In bygone times, when this and that was still missing – the humps on the camel’s back or the elephant’s trunk for example – there were no armardillos either. Rudyard Kipling has resolved the greatest mysteries in his famous Just So Stories – amongst them the puzzle surrounding the origin of the armadillos:
The hedgehog and his friend the tortoise lived on the banks of the Amazon. They ate snails and salad. Which was fine. But a spotted jaguar lived in the same place. He was a little simpleminded, but very ravenous and therefore dangerous. Even more so as his mother had taught him how to eat even prickly hedgehogs and armoured tortoises without any damage. But the two were smart and managed to confuse the jaguar so much that the poor wildcat was no longer able to remember his mother’s advice and ended up returning home hungry and with prickles in his paws. Yet the jaguar remained dangerous because his mother was a good and relentless teacher. The hedgehog and the tortoise had to come up with a better plan …
by Rudyard Kipling, illustrated by Ulrike Möltgen
Peter Hammer Verlag | hc | 32 pp | 305 x 280 mm | 2014 | 5+
All rights available
[Die Entstehung der Gürteltiere]