Week 1 Storytelling: The Mayor of Bombay and the Snipe Pipe-Thief

There was a fat man of Bombay,

Who was smoking one sunshiny day,
When a bird, called a snipe,
Flew away with his pipe,
Which vexed the fat man of Bombay.

~*~*~*~

The mayor of Bombay sat on the balcony of his enormous estate, peering down at his town below which basked in the beautiful sunshine of a bright summer day. Although the day was picturesque, the weather irritated the mayor who was renowned for being quite large. Indeed, the rays of the sun which made clear the beauty of the town also beat down upon the mayor’s girth, richly clad in fine purple and yellow silks. His protruding stomach lay heavy and hot upon his knees which were soon slick with sweat. One large arm made an effort to cool the mayor by slowly waving a green feather fan in his face while the other’s plump hand was curled around his favorite pipe, a handsomely crafted piece of art made of wood and painted a shiny black that gleamed under the sun’s rays, revealing the fine gold swirling patterns etched all along the pipe. It had been a gift from a colleague to congratulate the mayor on being elected to office.

As he sat there gazing at the tall white buildings of the city, a shadow swiftly crossed the man’s face. Squinting into the sun, the mayor spied a solitary bird circling lazily in the sky, emitting a small chirp every so often. Just as the mayor was returning his gaze to the town below, the bird began to descend slowly in the direction of the balcony, landing light as a feather on the clean white rail directly across from the mayor. They sat staring at each other for a moment, casually acknowledging the other’s presence. The bird was handsome, as birds go, a young snipe with a plump brown belly, a long, slim yellow beak, and beady black eyes as dark and as shiny as the pipe still lightly clamped between the mayor’s teeth and held in his sweaty palm.

Common Snipe:
Wikimedia Commons

In a sudden flash of brown feathers, the bird launched itself from the balcony rail and right into the mayor’s face. As the man jerked his round head back in surprise, the snipe secured its long yellow talons tightly around the stem of the pipe and wrenched it out of the mayor’s slick hand. Letting out a cry of surprise and anger, the mayor swiped a meaty paw at the bird, but the movement was sluggish while the bird was swift, having already flapped its way six feet above the mayor’s head and continuing to rise. Enraged, the mayor fought to lift himself out of the grasp of his deep plushy chair but to no avail. The man was just too big.

“Guards! Guards!” he called out. Rushing in from the attached room, the guards assisted the mayor out of his chair, but, unfortunately, that was all they could help him with for there was no way to retrieve the snipe which was quickly becoming a smaller and smaller black dot headed for the distant horizon. The mayor beat his meaty fists upon the white rail where the bird had been perched not two minutes earlier. Hot and frustrated, the mayor decided to take a cool bath to be followed by long nap.

Black Pipe:
Pixabay

Flapping its way slowly out of town, the snipe carried its treasure through the hot air for several miles. He soon arrived in a neighboring town where he headed toward a squat clay building in the middle of the city. Swooping in through the window, the snipe lightly dropped the handsome pipe upon the counter, landing beside it and waiting patiently for the shop owner to emerge. Entering from the back room, the shop owner was not surprised to see the pretty bird and a pretty prize sitting on his counter.

“Well, hello there, my friend,” he said while running a finger down the bird’s back, “I see you have brought me another fine addition to my inventory.” He picked up the pipe to examine it closer and was pleased with its brilliant craftsmanship. The first time he had found the little bird on his counter, it had been an emerald ring lying next to it which had sold for a nice price the very next day. As he had done that day and every day since the bird had continued to return with valuable items, the shop keeper reached beneath the counter and presented the snipe with a large, fluffy biscuit. Taking the biscuit in its claws, the bird silently exited the shop and headed east toward its nest where three hungry babies waited expectantly for their dinner.

~*~*~*~

Author’s Note: This story is based on an untitled nursery rhyme which is quoted at the top of the page. The rhyme is from The Nursery Rhyme Book, edited by Andrew Lang (1897) and tells the story of a bird who steals the pipe of a fat man from Bombay. I’m not sure what it was about this rhyme that caught my eye, but I found myself imagining how I might more elaborately describe the “fat man from Bombay.” I had first intended to end the story similarly to the original nursery rhyme with the mayor going off to take his bath and his nap, but the story just felt incomplete and I couldn’t help wondering why the bird took the pipe, so I did a bit of free-writing and just let the bird take me to the story’s logical conclusion.