Rhinoceros [raI'nOsqrqs], tight [taIt], abut [q'bAt]

In those days the Rhinoceros’s skin fitted him quite tight. There were no wrinkles in it anywhere. He looked exactly like a Noah’s Ark Rhinoceros, but of course much bigger. All the same, he had no manners then, and he has no manners now, and he never will have any manners. He said, ‘How!’ and the Parsee left that cake and climbed to the top of a palm tree with nothing on but his hat, from which the rays of the sun were always reflected in more-than-oriental splendour. And the Rhinoceros upset the oil-stove with his nose, and the cake rolled on the sand, and he spiked that cake on the horn of his nose, and he ate it, and he went away, waving his tail, to the desolate and Exclusively Uninhabited Interior which abuts on the islands of Mazanderan, Socotra, and the Promontories of the Larger Equinox. Then the Parsee came down from his palm-tree and put the stove on its legs and recited the following Sloka, which, as you have not heard, I will now proceed to relate : —

Them that takes cakes (тот, кто забирает пироги) Which the Parsee-man bakes (которые печет Парс) Makes dreadful mistakes (совершает ужасные ошибки).

And there was a great deal more in that than you would think (и в этом было гораздо больше /смысла/, чем вы могли бы подумать).

dreadful ['dredful], deal [dJl], would [wud]

Them that takes cakes Which the Parsee-man bakes Makes dreadful mistakes.

And there was a great deal more in that than you would think.

Because, five weeks later (потому что пять недель спустя), there was a heat-wave in the Red Sea (в /районе/ Красного моря был период сильной жары), and everybody took off all the clothes they had (и все поснимали всю одежду, какая у них была). The Parsee took off his hat (Парс снял свою шляпу); but the Rhinoceros took off his skin (а Носорог снял свою шкуру) and carried it over his shoulder (и нес ее через /свое/ плечо) as he came down to the beach to bathe (когда он спускался на пляж покупаться). In those days it buttoned underneath with three buttons (в те дни она застегивалась внизу на три пуговицы) and looked like a waterproof (и была похожа на дождевик; waterproof — непромокаемый плащ). He said nothing whatever about the Parsee’s cake (он не сказал абсолютно ничего о Парсовом пироге), because he had eaten it all (потому что он съел его весь); and he never had any manners, then, since, or henceforward (и у него не было хороших манер тогда, с тех пор и впредь). He waddled straight into the water and blew bubbles through his nose (вразвалочку он вошел прямо в воду и стал выдувать = пускать пузыри через /свой/ нос), leaving his skin on the beach (оставив /свою/ шкуру на пляже = берегу).

clothes [klquDz], bathe [beID], henceforward ["hens'fLwqd]

Because, five weeks later, there was a heat-wave in the Red Sea, and everybody took off all the clothes they had. The Parsee took off his hat; but the Rhinoceros took off his skin and carried it over his shoulder as he came down to the beach to bathe. In those days it buttoned underneath with three buttons and looked like a waterproof. He said nothing whatever about the Parsee’s cake, because he had eaten it all; and he never had any manners, then, since, or henceforward. He waddled straight into the water and blew bubbles through his nose, leaving his skin on the beach.