How the Tortoise got his shell (Version 1)

So whilst writing this, I remembered that there were two versions of this story I grew up with, both wildly different beginnings and different story lines but the end result was the cracking of Tortoise’s shell. I will upload the second version next, it’s a longer story but no less enjoyable.

A long, long time ago, when the world was younger, the mountains lower and the seas higher; a time of mystery and a time when the veil between worlds was thinner, a time when the animals of the forest and humans spoke the same language…

There was a great famine in the land. The trees shrivelled up and the rivers dried up, the famine was so severe the great savannahs disappeared and turned into dust. Across the land, food disappeared till the animals were reduced to eating dust and swallowing mist.

Foreseeing the death waiting ahead for them, the leaders of the animal kingdom called an emergency meeting. It was the greatest gathering of animals in living history, everyone from Lion to Rat, Cockroach to crocodile attended and they all had a singular purpose: to find a solution to the never-ending famine.

The king of the jungle, Lion presided over the meeting.

“We need an urgent solution to this greatest of events facing us. If we fail, we all die” Lion declared

“Surely it is not as bad as you’re all making it out to be” declared Dog.

“I am too exhausted from constantly looking after my mother day in and day out. She is old and frail, and I must travel hundreds and hundreds of miles daily over the barren land to find enough food for both of us. Despite this, all she does is lie in bed and complain about the meagre pickings I bring her”, Cheetah complained

“My mother does the same thing!” Hyena said.

After the briefest of pauses, Hyena’s eyes lit up

“Perhaps we should round up al our old and useless mothers, we can eat them, that will reduce the amount of food and water we need, and it’ll keep away starvation for a little while longer” he suggested craftily.

There was a huge uproar at that suggestion and all the animals debated for hours and hours on the alternatives. But as there were none, the animals reluctantly agreed, rounded up their mothers, killed them and distributed them evenly to be eaten amongst the kingdom.

Dog disagreed with this decision, but he knew he could not change the minds of the other animals. He loved his mother and refused to surrender her to the slaughter, she was a kind mother and did not complain about the meagre pickings he brought back. She even offered herself up to be eaten but Dog refused. He instead took his mother and hid her up in the clouds, amongst the spirits.

As the famine got worse, Dog was not affected as much anymore. Every day at dawn, Dog would go to a secret place in the land and sing to his mother:

 

“Mother, Mother Drop down the rope,

Everybody ate their mothers,

Dog hid his mother in the clouds.

Mother, Mother Drop down the rope”

Hearing this melody, Dog’s mother would drop the rope for him to climb up into the clouds. Whilst there, she would feed Dog rich, fatty foods and lavish him with so much treats his fur gleamed and the brown of his eyes shined like polished onyx stones.

 

One day, desperately hungry tortoise was foraging deep in the forbidden part of the land looking for anything to eat when he heard a sweet song coming from afar. A naturally curious individual, Tortoise went to investigate the melody. By the time he arrived however, there was no one in the area. Not to be beaten, tortoise hid himself and waited for whoever it was to come back.

A few hours later, to his astonishment, Tortoise witnessed Dog arrive from the sky, climbing down a rope and with his stomach convex and bulging, swinging from side to side with supple vigour. Dog had a big grin on his face.

Not understanding what was happening, tortoise went home and decided to stake out the area the next day.

Packing his bags, he set out early and arrived at the area well before dawn and settled down to wait for Dog’s arrival.

And regular as clockwork, at the first signs of dawn, dog arrived, stood in the clearing and began to sing his song:

“Mother, Mother Drop down the rope,

Everybody ate their mothers,

Dog hid his mother in the clouds.

Mother, Mother Drop down the rope”

 As soon as the last verse was sung, a rope appeared from the clouds like magic and tortoise watched in awe as Dog, with an empty concave stomach climbed up the rope and disappeared into the clouds.

A few hours later, just like the day before, the rope appeared, and Dog climbed down with his stomach once again bulging and swinging and a big grin on his face.

It was then that tortoise determined Dog had found a place to eat to his heart’s content whilst the rest of the animals languished in hunger.

“It’s not fair that the rest of us are dying of hunger yet dog’s belly is turgid with good food” he said to himself. Determining the time of day that Dog frequented the area, Tortoise resolved to go up there himself and enjoy the bounties of the sky too.

On the third day, Tortoise arrived at the location just before dawn and before Dog had arrived

Tortoise set his plan into motion, coughing a bit, he cleared his throat and disguised his voice to sound just like Dog:

“Mother, Mother Drop down the rope,

Everybody ate their mothers,

Dog hid his mother in the clouds.

Mother, Mother Drop down the rope”

Just like magic, the rope descended, and Tortoise began to climb up smug in the belief that he had tricked Dog and his helpers.

Dog, however being a punctual creature and never one to miss an appointment, arrived at the location at dawn just as tortoise was climbing up.

In panic Dog started singing:

“Mother, Mother CUT down the rope,

Everybody ate their mothers,

Dog hid his mother in the clouds.

Mother, Mother CUT down the rope”

Dog’s mother looked down and saw Tortoise climbing up rather than her son, so she did what he asked her to do and cut the rope.

Tortoise was already halfway up into the clouds when the rope was cut, so he fell down to earth with a mighty crash, his shell scattering across the land into fragments big and small.

There Tortoise lay until Ant walked by him and took pity upon him. Ant made a pot of glue and helped Tortoise put his shell back, but as the shell had fractured into a million large and small pieces, Ant could only glue back some of it. When they were done, the shell was rough and had grooves and nooks from missing shell pieces, but it was the best they could do.

And Tortoise and his descendants have had to live with the uneven shell as punishment for his deceit of Dog’s mother.