A story from Africa
The grass shriveled up and turned a pale grey. Rivers and pools dried up. All day long animals scurried around looking for food and finding nothing. Mr Tortoise was getting desperate. Every day he woke up to the sound of his wife and children crying. One day, while he was wandering the countryside looking for food he knew he wouldn’t find, he noticed a flock of birds flying overhead and disappearing on the other side of the mountain range. The next day, he saw more birds flying in that direction and disappearing over the mountain range. And again the next day. It occurred to him they might be onto something, and he tried to attract their attention. He shouted, he screamed, he danced, he jumped up and down, he shouted while jumping up and down, he ran in circles and waved a stick. None of the birds paid any attention to him; none even slowed down.
Many animals would have given up, but not Mr Tortoise. He decided he would compose a song to the vulture; he thought the vulture might just be vain enough to stop and listen. That night he finished composing the song and the next morning positioned himself in a nice open spot by the side of a field. When he saw the first birds in the sky he started to sing his song:
The vulture is so good
The vulture is so wise
Everyone admires him
As he flies through the skie-ie-ie-ie-ies
The vulture heard snatches of the song, and he was intrigued, so he came down to land and strode over majestically to where Mr Tortoise was sitting. When Mr Tortoise saw vulture approaching, he sang again:
The vulture is so good
The vulture is so wise
Everyone admires him
As he flies through the skie-ie-ie-ie-ies
Aaaah, the vulture exclaimed, what a beautiful voice! What enticing music! Mr Tortoise thanked him profusely for his praise, then asked very politely if he could ask a favour of Mr Vulture. Certainly, the vulture beamed, go ahead my lyrical friend!
Tortoise explained that because of the drought, there was no food left where they were living, if Mr Vulture could only give him a lift to the other side of the mountain, so that he could look after his family. Vulture readily agreed to help his new friend. He raised himself and flapped his wings. Just hang on to my waist, Mr Tortoise, and we’ll be there in no time at all.
Mr Tortoise grabbed hold of Vulture’s scraggy feathers, Vulture flapped his giant wings, took a few great strides, and up they went. And vulture had been quite right, it seemed to take hardly any time at all and they were floating over the mountains, and Tortoise could see a glimmer of green appearing below. A few more flaps of those giant wings, and they were landing in the middle of a truly amazing landscape. The place was covered in trees and bushes carrying every fruit imaginable, mangos, bananas, pears, oranges, apples, pineapple, papaya, plums, you name it, it grew here in abundance.
Tortoise walked around in a daze, he picked an apple here, tasted some mango there, found some blackberries on a small bush. The most remarkable thing was that apart from the birds who must have discovered this pleasure paradise flying over it, there seemed to be no other animals here at all! This set our Mr Tortoise thinking.
Now you may have realized already that Mr Tortoise was not just any old tortoise, but that he had a very good brain, and a great imagination. So, slowly but surely, he hatched a plan. The next morning he found a spot on the hillside which gave a good view of the orchard, he stood upright and started speaking in as loud a voice as he could muster:
Yo! Yo! All you birds, listen to me for a few moments! Yo! Yo! I have bad news for you all! I’m afraid you’re all trespassing here on this land. This land belonged to my great great grandfather. When he died he gave it to my grandfather. And my grandfather left it to my daddy, and my daddy, well now, my daddy he gave it to me before he died.
There was consternation among the birds, they weren’t sure how to take this news.
Then Mr Tortoise carried on: I’m going to count to three, and at the count of three, I want all of you to have left this place.
ONE!
Hey, Mr Tortoise, you’re joking aren’t you?
Is he joking?
No, man, he’s not joking!
TWO!
Some of the birds started flying. We thought you were joking! We never intended to trespass, after all, we’re all just law abiding citizens, you know. More and more birds flew off.
THREE!
Now they were all leaving. Mr Tortoise looked for his friend, Vulture. When he saw him, he ran up to him and called out: Heyo, Vulture, hold on, you’re my friend aren’t you, you can stay here with me.
After feasting on the fruit for several hours, Mr Tortoise had another idea. He really wanted to find out exactly what he had here. So he approached Vulture and said: Vulture, you’re going to carry me high into the sky! Then I will know how big my own land is, and I will see how useful it will be.
Vulture replied: Yessirr! Hang on to my waist. So Mr Tortoise clung on to Vulture’s waist, Vulture flapped his wings, gently at first, and up and up and up he went.
It was very breezy so high up in the sky, and Mr Tortoise was enjoying himself. Whoa, whoa, he shouted, this is wonderful, I’m enjoying this breeze, it’s just beautiful!. Then, in his excitement he started scratching Vulture’s armpits; that was not such a wise thing to do.
Please, screeched Vulture, I am ticklish, do-do-do-don’t do that PLEEEEASE, Stop it, please, I’m sooooo ticklish!.
Unfortunately Tortoise wouldn’t stop. In desperation Vulture shook his wings so violently that Mr Tortoise lost his grip. He went down and down and down and down and down, and there was nothing at all to stop him. It was Mr Tortoise’s rather bad fortune to land in a place that was covered in hard jagged rocks, there was an enormous crashing sound when he made contact with he rocks. Cracks appeared all over the body of Mr Tortoise.
He tried to shout for help, but his voice only made a very small sound. Luckily for Mr Tortoise Vulture saw him lying there, his body all cracked up, and felt sorry for him. So Vulture decided to get the ambulance, and they managed to get him to a hospital. Because he was in such a bad way and looked as if he could die any minute there and then, Mr Tortoise was taken straight into the operating theatre and three doctors started work on him. They worked for hours on end, stitching, stitching, stitching all the cracks in his shell.
Eventually all the sores healed and he was discharged, but of course he was left with the scars, and that is why every time you see a tortoise you can still see the scars on the back of his shell.
How the tortoise got its scars (alternative version)
Once upon a time there was a wedding in the sky. The bride and groom invited all the animals in the whole land. Those who had wings and could fly obviously would have no problem attending but those animals who lived on the ground would have a few problems getting there unless they could persuade a bird to take them on their back. Mr Tortoise really wanted to attend the wedding, he loved parties, but he had no idea how to get there. While he was mulling over this problem, a vulture landed near him, looking for scraps of food left behind by other animals.
The tortoise called out to the vulture, “Mr Vulture, I wonder if you are planning to attend the wedding next week?” The vulture confirmed that he had every intention of being there, only because there would be lots of free food! Then the tortoise asked if Mr Vulture would consider giving him a lift. Vulture shook his head, “That might be a bit difficult”, he said, “I can see by looking at you that you are not very light, Mr Tortoise. What would you be prepared to give me in return, if I were to agree to your request?”
Now tortoise had been saving up, and he had a large pile of cowrie shells in his lair. So he promised to pay vulture as many cowrie shells as he could carry. Vulture agreed. So it came about that on the day of the wedding, Vulture came round to where tortoise lived, and collected him. Tortoise clung onto vulture’s back, and they arrived at the wedding in the sky without any mishaps. The wedding was a splendid feast and there were lots of different kinds of food to cater for all tastes. Vulture decided he would try some porridge, never having tasted this before, but found it very difficult to eat this with his beak. The porridge kept spilling, and some spilled on tortoise. Tortoise pretended to be very upset, and vulture pacified him by saying that he could keep his cowrie shells, and tortoise was very happy with this solution. Now he had got here completely free of charge.
Later, they were all drinking beer, and tortoise was getting a little careless. He was drinking a little more beer than usual at a party, and he started swaying about a bit. As a result, now tortoise spilt some beer on vulture’s head, and it was vulture’s turn to be offended. Tortoise again offered vulture as many cowrie shells as he could carry, but vulture just sulked off, he was not really interested in cowrie shells. Soon it was time for everybody to go home. The birds started flying away, including Mr Vulture. “Mr Vulture, wait for me!” called out tortoise, but vulture did not hear, and flew away. None of the other birds wanted to carry tortoise;
“You’re too big for my back!”
“You’re too heavy for me!”
“You’re too drunk, Mr Tortoise, you’ll only fall off!”
In the end, tortoise was left all by himself, and he realized the only way to get back to the ground would be to jump, and fall all the way down to earth. He knew he could not stay up here in the clouds! So he jumped, hoping that his landing would be soft, but he landed on some hard ground, and his shell broke into many pieces. In the morning his nephew and nieces came round, and stuck his shell together again, but now it showed many scars and cracks. And that is why every time you see a tortoise you can still see the scars on the back of his shell.