Explore "The Porcupine" by Hilaire Belloc on Textopian. Read with annotations and highlights.
What! would you slap the Porcupine?
Unhappy child -- desist!
Alas! that any friend of mine / Should turn Tupto-philist.[B]
To strike the meanest and the least / Of creatures is a sin, / How much more bad to beat a beast / With prickles on its skin.
[A] Sometimes called the "Lion-tailed or tufted Baboon of Ceylon. "
[B] From [Greek: tupto] = I strike; [Greek: phileo] = I love; one that loves / to strike. The word is not found in classical Greek, nor does it occur / among the writers of the Renaissance -- nor anywhere else.