Ok, great! You are doing so well; let's try out these new gestures you have been learning as you navigate this classic story by Rudyard Kipling.
Practice these gestures:
- Two Finger Up Swipe
- Two Finger Tap
- Two Finger Down Swipe
- Four Finger Taps at the top and bottom of the screen
- Practice using the Rotor to navigate in different ways; which do you like?
Once you have finished, click the link at the bottom of the screen to go to the next lesson.
How the Camel got its Hump
Now here is the next tale, it tells how the Camel got his hump.
In the beginning, when the world was new, the Animals were just beginning to work for Man. There was a Camel, and he lived in the middle of a Howling Desert because he did not want to work; and besides, he was a Howler himself. So he ate dry sticks and thorns and tamarisks and milkweed and prickles, while being lazy; and when anybody spoke to him he said 'Humph!', Just 'Humph!' and nothing more!
After a while, the Horse came to him on a Monday morning, he had a saddle on his back and a bit in his mouth, and said, 'Camel, O Camel, come out and trot like the rest of us.'
'Humph!' said the Camel; and the Horse went away and told the Man.
After a while, the Dog came to him, with a stick in his mouth, and said, 'Camel, O Camel, come and fetch and carry like the rest of us.'
'Humph!' said the Camel; and the Dog went away and told the Man.
After a while, the Ox came to him, with the yoke on his neck and said, 'Camel, O Camel, come and plough like the rest of us.'
'Humph!' said the Camel; and the Ox went away and told the Man.
At the end of the day the Man called the Horse and the Dog and the Ox together, and said, 'Three, O Three, I'm very sorry for you (with the world so new-and-all); but that Humph-thing in the Desert can't work, or he would have been here by now, so I am going to leave him alone, and you must work double-time to make up for it.'
That made the Three very angry (with the world so new-and-all), and they held a pow-wow on the edge of the Desert; and the Camel came chewing on milkweed looking very lazy, and laughed at them. Then he said 'Humph!' and went away again.
After a while, there came along the Genie in charge of All Deserts, rolling in a cloud of dust (Genies always travel that way because it is Magic after all), and he stopped to palaver and pow-pow with the Three.
'Genie of All Deserts,' said the Horse, 'is it right for any one to be lazy, with the world so new-and-all?'
'Certainly not,' said the Genie.
'Well,' said the Horse, 'there's a thing in the middle of your Howling Desert (and he's a Howler himself) with a long neck and long legs, and he hasn't done a stroke of work since Monday morning. He won't even trot.'
'Whew!' said the Genie, whistling, 'that's my Camel, for all the gold in Arabia! What does he say about it?'
'He says "Humph!"' said the Dog; 'and he won't fetch and carry anything.'
'Does he say anything else?'
'Only "Humph!"; and he won't plough,' said the Ox.
'Very good,' said the Genie. 'I'll get him if you will kindly wait a minute.'
The Genie rolled himself up in his dust cloud, and took a bearing across the desert, and found the Camel lazily looking at his own reflection in a pool of water.
My old friend Bubbles,' said the Genie, 'what's this I hear of your doing no work, with the world so new-and-all?'
'Humph!' said the Camel.
The Genie sat down, with his chin in his hand, and began to think a Great Magic, while the Camel looked at his own reflection in the pool of water.
You've given the Three extra work ever since Monday morning, all on account of your idleness,' said the Genie; and he went on thinking Magics, with his chin in his hand.
'Humph!' said the Camel.
I shouldn't say that again if I were you,' said the Genie; you might say it once too often. Bubbles, I want you to work.'
And the Camel said 'Humph!' again; but no sooner had he said it than he saw his back, that he was so proud of, puffing up and puffing up into a great big lolloping hump.
'Do you see that?' said the Genie. 'That's your very own Hump that you've brought upon your very own self by not working. Today is Thursday, and you've done no work since Monday, when the work began. Now you are going to work.'
'How can I, said the Camel, 'with this Hump on my back?'
'That was made on purpose,' said the Genie, 'all because you missed those three days. Now you will be able to work for three days without eating, because you can live on your hump; and don't you ever say I never did anything for you. Come out of the Desert and go to the Three, and behave.
And the Camel took himself, humph and all, and went away to join the Three. And from that day to this, the Camel always wears a hump, and he has never yet learned how to behave.
I really like that story, we should all remember it.