Tikki Tikki Tembo

What you need to know before your trail

A boy named Tikki Tikki Tembo-no Sa Rembo-chari Bari Ruchi-pip Peri Pembo (“The Most Wonderful Thing in the Whole Wide World”) and his little brother Chang (“Little or Nothing”) are playing very close to a well when Chang falls in the well.  Their mother tells him to get the Old Man with the Ladder. Chang is rescued and then recovers quickly.

Some time later, the boys are again playing near the well. This time, the older brother falls in. Chang runs to their mother and tries to tell her that “Tikki Tikki Tembo-no Sa Rembo-chari Bari Ruchi-pip Peri Pembo has fallen into the well.” However, because Chang is out of breath from running he sputters and tries repeatedly to say the name before going to see the Old Man and then trying to tell him . The boy with the very long name is rescued, but because of the long time he was in the well, it was many moons before he was quite the same again. The end of the story says that this is why the Chinese have short names.