Kalidahs

It's an invention of my own, and I find it very useful.

Once, two of those dreadful Kalidahs, with bodies like bears and heads like tigers, came here from the forest to attack us; but I sprinkled some of that liquid on them, and instantly they turned to marble.

I now use them as ornamental statuary in my garden.

This table looks to you like wood, and once it really was wood; but I sprinkled a few drops of the Liquid of Petrifaction on it, and now it is marble.

And before long, the tree fell neatly across the ditch, making a bridge of it, and they started over one behind another.

Now, in that part of the forest there live certain beasts called Kalidahs, with bodies like bears and heads like tigers.

And it happened that two of them saw the travelers on the bridge and came bounding after, thinking of supper.

Dorothy heard them and looked back, and the Lion turned on the bridge and gave a roar so great and so loud that the whole forest listened, and even the Kalidahs stopped short and looked at him in surprise.

But they were bigger than lions, the Kalidahs, and there were two of them, and after a moment they came on again.

So the Tin Woodman, waiting until his friends were all safely across, chopped away the near end of the tree, and the bridge, with the Kalidahs upon it, tipped and slid gently down into the gulf, and the Kalidahs went with it, down into the deep green shadows at the bottom, which is where Kalidahs live anyway when they are at home.

The old book spends no more worry on them, and neither shall we.

Let us say that they landed among soft ferns at the bottom of their own country, far below the road, and by suppertime they had forgotten the whole affair, for the memory of a Kalidah is short and its ferns are comfortable.

The essay breaks down some of the literal monsters they have to survive.

There are creatures called the Kalidahs.

The Kalidahs, yes.

The text describes them as these massive, terrifying beasts that have the heads of tigers but the muscular bodies of bears.

Which is a terrifying visual.

At one point, the group is forced to cross a deep chasm by felling a tree to create a makeshift bridge.

Okay.

When the Kalidahs pursue them onto this log, the group doesn't just run.

It's an invention of my own, and I find it very useful.

Once two of those dreadful Kalidahs, with bodies like bears and heads like tigers, came here from the forest to attack us; but I sprinkled some of that liquid on them, and instantly they turned to marble.

I now use them as ornamental statuary in my garden.

This table looks to you like wood, and once it really was wood; but I sprinkled a few drops of the Liquid of Petrifaction on it, and now it is marble.

In some of the dense forests, there lived great beasts of every sort, yet these were for the most part harmless and even sociable, and conversed agreeably with those who visited their haunts.

The Kalidahs, beasts with bodies like bears and heads like tigers, had once been fierce and bloodthirsty, but even they were now nearly all tamed, although at times one or another of them would get cross and disagreeable.

Not so tame were the fighting trees, which had a forest of their own.

If anyone approached them, these curious trees would bend down their branches, twine them around the intruders, and hurl them away.