"Before the High and Far-Off Times, O my Best Beloved, came the Time of the Very Beginnings..." So commences the series of incredible tales from master storyteller Rudyard Kipling. How did the whale get his throat? Why was the lazy camel lumbered with a hump? And how did the elephant's insatiable curiosity earn him a trunk? Kipling first invented these delightful, warm and humorous stories about the beginning of the world and the first animals in it for his own daughter, Josephine, who tragically died when she was six. Devastated by her loss, Kipling compiled the stories they had shared together into a treasury, which was first published in 1902. Conjuring up distant lands and exotic jungles, the imaginative tales are bewitching for both children and adults. This new edition brings together the complete and unabridged text (including the thirteenth story, The Tabu Tale, which is often excluded from modern publications). Award-winning artist Robert Ingpen has interpreted and enriched the stories with stunning new illustrations that bring an unforgettable cast of extraordinary animal characters to life.