I know of no Kipling story about a slow loris. The most likely book to be
read to 'a very young child' is Just So Stories. In 'The Beginning of the
Armadilloes', one of the two main characters is Slow-Solid, a tortoise.
Could this name have been misremembered as 'Slow Loris'?
To check this I suggest Micheline Halliday could recite to her
friend this verse which occurs in the story: 'Can't curl, but can swim -
/ Slow-Solid, that's him! / Curls up, but can't swim - / Stickly-Prickly,
that's him!' Another memorable sentence which was much enjoyed by my
mother and brother is: '''Son, Son!"' said his mother, ever so many times,
graciously waving her tail,...' (Mother Jaguar is a really sinister
character!)
If Just So Stories is the right book (but perhaps someone else has
a more likely suggestion), may I immodestly propose my Oxford World
Classics edition? In the notes I transcribe the lettering on one of the
illustrations to 'Armadilloes', a pastiche Elizabethan account of an
expedition to South America, to make it easy to read. There are also
transcripts by Kipling Society scholars of the runes in some of the other
illustrations, with private messages and jokes.
But the most attractive edition of JSS is the first one. Genuine
first editions cost a fortune, but it was reprinted many times and it
should be possible to find a later version of it, with the Elephant's Child
on the cover, the huge elegant print and the luxurious shiny paper.
Or maybe the slow loris was nothing to do with Kipling! Lisa
Lewis
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