
In a sweltering metropolis where the sun beats down like an angry god, Sa‑Zada the Keeper has spent his life listening to the voices of beasts. Gifted with the rare ability to converse with every creature, he gathers the animals each evening to share stories of their distant homelands, hoping the tales will keep them from succumbing to the oppressive heat. The setting—a cramped animal town trapped behind iron bars—creates a vivid contrast between the wild freedom of the animals’ memories and the stifling reality of their cages.
Among the assembled cast are Hathi the wise elephant, Baghni the fierce tigress, and a colorful chorus of buffalo, monkeys, and birds, each eager to recount a fragment of their past lives. As the night deepens, their narratives weave together adventure, loss, and the lingering hope of a cooler world beyond the city walls. Listeners are drawn into a tapestry of jungle legends and prairie myths, discovering how the Keeper’s humble gatherings become a lifeline for both beasts and the humans who watch in quiet wonder.
Language
en
Duration
~4 hours (265K characters)
Publisher of text edition
Project Gutenberg
Credits
Produced by Darleen Dove, Shannon Barker, Diane Monico, and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team at https://www.pgdp.net (This file was produced from images generously made available by The Internet Archive/American Libraries.)
Release date
2011-12-13
Rights
Public domain in the USA.
Subjects

1859–1933
Adventure, wilderness, and far-flung experience shaped this Canadian storyteller's fiction. His books drew on years spent prospecting and traveling, giving his tales of animals, the Canadian West, and India a lived-in sense of action and place.
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