A long, long time ago, my dear, the Elephant had no trunk. He had only a dark, round nose, as big as a boot. He could move it from side to side, but he could not pick up things with it.
But there was one elephant, a new young elephant, the Elephant's Child, who was full of curiosity. That means he always wanted to know things, and he asked many, many questions.
He lived in Africa, and he filled all Africa with his questions. He asked his tall aunt, the Ostrich, why her tail feathers grew like that, and his tall aunt, the Ostrich, spanked him with her hard, hard claw. He asked his tall uncle, the Giraffe, what made his skin spotty, and his tall uncle, the Giraffe, spanked him with his hard, hard hoof. He asked his broad aunt, the Hippopotamus, why her eyes were red, and she spanked him with her broad, broad hoof. And he asked his hairy uncle, the Baboon, why melons tasted like melons, and his hairy uncle, the Baboon, spanked him with his hairy, hairy paw.
And still he was full of curiosity! He asked questions about everything that he saw, or heard, or felt, or smelled, or touched, and all his uncles and his aunts spanked him. And still he was full of curiosity.
One fine morning, the Elephant's Child asked a new question that he had never asked before. He asked, “What does the Crocodile have for dinner?”
Then everybody said, “Hush!” in a loud and terrible voice, and they spanked him immediately, for a long time.
When they finished, he walked away and found the Kolokolo Bird sitting in the middle of a thorn bush.
“My father has spanked me, and my mother has spanked me, and all my aunts and uncles have spanked me for my curiosity,” he said. “And still I want to know what the Crocodile has for dinner!”
The Kolokolo Bird answered with a sad cry, “Go to the banks of the great gray-green, greasy Limpopo River, where the fever trees grow, and find out.”
The next morning, the Elephant's Child took a hundred pounds of bananas, a hundred pounds of sugar cane and seventeen melons. He said to his family, “Goodbye. I am going to the great gray-green, greasy Limpopo River to find out what the Crocodile has for dinner.” And they all spanked him once more, for luck.