SUNDAY REVIEW / RUDYARD KIPLING SHORT FICTION

SHORT STORIES FROM THE PUBLIC DOMAIN

Text Courtesy of www.world-english.org

HOW THE LEOPARD GOT ITS SPOTS

Editor’s Note: This is a very clever essay on the art of reinvention disguised as a 

children’s fable

In the days when everybody started fair, Best Beloved, the Leopard

lived in a place called the High Veldt. 'Member it wasn't the Low Veldt,

or the Bush Veldt, or the Sour Veldt, but the 'sclusively bare, hot

shiny High Veldt, where there was sand and sandy-coloured rock and 

'sclusively tufts of sandy-yellowish grass.

The Giraffe and the Zebra and the Eland and the Koodoo and the

Hartebeest lived there: and they were 'sclusively sandy-yellow-brownish

all over; but the Leopard, he was the 'sclusivest sandiest-yellowest-

brownest of them all -- a greyish-yellowish catty-shaped kind of beast,

and he matched the 'sclusively yellowish-greyish-brownish colour of

the High Veldt to one hair.

AUTHOR: Nobel Prize winner in literature Joseph 

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) was an English short-story 

writer, poet, and novelist. He is chiefly remembered for 

his tales and poems of British soldiers in India and his

“Jungle Book” tales for children.

_____________

This was very bad for the Giraffe and the Zebra and 

the rest of them:for he would lie down by a 

'sclusively yellowish-greyish-brownish stone

or clump of grass, and when the Giraffe or the 
Zebra or the Eland or the Koodoo or the Bush-Buck or the 
Bonte-Buck came by he would surprise them out of their jumpsome 
lives. He would indeed!

And, also, there was an Ethiopian with bows and arrows (a 'sclusively

greyish-brownish-yellowish man he was then), who lived on the High

Veldt with the Leopard: and the two used to hunt together -- the

Ethiopian with his bows and arrows, and the Leopard 'sclusively with

his teeth and claws -- till the Giraffe and the Eland and the Koodoo and

the Quagga and all the rest of them didn't know which way to jump, 

Best Beloved. They didn't indeed!

After a long time -- things lived for ever so long in those days -- they

learned to avoid anything that looked like a Leopard or an Ethiopian:

and bit by bit -- the Giraffe began it, because his legs were the longest

-- they went away from the High Veldt. They scuttled for days and days

till they came to a great forest, 'sclusively full of trees and bushes and

stripy, speckly, patchy-blatchy shadows, and there they hid: and after

another long time, what with standing half in the shade and half out of

it, and what with the slippery-slidy shadows of the trees falling on them,

the Giraffe grew blotchy, and the Zebra grew stripy, and the Eland and

the Koodoo grew darker, with little wavy grey lines on their backs like

bark on a tree-trunk: and so, though you could hear them and smell

them, you could very seldom see them, and then only when you knew

precisely where to look.

They had a beautiful time in the 'sclusively

speckly-spickly shadows of the forest, while the Leopard and the

Ethiopian ran about over the 'sclusively greyish-yellowish-reddish

High Veldt outside, wondering where all their breakfasts and their

dinners and their teas had gone. At last they were so hungry that they

ate rats and beetles and rock-rabbits, the Leopard and the Ethiopian,

and then they had the Big Tummy-ache, both together: and then they

met Baviaan -- the dog-headed, barking baboon, who is Quite the

Wisest Animal in All South Africa.

Said the Leopard to Baviaan (and it was a very hot day), 'Where has all

the game gone?'

And Baviaan winked. He knew.

Said Ethiopian to Baviaan, 'Can you tell me the present habitat of the 

aboriginal Fauna?' (That meant just the same thing, but the Ethiopian

always used long words. He was a grown-up.)

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 where

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 17 feet high,

of a 'sclusively fulvous golden-yellow from head to heel: and Zebra

is about 4.5 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 smoke-house.'

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 the 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 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.'

'Ho! Ho!' said the Leopard. 'Would it surprise you very much to

know that you show up in this dark place like a mustard-plaster

on a sack of coals?'

'Well, calling names won't catch dinner,' said the Ethiopian. 'The

long and the little of it is that we don't match our backgrounds.

I'm going to take Baviaan's advice. He told me I ought to change:

and as I've nothing to change except my skin I'm going to

change that.'

'What to?' said the Leopard, tremendously excited.

'To a nice working blackish-brownish colour, with a little purple

in it, and touches of slaty-blue. It will be the very thing for hiding

in hollows and behind trees.'

So he changed his skin then and there, and the Leopard was more

excited than ever: he had never seen a man change his skin before.

'But what about me?' she said, when the Ethiopian had worked his

last little finger into his fine new black skin.

'You take Baviaan's advice too. He told you to go into spots.'

'So I did,' said the Leopard. 'I went into other spots as fast as

I could. I went into this spot with you, and a lot of good it has

done me.'

'Oh,' said the Ethiopian. 'Baviaan didn't mean spots in South Africa.

He meant spots on your skin.'

'What's the use of that?' said the Leopard.

'Think of Giraffe,' said the Ethiopian. 'Or if you prefer stripes,

think of Zebra. They find their spots and stripes give them perfect

satisfaction.'

'Umm,' said the Leopard. 'I wouldn't look like Zebra -- not for ever so.'

'Well, make up your mind,' said the Ethiopian, 'because I'd hate to

go hunting without you, but I must if you insist on looking like a

sunflower against a tarred fence.'

'I'll take spots, then,' said the Leopard; 'but don't make 'em too

vulgar-big. I wouldn't look like Giraffe -- not for ever so.'

'I'll make 'em with the tips of my fingers,' said the Ethiopian.

'There's plenty of black left on my skin still. Stand over!'

Then the Ethiopian put his five fingers close together (there was

plenty of black left on his new skin still) and pressed them all over

the Leopard, and wherever the five fingers touched they left five

little black marks, all close together. You can see them on any

Leopard's skin you like, Best Beloved. Sometimes the fingers slipped

and the marks got a little blurred; but if you look closely at any

Leopard now you will see that there are always five spots -- off five

black finger-tips.

'Now you are a beauty!' said the Ethiopian. 'You can lie out on the

bare ground and look like a heap of pebbles. You can lie out on the

naked rocks and look like a piece of pudding-stone. 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!'

'But if I'm all this,' said the Leopard, 'why didn't you go spotty too?'

'Oh, plain black's best,' said the Ethiopian. 'Now come along and

we'll see if we can't get even with Mr One-Two-Three-Where's-

your-Breakfast!'

So they went away and lived happily ever afterwards, Best Beloved.

That is all.

Oh, now and then you will hear grown-ups say, 'Can the Ethiopian

change his skin or the Leopard his spots?' I don't think even grown-ups

would keep on saying such a silly thing if the Leopard and the

Ethiopian hadn't done it once -- do you? But they will never do it

again, Best Beloved. They are quite contented as they are.

"So, don't ask me, again."