Category: 1910s

Red Fox and Cotton Tail

By Therese Osterheld Deming

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

Original illustration by Edwin Willard Deming from *American Animal Life*, p. 68.

ed fox is one of the wisest and most cunning of little creatures, with so little feat of man that he prefers to live neat settlements, where he can poach upon the farmer’s chickens and fowl to help out his menu of mice and rabbits, birds and other wood folk.[1]

The foxes make dens in the midst of big tree forests, or in crevices among the rocks, where the vixen (mother) hides her four of five cubs while she goes out to find food to bring home. She always travels in a roundabout way, to and from her den, so that her enemies cannot find the way. She never leaves any refuse about her doorway that might attract the attention of man or animal folk who may be hunting about her domain.[2]

On sunny days the vixen takes her fox cubs out into the sunshine to play. They may never have seen man, yet they run and hide at his approach; but if caught, they make very lovely little pets.

Some friends, hunting in New Brunswick, caught a little fox cub and put him into a box cage.[3] They shot Canadian jays for their little captive, and the cunning little fellow carried each on into his box to hide it, until he had his box so full that he could not get into it himself. He became very tame and played all day; but at night the hunters would awaken to hear his plaintive little bark, then off in the distance would come the answer comr the poorl old vixen, who was mourning the loss of her little one, while the screech-owl flew from limb to limb, seeming to laugh at the troubles of the poor mother trying to quiet her lost one.

During the nesting season, the red fox destroys quantities of quail and partridge nests. He is hunted with hounds and seems to enjoy the sport as much as his pursuers, leading them a merry chase, often running the top rail of a fence or jumping from stone to stone. Should he get far ahead, he will stop and wait for the hounds to catch up, then off he runs again and often gets away finally, to hide and rest in his den. If he should suddenly come upon a hunter, he will show no signs of fear, but just pretend he never saw him, and gradually work away until he is over some small hill, then he will run as fast as he can, to get out of the way.

He is the handsomest and most valuable fox from the Southern Alleghanies to Point Barrow, wearing many different suits in different parts of the country, from yellow-red to the palest of bleached-out colors on the sun-kissed desert, and very bright colors in the forest regions of Alaska.

He is so cunning and so well able to care for himself that it is not so easy to exterminate him as it is other animals less wise.

The black-cross fox and the silver fox are just two different phases of the same red fox.

The red fox has a very keen sense of hearing. He depends more upon his ears and nose than upon his eyes in detecting the approach of danger or in locating his prey. When he gets scent of a rabbit, he is happy: for rabbits are his favorite food, and poor little molly-cottontail must always be watchful or she will be caught. Should she not see her enemy until he is almost upon her, she will lie very close to the ground, behind a bunch of grass or a bush, and never move. Often the hunter will pass her by; but sometimes she has a hard run to save her life, and many times. poor thing, she is caught.

The cottontail is the smallest of the rabbit family and is found all over the country. She burrows in the ground for a home; but, unfortunately, she has not learned to make herself a back door, to escape in time of danger, for members of the weasel or marten families follow this creature into her home.

Original illustration by Edwin Willard Deming from *American Animal Life*, p. 71.

Like all rabbits she has regular runways or trails through the woods; but on moonlight nights she will come out into the clearings, with her relatives, and romp, play and frisk about in the moonlight, having a lively time. Suddenly one of the brothers will stamp his feet, and in a second all have disappeared and run for safety. Most people might have wondered what the matter was. Little Brother Rabbit knew, for almost instantly, Ko-Ko-Kas, the big brown owl, flew over the clearing and each little rabbit was glad he had heard and obeyed the warning. Had he not he would have suffered more than when Chief Rabbit refused to go to a council called by Owl. Owl was chief then, and called four times, but the Rabbit did not answer. Then he told the Rabbit his ears would grow until he came to the council. We all know how long his ears grew; and they might have been much longer had not the Rabbit answered and run to the council as fast as he could go.

Original illustration by Edwin Willard Deming from *American Animal Life*, p. 72.

DEMING, THERESE OSTERHELD. “RED FOX AND COTTON TAIL,” IN AMERICAN ANIMAL LIFE, 67-76. NEW YORK: FREDERICK A. STOKES, 1916.

[1] In addition to rodents, rabbits, birds, and amphibians, the diet of red foxes also includes fruit.

[2] Interestingly, red foxes rarely sleep in their dens, but out in the open. They will only sleep in their burrows during extreme weather or, in the case of female foxes, while raising their kits.

[3] New Brunswick is a province of Canada.

Contexts

American Life is one of a series of books written by Therese Osterheld Deming and illustrated by Edwin Willard Deming. After marrying in 1892, the Demings frequently worked together. Edward Willard Deming was an American painter and sculptor who, after studying in Paris in 1884 and 1885, lived in proximity to various Indigenous American tribes. These experiences informed most of his work.

Resources for Further Study

Learn more about Edwin Willard Deming.

Contemporary Connections

What to do if you see a fox in your neighborhood.

1910s Birds Poem Wild animals

Bread and Milk

By Gene Stratton-Porter

Annotations by Rene marzuk

Every morning before we eat,
My mother prays a prayer sweet.
    With folded hand and low-bowed head:
    “Give us this day our daily bread.”
But I’d like tarts and ginger cakes,
Puffs and pie like grandmother makes.
    So ’smorning I said my appetite
    Must have a cake, or ’twouldn’t eat a bite.
Then mother said: “’Fore you get through,
You’ll find just bread and milk will do.”

She always lets me think things out,
But I went to the yard to pout,
    What I saw there–Upon my word!
    I’m glad I’m a girl–not a bird.
Redbreast pulled up a slick fishworm,[1]
To feed her child: it ate the squirm.
    Bee-bird came flying close to me,[2]
    And caught a stinging honey bee.
She pushed it down her young, alive.
She must have thought him a beehive.

Old warbler searched the twigs for slugs,[3]
Rose Grosbeak took potato bugs.[4]
    Missus Wren snapped up a spider,[5]
    To feed her baby, close beside her.
Little Kingbirds began to squall,[6]
Their mother hurried at their call. 
    She choked them with dusty millers.[7]
    Cuckoos ate hairy caterpillars.[8]
Blue birds had worms, where I could see,[9]
For breakfast, in their hollow tree.
    Then little Heron made me squeal,
    Beside our lake he ate an eel. 
When young Screech Owl gulped a whole mouse,[10]
I started fast for our nice house.

Right over me–for pit-tee sake,
Home flew a hawk, with a big snake!
    So ’for my tummy got awful sick,
    I ran and kissed my mother quick.
I acted just as fine as silk
And asked polite for bread and milk.

Original photograph by Gene Stratton-Porter from *Morning Face*, p. 26.

STRATTON-PORTER, GENE. “BREAD AND MILK,” IN MORNING FACE, 26-7. NEW YORK: DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY, 1916.

John J. Audubon. *American Robin.* Aquatint in color, 1832, Brooklyn Museum. Public Domain.

[1] Robin red-breast is one of the many names of the American Robin, one of the most popular backyard birds in North America. Early European settlers named the American Robin after the European Robin because of its reddish breast. However, the American Robin is actually a thrush.

[2] According to the Oxford English Dictionary, the name bee-bird can refer to either a Spotted Flycatcher or a hummingbird. Because the bird in Stratton-Porter’s poem catches a bee, we can safely assume the speaker refers to flycatchers, an heterogeneous group of migratory birds that breed in Indiana and feed on insects.

*Wood Warbler, from the Birds of America Series (N4) for Allen & Ginter Cigarettes Brands.* Commercial color lithograph, 1888, Metropolitan Museum of Art. Public Domain.

[3] North America is home to more than 53 species of warblers, small to medium-sized songbirds.

[4] Listen to the distinctive songs and calls of the Rose-breasted Grosbeak. The potato bug, or Colorado potato beetle, is considered a pest of potato, eggplant, tomato, and pepper plants.

[5] A comprehensive resource on North American wrens.

[6] Listen to the distinctive songs and calls of the Eastern Kingbird.

[7] The speaker is probably referring to miller moths, a generic name for moths, mainly army cutworms, which proliferate around homes. Coincidentally, the dusty miller (known as silver dust or silver ragwort as well), is also a perennial plant that is popular with gardeners because of its striking silvery leaves.

[8] Overview of the Black-billed Cuckoo, the most common of the three types living in North America–the others are the Yellow-billed Cuckoo and the Mangrove Cuckoo.

[9] A guide to the Eastern Bluebird, courtesy of the Audubon Society.

[10] In addition to mammals like rats, mice, squirrels, moles, and rabbits, the Eastern screech-owl also feeds on insects, invertebrates, amphibians, reptiles, and other birds.

Contexts

In her introduction to the 1996 anthology Coming Through the Swamp: The Nature Writings of Gene Stratton Porter, Sydney Landon Plum reveals that, after the commercial success of Gene Stratton-Porter’s 1909 novel A Girl of the Limberlost, the author and conservationist talked Doubleday, Page & Company into publishing once nature work for each of her subsequent novels. Morning Face, a collection of prose and poems published by Doubleday in 1916, probably saw the light as a result of this agreement. Most of the book’s illustrations are photographs by the author herself, an accomplished self-taught photographer. In fact, according to Plum, Stratton Porter “ardently supported the use of photography for nature study as a substitute for the common practice of killing scores of the natural subjects in order to study them.” As evident in the quatrain that serves as the dedication of Morning Face, Stratton-Porter had a juvenile audience in mind for this book, although one can also make the case that, by identifying herself with the “little girl with a face of morning,” she is also extending her appeal to the inner children within readers of all ages:

One little girl with a face of morning,    
a wondering smile her lips adorning,    
wishes her pictures and stories to share,    
so she sends them to children, everywhere.

Resources for Further Study

Kathryn Aalto’s “The Legend of Limberlost,” available through the Smithsonian Magazine‘s website, offers a portrait of Stratton-Porter that emphasizes her love of nature and her conservationist efforts.
Gene Stratton-Porter’s Cabin at Wildflower Woods is a museum open to the public in Rome City, Indiana. Stratton-Porter designed the cabin, which was completed in 1914 and sits on 148 acres of fields, woods, and gardens.
An extensive list of Indiana’s bird species. Stratton-Porter lived most of her life in this state.
Enjoy this 1915 brief recording of Charles C. Gorst’s impressive imitations of the songs and calls of American birds, including the American Robin, the bluebird, and the cuckoo, which Stratton-Porter includes in her poem.

1910s Flowers Insects Poem Wild animals

The Spider’s Trap

By Gene Stratton-Porter

Annotations by Rene marzuk

Maria Sibylla Merian. *Spiders, Ants and Hummingbird on a Branch of a Guava*. Colored copper engraving from *Metamorphosis Insectorum Surinamensium*, Plate XLIII, 1705, Wikimedia. Public Domain.

A big black spider, homed in my tulip bed,
So that her children might be comfortably fed.[1]
She wove her dainty web, with such cunning art,
Around every stamen in the tulip’s heart,
That never a bee, called by the colours gay,
Lived to hunt honey on another fair day.

STRATTON-PORTER, GENE. “THE SPIDER’S TRAP,” IN MORNING FACE, 29. NEW YORK: DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY, 1916.

[1] Although all spiders wrap their eggs with silk to keep them protected, only a few species like cellar spiders, crab spiders and wolf spiders, among others, actively guard these egg sacs from predators. Upon hatching, most spiderlings are left to survive on their own.

Contexts

One little girl with a face of morning,
a wondering smile her lips adorning,
wishes her pictures and stories to share,
so she sends them to children, everywhere.

Definitions from Oxford English Dictionary:

stamen: Botany. The male or fertilizing organ of a flowering plant, consisting of two parts, the anther, which is a double-celled sac containing the pollen, and the filament, a slender footstalk supporting the anther.

Resources for Further Study

A list of 26 common spiders found in the United States.

Kathryn Aalto’s “The Legend of Limberlost,” available through the Smithsonian Magazine‘s website, offers a portrait of Stratton-Porter that emphasizes her love of nature and her conservationist efforts.

Gene Stratton-Porter’s Cabin at Wildflower Woods is a museum open to the public in Rome City, Indiana. Stratton-Porter designed the cabin, which was completed in 1914 and sits on 148 acres of fields, woods, and gardens.

Contemporary Connections

Did you know that March 14 is National Save a Spider Day in the United States? Of about 50,000 different kinds of spiders in the world,

1910s Birds Poem Wild animals

Horned Owl

By Gene Stratton-Porter

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

“When the moonlight floods the swampland, 
When the bittern’s wailing croak,[1]
   And the wildcat’s scream of anger
Clog the heart of forest folk,
   I search tall trees for frightened crows,[2]
Hunt ducks ’neath sedges, hares at play,
   Then I set late travelers trembling,
By demanding until break of day:

“‘Who, who, huh, whoo, who waugh?
   Don’t I make cold shivers run?
Who, huh, whoo? I’d question all day,
   If my eyes could bear the sun.’”[3]

STRATTON-PORTER, GENE. “HORNED OWL,” IN MORNING FACE, 63. NEW YORK: DOUBLEDAY, PAGE & COMPANY, 1916.

John James Audubon. *The Birds of America, Plate #337: “American Bittern.”* Hand-colored engraving and aquatint on paper [from a drawing by Audubon’s son John Woodhouse], 1827-1838. Public Domain.

[1] The American Bittern, protected under the Migratory Bird Treaty Act of 1918, is a medium-sized heron commonly found in wetlands and most active at dusk and through the night. The website All About Birds includes audio samples of the American Bittern’s distinctive calls and songs.

[2] The Great Horned Owl is the most common owl in North America. Its “horns” are actually tufts of feathers that have nothing to with hearing, although their ultimate purpose still baffles and divides researchers. The Great Horned Owl is a powerful predator that is also known as the “tiger of the woods.” Its penetrating hoots are quite diverse, constituting a lexicon all of their own.

[3] Contrary to popular belief, owls’ pupils can contract in response to brightness, so they can also see in daylight.

Contexts

One little girl with a face of morning,
a wondering smile her lips adorning,
wishes her pictures and stories to share,
so she sends them to children, everywhere.

Definitions from Oxford English Dictionary:

bittern: A genus of grallatorial birds ( Botaurus), nearly allied to the herons, but smaller. spec. The species B. stellaris, a native of Europe and the adjoining parts of the Old World, but now rare in Great Britain on account of the disappearance of the marshes which it frequents. It is noted for the ‘boom’ which it utters during the breeding season, whence its popular names mire-drum, and bull of the bog, and the scientific term botaurus (see above). With qualifying adj., as American bittern n. Botaurus lentiginosus of N. America. least bittern n. Ixobrychus exilis of N. America. little bittern n. any of several small bitterns of the genus Ixobrychus.

sedge: A name for various coarse grassy, rush-like or flag-like plants growing in wet places.

waugh: An exclamation indicating grief, indignation or the like. Chiefly as attributed to North American Indians, etc.

Resources for Further Study

1910s Poem

Things That Walk With Feet

By Annette Wynne

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

Giacomo Merculiano. *Actiniaria*. Chromolithograph, 1893 [in Richard Lydekker’s *The Royal Natural History*]. Public Domain.

Things that walk with feet or fly above the land
The creatures of the sea can hardly understand.

Wynne, AnNette. “Things That Walk With Feet,” in for Days and Days, 159. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1919.

Contexts

Annette Wynne was an American poet who mainly wrote for children. In addition to For Days and Days: A Year Round of Treasury of Child Verse (1919), she also published Treasure Things (1922).

1910s Flowers Poem

Dandelions in the Sun

By Annette Wynne

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

J. & J. G. Low Art Tile Works. *Tile* [Tile face decorated with stylized dandelions]. Molded glazed earthenware, 1877-83, Cooper Hewitt, Smithsonian Design Museum.

Dandelions in the sun,
Golden dollars every one,
Let us pick them and go buy
All the sea and all the sky.

Dandelions in the sun,
Golden dollars every one–
Who can be as rich as we
Buying sky and hill and sea!

Wynne, AnNette. “Dandelions in the Sun,” in for Days and Days, 106. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1919.

Contexts

Annette Wynne was an American poet who mainly wrote for children. In addition to For Days and Days: A Year Round of Treasury of Child Verse (1919), she also published Treasure Things (1922).

Resources for Further Study

Native to Asia and Europe, dandelions arrived in America in the seventeenth century. An article from the National Library of Medicine documents many of the uses of this perennial plant.
Dandelions fell out of favor among home gardeners in the twentieth century as lawns in the United States became popular as status symbols. Ketzel Levine, writing for NPR, asks us to reconsider the collective dislike of the wish-granting plant.
Check out dandelion recipes at the Old Farmer’s Almanac website!

1910s Birds Poem

The Wires Are So Still and High

By Annette Wynne

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

Vocational training for S.A.T.C. in University of Michigan, Ann Arbor. Class in Pole-Climbing in the course for telephone electricians, with some of their instructors. University of Michigan., ca. 1918. The U.S. National Archives. Public Domain.

The wires are so still and high
We never hear the words go by,
Yet messages fly far and near–
I wonder if the birds can hear.

And when they perch on wires and sing,
I wonder are they listening,
And telling out to earth and sky
A lovely word is going by![1]

Wynne, AnNette. “The Wires Are So Still and High,” in for Days and Days: A Year-Round Treasury of Child Verse, 14. New York: Frederick A. Stokes Company, 1919.

[1] Both telegraphs and telephones use electricity to transmit their signal through wires. Although Wynne’s image is very suggestive, sound is actually encoded—or translated—into electrical signals as it travels to its destination.

Contexts

Annette Wynne was an American poet who mainly wrote for children. In addition to For Days and Days: A Year Round of Treasury of Child Verse (1919), she also published Treasure Things (1922).

Resources for Further Study

This timeline gathers key moments from the development of telephone technology and infrastructure in the United States. Interestingly, many of the popular concerns and anxieties associated with the telephone in its early adoption stage are similar to those later inspired by internet.
A teacher’s guide from the Library of Congress on the Industrial Revolution in the United States helps contextualize the development of communication technologies beginning in the nineteenth century.
An informative video from the Natural Museum of American History shows how telegraphs and telephones work.
“A Natural History of the Wooden Utility Pole,” by the California Public Utilities Commission. The document begins with an excerpt from John Updike’s 1963 poem “Telephone Poles.”

Contemporary Connections

Caira Wynn Blackwell writes about “The Racist History of Telephone Poles.”

1910s African American Fable Folktale Short Story Wild animals

The Hare and the Tortoise

By Anonymous

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

John T. Bowen. *Texian Hare*. Hand-colored lithograph on wove paper, 1848, Museum of Fine Arts, Houston, The Bayou Bend Collection, gift of Mr. and Mrs. Robert D. Jameson. Public domain.

(Original byline: A Negro fairy Folk-Tale From Uganda. Selected by M. N. Work.)[1]

The hare and the tortoise were great friends. One day they decided to search for food. They went to an ant hill and dug a hole in it so as to trap the ants. The next day, as the time drew near for them to visit the hole, the hare said, “Why should an old fool like the tortoise share this feast with me? I can easily outwit him.” So he told his friends to wait in a quiet place for the tortoise and when he came by to seize him and carry him into the tall grass through which he would have great difficulty in pushing his way. His friends did as he requested. They waited and as the tortoise came by they caught him and carried him into the tall grass. In the meantime the hare ate all the ants he wanted and scampered off home.

The tortoise, after a long struggle, managed to get out of the grass. Tired and vexed he made his way to the ant hill, but found no food. He saw there, however, the footprints of the hare, and as it flashed upon him that he had been outwitted, he became angry and said, “Never mind, my cunning friend, I will get even with you for this.”

When he reached home the hare rushed out to meet him and said. “How thankful I am to see you safe. I feared you were killed. I only escaped myself by the merest chance. Three spears just missed me. We must never go back to that ant hill.”

“Have no fear”, said the tortoise. “Our enemies are not likely to come to the same spot again. It will be quite safe for us to go there another day.”

The tortoise, knowing that the selfish hare would sneak off alone to feast on the ants, arranged with his friends to catch the hare when he was busy eating. “Wait for him”, said the tortoise, “and when he has his head deep in the hole pounce upon him, but,” he added, “do not kill him.”

“Oh” said the friends, “we like hare’s meat; we want to eat him.”

“Very well”, said the tortoise, “but if you kill him quickly he will be tough. You must take him home, then make a pot ready half filled with fine oil and salt. Put the hare in the pot leaving a hole in the cover so that you may add cold water from time to time, for if you let the oil get hot you will completely spoil the hare. Be very careful, therefore, not to let it boil.”

The friends did exactly as they were told. They trapped the hare and carried him home. Then they put him in a pot with the best of oil, the proper amount of salt and placed the pot on the fire. Water was added occasionally through the hole made in the cover. After some hours, when all was thought to be ready, the friends, having washed their hands and nicely laid out the dishes, seated themselves expectantly. The pot was placed in their midst and the cover was withdrawn when hoy! presto! out jumped the hare, and to their horror, ran away. As he rushed into his house he found his comrade waiting.

“Dear me” said the tortoise, “Where have you been?”

“Alas! said the hare, “I have been in great danger. I nearly lost my life. I’ve been caught and cooked. It was only by a miracle that I escaped.”

As he said this he began to lick himself. The tortoise, noticing that a look of pleasure rapidly succeeded that of fright, went across to him and also began to lick.

“How delicious”, said he.

“Get away”, said the greedy hare. “You have not been in the pot or through all the trials I’ve been through. Keep off.”

The tortoise, feeling that his cunning had supplied the oil and salt, began to get angry.

“Let me have your shoulder and left side to lick?”

“I will not”, said the hare, more and more enjoying himself.

The tortoise, in great fury, left the house. He had not gone far before he met his angry friends coming to meet him

“What do you mean”? they asked.

“Through your advice we have lost not only the hare, but also our fine oil and salt. When we uncovered the pot the hare jumped out and ran off with the oil and salt all clinging to him.”

The tortoise, in his rage, lost every feeling of friendship for the hare and said, “I will tell you what to do. You arrange a dance and invite the hare and when he is dancing to your tom-tom seize him and this time kill him.”

The dance was arranged. The hare was invited and came. While he was dancing the friends suddenly seized him. To make sure that he would not escape this time they killed him, skinned him and cut him up.

Thus the hare, and because for once, was outwitted of his greediness, miserably perished.

John Anderson (Scottish naturalist). *Burmese Roofed Turtle*. Hand-painted illustration, 1873, University of St Andrews, Scotland. Public domain.

“THE HARE AND THE TORTOISE.” THE CRISIS’ VOL. 12, NO. 6 (OCTOBER 1916): 271-72.

[1] In October of 1912, The Crisis published a nearly identical version of this short story: “Mr. Hare: A Story for Children.” The ending of the current version, selected by Monroe Nathan Work and published four years later in the same magazine, during World War I, is significantly less coddling than that of the 1912 version. While the 1916 hare dies, the one from 1912 survives the tortoise’s revenge.

Contexts

Starting in 1912, the October issues of The Crisis, the official magazine of the NAACP, were dedicated to children. A typical edition of these children’s numbers would contain a special editorial piece and two or three literary works specifically for children, while still including the serious pieces about contemporary issues with a focus on race that The Crisis was known for. These October numbers were sprinkled with children’s photographs sent in by the readers.

In his first editorial for the Children’s number in 1912, W. E. B. Du Bois wrote that “there is a sense in which all numbers and all words of a magazine of ideas myst point to the child—to that vast immortality and wide sweep and infinite possibility which the child represents.”

The success of The Crisis’ children’s number led to the standalone The Brownies’ Book, a monthly magazine for African American children that circulated from January 1920 to December 1921 under the editorship of Du Bois, Augustus Granville Dill, and Jessie Fauset.

1910s Folktale Wild animals

The Hare and the Elephant

By Anonymous

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

John James Audubon. *Lepus americanus. Erxlebein. Northern Hare. Summer. Natural size. 1, Male. 2, Female.* Lithograph with applied watercolor, 1843, Amon Carter Museum of American Art, Fort Worth, TX. Public domain.

(Original byline: Stories Collected by Sir Harry H. Johnston in his “Uganda Protectorate.”)[1]

One day a hare came upon an elephant standing expectantly at an ant-hole which had only that morning been dug by himself with a view to his evening meal. “What hard luck!” said the hare. “What can I do against that big hulking brute, who wants to steal my dinner? I will try a plan.” He returned to his home, made a torch of four reeds, and passed by the elephant at a great pace. “Who are you?” said the latter. “I am a hare.” “Where are you going?” “Oh,” said the hare, “we hear that an elephant is stealing our ants,” and then scampered off. A little farther on he put out the torch, and sneaked round by a by-way to his home, relighted the torch, and again went to the elephant. “Who are you?” said the big beast. “A hare.” “Where are you going?” “Oh,” said the hare, “my comrades called me because an elephant is stealing our ants,” and again went off quickly. As before, he sneaked round to his home, and then passed the elephant. “Who are you?” said the elephant. “I’m a hare.” “Where are you going?” “Haven’t you seen m y fellows pass this way? We are meeting in numbers, as we mean to have our meal which an enemy is trying to steal,” and again ran off. Going round once more to his home, he again came up with the elephant. “Who are you?” said the big animal. “I’m a hare.” “Where are you going?” “Are you blind that you haven’t seen my comrades passing? However, I’ve no time to talk.” The elephant, affected by the air of mystery, became uneasy, and thought it time to be off. When the hare came round for the last time he saw nothing but the wagging of the elephant’s tail in the distance. So he screamed out, “There he is! there he is! After him! After him!” and laughed uproariously as he heard the big brute crashing through the woods. He then went quietly back alone to his feast, chuckling as he thought of the splendid success of his stratagem.

Eadweard Muybridge. *Animal Locomotion*. Photomechanical print, 1887, Library of Congress. Public domain.

“THE HARE AND THE ELEPHANT” THE CRISIS’ VOL. 16, NO. 6 (OCTOBER 1918): 270-71.

[1] Uganda was a Protectorate of the British Empire from 1894 to 1962. Sir Henry Hamilton Johnston (1858-1927), also known as Harry Johnston, worked as a colonial administrator of the Uganda Protectorate from 1899 to 1901. Johnston was also an explorer, botanist, zoologist and artist. His book The Uganda Protectorate was first published in 1902.

Contexts

Definitions from Oxford English Dictionary:

stratagem: A skillful military plan, scheme, or approach, esp. a trick, manoeuvre, or ploy designed to deceive or surprise an enemy. Also in figurative contexts.

Contemporary Connections

Elephant poaching due to elephant ivory demand is a major environmental concern in Africa.

The Kataara Women’s Poverty Alleviation Group (KWPAG), a small community project in Uganda, promotes the creation of crafts with paper made out of elephant dung. This project seeks to combat elephant poaching, which “during the political turmoil of the 1970s and 1980s . . . decimated the elephant population in Uganda . . . from an estimated 30,000 elephants to less than 800.”

Video on how poachers threaten the survival of the African elephant.

1910s Fable Folktale Wild animals

The Bird and the Elephant

By Anonymous

Annotations by Rene Marzuk

*A Landscape in Uganda.* Original Sir Harry H. Johnston’s painting for *The Uganda Protectorate* (1902), p. 106. Public domain.

(Original byline: Stories Collected by Sir Harry H. Johnston in his “Uganda Protectorate.”) [1]

Just as the season for sowing grain was drawing near, the bird and the elephant met, and became involved in an argument as to who had the bigger voice. The dispute getting heated, they decided to lay the question before the big assembly. “We have come,” piped the little bird, “to have the question settled as to who has the bigger voice, my friend the elephant or myself?” “Yes,” grunted the elephant, “this insignificant little thing has the impudence to say his little squeak is more powerful than my trumpeting.” “Well,” said the little bird, “our homes are two hours away. Do you think that, if you bawled your loudest, your people would hear you call from here?” “Of course,” sneered the elephant; “but what do you think you are going to do, you puny little thing?” “Now, don’t get angry,” chirped the bird. “Tomorrow morning we will meet at dawn, and both call to our friends to have our dinner ready; but, as you sneered at me, we will make the stakes ten cows, to be paid by the loser to the winner.” “Right you are!” chuckled the elephant. “I want some more cattle. Good-bye, you little fool!” and went off laughing. The bet was confirmed by the “baraza.” The cunning bird at once made arrangements. He got his mates to perch within hearing distance of each other along the line to his house. “Now we will see,” said he, “how wit can triumph over brute force.” At dawn the next morning they met as agreed. The elephant was given “first try,” and bawled four times in his loudest voice. “Have you quite done?” chirped the little bird. “Yes,” sneered the elephant; “squeak away.” The little bird gave his orders, and they tramped off together. They decided that the elephant being the bigger, they would visit his home first. As they drew near, the elephant became uneasy at the quiet that reigned, and was extremely angry to find not a soul about. One was away getting food, another drawing water, another gathering firewood, and the rest, not expecting anything to occur, were also out. “Now,” said the bird, “we will try my luck.” As they approached they heard great sounds of bustling; the pathways were clean, the courtyard swept, the bird’s friends were all neatly arranged in lines to do honor to the guest; mats were laid down in the house, and an abundant feast was prepared. “Ah, my friend,” piped the little bird, “do not be down-hearted. Be thankful you have learnt at so small a cost not to despise a rival, however small he may be. So now let us ‘eat, drink, and be merry.’” Next day the elephant handed over the cattle to the bird.

Giovanni Antonio Guardi (1699-1760). *Elephant.* Oil on canvas, n.d., Wikimedia Commons. Public domain.

“THE BIRD AND THE ELEPHANT” THE CRISIS’ VOL. 16, NO. 6 (OCTOBER 1918): 271-72.

Contexts

Definitions from Oxford English Dictionary:

baraza: (East African) A meeting, assembly, or council. In early use also: a reception room.

Contemporary Connections

Elephant poaching due to elephant ivory demand is a major environmental concern in Africa.

Video on how poachers threaten the survival of the African elephant.