Spots, Stripes, and Stolen Feathers: Traditional Origin Tales

In the nascent days of their creation, neither the Crocodile nor the Leguan Lizard possessed a tongue.

Then did the Creator, in His infinite wisdom, fashion two tongues, addressing the Crocodile and the Leguan thus: “Attend, ye two, for ye shall engage in a contest of speed. At the terminus of this race shall ye find the aforementioned tongues. The victor shall be endowed with both tongues, whilst the vanquished shall be left wanting.”

The Crocodile, being of superior size and strength to the Leguan, yet the Leguan surpassed the Crocodile in celerity, thereby attaining the finishing-line in advance.

Wherefore the Crocodile is now distinguished by naught but a rudimentary protuberance within its maw, whilst the Leguan boasts a lengthy, bifurcated tongue.

There once existed an elderly woman who cultivated a field of yams.

Upon attending to her field one morn, she discovered that her yams had been unearthed by an unknown party, much to her indignation.

'Pray tell, who has been pilfering my yams?' she exclaimed with considerable displeasure.

She was utterly incapable of ascertaining the identity of the miscreant.

Then, as she laboured in the field, she espied a drove of swine partaking of her yams! The woman, in a fit of pique, pursued the swine, assailing their snouts with her hoe.

She struck them with considerable force!

And thus, it is purported, that the porcine race possesses flattened snouts to this very day: a just punishment meted out by the woman for the theft of her yams.

The celestial orb, Sol, did condescend to grace the terrestrial sphere one day, and ensconced itself proximate to the thoroughfare.

Divers individuals did perambulate past, yet evinced no cognisance of the solar presence.

When, anon, a Jackal did traverse the selfsame path, he espied the Sun in its sedentary posture.

“Pray observe!” he exclaimed with exceeding alacrity. “The populace hath forsaken this diminutive being, leaving it in a state of destitution.”

“And a remarkably comely child it doth present!”

The Jackal, impelled by some inscrutable motive, did seize hold of the Sun. “I shall convey thee hence,” he declared, and thereupon positioned the aforementioned luminary upon his dorsal aspect.

Thereafter, the Sun did inflict a grievous burn upon the Jackal.

“Alas! Such torment I endure!” the Jackal vociferated with considerable vehemence. “Descend forthwith!”

Notwithstanding, the Sun remained affixed to the Jackal’s posterior anatomy, persisting in its act of combustion.

Thus, it is accounted how the Jackal acquired his distinctive striation.

Two lion cubs, it is recounted, did observe human warriors adorned in the habiliments of war, their visages embellished with the pigment of belligerence.

Quoth one cub unto the other, 'We stand in sore need of war-paint, do we not?'

The second cub, with an air of magnanimity, declared, 'I shall imbue thee with paint, and thereafter, thou shalt reciprocate the honour.'

Thus resolved, they did procure the requisite paint, and one cub, with meticulous care, did embellish the other with spots of sable hue, most pleasing to the eye.

Scarce had the spotted cub commenced the task of reciprocation when a human voice, resonant with distress, did rend the air: 'Assist me, I implore! A goat, my chattel, hath absconded!'

Prompted by an ardent desire to capture the errant goat, the spotted cub, in a moment of impetuous abandon, did hurl the entire vessel of paint at his companion and forthwith gave chase.

The cub so meticulously adorned with spots became, in the annals of natural history, the leopard, a creature of singular beauty and grace.

Whilst the other, the recipient of the indiscriminate dousing, evolved into the hyena, a beast of somewhat less aesthetic appeal.

It so happened that Parrot and Hen, erstwhile companions, did reside together within the confines of a certain village.

Quoth Parrot unto Hen, upon a certain day, 'I am to be wed. Prithee, might I entreat thee to lend me a portion of thy resplendent plumage?'

For it was thus in those bygone days, that Hen possessed feathers of exceeding elegance, whilst Parrot was possessed of none such finery.

Upon Parrot's return from his matrimonial sojourn, he did elect to retain possession of the borrowed feathers, declaring unto Hen, 'They do become me with greater comeliness!'

Whereupon, Hen, being justly incensed, did assail Parrot, causing the latter to take flight into the arboreal heights.

And thus it is, that Parrots now adorn themselves with feathers of beauteous hue, dwelling amidst the branches, whilst Hens remain plain of aspect and reside within the village.