The Female of the Species 
When the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his prime,
He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside.
But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
When Nag the basking cobra hears the careless foot of man,
He sometimes wriggle sideways and avoid it if he can.
But his mate makes no such motion where she camps beside the trail.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
When the early Jesuit fathers preached to Hurons and Choctaws,
They prayed to be delivered from the vengeance of the squaws.
‘Twas the women, not the warriors, turned those stark enthusiasts pale.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
Man’s timid heart is bursting with things he must not say,
For the woman that God gave him isn’t his to give away;
But when the hunter meets the husband, each confirms the other’s tale-
The female of the species is more deadly than the male.
Man, a bear in most relations – worm and savage otherwise, -
Man propounds negotiations, Man accepts the compromise.
Very rarely will he squarely push the logic a fact
To its ultimate conclusion in unmitigated act.
Rudyard Kipling 1911
When the Himalayan peasant meets the he-bear in his prime,
He shouts to scare the monster, who will often turn aside.
But the she-bear thus accosted rends the peasant tooth and nail.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
When Nag the basking cobra hears the careless foot of man,
He sometimes wriggle sideways and avoid it if he can.
But his mate makes no such motion where she camps beside the trail.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
When the early Jesuit fathers preached to Hurons and Choctaws,
They prayed to be delivered from the vengeance of the squaws.
‘Twas the women, not the warriors, turned those stark enthusiasts pale.
For the female of the species is more deadly than the male.
Man’s timid heart is bursting with things he must not say,
For the woman that God gave him isn’t his to give away;
But when the hunter meets the husband, each confirms the other’s tale-
The female of the species is more deadly than the male.
Man, a bear in most relations – worm and savage otherwise, -
Man propounds negotiations, Man accepts the compromise.
Very rarely will he squarely push the logic a fact
To its ultimate conclusion in unmitigated act.
Rudyard Kipling 1911
