The leopard covered himself with straw, The tiger gave a yawn. And in the peace of the afternoon, The lion cub was born. He opened his big blue eyes so wide, That lion cub so small, And only his parents really knew That he was there at all. He tried to sit up and look around- He even tried to …

“Zebras have stripes and leopards have spots, And pigs have a curly tail, But I haven’t anything nice like that- I’m only a great pig whale.” “Oh, dear Mr. Whale,” the animals cried, “You don’t need to make such a fuss. You can swim, and spout water-a most clever trick. Now why should you envy US?” ∼ Porter G., Hilda Offen, Pradera, …

The giant or King Protea, South Africa’s national flower, is the largest of the proteas species, which make up an important part of the Cape Floral Region, a major global biodiversity hotspot and UNESCO World Heritage site. The South African cricket team got its name from this flower with pink and yellow petals. Similarly, South Africa’s rugby team is called …

Mother Teresa was born in Skopje, Yugoslavia (which is now Macedonia) in 1910 and died on September 5, 1997. Her parents were Nikola and Dronda Bojaxhiu. They named her Agnes Gonxha Bojaxhiu, but she changed her name to Teresa on May 24, 1931. Mother Teresa taught geography at St. Mary’s School in Calcutta, India from 1929 to 1948. When she …

The identity of the famed muse of Leonardo da Vinci was a mystery until recently. German researchers claim they have solved the mystery of the woman who was Mona Lisa. They believe it was Lisa del Giocondo, the wife of a wealthy merchant in Florence named Francesco del Giocondo. The discovery is based on notes by a Florentine official who …

Long ago, in Anglo-Saxon times, the people of the town of Coventry, in England, were saved from paying very heavy taxes by the action of their countess Godiva, who rode naked round the town to prove to her husband, Earl Leofric, that she was ready to do almost anything to make her people’s life easier. This is legend, and in …

Hermann Kallenbach (1871–1945) was a South African architect who is best known for being a very close friend of Mahatma Gandhi, starting from the latter’s early days in South Africa. Kallenbach was born in 1871 in East Prussia to a German-Jewish family. He went to study architecture in Stuttgart and Munich. In 1896, he went to South Africa, where he …

Many hundreds of years ago, Russia was full of different tribes and races of people who had made their way from the great plains, or steppes; and mountain ranges of Asia. One of these races – the Cossacks – settled along the banks of the River Don which flows into the Sea of Azov, near the Black Sea. At the …

Of the 95 wettest countries in the world, Guinea, Solomon Islands and Sierra Leone are ranked the top three in order of maximum rainfall received on an average in a year, according to the World Statistics Pocket Book and the Statistical Yearbook of the United Nations. The records are for the period 1931-1960. Guinea, also known as the Republic of …

Though the origin of billiards is lost in history, an account by Greek traveller Anacharsis suggests that a rudimentary version was played by Egyptians around 400 BC. This form was adopted by the Greeks. The word ‘billiard’ has its roots in the French words ‘billart’ meaning stick, and ‘bille’ meaning ball. In 1470, the first billiards table was found among …