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Nicholas Drayson

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A GUIDE TO THE BEASTS OF EAST AFRICA

Contents

1: The Wings of a Butterfly do not Give the Power of an Eagle

2: The Eagle on an Anthill Sees as Far as the Ant

3: The Ant is Eaten by the Aardvark, but Still the Anthill Grows

4: Each Aardvark has Two Exits to Its Burrow

5: The Sand of its Digging does not Blind the Porcupine

6: When Thunder Rumbles in the Sky, the Porcupine Seeks Shelter Under the Same Tree as the Leopard

7: The Giant Tree Falls, and the Bush Pigs Eat its Fruit

8: If the Rock Falls on the Melon or the Melon on the Rock, it is Not the Rock that is Smashed apart

9: The Rhino Eats the Melon, but Kills the Lion

10: The Lion does not Approach the Buffalo from the Front, the Zebra from the Back or the Snake from Any Side

11: The Snake Smiles Before it Strikes

12: The Chameleon does not Dance Before the Snake, nor the Beetle Before the Chameleon

13: The Beetle on the Elephant’s Back Cannot say There is no Dew on the Ground

14: When Elephants Fight it is Mice that Suffer

15: The Mongoose that Hunts Both Mouse and Squirrel Catches Neither

16: When the Squirrel Argues with the Monkey, it should not Ask the Baboon to Act as Judge

17: The Sleeping Leopard Opens One Eye for a Mouse, Two for a Baboon

18: As Raindrops Wash Away the Leopard’s Spots, so Wishes Blunt Its Teeth

19: A Hungry Leopard has More Teeth than a Well-fed Crocodile

20: The Wise Frog does not Count the Teeth of the Crocodile

21: The Frog Needs no String to Tether it to Water

22: A Raindrop has no Memory

23: When you give Water to a Monkey, do not Expect to see Again your Coconut Shell

24: The Monkey Bitten by a Snake Fears a Vinestem

25: A Snake may Shed its Skin but not its Soul

26: Worm is to Frog as Frog is to Snake as Snake is to Pig as Pig is to Man as Man is to Worm

27: The Worm will Reach the Water

28: As the Hyena Loves the Vulture, the Vulture Loves the Worm

29: A Hyena Stung by a Wasp is Scared of a Gnat

30: The Gnat that does not See the Swallow’s Beak will See its Stomach

31: The Swallow does not Line its Nest with Its Own Feathers

32: The Swallow does not Ask the Weaver Bird to Build its Nest, nor the Weaver Bird the Swallow

33: It is by Coming and Going that the Weaver Bird Builds Its Nest

34: The Weaver Bird does not Build its Nest Over the Crocodile

35: The Crocodile does not Heed the Rain, nor the Dying Butterfly

36: Happiness is a Butterfly

PENGUIN BOOKS

A GUIDE TO THE BEASTS OF EAST AFRICA

Nicholas Drayson was born in England and moved to Australia in 1982, where he studied zoology and gained a PhD in nineteenth-century Australian natural history writing and two daughters. He has worked as a journalist in the UK, Kenya and Australia, writing for publications such as the Daily Telegraph and Australian Geographic. He is the author of three previous novels, Confessing a Murder, Love and the Platypus and A Guide to the Birds of East Africa (Penguin, 2008).

He is now wandering through England aboard his boat, the Summer Breeze.

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The wings of a butterfly do not give the power of an eagle