Then said Nqong from his bath in the salt-pan, 'Come and ask me about it to-morrow, because I'm going to wash.' So they were left in the middle of Australia, Old Man Kangaroo and Yellow-Dog Dingo, and each said, 'That's _your_ fault.' THIS is the mouth-filling song Of the race that was run by a Boomer, Run in a single burst--only event of its kind-- Started by big God Nqong from Warrigaborrigarooma, Old Man Kangaroo first: Yellow-Dog Dingo behind. Kangaroo bounded away, His back-legs working like pistons-- Bounded from morning till dark, Twenty-five feet to a bound. Yellow-Dog Dingo lay Like a yellow cloud in the distance-- Much too busy to bark. My! but they covered the ground! Nobody knows where they went, Or followed the track that they flew in, For that Continent Hadn't been given a name. They ran thirty degrees, From Torres Straits to the Leeuwin (Look at the Atlas, please), And they ran back as they came. S'posing you could trot From Adelaide to the Pacific, For an afternoon's run-- Half what these gentlemen did-- You would feel rather hot, But your legs would develop terrific-- Yes, my importunate son, You'd be a Marvellous Kid! [Illustration: The Beginning of the Armadillos] THE BEGINNING OF THE ARMADILLOS THIS, O Best Beloved, is another story of the High and Far-Off Times. In the very middle of those times was a Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog, and he lived on the banks of the turbid Amazon, eating shelly snails and things. And he had a friend, a Slow-Solid Tortoise, who lived on the banks of the turbid Amazon, eating green lettuces and things. And so _that_ was all right, Best Beloved. Do you see? But also, and at the same time, in those High and Far-Off Times, there was a Painted Jaguar, and he lived on the banks of the turbid Amazon too; and he ate everything that he could catch. When he could not catch deer or monkeys he would eat frogs and beetles; and when he could not catch frogs and beetles he went to his Mother Jaguar, and she told him how to eat hedgehogs and tortoises. She said to him ever so many times, graciously waving her tail, 'My son, when you find a Hedgehog you must drop him into the water and then he will uncoil, and when you catch a Tortoise you must scoop him out of his shell with your paw.' And so that was all right, Best Beloved. One beautiful night on the banks of the turbid Amazon, Painted Jaguar found Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog and Slow-Solid Tortoise sitting under the trunk of a fallen tree. They could not run away, and so Stickly-Prickly curled himself up into a ball, because he was a Hedgehog, and Slow-Solid Tortoise drew in his head and feet into his shell as far as they would go, because he was a Tortoise; and so _that_ was all right, Best Beloved. Do you see?