The Elephant's Child pulling bananas off a banana-tree
Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936)
1926
3 x 4 3/4 inches
"The Elephant's Child," Just So Stories, p. 69.
Kipling's Commentary THIS is just a picture of the Elephant's Child going to pull bananas off a banana-tree after he had got his fine new long trunk. I don't think it is a very nice picture; but I couldn't make it any better, because elephants and bananas are hard to draw. The streaky things behind the Elephant's Child mean squoggy marshy country somewhere in Africa. The Elephant's Child made most of his mud-cakes out of the mud that he found there. I think it would look better if you painted the banana-tree green and the Elephant's Child red. [p. 69]
Scanned image and text by George P. Landow