This 1912 image by J M Gleeson illustrates Kipling’s How the Leopard Got Its Spots tale: The Leopard used to live on the sandy-colored High Veldt. He too was sandy-colored, and so was hard for prey animals like Giraffe and Zebra to see when he lay in wait for them. The Ethiopian lived there too and was similarly colored. He, with his bow and arrows, used to hunt with the Leopard. Then the prey animals left the High Veldt to live in a forest and grew blotches, stripes and other forms of camouflage. The Leopard and the Ethiopian were hungry and consulted Baviaan, the wise baboon, who said the pr
This 1936 image by J M Gleeson illustrates Kipling’s How the Leopard Got Its Spots tale: The Leopard used to live on the sandy-colored High Veldt. He too was sandy-colored, and so was hard for prey animals like Giraffe and Zebra to see when he lay in wait for them. The Ethiopian lived there too and was similarly colored. He, with his bow and arrows, used to hunt with the Leopard. Then the prey animals left the High Veldt to live in a forest and grew blotches, stripes and other forms of camouflage. The Leopard and the Ethiopian were hungry and consulted Baviaan, the wise baboon, who said the prey animals had “gone into other spots” and advised them to do the same. So they went searching and came to the forest. They could smell Giraffe and Zebra there but could not see them. When night came, they managed to catch Giraffe and Zebra by sound and scent. Asked why they looked so different, the two prey animals demonstrated how easily they could disappear against the forest background. So the Ethiopian changed his skin to black, and marked the Leopard’s coat with his bunched black fingertips. Then they too could hide. They lived happily ever after, and will never change their coloring again. Joseph Rudyard Kipling (1936) was an English journalist, short-story writer, poet, and novelist. He was born in British India, which inspired much of his work. Kipling's works of fiction include the Jungle Book dilogy, Kim, the Just So Stories (published 1902) and many short stories, including The Man Who Would Be King. Joseph Michael Gleeson (1861-1917) was an American painter and illustrator.
Size: 3614px × 5160px
Photo credit: © Ivy Close Images / Alamy / Afripics
License: Royalty Free
Model Released: No
Keywords: 1900s, 1902, baviaan, early, english, ethiopian, gleeson, high, journalist, king, kipling, leopard, lit, man, rudyard, spots, stories, story, veldt, writer
