Hi, this is Unpretending Spontaneous.
We’re just giving a content note before Spencer reads chapter three of Dot And The Kangaroo. This book was written published in 1899 so there are not the social terms, or social etiquettes, or political correctness as we in 2023 are used to. This chapter, chapter three, talks about humans, “murdering animals” it talks about “black humans” and “white humans”. Chapter three also has detailed description of a kookaburra killing a snake and eating it. So we suggest that while you listen, if you want to listen, that you please listen take care of yourselves. We are quite happy for comments or emails regarding this chapter Thanks
unpretendingspontaneous@gmail.com
Hi . This Spencer, on Spencer reads, on Unpretending’s Substack.
And I am reading Dot And The Kangaroo, written by Ethal Pedley, and this is chapter three.
When Dot awoke, she did so with a start of fear. Something in her sleep had seemed to tell her that she was in danger. At a first glance she saw that the Kangaroo had left her, and coiled upon her body was a young black Snake. Before Dot could move, she heard a voice from a tree, outside the cave, say, very softly, “Don’t be afraid! Keep quite still, and you will not get hurt. Presently I’ll kill that snake. If I try to do it now it might bite you; so let it sleep on.” (That would be so scary!)
She looked up in the direction of the tree, and saw a big Kookaburra perched on a bough, with all the creamy feathers of its breast fluffed out, and its crest very high. The Kookaburra is one of the jolliest birds in the bush, and is always cracking jokes and laughing, but this one was keeping as quiet as he could. Still he could not be quite serious, and a smile played all round his huge beak. Dot could see that he was nearly bursting with suppressed laughter. He kept on saying under his breath, “What a joke this is! What a capital joke! How they’ll all laugh when I tell them.” Just as if it was the funniest thing in the world to have a snake coiled up on one’s body; when the horrid thing might bite one with its poisonous fangs, at any moment! (Now I was a bit scared earlier and Unpretending told me that they’d read the chapter, and it’s all okay, no one gets hurt, and the snake, being young just wanted to find a warm place and Dot would have being warm…, the snake doesn’t realise it’s a person so it’s okay.)
Dot said she didn’t see any joke, and it was no laughing matter.
“To be sure you don’t see the joke,” said the jovial bird. “Onlookers always see the jokes, and I’m an onlooker. It’s not to be expected of you, because you’re not an onlooker”; and he shook with suppressed laughter again.
“Where is my dear Kangaroo?” Asked Dot.
“She has gone to get you some berries for breakfast,” said the Kookaburra, “and she asked me to look after you, and that’s why I’m here. That Snake got on you whilst I flew away to consult my doctor, the White Owl, about the terrible indigestion I have. He’s very difficult to catch awake; for his out all night and sleepy all day. He said Cockchafers have caused it. (We had to look that up, cockchafers are actually Christmas Beetles. Because there are interesting words here that grownups use). The horny wing cases and legs are most indigestible, he assures me. I didn’t fancy them much when I ate them last night, so I took his advice and coughed them up, and I’m no longer feeling depressed. Take my advice, and don’t eat Cockchafers, little Human”. (There are people on my inside, laughing their heads off. They must be silly boys).
Dot did not really hear all this, nor heed the excellent advice of the Kookaburra, not to eat those hard green beetles that had disagreed with it, for a little shivering moment had gone through the Snake, and presently all the scales of its shining black back and rosy underpart began to move. (Another Little adds a comment - Ohh that’s a Redbelly Black Snake, they are really poisonous! You don’t get them crawling on you very much! So don’t be afraid to come to Australia!)
Dot felt quite sick as she saw the reptile begin to uncoil itself, as it lay upon her. She hardly dared to breathe but lay as still as if she were dead so as not to frighten or anger the horrid creature, which presently seemed to slip like a slimy cord over her bare legs and wriggled away to the entrance of the cave. (She must be the bravest girl in the world).
(Other Little - I’ve only seen a Red Belly Black Snake once, at that was at Taronga Zoo, but it wasn’t at the Zoo. It was outside at the car park on a rock. And no one touched it. You just don’t go near the snake, and you just make lots of noise where there’s snakes, and their so scared of humans that, they’ll just go away. Dogs get bitten by snakes a lot, because they’re a bit dumb…, even though they’re wonderful).
(I need to let you know that it’s me Spencer reading, but there’s somebody else with me too, talking, so…, I don’t know what that’s about.)
With a quick, delighted movement, she sat up, eager to see where the deadly Snake would go. It was very drowsy, having slept heavily on Dots warm little body; so it went slowly towards the bush, to get some frogs or birds (little birds) for breakfast. But as it wriggled into the warm morning sunlight outside, Dot saw as sight that made her clap her hands together with anxiety for the life of the jolly Kookaburra.
No sooner did the Black Snake get outside the cave, then she saw the Kookaburra fall like a stone from its branch, right on top of the Snake. For a second, Dot thought the bird must have tumbled down dead, it was such a sudden fall; but a moment later she saw it flutter on the ground, in battle with the poisonous reptile, whilst the snake wriggled and coiled its body into hoops and rings. The Kookaburra’s strong wings, beating the air just above the withering Snake, made a great noise, and the serpent hissed in its fierce hatred and anger. Then thought saw that the Kookaburra’s big beak had a firm hold of the Snake by the back of the neck, and it was trying to fly upwards with its enemy. In vain the dreadful creature tried to bite the gallant bird; in vain it hissed and stuck out its wicked little spiky tongue; in vain it tried to coil itself round the bird’s body; the Kookaburra was too strong and too clever to lose its hold, or let the Snake get power over it. (Well. There you go).
At last Dot saw that the Snake was getting weaker and weaker for, little by little, the Kookaburra was able to rise higher with it, until it reached the high bough. (That’s the high branch of the tree). All the time the Snake was held in the bird’s beak, withering and coiling in agony; for he knew that the Kookaburra had won the battle. But, when the noble bird had reached its perch, it did a strange thing; for it dropped the Snake right down to the ground. Then it flew down again, and brought the reptile back to the bough, and dropped it once more – and this it did many times.
Each time the Snake moved less and less for it back was being broken by the falls. (The poor snake). At last the Kookaburra flew up with it’s victim for the last time, and holding it on the branch with it’s foot (ooh this is bad), beat the serpents head with its strong beak. (What a violent creature kookaburra’s can be). Dot could hear the blows fall, whack, whack, whack as the beat smote the Snakes head, first on one side, then on the other, until it laid limp and dead across the bough. (Holy Manoly that’s a lot of describing words. Now it’s going to laugh!)
(The words say) “Ah, ah, ah! Ah, ah, ah!” laughed the Kookaburra (but if it was a real kookaburra it’ll be going I’ll get you a kookaburra sound by the end of this), laughed the Kookaburra and said to Dot, “Did you see all that? Wasn’t it a joke! What a capital joke! (And then it laughed again) Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha, Ha! Oh, oh, oh! How my sides do ache! What a joke! How they’ll laugh when I tell them.” Then came a great flight of kookaburras, for they had heard the laughter, and all wanted to know what the joke was. Proudly the Kookaburra told them all about the Snake sleeping on Dot, and the great fight. All the time, first one kookaburra, and then another, chuckled over the story, and when it came to an end every bird dropped its wings, cocked up its tail, and throwing back its head, opened its great beak, and all laughed up roaringly together. (And if I can, I’m going to get you a sound bite of a lot of kookaburras laughing together. See the end of the post for the link.)
Dot was nearly deafened by the noise; for some chuckled, some cackled; some said, “Ha, ha, ha!” others said, Oh, oh, oh!” and as soon as one left off, another began, until it seemed as though they couldn’t stop. They all said it was a splendid joke, and that they really must go and tell it to the whole bush. So they flew away, and far and near, for hours, the bush echoed with chuckling and cackling, and wild bursts of laughter, as the kookaburras told that grand joke everywhere.
“Now,” said the Kookaburra, when all the others had gone, “a bit of a Snake is just the right thing for breakfast. Will you have some, little Human?”
Dot shuddered at the idea of eating snake for breakfast, and the Kookaburra thought she was afraid of being poisoned.
“It won’t hurt you,” he said kindly. “I took care that it did not bite itself. Sometimes they do that when they are dying, and then they’re not good to eat. But this Snake is all right and won’t disagree like cockchafers: the scales are quite soft and digestible,” he added.
But Dot said she would rather wait for the berries that Kangaroo was bringing, so the Kookaburra remarked that if she would excuse him, he would like to begin breakfast at once, as the fight had made him hungry.
Then Dot saw him hold the reptile on the branch with his foot, whilst he took its tail into his beak and proceeded to swallow it in a leisurely way. In fact, the Kookaburra was so slow that very little of the snake had disappeared when the Kangaroo returned.
The Kangaroo had brought a pouch full of berries, and in her hand a small spray of the magic ones, by eating which Dot was able to understand the talk of all the bush creatures. All the time she was wandering in the bush the Kangaroo gave her some of these to eat daily, and Dot soon found that the effect of these strange berries only lasted until the next day. (I would like to eat some of those, but you’re not allowed to eat berries if you don’t know where they come from.)
The Kangaroo emptied out her pouch, and Dot found quite a large collection of roots, buds, and berries, which she ate with good appetite.
The Kangaroo watched her eating with a look of quiet satisfaction.
“See,” she said, (I can’t remember how I got the kangaroo to talk). “See”, she said, “how easily one can live in the bush without hurting anyone; and yet Humans live by murdering creatures and devouring them. If they are lost in the scrub they die, because they know no other way to live than that cruel one of destroying us all. Humans have become so cruel, that they kill, and kill, not even for food, but for the love of murdering. I often wonder, she said, why they and the Dingoes are allowed to live on this beautiful kind Earth. The Black Humans kill and devour us; but they, even, are not so terrible as the Whites, who delight in taking our lives, and torturing us just as an amusement. Every creature in the bush weeps that they should have come to take the beautiful bush away from us.” (I’d weep too).
Dot saw that the sad brown eyes of the Kangaroo were full of tears, and she cried, too, as she thought of all the poor animals and birds that suffer at the hands of White men. “Dear Kangaroo,” she said, “if I ever get home, I’ll tell everyone of how you unhappy creatures live in fear, and suffer, and ask them not to kill you poor things any more.”
But the Kangaroo sadly shook her head and said: “White Humans are cruel, and love to murder. We must all die. But about your lost way,” she continued in a brisk tone, by the way of changing this painful subject; “I have been asking about it, and no one has seen it anywhere. (has seen her lost way). Of course, some one must know where it is, but the difficulty is to find the right one to ask.” Then she dropped her voice, and came a little nearer to Dot, and stooping down until her little black hands hung close to the ground, she whispered in Dot’s ear, “they say I ought to consult the Platypus.”
“Could the Platypus help, do you think?” Dot asked.
“I never think, said the Kangaroo, “but as the Platypus never goes anywhere, never associates with any other creature, and is hardly ever seen, I conclude it knows everything – it must, you know.”
“Of course,” said Dot, with some doubt in her tone.
“The only thing is,” continued the Kangaroo, once more sitting up and pensively scratching her nose, “the only thing is, I can’t bear the Platypus; the sight of it gives me the creeps: it’s such a queer creature!” (That’s funny because we use the words ‘gives me the creeps’ these days.)
“I’ve never seen a Platypus, said Dot. Do tell me what it is like!”
“I couldn’t describe it,” said the Kangaroo with a shudder. “It seems made up of parts of two or three different sorts of creatures. None of us can account for it. It must have been an experiment, when all the rest of us were made; or else it was made up of the odds and ends of the birds and beasts that were left over after we were all finished.”
Little Dot clapped her hands, “Oh, dear Kangaroo,” she said, “do take me to see the Platypus! There is nothing like that in my Noah’s Ark.”
“I should say not!” remarked the kangaroo. The animals in the Ark said they were each to be of its kind, and every sort of bird and beast refused to admit the Platypus, because it was of so many kinds; and at last Noah turned it out to swim for itself, (we know this isn’t really true, don’t we?) because there was such a row. That’s why the Platypus is so secluded. Ever since then no Platypus is friendly with any other creature, and no animal or bird is mould than just polite to it. They couldn’t be, you see, because of that trouble in the Ark.”
“But that was so long ago,” said Dot filled with compassion for the lonely Platypus; “and, after all, this is not the same Platypus, nor are all the bush creatures the same now as then.”
“No,” returned the kangaroo, “and some say there was no Ark, and no fuss over the matter, but that, of course, doesn’t make any difference, for it’s a very ancient quarrel, so it must be kept up. But if we are to go to the Platypus we had better start now; it is a good time to see it – so come along, little Dot,” said the Kangaroo.
And that’s the end of chapter three.
It brings up lots of thoughts, don’t you think? Anyway, I’m pretty impressed with this Ethal Pedley person because she’s bringing controversial words and thinkings into this book. I reckon she must have been one of those people who like paved the way for…, like people who didn’t think the same as everybody else, what are they called? They call them something, I don’t know…, (Trailblazers is the word Spencer was looking for) and this has been Spencer, I know there’s other people around, Ijust know it, for Spencer reads, on Unpretending’s Substack.
And they say, “we hope you have a wonderful day.” And I say we hope you have a wonderful day and please comment and share and subscribe. And “take it easy,” that’s what South East says. What do I say? I say Bye.
Below is a link to Laughing Kookaburra Calls | Wildlife Sounds by Wild Ambience
https://wildambience.com/wildlife-sounds/laughing-kookaburra/