Do You Like Kipling?

I don't know, I've never kipled!

British author Rudyard Kipling was born in India on this day in 1865. A celebrated storyteller, Kipling wrote a series of children's tales called Just So Stories to explain things in the natural world. One of these colorful fables, "The Elephant's Child," explains how the elephant got its trunk.

In that story, a curious young elephant tangles with a "musky, tusky"-mouthed crocodile by "the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River." That scene reminds us of this scary, slithering beast from the Smithsonian American Art Museum's folk art collection.

How do you think the elephant got his trunk? Try drawing a picture to show it, or, better yet, make up your own stories in words and pictures. Here are some of Kipling's Just So story titles to get you started.


• "How the Camel Got His Hump"

• "How the Leopard Got His Spots"

• "The Crab that Played with the Sea"

Here are some other ideas for your own Just So Stories.


• "How the Cat Got His Whiskers"

• "How I Got My Freckles"

• "How Roller Skates Became Roller Blades"

Have Fun!

Pictured: Ulysses Davis, 1913–90, Beast Going through the Grass, about 1984–85, carved and painted wood with rhinestones, 35 1/8 x 9 5/8 x 6 3/4 in., Smithsonian American Art Museum, Museum purchase made possible by Ralph Cross Johnson.