Animals -- Fiction; Children's stories, English; Short stories
Of course the Man was wild too. He was dreadfully wild. He didn’t even
begin to be tame till he met the Woman, and she told him that she
did not like living in his wild ways. She picked out a nice dry Cave,
instead of a heap of wet leaves, to lie down in; and she strewed clean
sand on the floor; and she lit a nice fire of wood at the back of
the Cave; and she hung a dried wild-horse skin, tail-down, across the
opening of the Cave; and she said, ‘Wipe you feet, dear, when you come
in, and now we’ll keep house.’
That night, Best Beloved, they ate wild sheep roasted on the hot stones,
and flavoured with wild garlic and wild pepper; and wild duck stuffed
with wild rice and wild fenugreek and wild coriander; and marrow-bones
of wild oxen; and wild cherries, and wild grenadillas. Then the Man
went to sleep in front of the fire ever so happy; but the Woman sat up,
combing her hair. She took the bone of the shoulder of mutton--the big
fat blade-bone--and she looked at the wonderful marks on it, and she
threw more wood on the fire, and she made a Magic. She made the First
Singing Magic in the world.
Out in the Wet Wild Woods all the wild animals gathered together where
they could see the light of the fire a long way off, and they wondered
what it meant.
Then Wild Horse stamped with his wild foot and said, ‘O my Friends and O
my Enemies, why have the Man and the Woman made that great light in that
great Cave, and what harm will it do us?’
Wild Dog lifted up his wild nose and smelled the smell of roast mutton,
and said, ‘I will go up and see and look, and say; for I think it is
good. Cat, come with me.’
‘Nenni!’ said the Cat. ‘I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all
places are alike to me. I will not come.’
‘Then we can never be friends again,’ said Wild Dog, and he trotted off
to the Cave. But when he had gone a little way the Cat said to himself,
‘All places are alike to me. Why should I not go too and see and look
and come away at my own liking.’ So he slipped after Wild Dog softly,
very softly, and hid himself where he could hear everything.
When Wild Dog reached the mouth of the Cave he lifted up the dried
horse-skin with his nose and sniffed the beautiful smell of the roast
mutton, and the Woman, looking at the blade-bone, heard him, and
laughed, and said, ‘Here comes the first. Wild Thing out of the Wild
Woods, what do you want?’
Wild Dog said, ‘O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy, what is this that
smells so good in the Wild Woods?’
Then the Woman picked up a roasted mutton-bone and threw it to Wild Dog,
and said, ‘Wild Thing out of the Wild Woods, taste and try.’ Wild Dog
gnawed the bone, and it was more delicious than anything he had ever
tasted, and he said, ‘O my Enemy and Wife of my Enemy, give me another.’
The Woman said, ‘Wild Thing out of the Wild Woods, help my Man to hunt
through the day and guard this Cave at night, and I will give you as
many roast bones as you need.’
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account