StoryTitle("caps", "Introduction") ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage004", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The parents of the learned child", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "(His father and his mother)", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "Were utterly aghast to note", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The facts he would at random quote", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "On creatures curious, rare and wild;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "And wondering, asked each other:", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage006", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"An idle little child like this,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "How is it that he knows", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "What years of close analysis", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "Are powerless to disclose?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Our brains are trained, our books are big,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "And yet we always fail", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage007", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To answer why the Guinea-pig", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "Is born without a tail.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Or why the Wanderoo* should rant", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "In wild, unmeaning rhymes, ", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
* Sometimes called the "Lion-tailed or tufted Baboon of Ceylon."
DisplayImage("text", "zpage008", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Whereas the Indian Elephant", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "Will only read The Times", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage009", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Perhaps he found a way to slip", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "Unnoticed to the Zoo,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And gave the Pachyderm a tip", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "Or pumped the Wanderoo", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Ore even by an artful plan", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "Deceived our watchful eyes,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And interviewed the Pelican,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "Who is extremely wise.\"", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage010", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Oh! no,\" said he, in humble tone,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "With shy but conscious look,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "\"Such facts I never could have known", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "But for this little book.\"", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
StoryTitle("caps", "The Python") ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage011", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A Python I should not advise,—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It needs a doctor for its eyes,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "And has the measles yearly,", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage012", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "However, if you feel inclined", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To get one (to improve your mind,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "And not from fashion merely),", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Allow no music near its cage;", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage013", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And when if flies into a rage", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "Chastise it, most severely.", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage014", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "I had an Aunt in Yucatan", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Who bought a Python from a man", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "And kept it for a pet.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "She died, because she never knew", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "These simple little rules and few;—", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage015", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "The Snake is living yet.", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
StoryTitle("caps", "The Welsh Mutton") ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage016", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Cambrian Welsh or Mountain Sheep", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "Is of the Ovine race,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "His conversation is not deep", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "But then—observe his face!", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
StoryTitle("caps", "The Porcupine") ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage017", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "What! Would you slap the Porcupine?", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "Unhappy child—desist!", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Alas! That any friend of mine", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "Should turn Tupto-philist.*", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
* From the "tupto"=I strike; "philo"=I love; one that loves to strike;
The word is not found in classical Greek, nor does it occur among the
writers of the Renaissance—nor anywhere else.
DisplayImage("text", "zpage018", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To strike the meanest and the least", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "Of creatures is a sin.", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage019", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "How much more bad to beat a beast", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "With prickles on its skin.", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
StoryTitle("caps", "The Scorpion") ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage020", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Scorpion is as black as soot,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "He dearly loves to bite;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He is a most unpleasant brute", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "To find in bed, at night.", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
StoryTitle("caps", "The Crocodile") ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage021", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Whatever our faults, we can always engage", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That no fancy or fable shall sully our page,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "So take note of what follows, I beg.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "This creature so grand and august in its age,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "In its youth is hatched out of an egg.", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage022", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And oft in some far Coptic town", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Missionary sits him down", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "To breakfast by the Nile:", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The heart beneath his priestly gown", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "Is innocent of guile;", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage023", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "When suddenly the rigid frown", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of Panic is observed to drown ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "His customary smile.", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage024", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Why does he start and leap amain, ", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage025", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And scour the sandy Libyan plain", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage026", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Like one that wants to catch a train", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage027", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Or wrestles with internal pain?", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage028", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Because he finds his egg contain—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Green, hungry, horrible and plain—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "An Infant Crocodile.", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
StoryTitle("caps", "The Vulture") ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage029", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Vulture eats between his meals,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "And that's the reason why", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage030", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "He very, very rarely feels", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "As well as you and I.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "His eye is dull, his head is bald,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "His neck is growing thinner.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Oh! what a lesson for us all", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "To only eat at dinner.", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
StoryTitle("caps", "The Bison") ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage031", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Bison is vain, ", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And (I write it with pain)", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "The Door-mat you see on his head", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage032", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Is not as some learned professors maintain,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The opulent growth of a genius' brain;", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage033", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "But is sewn on with needle and thread.", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
StoryTitle("caps", "The Viper") ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage034", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Yet another great truth I record in my verse,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That some Vipers are venomous, some the reverse;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "A fact you may prove if you try;", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage035", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "By procuring two Vipers, and letting them bite;", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage036", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With the first you are only the worse for a fright,", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage037", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "But after the second you die.", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
StoryTitle("caps", "The Llama") ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage038", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Llama is a woolly sort of fleecy hairy goat,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "With an indolent expression and an undulating throat", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "Like an unsuccessful literary man.", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage039", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And I know the place he lives in (or at least—I think I do)", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It is Equador, Brazil or Chili—possibly Peru;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "You must find it in the Atlas if you can.", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage040", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Llama of the Pampasses you never should confound", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "(In spite of a deceptive similarity of sound)", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "With the Lhama who is Lord of Turkestan.", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage041", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "For the former is a beautiful and valuable beast,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But the latter is not lovable nor useful in the least;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "And the Ruminant is preferable surely to the Priest", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Who battens on the woeful superstitions of the East,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "The Mongol of the Monastery of Shan.", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
StoryTitle("caps", "The Chamois") ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage042", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Chamois inhabits", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Lucerne, where his habits", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "(Though why I have not an idear-r)", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Give him sudden short spasms", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "On the brink of deep chasms,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "And he lives in perpetual fear.", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
StoryTitle("caps", "The Frozen Mammoth") ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage043", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "This creature, though rare,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Is still found to the East", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "Of the Northern Siberian Zone.", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage044", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "It is known to the whole of that primitive group", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "That the carcass will furnish an excellent soup,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "Though the cooking it offers one drawback at least", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "(Of a serious nature I own):", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage045", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "If the skin be but punctured before it is boiled,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Your confection is wholly and utterly spoiled.", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage046", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L1", "", "And hence (on account of the size of the beast)", "") ?>
PoemLine("L2", "", "The dainty is nearly unknown.", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
StoryTitle("caps", "The Microbe") ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage047", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "The Microbe is so very small", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "You cannot make him out at all,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But many sanguine people hope", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "To see him through a microscope.", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "His jointed tougue that lies beneath", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "A hundred curious rows of teeth;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "His seven tufted tails with lots", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Of lovely pink and purple spots,", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>
DisplayImage("text", "zpage048", "
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PoemStart() ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "On each of which a pattern stands,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Composed of forty separate bands;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "His eyebrows of a tender green;", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "All these have never yet been seen—", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "But Scientists, who ought to know,", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Assure us that they must be so. . . .", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "Oh! let us never, never doubt", "") ?>
PoemLine("L0", "", "What nobody is sure about!", "") ?>
PoemEnd() ?>