How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin

A rude Rhinoceros upsets the Parsee's stove and eats his cake. Five weeks later the Parsee fills the Rhinoceros's skin with tickly cake-crumbs, and he scratches it into folds for ever.

Scene 1: The Parsee’s Cake

How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin. Once upon a time, on an island by the Red Sea, there lived a Parsee man. From his hat the rays of the sun were reflected in more-than-oriental splendour. He had nothing but his hat and a cooking stove that you must particularly never touch. One day he took flour and currants and sugar and things, and made himself one cake. He baked it and baked it till it was all done brown and smelt most sentimental.

Scene 2: Few Manners

Just as he was going to eat it, down came one Rhinoceros, with a horn on his nose, two piggy eyes, and few manners. In those days his skin fitted him quite tight, with no wrinkles anywhere. The Rhinoceros said: “How!” And the Parsee climbed to the top of a palm tree. The Rhinoceros upset the stove with his nose, and the cake rolled on the sand. He spiked that cake on the horn of his nose, ate it, and went away, waving his tail.

Scene 3: Them That Takes Cakes

Then the Parsee came down and put the stove back on its legs. And he said this rhyme: “Them that takes cakes which the Parsee-man bakes makes dreadful mistakes.” And there was a great deal more in that than you would think.

Scene 4: A Heat Wave

Five weeks later, there was a heat wave, and everybody took off their clothes. The Parsee took off his hat. But the Rhinoceros took off his skin, and carried it over his shoulder down to the beach. In those days it buttoned underneath with three buttons, like a raincoat. He waddled into the water and blew bubbles through his nose, leaving his skin on the beach.

Scene 5: Tickly Cake-Crumbs

Presently the Parsee came by and found the skin. He smiled one smile that ran all round his face two times, and danced three times round the skin. He filled his hat with cake-crumbs, for he never swept out his camp. He took that skin, and he shook that skin, and he scrubbed that skin, and he rubbed that skin full of old, dry, stale, tickly cake-crumbs. Then he climbed his palm tree, and waited.

Scene 6: Folds and Wrinkles

The Rhinoceros came out and buttoned his skin up with the three buttons. And it tickled like cake-crumbs in bed! He rolled and rolled and rolled, but the crumbs tickled worse and worse. He rubbed and rubbed and rubbed himself against the palm tree. He rubbed his skin into great folds, and he rubbed the buttons off! So he went home, very angry and horribly scratchy. And from that day to this, every rhinoceros has great folds in his skin, and a very bad temper. Them that takes cakes which the Parsee-man bakes makes dreadful mistakes.

Moral: Them that takes cakes which the Parsee-man bakes makes dreadful mistakes.

Questions about How the Rhinoceros Got His Skin

More stories to read aloud

• How the Camel Got His Hump — In the beginning of the world, a lazy Camel answers the Horse, the Dog and the Ox with nothing but “Humph!”, so they must do his work as well.
• The Elephant’s Child — Long ago, elephants had only short, bulgy noses, and one curious Elephant’s Child wanted to know what the Crocodile has for dinner.
• The Lion and the Mouse — A Lion catches a little Mouse but laughs and lets her go when she promises to repay him.