“At other times Mowgli would pick the long thorns out of the pads of his friends, for wolves suffer terribly from thorns and burrs in their coats.”

“Baloo taught him how to tell a rotten branch from a sound one, how to speak politely to wild bees.”

“The monkeys dragged Mowgli into their cold lairs and instead of going to sleep they joined hands and danced about and sang their foolish songs.”

“Mowgli laid his head down on Bagheera’s back and slept so deeply that he never woke up when he was put down in the home-cave.”

“Mowgli kicked the fire with his foot, and the sparks flew up… he strode forward to where Shere Khan sat blinking at the flames, and caught him by the tuft of his chin.”

“Then Mowgli picked out a shady place, and lay down and slept while the buffaloes grazed around them.”

The Hero of the story has to persuade all the birds of the world to come and sing to the princess to help her fall asleep. He throws down the three magic feathers acquired earlier in the story, and soon the evening air is filled with the sound of bird song.

The Hero’s second challenge is to make a cellarful of apples and pears disappear overnight, so he miraculously conjures a herd of pigs to come and help him.

The story begins when Sassuma Arnaa falls in love with the BirdMan who whisks her away to his eyrie to live happily together.

Now living with her new husband Sassuma desperately misses her family and cries for them in her dreams every nights.

Sensing her despair, Sassuma’s father brings the family to rescue her and take her home.

Furious at his betrayal, the BirdMan conjures a storm to sink the family’s boat. Terrified for the safety of the rest of his family Sassuma’s father has no choice but to throw her overboard in an attempt to appease the monster.

Afraid she will drown in the stormy sea, Sassuma fights for her life and tries to climb onto the boat. Her father cuts off her fingers to stop her from clinging on.

Her fingers float down into the sea and become the creatures of the deep: the whales, the walrus, the seal, the dolphin…

Sassuma herself also floats down to the bottom of the ocean and becomes The Mother Of The Sea. Her hair becomes tangled and unable to comb her hair without fingers, she ensnares fish and unsuspecting swimmers in it’s tendrils. She resents overfishing and human pollution of the ocean and demands that no part of a slaughtered animal is wasted. Children jumping across gaps in the ice are told to stay away from the edge of the water, in case Sassuma Arnaa catches them…..