How the Leopard Got His Spots
by Rudyard
Kipling
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. 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 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 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
'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 per-fect 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.
