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Beloved.

Now listen and attend!

From that day to this the Moon has always pulled the sea up and
down and made what we call the tides. Sometimes the Fisher of the
Sea pulls a little too hard, and then we get spring tides; and
sometimes he pulls a little too softly, and then we get what are
called neap-tides; but nearly always he is careful, because of
the Eldest Magician.

And Pau Amma? You can see when you go to the beach, how all Pau
Amma's babies make little Pusat Taseks for themselves under every
stone and bunch of weed on the sands; you can see them waving
their little scissors; and in some parts of the world they truly
live on the dry land and run up the palm trees and eat cocoa-nuts,
exactly as the girl-daughter promised. But once a year all
Pau Ammas must shake off their hard armour and be soft-to remind
them of what the Eldest Magician could do. And so it isn't fair
to kill or hunt Pau Amma's babies just because old Pau Amma was
stupidly rude a very long time ago.

Oh yes! And Pau Amma's babies hate being taken out of their
little Pusat Taseks and brought home in pickle-bottles. That is
why they nip you with their scissors, and it serves you right!


CHINA-GOING P's and O's
Pass Pau Amma's playground close,
And his Pusat Tasek lies
Near the track of most B.I.'s.
U.Y.K. and N.D.L.
Know Pau Amma's home as well
As the fisher of the Sea knows
'Bens,' M.M.'s, and Rubattinos.
But (and this is rather queer)
A.T.L.'s can not come here;
O. and O. and D.O.A.
Must go round another way.
Orient, Anchor, Bibby, Hall,
Never go that way at all.
U.C.S. would have a fit
If it found itself on it.
And if 'Beavers' took their cargoes
To Penang instead of Lagos,
Or a fat Shaw-Savill bore
Passengers to Singapore,
Or a White Star were to try a
Little trip to Sourabaya,
Or a B.S.A. went on
Past Natal to Cheribon,
Then great Mr. Lloyds would come
With a wire and drag them home!

You'll know what my riddle means
When you've eaten mangosteens.

Or if you can't wait till then, ask them to let you have the
outside page of the Times; turn over to page 2 where it is marked
'Shipping' on the top left hand; then take the Atlas (and that is
the finest picture-book in the world) and see how the names of
the places that the steamers go to fit into the names of the
places on the map. Any steamer-kiddy ought to be able to do that;
but if you can't read, ask some one to show it you.




THE CAT THAT WALKED BY HIMSELF

HEAR and attend and listen; for this befell and behappened and
became and was, O my Best Beloved, when the Tame animals were
wild. The Dog was wild, and the Horse was wild, and the Cow was
wild, and the Sheep was wild, and the Pig was wild--as wild
as wild could be--and they walked in the Wet Wild Woods by
their wild lones. But the wildest of all the wild animals was

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