Why the Sea is Salt Trivia Quiz

Answer: Best-Beloved

The book had its origins in bedtime stories told by Kipling to his first child, a daughter named Josephine and called Effie. When the first three were published in a magazine, he explained his title for the trilogy as coming from the fact that she insisted he tell them "just so", using the exact same words every time. Only a year later, she died of pneumonia contracted on a family trip to New York, and her father added another nine stories in the spirit of the original ones to publish 'Just So Stories for Little Children' in 1902.

Answer: The Crab That Played With the Sea

More of the three incorrect options later. 'The Crab That Played With the Sea' tells of Pau Amma, the King Crab, whose movements in and out of his subterranean cave caused the tides which disturbed the seashore. So large was he that "One side of his great shell touched the beach at Sarawak; the other touched the beach at Pahang; and he was taller than the smoke of three volcanoes!" To keep things under control, the Eldest Magician reduced his size, and forced him to shed his shell once a year; the girl-daughter gave him scissors which he held in his arms to use as tools.

Answer: Fish

"He ate the starfish and the garfish, and the crab and the dab, and the plaice and the dace, and the skate and his mate, and the mackereel and the pickereel, and the really truly twirly-whirly eel. All the fishes he could find in all the sea he ate with his mouth-so!" The whale had eaten all of the fish in the sea before the last one, described as a 'Stute Fish, suggested he might like to try humans, and give him instructions as to how to find a Mariner on a raft. Whale swam to the designated spot, found a shipwrecked man floating on a raft, and swallowed him. Fortunately for the Mariner, he was clever enough to kick up a ruckus, giving Whale indigestion, and arranged to have Whale take him home. During the voyage he chopped up his raft, and before he left he jammed it in place across Whale's mouth (held in place by the suspenders which we didn't forget), to prevent Whale from swallowing any other humans.

Answer: Camel

These events are narrated in 'How the Camel Got His Hump'. The other three worked willingly, but Camel lazed around in the middle of the desert, saying "Humph" when asked to help. When they complained to the Djinn of the Desert, the Djinn gave a direct command, and got the same response. So a bit of magic saw Camel get a suitable fat-storage swelling on his back, allowing him to work for three days without food as compensation for the three days of idleness in which he had previously indulged. "And from that day to this the Camel always wears a humph (we call it 'hump' now, not to hurt his feelings); but he has never yet caught up with the three days that he missed at the beginning of the world, and he has never yet learned how to behave."

Answer: He ate the Parsee's cake without permission

Eating the cake was a big mistake! One hot day, after Rhinoceros had removed his skin to go swimming, the Parsee came along and (as an act of retribution) scattered cake crumbs inside it. Once Rhinoceros had put it on again, and carefully buttoned it all up, the crumbs were intensely irritating, so he rolled around to relieve the itch.

When that didn't work, he rubbed himself against a palm tree, rubbing until the skin had stretched to produce saggy-baggy folds, and the buttons that would let him take his skin off had been rubbed away. "So he went home, very angry indeed and horribly scratchy; and from that day to this every rhinoceros has great folds in his skin and a very bad temper, all on account of the cake-crumbs inside."

Answer: The High Veldt

"In the days when everybody started fair, Best Beloved, the Leopard lived in a place called the High Veldt. 'Member it wasn't the Low Veldt, or the Bush Veldt, or the Sour Veldt, but the 'sclusively bare, hot, shiny High Veldt, where there was sand and sandy-coloured rock and 'sclusively tufts of sandy-yellowish grass." In that sandy setting, all the animals, including the Leopard and the Ethiopian, were "sandy-yellow-brownish" in color, to blend in.

This made it tough for animals such as Giraffe and Zebra to detect the presence of one who was hunting them, so they moved away to a forest full of shadows, where they adapted their coloration to blend in.

When the Leopard and the Ethiopian followed them, they were amazed to find how well-disguised their prey had become, and decided to join in.

The Ethiopian made his skin darker, so he could hide in the shadows; he placed his black hands on Leopard's coat, producing five-spot patches of black that allowed Leopard to blend in with rocks or dappled sunlight. "Oh, now and then you will hear grown-ups say, 'Can the Ethiopian change his skin or the Leopard his spots?' I don't think even grown-ups would keep on saying such a silly thing if the Leopard and the Ethiopian hadn't done it once-do you? But they will never do it again, Best Beloved.

They are quite contented as they are."

Answer: The Limpopo

Elephant's Child was constantly being spanked for his "'satiable curiosity", but still went in search of the answer to his question, "till he trod on what he thought was a log of wood at the very edge of the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River, all set about with fever-trees." However, once Crocodile had grabbed his nose and was trying to pull him into the water, he changed his mind, and (as advised by a nearby knowledgeable Bi-Coloured-Python-Rock-Snake), pulled away with all his might, resulting in a greatly stretched nose.

He discovered it was useful for picking up grass, and for slapping mud on his head, but he was most excited to discover that he could use it to spank all those who had formerly disciplined him! So effective did it prove that they all went off to have nose jobs from Crocodile, "and ever since that day, O Best Beloved, all the Elephants you will ever see, besides all those that you won't, have trunks precisely like the trunk of the 'satiable Elephant's Child."

Answer: The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo

At the start of the story, Kangaroo had four short legs rather like those of a rabbit. "He was grey and he was woolly, and his pride was inordinate: he danced on a sandbank in the middle of Australia, and he went to the Big God Nqong" after having been ignored by Little God Nqa and Middle God Nquing when he asked for their help in giving him a distinctive appearance so he would stand out from all the other animals. Kangaroo was not impressed at having to spend the entire day running for his life, chased by Yellow-Dog Dingo, even when Big God Nqong pointed out that the end result was exactly as requested. Kangaroo had anticipated a bit of magic, not a lot of desperate exercise!

Answer: Painted Jaguar

Young Jaguar had initially been given instructions on how to kill and eat hedgehogs and tortoises from his mother, but when he met up with Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog and Slow-Solid Tortoise they were able to trick him into thinking each was the other one, and escape. Her next set of instructions included clear identification instructions:

"Can't curl, but can swim-
Stickly-Prickly, that's him!
Curls up, but can't swim-
Slow-Solid, that's him!"

The two friends helped each other change their appearance so as to trick Jaguar: Stickly-Prickly changed his spikes into scales, and learned to swim; Slow-Solid changed his shell into scales, so he could curl up into a defensive ball. Jaguar was indeed confused, and, on the advice of his mother, left these strange new creatures, which they dubbed Armadillo, alone.

Answer: Cat made a soft nest in which Baby could sleep

Getting Baby to laugh and keeping him amused while Woman was busy gained Cat access to the cave "for always and always and always"; stopping Baby's tears by chasing a toy around the floor, then getting him to fall asleep by lying in has arms and purring earned Cat a spot by the fire "for always and always and always"; eating the mouse guaranteed Cat milk three times a day "for always and always and always".

The hostility between Cat and people did not disappear, however, and at each stage of his success Cat repeated, "But still I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all places are alike to me." Woman accepted this, but Cat had to make separate bargains with Man and Dog. Man was so irritated that Cat added the rider to his acceptance of the requirement that he continue catching mice that he threw three of the five weapons he had at hand at Cat. We are told that this is why, to this day, three out of five men will throw things at cats. Dog made Cat agree to be nice to Baby; when Cat only agreed to do so if Baby was nice and didn't pull his tail, and also added, "But still I am the Cat who walks by himself, and all places are alike to me", Dog promptly chased Cat up a nearby tree, a practice which continues to this very day.