Rudyard Kipling's original illustration to 'How the Whale got his Throat', in his Just-So Stories (1902). Courtesy British Library, Add. 59840, f.6

Rudyard Kipling’s Just-so story ‘How the Whale Got His Throat’ (1903) was such a hit that it travelled around the world and spread far and wide. The sea folk, however, did not get a chance to hear it until a green sea turtle, who managed to escape from a ship while being transported for food, shared the tale with a passing spinner dolphin. The dolphin, after laughing at the tale by turning several aerial twists, told a fable about how humans came to have legs, and some other more authentic fables of the sea and the coast, as we see below.