Just So Stories | Page 8

And Baviaan winked. He knew.
Then said Baviaan, 'The game has gone into other spots; and my advice
to you, Leopard, is to go into other spots as soon as you can.'
And the Ethiopian said, 'That is all very fine, but I wish to know
whither the aboriginal Fauna has migrated.'
Then said Baviaan, 'The aboriginal Fauna has joined the aboriginal
Flora because it was high time for a change; and my advice to you,
Ethiopian, is to change as soon as you can.'
That puzzled the Leopard and the Ethiopian, but they set off to look for
the aboriginal Flora, and presently, after ever so many days, they saw a
great, high, tall forest full of tree trunks all 'sclusively speckled and
sprottled and spottled, dotted and splashed and slashed and hatched and
cross-hatched with shadows. (Say that quickly aloud, and you will see
how very shadowy the forest must have been.)
'What is this,' said the Leopard, 'that is so 'sclusively dark, and yet so
full of little pieces of light?'
'I don't know, said the Ethiopian, 'but it ought to be the aboriginal Flora.
I can smell Giraffe, and I can hear Giraffe, but I can't see Giraffe.'
'That's curious,' said the Leopard. 'I suppose it is because we have just
come in out of the sunshine. I can smell Zebra, and I can hear Zebra,
but I can't see Zebra.'
'Wait a bit, said the Ethiopian. 'It's a long time since we've hunted 'em.
Perhaps we've forgotten what they were like.'
'Fiddle!' said the Leopard. 'I remember them perfectly on the High
Veldt, especially their marrow-bones. Giraffe is about seventeen feet
high, of a 'sclusively fulvous golden-yellow from head to heel; and
Zebra is about four and a half feet high, of a'sclusively grey-fawn
colour from head to heel.'
'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.'
But they didn't. The Leopard and the Ethiopian hunted all day; and
though they could smell them and hear them, they never saw one of
them.
'For goodness' sake,' said the Leopard at tea-time, 'let us wait till it gets
dark. This daylight hunting is a perfect scandal.'

So they waited till dark, and then the Leopard heard something
breathing sniffily in the starlight that fell all stripy through the branches,
and he jumped at the noise, and it smelt like Zebra, and it felt like
Zebra, and when he knocked it down it kicked like Zebra, but he
couldn't see it. So he said, 'Be quiet, O you person without any form. I
am going to sit on your head till morning, because there is something
about you that I don't understand.'
Presently he heard a grunt and a crash and a scramble, and the
Ethiopian called out, 'I've caught a thing that I can't see. It smells like
Giraffe, and it kicks like Giraffe, but it hasn't any form.'
'Don't you trust it,' said the Leopard. 'Sit on its head till the
morning--same as me. They haven't any form--any of 'em.'
So they sat down on them hard till bright morning-time, and then
Leopard said, 'What have you at your end of the table, Brother?'
The Ethiopian scratched his head and said, 'It ought to be 'sclusively a
rich fulvous orange-tawny from head to heel, and it ought to be Giraffe;
but it is covered all over with chestnut blotches. What have you at your
end of the table, Brother?'
And the Leopard scratched his head and said, 'It ought to be 'sclusively
a delicate greyish-fawn, and it ought to be Zebra; but it is covered all
over with black and purple stripes. What in the world have you been
doing to yourself, Zebra? Don't you know that if you were on the High
Veldt I could see you ten miles off? You haven't any form.'
'Yes,' said the Zebra, 'but this isn't the High Veldt. Can't you see?'
'I can now,' said the Leopard. 'But I couldn't all yesterday. How is it
done?'
'Let us up,' said the Zebra, 'and we will show you.
They let the Zebra and the Giraffe get up; and Zebra moved away to
some little thorn-bushes where the sunlight fell all stripy, and Giraffe
moved off to some tallish trees where the shadows fell all blotchy.
'Now watch,' said the Zebra and the Giraffe. 'This is the way it's done.
One--two--three! And where's your breakfast?'
Leopard stared, and Ethiopian stared, but all they could see were stripy
shadows and blotched shadows in the forest, but never a sign of Zebra
and Giraffe. They had just walked off and hidden themselves in the
shadowy forest.
'Hi! Hi!' said the Ethiopian. 'That's