Showing results for "Man and Nature" in Fairy Tales, Folk Tales & Myths

Long before he hopped across the Australian plains, Old Man Kangaroo was a small, woolly creature with an oversized opinion of himself. Determined to be different from all other animals—and wonderfully run after—he makes his wish to the powerful god Nqong. The answer arrives not by magic words or gentle spells, but in the form of an endless chase led by the ever-hungry Yellow-Dog Dingo. Across deserts, salt-pans, grasslands, and rivers, Kangaroo runs, leaps, and finally hops—his legs stretching longer, his balance shifting, his shape forever altered by necessity.

When a tiger plays a trick on a wise man, how will he escape being eaten, especially when it seems that all the animals are against him? Will the jackal help him, or is it simply another trick? This traditional Indian tale, retold with a twist by Andrew Fusek Peters, provides an opportunity for talking about man's impact on the natural world.