FOR THE GIRLS.

Auckland Star, Volume LXIII, Issue 67, 19 March 1932, Page 2 (Supplement)

FOR THE GIRLS.

JUNGLE FOLK

THE MAN WHO MADE THE RHINOCEROS LAUGH. I — — My' Dear Girls, — Did you see a paragraph in a recent issue of the "Star" , about a family of rhinoceros in Kenya Colony who disport themselves i n the forest glades at a spot which is a favourite one for picnics? There are five of them —mother, father and three children. Excursions are made to see these jungle folk. Africa abounds with legends of them. Hardly one dweller in the wild but has his niche in storyland. Here is an artless one of the man who made a rhinoceros laugh:— Kibate was a man who had many friends. He wished to build himself a house and asked all his friends for advice. Everyone's advice was different. At last Kibate thought, "if I take the advice of my friends my house will be a very queer one. I will built it alone." So he went into the jungle and made a clearing and lived there till the house was finished. As it took a long time to build, Kibate learned many things and made friends with the bsasts and birds and trees and learnt their language. When the house was finished he invited his "friends, who praised it very much, except one man, who said: "You will need one more pole in the roof or your house will fall down." Kibate saw he was right, so he took his spear and axe and went to cut a pole, when the tree called cut, "Kibate, you would not hurt an old friend." So he went to another tree, rnd it cried out, "Do not hurt me, are we not old friends ?" So it was with all the trees. Kibate sat dowm to think what to do next, when a great snake came out of th= bushes and spoke to him: "Kibate, the King will send for you. You shall Le a great chief. AH Uganda shall hear of you. You shall make fire for the army, and you shall make a rhinoceros laugh." When Kibate came out into the road many people were passing to and fro. He asked a man where they were all going, and he said, "The Kii,g of Uganda is going to war with the King of Ankole." So joined the soldiers. They marched for many days then camped on a wide plain. A dreadful storm came upon them; it rained for three nights and days. Everything was soaked and there was no fire to cook or dry anything; / The chief noticed a fire on top of a distant hill and ordered his men to go and bring a pot full of fire. When they came to the hilltop they found the fire was on the horn of a rhinoceros. They begged him for some, but, he said, "It is very dull living alone on the hilltop but the man who can tell me a funny story shall take the fire from my horn " Kibate volunteered to fetch the fire. He found the rhinoceros looking out gloomily over the plain, very bored and cross, so he began his story at once. "Once upon a time there was a King who had no feet." The rhinoceros began to laugh. "What did the King do?" he asked. "He walked on his hands," said Kibate. The rhinoceros laughed end laughed until his sides ached. Kibate took the fire and kindled the wood in his pot and went down to the plain. The rhinoceros was still laughing. . Perhaps we might not think this a funny story, . but Kibate had lived so long in the jungle, he knew S . just the kind of story a rhinoceros would find amusing.