Animals -- Fiction; Children's stories, English; Short stories
[Illustration: THIS is a picture of Pau Amma the Crab running away
while the Eldest Magician was talking to the Man and his Little Girl
Daughter. The Eldest Magician is sitting on his magic throne, wrapped up
in his Magic Cloud. The three flowers in front of him are the three
Magic Flowers. On the top of the hill you can see
All-the-Elephant-there-was, and All-the-Cow-there-was, and
All-the-Turtle-there-was going off to play as the Eldest Magician told
them. The Cow has a hump, because she was All-the-Cow-there-was; so she
had to have all there was for all the cows that were made afterwards.
Under the hill there are Animals who have been taught the game they were
to play. You can see All-the-Tiger-there-was smiling at
All-the-Bones-there-were, and you can see All-the-Elk-there-was, and
All-the-Parrot-there-was, and All-the-Bunnies-there-were on the hill.
The other Animals are on the other side of the hill, so I haven't drawn
them. The little house up the hill is All-the-House-there-was. The
Eldest Magician made it to show the Man how to make houses when he
wanted to. The Snake round that spiky hill is All-the-Snake-there-was,
and he is talking to All-the-Monkey-there-was, and the Monkey is being
rude to the Snake, and the Snake is being rude to the Monkey. The Man is
very busy talking to the Eldest Magician. The Little Girl Daughter is
looking at Pau Amma as he runs away. That humpy thing in the water in
front is Pau Amma. He wasn't a common Crab in those days. He was a King
Crab. That is why he looks different. The thing that looks like bricks
that the Man is standing in, is the Big Miz-Maze. When the Man has done
talking with the Eldest Magician he will walk in the Big Miz-Maze,
because he has to. The mark on the stone under the Man's foot is a magic
mark; and down underneath I have drawn the three Magic Flowers all mixed
up with the Magic Cloud. All this picture is Big Medicine and Strong
Magic.]
'_Kun?_' said All-the-Cow-there-was.
'_Payah kun_,' said the Eldest Magician; and he breathed upon the bare
patch where she had eaten, and upon the place where she had sat down,
and one became the great Indian Desert, and the other became the Desert
of Sahara, and you can look them out on the map.
He went West, and he found All-the-Beaver-there-was making a beaver-dam
across the mouths of broad rivers that had been got ready for him.
'_Kun?_' said All-the-Beaver-there-was.
'_Payah kun_,' said the Eldest Magician; and he breathed upon the fallen
trees and the still water, and they became the Everglades in Florida,
and you may look them out on the map.
Then he went South and found All-the-Turtle-there-was scratching with
his flippers in the sand that had been got ready for him, and the sand
and the rocks whirled through the air and fell far off into the sea.
'_Kun?_' said All-the-Turtle-there-was.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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