In which the Eldest Magician sets all the creatures of the earth, air, and sea to their proper roles as part of the grand play of the Very Beginning, while Pau Amma the Crab mischievously disrupts the Sea with his own stubborn antics. Through the wise observations of a little girl and the Magician’s stern but kindly magic, Pau Amma learns the gifts and limitations that define his place between land and sea, shaping the tides and the nature of his kind ever after.

In which a sprightly little girl named Taffimai and her clever father, Tegumai, discover the magic of making sounds visible through simple pictures etched on birch-bark, setting the wheels in motion for a new way to share thoughts without speaking. Together they play and puzzle their way through shapes and signs by the riverbank, inventing marks that will one day grow into the very alphabet itself.

In which a resourceful little girl named Taffy, faced with her father’s broken spear and no means to send a message, invents a novel way of drawing pictures upon birch-bark to communicate across languages and distances. This quaint adventure, witnessed by a wary tribe and a foreign stranger, softly unveils the dawn of writing in the days when men lived simply yet dreamed grandly.

In which a stickly-prickly Hedgehog and a slow-solid Tortoise dwell peacefully by the turbid Amazon until a puzzled Painted Jaguar, unsure how to distinguish one from the other, seeks to capture them by the instructions of his cautious mother. Through cleverness and unexpected transformations, the two friends discover new ways of swimming and curling, much to the astonishment of Jaguar and his mother, leading to the birth of a curious new creature for all to admire.

In which a proud and woolly creature, eager to be unlike any other, seeks the help of mighty gods and finds himself pursued across the vast, sunbaked continent by a tireless and hungry adversary. Through relentless running and hopping, the creature’s form and fortunes change in a way that marks him forever, as the landscape bears witness to their extraordinary race.

In which a young Elephant, driven by an insatiable curiosity quite unlike the others in his family, embarks on a daring journey to the great grey-green, greasy Limpopo River to discover what the Crocodile has for dinner. Along the way, he encounters various creatures and, through a most peculiar adventure, gains a remarkable new feature that changes his life and the life of all elephants forever.

In which the Leopard and the Ethiopian discover that blending with their surroundings is the new cunning way to survive the shifting habits of the animals and the forests of South Africa. They undergo remarkable transformations that teach them how colour and pattern serve as nature's clever disguise to outwit both prey and predator alike.

In which a Parsee man bakes a grand cake on a remote island by the Red Sea and encounters a rather ill-mannered rhinoceros whose skin fits quite snugly. Upon a heatwave, the creature removes his skin like a coat, leading to a most troublesome and ticklish predicament that shapes the rhinoceros’s appearance and temper thereafter.

In which a certain obstinate Camel, living aloof in the desert and quite unwilling to lend his strength to Man’s labour, acquires a most peculiar and useful characteristic by the hand of a Djinn. This tale thus unfolds with a gentle lesson about idleness and the curious consequences it breeds in a world freshly made.

In which a very hungry Whale, having devoured all the fish in the sea, encounters a small, clever fish who introduces him to the curious taste of man, thus beginning an extraordinary adventure beneath the waves. Through a remarkable series of events involving a resourceful mariner and a trusty jack-knife, the Whale’s throat is forever changed, revealing why he must henceforth be content with the smallest of prey.