flâneur

The Female of the Species - Kipling

potw.org · 620 words · saved by 1 readers

WHEN the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride,     He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside.     But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail.     For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.     When Nag the basking cobra hears the careless foot of man,     He will sometimes wriggle sideways and avoid it if he can.     But his mate makes no such motion where she camps beside the trail.     For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.     When the early Jesuit fathers preached to Hurons and Choctaws,     They prayed to be delivered from the vengeance of the squaws.     'Twas the women, not the warriors, turned those stark enthusiasts pale.     For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.     Man's timid heart is bursting with the things he must not say,     For the Woman that God gave him isn't his to give away;     But when hunter meets with husbands, each confirms the other's tale—     The fe

Rudyard Kipling (1865-1936) The Female of the Species WHEN the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his pride, He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside. But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail. For the female of the species is more deadly than the male. When Nag the basking cobra hears the careless foot of man, He will sometimes wriggle sideways and avoid it if he can. But his mate makes no such motion where she camps beside the trail. For the female of the species is more deadly than the male. When the early Jesuit fathers preached to…

saved by

related reading