Long long ago, in the age before television, the elephant did not have a trunk. It had a bulgy snout that it could only wiggle about from side to side. Now there was one Elephant, an Elephant Child, who was very very curious and asked questions to all of his family. He asked his aunt, the Ostrich, why her tail feathers grew just so. He asked his uncle, the Giraffe, what made his skin spotty. He asked his aunt, the Hippopotamus, why her eyes were so red. He asked his uncle, the Baboon, why melons tasted the way they did. The Elephant Child wanted to know about everything and asked questions about everything he saw, heard, felt, smelt, or touched. He asked so many questions that his aunts and uncles became tired of being asked them and so they began to spank him whenever he asked a question. The Ostritch spanked him with her hard claw, the Giraffe spanked him with his hard hoof, the Hippopotamus spanked him with his broad foot, and the baboon spanked him with his hairy paw. Yet despite all the spankings the Elephant Child continued to ask questions.
One day the Elephant Child asked “What does the Crocodile eat for dinner?”. All of this family said “hush” in a loud and dreadful tone, then spanked him harder and longer then they ever had before. The Elephant Child still wanted to know what the Crocodile ate for dinner and decided he would ask someone besides his family to find out. So he took as many bananas, and melons as he could carry and set out. He didn’t know where to go and so wandered in a random direction. He hadn’t gone very far when he encountered the Kolokolo Bird.
“My mother, my father, my aunts, my uncles and everyone else in my family have spanked me for asking what the Crocodile eats for dinner” The Elephants Child said. “but I still want to know. Can you tell me?”
The Kolokolo bird gave him a strange look then smirked. “If you really want to know what the Crocodile eats for dinner, why don’t you go to the Limpopo river where he lives and ask him yourself?”
The Elephant Child thought this was an excellent idea as the Crocodile would of course know what he ate for dinner more then anyone.
The journey to the Limpopo river was a long one. He ate the bananas and melons as he traveled throwing the peels and rinds about because he couldn’t pick them up. Eventually he reached the Limpopo river and thought about what he would do next. Now the Elephant Child had never actually seen a crocodile before and had no idea what they look like. He decided to look around ask anyone he could find. The first person he found was a snake warming itself on a rock.
“Excuse me,” Said the Elephants Child “but have you seen a crocodile in this area?”
The Snake looked at surprise at the Elephants Child “Have I seen a crocodile?” he said with scorn. “What will you ask me next if I have?”
“I would ask you either what he has for dinner or where he is so I can ask him myself.”
On hearing this the snake quickly uncoiled itself from the rock and spanked the Elephant Child with his scaly tail.
“That is odd,” The Elephants Child said. “The snake spanked me for asking questions too just like my family though he isn’t related.”
The Elephant Child quickly left and walked down the banks of the river. After a few miles of walking he was about to step on what he thought was a log but was actually a crocodile. The crocodile quickly scooted out of the way, and realizing he was about to step on someone and not a log the Elephant Child said “Excuse me!”
The Crocodile saw the Elephant Child and his eyes grew wide.
“Hello,” The Elephant Child said. “But have you seen a crocodile in this area?”
The Crocodile just grinned and said “Come closer child, why do you want to know?”
The Elephant Child saw the Crocodiles long hard tail and was afraid of another spanking.
“All of my family has spanked me for asking questions, even the snake who is not related spanked me as well. I’d just as soon not get spanked again.”
“Ah,” the Crocodile said. “You don’t need to worry about that with me for I am the Crocodile.”
“The Elephant Child got very excited and “You are the person I have been looking for all this time. Would you please tell me what you have for dinner?”
“Come closer little one,” said the Crocodile. “It is a secret but I will whisper it to you.”
The Elephants Child put his head down close the Crocodiles mouth listening as carefully as he could. The Crocodile leaped up and caught the Elephant Child on his nose.
“I eat Elephant Child for dinner!” the Crocodile said between his clenched teeth.
Realizing the danger he was in the Elephant Child pulled back to avoid getting dragged into the river. The crocodile thrashed his tail hard trying to pull the Elephant Child but the Elephant Child dug in his feet into the mud of the bank and his nose began to stretch.
“Ow ow ow! Let go!” the Elephant Child cried.
The Crocodile just continued to pull as hard as he could with the Elephant Childs nose continuing to stretch.
The Elephant Child started to slip in the mud into river when he felt a long scaly tail wrap around his body and helped keep him from going into the river.
“Foolish child,” The Snake chided. “Pull as hard as you can if you want to live.”
The Elephant Childs nose hurt horribly as he continued to pull with the help of the Snake. Soon though the Crocodile lost his grip on the Elephant Childs nose and fell into the river while the Elephant Child and Snake tumbled together onto the bank. The Elephants Child and the Snake quickly moved away from the bank of the river to stay away from the Crocodile.
“Thank you,” the Elephants Child said to the Snake.
“You’re welcome,” the Snake replied.
The Elephants Child saw how long and stretched out of shape his nose had become. Concerned he wrapped it in banana leaves.
“Why are you doing that?” The Snake asked
“I am waiting for it to shrink”
“You will have to wait a long time,” the Snake said. “and I don’t think you know what is good for you.”
The Elephants Child waited three days for his nose to shrink to what he felt was it’s natural shape, but it never grew any shorter at all. Near the end of the third day a fly came and stung him on the shoulder, and before he knew what he was doing he lifted up his trunk and hit that fly dead with the end of it.
“You couldn’t have done that with your old mere smear nose” the Snake pointed out.
Realizing that the Snake might be on to something the Elephant Child reached down with his nose and pulled up some grass and ate it. He then got some mud and plopped it on his back to cool off.
“I think I like this better then my old nose” the Elephant Child said.
The Elephant Child then returned home, picking up the rinds and peels he had dropped on the way there now that he was able to do so. When he returned home his entire family was shocked to see him.
“Where have you been, and what happened to your nose?” they all cried.
“I went to the Limpopo river and asked the Crocodile there what he ate for dinner. He gave me this nose to keep.”
“It looks very ugly” Uncle Baboon muttered.
“But it’s very useful” the Elephant Child replied picking up Baboon by the leg with it.
After seeing everything the Elephant Child could do with his trunk the other elephants eventually went to the Limpopo river as well to get new noses from the Crocodile. And this is why to this day all Elephants have trunks.