Brush With Nature

[Big Wallaby]

Yes, and Rikki-Tikki-Tavi was the title of the book, by Rudyard Kipling.

I had a cat, Tavi, named after the character :D:

Needless to say, I liked that story. Still do.

[Zazu]

Why do people do that? It's stupid.

If we can find a way to stop people from doing things that are stupid, we could close this site!

[felinefan]

I went to the site, and the book had illustrations of a type I recognized. Back in 1965, my family and I sailed to Australia with the intent to emigrate there. We stayed only six months, returning to the U.S. by ship also. My younger sister and I hung out alot in the playroom, with a British nanny to mind the children, and I read most of the books they had there. Little Black Sambo was one; it was the same one on the Sambo's site. I remember a couple of other books, with similarly styled illustrations.
One was about a little girl who had an abusive mother/grandmother/other person caring for her, who treated her like a slave and beat the little girl with her cane. The little girl went out and was taken captive by a gavial, which is a species of crocodile; this gavial made the little girl guard its eggs, threatening to eat her if she let anything happen to them. While the gavial is gone, along comes a mongoose, who helps itself to the eggs. The girl tells her story to the mongoose, and when it finishes the eggs, they go off together. Meanwhile, the girl's mistress has gone to market, and is bringing home some kerosene and matches. The gavial returns to its nest, weeps over the eaten eggs, and goes off to look for the girl. It finds the girl's mistress and swallows her down, kerosene, matches, and all. Well, inside the gavial was pretty dark, so the woman lights one of her matches, not realizing the gavial's sharp teeth have punctured the kerosene can. BOOM! Pieces of woman and gavial go flying everywhere, and the story ends with the little girl having a picnic on top of the gavial's severed head. The gavial in the story is a King Kong compared to the real ones, but that's artistic license for you.

Another story was about a little boy whose mother was sick. The doctor came and gave her various medicines, but they did no good. He said that if the boy's mother didn't have a mango, she would die. Her son didn't know where to find any mangoes, so he took a basket and walked along, asking people he met where he might find mangoes. Nobody could tell him. At last he came across an elephant, who owned a garden of mangoes. But he was a greedy elephant and wanted the mangoes for himself; so when the boy asked him where he might find some mangoes, the elephant told him there were no mangoes in that direction (when in reality he had just come from his garden.). The boy kept walking, until he met a huge snake that promised to lead him to some mangoes; however, three frogs told the boy not to go with the snake, as he had a tendency to eat people. The snake told the boy the frogs were lying, and when his back was turned, the snake swallowed the frogs.
They got to the elephant's garden, and as the boy was picking mangoes, the snake contrived to eat the boy. But the elphant returned to his garden as the boy was leaving, and he was so angry that the snake had led the boy to his mangoes, he seized the snake in his trunk and said he was going to throw the snake across the precipice nearby. The snake, however, wrapped his tail around the trunk of the mango tree, and as the elephant tried to throw the snake across the precipice, two things happened: the cliff the elephant was standing on crumbled under his weight, and when that happened, the snake's body broke apart, and out hopped the frogs. The boy was watching this happen, and the frogs said to him, "Didn't we tell you he ate people?" So the elephant and the snake fell to their end to the bottom of the precipice, and the boy ran home with the mangoes. His mother ate the mangoes, was cured, and the boy and his mother went to the mango tree to keep themselves healthy and happy.

I wonder if those books are still around? A gavial is an Indian crocodile with a long, very narrow set of jaws, and the people in these stories were also made to look African. I think the illustrator needed a lesson in geography as well as anthropology.

[Ms. Matterhorn]

Whoa, those stories are awesome, especially the one with Grandma inside the exploding gavial! I think they should create an attraction at AK based on that story.

[GRUMPY PIRATE]

Now I want some Mango flavored RUM!!!

(hold the snake, err no....hold the elephant!)

FROGS??



Hobie?

[BRWombat]

Whoa, those stories are awesome, especially the one with Grandma inside the exploding gavial! I think they should create an attraction at AK based on that story.

Disney is always looking for good stories. I can see both of these in animated form -- although maybe a bit less gruesome (Disneyfied).

And think of the marketing opportunities! Exploding gavial Science Lab? Snake action figure with removable frogs? "My First Mango Garden"? :D:

[hobie16]

His mother ate the mangoes, was cured, and the boy and his mother went to the mango tree to keep themselves healthy and happy.

I've seen many people here cured with mangoes by making using them to make mangoritas.