# Tegumai Bopsulai — Just So Stories character guide

> Tegumai Bopsulai in Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling.

**Role:** major

**Also known as:** Tegumai, O Babe of Tegumai

**First appearance:** 0007-how-the-first-letter-was-written

## Snapshot

A Neolithic father who, sketching with a shark's tooth beside his daughter, stumbles into inventing the world's first written language.

## Who they are

Tegumai is a chief of the Tribe of Tegumai, a hunter whose spears break at inconvenient moments and whose patience for hide-hanging is thin. When his daughter Taffy tries to send a picture-letter to her mother, the misunderstanding that follows costs him two soft deerskins in apology and leaves him laughing with her over the mud in a stranger's hair. Their shared delight in turning sounds into marks — la, ya, maru — makes him the story's engine, a father who treats invention as play.

## Relationships

### [Taffy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters/taffy)

_family_

Taffy is Tegumai Bopsulai's daughter, and they share a close, collaborative bond as they navigate early human life together.

### [Daddy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters/daddy)

_family_

Daddy and Tegumai Bopsulai are the same character, representing Taffy's father in the narrative.

### [Old Man Kangaroo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters/old_man_kangaroo)

_social_

Old Man Kangaroo and Tegumai Bopsulai are characters from separate stories who cross paths without deep connection.

### [Taffy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters/taffy)

_family_

Taffy is Tegumai Bopsulai's daughter, and they share a close, collaborative bond as they navigate early human life together.

### [Taffy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters/taffy)

_family_

Taffy is Tegumai Bopsulai's daughter, and they share a close, collaborative bond as they navigate early human life together.

### [Daddy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters/daddy)

_family_

Daddy and Tegumai Bopsulai are the same character, representing Taffy's father in the narrative.

### [Old Man Kangaroo](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters/old_man_kangaroo)

_social_

Old Man Kangaroo and Tegumai Bopsulai are characters from separate stories who cross paths without deep connection.

### [Daddy](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters/daddy)

_family_

Daddy and Tegumai Bopsulai are the same character, representing Taffy's father in the narrative.

## In the story

### [How the First Letter Was Written](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/chapters/how-the-first-letter-was-written)

Tegumai is fishing while Taffy creates the picture letter; he later praises the invention of writing.

### [How the Alphabet Was Made](https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/chapters/how-the-alphabet-was-made)

Taffy's father, who collaborates with her in developing the alphabet, drawing symbols and combining them to form words.

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters/tegumai_bopsulai
- Book: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se
- All characters: https://www.betterreads.dev/discover/just_so_stories_se/characters