The Listening Grove · Just So Stories
Chapter 8: How the First Letter Was Written
A Charlotte Mason read-aloud lesson. Press play, with the lesson.
What is Just So Stories Chapter 8, How the First Letter Was Written, about?Parent review
Just So Stories Chapter 8, How the First Letter Was Written, is Rudyard Kipling’s tale of Taffy, a little Neolithic girl who went everywhere with her Daddy, Tegumai. One day by the Wagai river, Tegumai broke his fishing spear, and Taffy wished they could write home for his other one, the black-handled spear. When a Stranger-man from the far Tewara tribe came by, Taffy borrowed the shark’s tooth from his necklace and scratched a picture on birch-bark to show him what to fetch and the way to her Mummy’s Cave. But when her Mummy, Teshumai, saw the picture, she thought it showed Tegumai stuck full of spears. The Neolithic ladies sat on the poor Stranger-man and filled his hair with mud, and the whole Tribe of Tegumai marched down to the river, only to find Taffy making daisy-chains. When Taffy explained, the Head Chief laughed and said she had hit upon a great invention that men would one day call writing.
Say what you remember!
Tell what you remember from the last story.
What happened in Just So Stories Chapter 7, The Beginning of the Armadillos?Have a look
In Chapter 7, The Beginning of the Armadillos, Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog and Slow-Solid Tortoise muddled Painted Jaguar so much that he got a paw full of prickles and the Tortoise swam away. Then the friends taught each other: the Hedgehog learned to swim and the Tortoise learned to curl up, until they both turned scaly. Mother Jaguar called the new animals Armadillos, and told her son to leave them alone.
Read the previous lesson: The Beginning of the Armadillos →Show what you know!
Say what you think each word means, then click to check your answers and learn some new words today.
What are the difficult or advanced vocabulary words in Just So Stories Chapter 8, How the First Letter Was Written?Neolithic, haughty, Reverberating, orationHave a look
- Neolithic: from the last part of the Stone Age
- haughty: proud in a way that looks down on others
- Reverberating: echoing again and again
- oration: a formal, dignified speech
The Books come Alive!
Read or listen to Chapter 8 of Just So Stories, the Kindred Thicket Classic Edition.
Read by Phil Chenevert for LibriVox (public domain), adjusted and trimmed by Kindred Thicket.
Memory becomes Action!
Use the names below to remember and spell tricky names. Choose one way to narrate.
What is the list of names, people, characters, and places that are important in Chapter 8 of Just So Stories?Tegumai Bopsulai, Taffimai Metallumai, Teshumai Tewindrow, The Stranger-man, The Head Chief, The Wagai riverHave a look
- Tegumai Bopsulai: Taffy's Daddy, a Neolithic man of the Tribe of Tegumai.
- Taffimai Metallumai: Tegumai's little girl-daughter, called Taffy for short.
- Teshumai Tewindrow: Taffy's Mummy, the Lady-who-asks-a-very-many-questions.
- The Stranger-man: A man of the far tribe of the Tewaras, with no word of Tegumai.
- The Head Chief: The head of the Tribe of Tegumai, namer of the new invention.
- The Wagai river: The carp-fishing river of the Tribe of Tegumai, the Wey of today.
Chapter 8 Q & A
This is a Kindred Thicket Classic Edition, with Kipling’s words kept as he wrote them. Here are answers to questions families often ask about this story.
How was the first letter written?
In Kipling’s story, Taffy scratched pictures on a piece of birch-bark with a shark’s tooth, to ask her Mummy to send her Daddy’s black-handled spear.
Why did Taffy’s Mummy misunderstand the picture?
Taffy’s drawing made the spear look as if it was sticking into Tegumai, and her beavers looked like a pack of people. Teshumai thought the picture showed Tegumai being attacked with spears.
Who was the Stranger-man?
He was a man from a far tribe, the Tewaras, who did not understand one word of Taffy’s language. At the end, the Tribe of Tegumai adopted him because he was a gentleman and did not make a fuss about the mud in his hair.
What does “Neolithic” mean?
Neolithic means belonging to the later Stone Age, when people made tools of stone. Kipling calls Tegumai a Neolithic man and the ladies of the Tribe Neolithic ladies.
What did the Head Chief say about Taffy’s picture?
He said she had hit upon a great invention that men would one day call writing. He also told her that next time she should send someone who could talk their language with it, to explain what it means.