thread: 2007-01-19 : The Jungle Books
On 2007-01-24, GB Steve wrote:
When I visited my mum's parents as a kid, I often asked for them to read us the Just So Stories. They are still amongst my favourites and Kiplings B&W illustrations are very evocative too.
And the titles are very good for 1001 Nights:
How the Whale got his Throat
How the Camel got his Hump
How the Rhinoceros got its Skin
How the Leopard got his Spots
The Elephant's Child
The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo
The Beginning of the Armadillos
How the First Letter was Written
How the Alphabet was Made
The Crab that Played with the Sea
The Cat that walked by Himself
The Butterfly that Stamped.
My favourite was always The Cat that walked by Himself which starts thus:
HEAR and attend and listen; for this befell and behappened and became and was, O my Best Beloved, when the Tame animals were wild. The Dog was wild, and the Horse was wild, and the Cow was wild, and the Sheep was wild, and the Pig was wild—as wild as wild could be—and they walked in the Wet Wild Woods by their wild lones. But the wildest of all the wild animals was the Cat. He walked by himself, and all places were alike to him.
