Class 10 English — First Flight · Chapter 6 NotesMijbil the Otter

The chapter opens with Maxwell explaining that early in the New Year of 1956 he travelled to Southern Iraq. By then he had begun to think that he would like to keep an otter instead of a dog. His cottage at Camusfearna was surrounded by water just a stone's throw from the door, so it seemed an eminently suitable spot for such an experiment. When he mentioned this casually to a friend, the friend replied just as casually that he should get an otter in the Tigris marshes, where otters were as common as mosquitoes and were often tamed by the Arabs. Maxwell was in Basra to collect and answer mail from Europe at the Consulate-General. His own mail was delayed, and he had to wait several days, cabling and telephoning England before it finally arrived.

• CamusfearnaMaxwell's cottage in the West Highlands of Scotland, ringed by water
• Basraa town in Iraq, near marshes where otters were common
• Tigris marshesthe area where Maxwell's friend advised him to get an otter

When Maxwell carried his mail to his bedroom to read, he found two Arabs squatting on the floor with a sack that squirmed from time to time. They handed him a note from his friend: "Here is your otter..." The creature that emerged resembled a small, medievally-conceived dragon, coated with symmetrical pointed scales of mud armour, with soft velvet fur visible between the tips. It took Maxwell a month to remove the last of the mud and see the otter in his true colours. He named the otter Mijbil. For the first twenty-four hours Mijbil was neither hostile nor friendly; he was simply aloof and indifferent, choosing to sleep on the floor as far from Maxwell's bed as possible. The second night he came onto Maxwell's bed in the small hours and slept in the crook of his knees until the servant brought tea.

• Mijbilthe name Maxwell gave to his otter
• Aloof and indifferentkeeping a distance, showing no strong interest
• Apathyabsence of interest or emotion

Mijbil soon lost his apathy and took a keen, much too keen, interest in his surroundings. Maxwell made a body-belt for him and took him on a lead to the bathroom, where the otter went wild with joy in the water, plunging and rolling, shooting up and down the bathtub underwater, and making enough slosh and splash for a hippo. Maxwell learned that this is characteristic of otters: every drop of water must be extended and spread about the place. A bowl must be overturned, or if it will not be overturned, be sat in and sploshed in until it overflows. Water must be kept on the move and made to do things; when static it is wasted and provoking. Very soon Mij would follow Maxwell without a lead and come when called by name. He spent hours shuffling a rubber ball round the room like a four-footed soccer player, and could throw it with a powerful flick of the neck.

• Otters love to move water and make it splash
• Mijbil learned to follow Maxwell without a lead and respond to his name
• Mijbil's favourite pastimelying on his back and juggling marbles between his paws

The days at Basra passed peacefully, but Maxwell dreaded transporting Mij to England. The British airline to London would not fly animals, so he booked a flight to Paris on another airline and from there to London. The airline insisted that Mij be packed into a box not more than eighteen inches square, to be carried on the floor at Maxwell's feet. An hour before the flight, Maxwell put Mij into the box to accustom him to it and left for a hurried meal. When he returned, there was an appalling spectacle: complete silence from the box, but blood had trickled and dried from its airholes and chinks. Mij had torn the lining of the box to shreds. Maxwell removed the last of it, put the miserable otter back, and held down the lid with his hand. The driver tore through the streets of Basra like a ricochetting bullet, and they reached the aircraft just in time.

• The airline required Mij to be packed in a box not more than eighteen inches square
• Mij tore the lining of the box and was exhausted and blood-spattered
• Maxwell held down the lid with his hand during the rush to the airport

On the aircraft, Maxwell covered the floor around his feet with newspapers, rang for the air hostess, and gave her a parcel of fish for Mij to keep in a cool place. He took her into his confidence about the events of the last half hour and later said he had the most profound admiration for her; she was the very queen of her kind. She suggested that Maxwell might prefer to have his pet on his knee. But Mij was out of the box in a flash and disappeared at high speed down the aircraft. There were squawks and shrieks, and a woman stood up on her seat screaming, "A rat! A rat!" Maxwell caught sight of Mij's tail disappearing beneath the legs of a portly white-turbaned Indian. Diving for it, he missed and found his face covered in curry. The air hostess charmingly suggested he resume his seat while she found the animal. Suddenly Mij bounded onto Maxwell's knee and began to nuzzle his face and neck.

• The air hostess was calm and helpful during the crisis
• Mijbil escaped from the box and ran down the aircraft
• Mijbil recognised Maxwell and nuzzled his face and neck

Maxwell and Mij remained in London for nearly a month. Mij would play for hours with a selection of toys: ping-pong balls, marbles, rubber fruit, and a terrapin shell that Maxwell had brought back from his native marshes. With the ping-pong ball he invented a game of his own which could keep him engrossed for up to half an hour at a time. A damaged suitcase with a sloping lid became part of the game: Mij discovered that if he placed the ball on the high end, it would run down the length of the suitcase. He would dash around to the other end to ambush its arrival, hide from it, crouching, then spring up to attack and take it by surprise, grab it and trot off with it to the high end once more. Outside the house Maxwell exercised him on a lead, precisely as if he had been a dog.

• Mijbil invented a game with a ping-pong ball and a sloping suitcase lid
• He would ambush the ball, crouch, spring up, grab it and trot off
• Maxwell exercised Mijbil on a lead like a dog

On his walks in the London streets, Mij quickly developed certain compulsive habits, like the rituals of children who on their way to and from school must place their feet squarely on the centre of each paving block, or touch every seventh upright of the iron railings, or pass to the outside of every second lamp post. Opposite Maxwell's flat was a single-storied primary school, along whose frontage ran a low wall some two feet high. On his way home, but never on his way out, Mij would tug Maxwell to this wall, jump onto it, and gallop the full length of its thirty yards, to the hopeless distraction of both pupils and staff within. It is not strange that the average Londoner should not recognise an otter, but the variety of guesses surprised Maxwell. Otters belong to a comparatively small group of animals called Mustellines, shared by the badger, mongoose, weasel, stoat, mink and others.

• Compulsive habitshabits impossible to control
• Mustellinesthe animal group that includes otters, badgers, mongooses, weasels, stoats and minks
• Londoners guessed Mij was a baby seal, squirrel, walrus, hippo, beaver, bear cub, leopard or brontosaur

Mijbil was of a race previously unknown to science and was at length christened by zoologists Lutrogale perspicillata maxwelli, or Maxwell's otter. The chapter shows how closely Maxwell observed Mij's actions and interpreted his feelings. When Mij plunged and rolled in the water, Maxwell understood that he was enjoying himself. When Mij screwed the tap the wrong way, chittering with irritation and disappointment at the tap's failure to cooperate, Maxwell recognised his frustration. When Mij nuzzled Maxwell's face and neck in the aeroplane, Maxwell understood it as a distressed chitter of recognition and welcome. Through these observations, Maxwell speaks for the otter, telling us what Mij feels and thinks on different occasions. The bond between them grew from careful attention, patience and shared play.

• Maxwell's otterLutrogale perspicillata maxwelli, named after Gavin Maxwell
• Maxwell interpreted Mij's feelings by watching his actions
• The bond grew through patience, observation and play