Rudyard Kipling: The Elephant's Child...help pls

[DreamBream234]

The Elephant's child gets words mixed up because he is so young. Curtiosity instead of curiosity.

He says to the snake. "Where can I meet a crocodile in these provocative parts?" What is the Elephant's child trying to say? Instead of provocative it should be....?

Many thanks in advance

I think the original is 'promiscuous' rather than 'provocative', and is intended to mean casual/general or hereabouts, rather than a sexual context.

I always assumed it was intended to be read as if narrated by someone using English as a second language, so words get mixed up. Almost a faux translation from Hindi, given when, where and who it was written by, the stereotyping in Kipling's era etc.

It doesn't necessarily have a simple replacement, I think he's just writing about funny things children say, when they use completely the wrong words. It could have been something he heard his own children say and he's just used it here.