sure that she didn't say, till I don't know whether
I'm on my head or my painted tail; and now you come and tell me
something I can understand, and it makes me more mixy than before.
My mother told me that I was to drop one of you two into the water,
and as you seem so anxious to be dropped I think you don't want to
be dropped. So jump into the turbid Amazon and be quick about it.'
  'I warn you that your Mummy won't be pleased. Don't tell her I
didn't tell you,' said Slow-Solid.
  'If you say another word about what my mother said-' the Jaguar
answered, but he had not finished the sentence before Slow-and-Solid
quietly dived into the turbid Amazon, swam under water for a long way,
and came out on the bank where Stickly-Prickly was waiting for him.
                                    
  'That was a very narrow escape,' said Stickly-Prickly. 'I don't like
Painted Jaguar. What did you tell him that you were?'
  'I told him truthfully that I was a truthful Tortoise, but he
wouldn't believe it, and he made me jump into the river to see if I
was, and I was, and he is surprised. Now he's gone to tell his
Mummy. Listen to him!'
  They could hear Painted Jaguar roaring up and down among the trees
and the bushes by the side of the turbid Amazon, till his Mummy came.
  'Son, son!' said his mother ever so many times, graciously waving
her tail, 'what have you been doing that you shouldn't have done?'
  'I tried to scoop something that said it wanted to be scooped out of
its shell with my paw, and my paw is full of per-ickles,' said Painted
Jaguar.
                                    
  'Son, son!' said his mother ever so many times, graciously waving
her tail, 'by the prickles in your paddy-paw I see that that must have
been a Hedgehog. You should have dropped him into the water.'
  'I did that to the other thing; and he said he 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 some
where else. They are too clever on the turbid Amazon for poor me!'
  'Son, son!' said his mother ever so many times, graciously waving
her tail, 'now attend to me and remember what I say. A Hedgehog
curls himself up into a ball and his prickles stick out every which
way at once. By this you may know the Hedgehog.'
  'I don't like this old lady one little bit,' said Stickly-Prickly,
under the shadow of a large leaf. 'I wonder what else she knows?'
  'A Tortoise can't curl himself up,' Mother Jaguar went on, ever so
many times, graciously waving her tail. 'He only draws his head and
legs into his shell. By this you may know the Tortoise.'
                                    
  'I don't like this old lady at all- at all,' said Slow-and-Solid
Tortoise. 'Even Painted Jaguar can't forget those directions. It's a
great pity that you can't swim, Stickly-Prickly.'
  'Don't talk to me,' said Stickly-Prickly. 'Just think how much
better it would be if you could curl up. This is a mess! Listen to
Painted Jaguar.'
  Painted Jaguar was sitting on the banks of the turbid Amazon sucking
prickles out of his paws and saying to himself-
-
             'Can't curl, but can swim-
                                    
              Slow-Solid, that's him!
              Curls up, but can't swim-
              Stickly-Prickly, that's him!'
-
  'He'll never forget that this month of Sundays,' said
Stickly-Prickly. 'Hold up my chin, Slow-and-Solid. I'm going to try to
learn to swim. It may be useful.'
                                    
  'Excellent!' said Slow-and-Solid; and he held up Stickly-Prickly's
chin, while Stickly-Prickly kicked in the waters of the turbid Amazon.
  'You'll make a fine swimmer yet,' said Slow-and-Solid. 'Now, if
you can unlace my back-plates a little, I'll see what I can do towards
curling up. It may be useful.'
  Stickly-Prickly helped to unlace Tortoise's back-plates, so that
by twisting and straining Slow-and-Solid actually managed to curl up a
tiddy wee bit.
  'Excellent!' said Stickly-Prickly; 'but I shouldn't do any more just
now. It's making you black in the face. Kindly lead me into the
water once again and I'll practise that side-stroke which you say is
so easy.' And so Stickly-Prickly practised, and Slow-Solid swam
alongside.
  'Excellent!' said Slow-and-Solid. 'A little more practice will
make you a regular whale. Now, if I may trouble you to unlace my
back and front plates two holes more, I'll try that fascinating bend
that you say is so easy. Won't Painted Jaguar be surprised!'
                                    
  'Excellent!' said Stickly-Prickly, all wet from the turbid Amazon.
'I declare, I shouldn't know you from one of my own family. Two holes,
I think, you said? A little more expression, please, and don't grunt
quite so much, or Painted Jaguar may hear us. When you've finished,
I want to try that long dive which you say is so easy. Won't Painted
Jaguar be surprised!'
  And so Stickly-Prickly dived, and Slow-and-Solid dived alongside.
  'Excellent!' said Slow-and-Solid. 'A leetle more attention to
holding your breath and you will be able to keep house at the bottom
of the turbid Amazon. Now I'll try that exercise of wrapping my hind
legs round my ears which you say is so peculiarly comfortable. Won't
Painted Jaguar be surprised!'
  'Excellent!' said Stickly-Prickly. 'But it's straining your
back-plates a little. They are all overlapping now, instead of lying
side by side.'
  'Oh, that's the result of exercise,' said Slow-and-Solid. 'I've
noticed that your prickles seem to be melting into one another, and
that you're growing to look rather more like a pine-cone, and less
like a chestnut-burr, than you used to.'
                                    
  'Am I?' said Stickly-Prickly. 'That comes from my soaking in the
water. Oh, won't Painted Jaguar be surprised!'
  They went on with their exercises, each helping the other, till
morning came; and when the sun was high they rested and dried
themselves. Then they saw that they were both of them quite
different from what they had been.
  'Stickly-Prickly,' said Tortoise after breakfast, 'I am not what I
was yesterday; but I think that I may yet amuse Painted Jaguar.'
  'That was the very thing I was thinking just now,' said
Stickly-Prickly. 'I think scales are a tremendous improvement on
prickles- to say nothing of being able to swim. Oh, won't Painted
Jaguar be surprised! Let's go and find him.'
  By and by they found Painted Jaguar, still nursing his paddy-paw
that had been hurt the night before. He was so astonished that he fell
three times backward over his own painted tail without stopping.
                                    
  'Good morning!' said Stickly-Prickly. 'And how is your dear gracious
Mummy this morning?'
  'She is quite well, thank you,' said Painted Jaguar; 'but you must
forgive me if I do not at this precise moment recall your name.'
  'That's unkind of you,' said Stickly-Prickly, 'seeing that this time
yesterday you tried to scoop me out of my shell with your paw.'
  'But you hadn't any shell. It was all prickles,' said Painted
Jaguar. 'I know it was. Just look at my paw!'
  'You told me to drop into the turbid Amazon and be drowned,' said
Slow-Solid. 'Why are you so rude and forgetful to-day?'
                                    
  'Don't you remember what your mother told you?' said
Stickly-Prickly,-
-
             'Can't curl, but can swim-
              Stickly-Prickly, that's him!
              Curls up, but can't swim-
                                    
              Slow-Solid, that's him!'
-
  Then they both curled themselves up and rolled round and round
Painted Jaguar till his eyes turned truly cart-wheels in his head.
  Then he went to fetch his mother.
  'Mother,' he said, 'there are two new animals in the woods to-day,
and the one that you said couldn't swim, swims, and the one that you
said couldn't curl up, curls; and they've gone shares in their
prickles, I think, because both of them are scaly all over, instead of
one being smooth and the other very prickly; and, besides that, they
are rolling round and round in circles, and I don't feel comfy.'
                                    
  'Son, son!' said Mother Jaguar ever so many times, graciously waving
her tail, 'a Hedgehog is a Hedgehog, and can't be anything but a
Hedgehog; and a Tortoise is a Tortoise, and can never be anything
else.'
  'But it isn't a Hedgehog, and it isn't a Tortoise. It's a little bit
of both, and I don't know its proper name.'
  'Nonsense!' said Mother Jaguar. 'Everything has its proper name. I
should call it "Armadillo" till I found out the real one. And I should
leave it alone.'
  So Painted Jaguar did as he was told, especially about leaving
them alone; but the curious thing is that from that day to this, O
Best Beloved, no one on the banks of the turbid Amazon has ever called
Stickly-Prickly and Slow-Solid anything except Armadillo. There are
Hedgehogs and Tortoises in other places, of course (there are some
in my garden); but the real old and clever kind, with their scales
lying lippety-lappety one over the other, like pine-cone scales,
that lived on the banks of the turbid Amazon in the High and Far-Off
Days, are always called Armadillos, because they were so clever.
  So that's all right, Best Beloved. Do you see?
                                    
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  THIS is an inciting map of the Turbid Amazon done in Red and Black
(ž€KIPL83.cifž€see ž€KIPL83A.cifž€illustrationsž€KIPL83B.cifž€). It hasn't anything to do with the story except
that there are two Armadilloes in it- up by the top. The inciting part
are the adventures that happened to the men who went along the road
marked in red. I meant to draw Armadilloes when I began the map, and I
meant to draw manatees and spider-tailed monkeys and big snakes and
lots of Jaguars, but it was more inciting to do the map and the
venturesome adventures in red. You begin at the bottom left-hand
corner and follow the little arrows all about, and then you come quite
round again to where the adventuresome people went home in a ship
called the Royal Tiger. This is a most adventuresome picture, and
all the adventures are told about in writing, so you can be quite sure
which is an adventure and which is a tree or a boat.
-
    I'VE never sailed the Amazon,
      I've never reached Brazil;
                                    
    But the Don and Magdalena,
      They can go there when they will!
-
              Yes, weekly from Southampton,
              Great steamers, white and gold,
                                    
              Go rolling down to Rio
              (Roll down- roll down to Rio!).
              And I'd like to roll to Rio
              Some day before I'm old!
-
                                    
    I've never seen a Jaguar,
      Nor yet an Armadill-
    O dilloing in his armour,
      And I s'pose I never will,
-
                                   
              Unless I go to Rio
              These wonders to behold-
              Roll down- roll down to Rio-
              Roll really down to Rio!
              Oh, I'd love to roll to Rio
                                   
              Some day before I'm old!
-
  THIS is a picture of the whole story of the Jaguar and the
Hedgehog and the Tortoise and the Armadillo all in a heap 
Tortoise is in the middle, learning how to bend, and that is why the
shelly plates on his back are so spread apart. He is standing on the
Hedgehog, who is waiting to learn how to swim. The Hedgehog is a
Japanesy Hedgehog, because I couldn't find our own Hedgehogs in the
garden when I wanted to draw them. (It was daytime, and they had
gone to bed under the dahlias.) Speckly Jaguar is looking over the
edge, with his paddy-paw carefully tied up by his mother, because he
pricked himself scooping the Hedgehog. He is much surprised to see
what the Tortoise is doing, and his paw is hurting him. The snouty
thing with the little eye that Speckly Jaguar is trying to climb
over is the Armadillo that the Tortoise and the Hedgehog are going
to turn into when they have finished bending and swimming. It is all a
magic picture, and that is one of the reasons why I haven't drawn
the Jaguar's whiskers. The other reason was that he was so young
that his whiskers had not grown. The Jaguar's pet name with his
Mummy was Doffles.
-
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                               THE END