Tortosa

“ TORTOISE GALLANTRY Making his advances He does not look at her, nor sniff at her, No, not even sniff at her, his nose is blank. Only he senses the vulnerable folds of skin That work beneath her while she sprawls along In her ungainly pace, Her folds of skin that work and row Beneath the earth-soiled hovel in which she moves. And so he strains beneath her housey walls And catches her trouser-legs in his beak Suddenly, or her skinny limb, And strange and grimly drags at her Like a dog, Only agelessly silent, with a reptile's awful persistency. ”

“ The Jabutí, as it is called by the Portuguese, or Yautí, as it is termed in Lingua Geral, is a small species of tortoise [3] very common in Brazil, and much esteemed for food. It is short-legged and slow, weak, and silent, yet it plays the same part in Amazonian mythology that the fox does in that of the Old World. Inoffensive and retiring, the Jabutí, nevertheless, appears in the myths of the Lingua Geral as vindictive, cunning, active, full of humor and fond of discussion. "É verdade!" said an Indian at Itaitúba to me on his finishing a tortoise myth, "É o diabo; e tem feito estrago!" ”

“ Meanwhile, the tortoise had hidden himself in a thicket, in a burrow having two openings. While the man was looking in at one hole, the jabutí would appear at the other, and then when the man came to this opening, he would quickly go to the first; so that we have here, once more repeated, the story of the race between the slow tortoise or sun, and the swift moon or man. We have already seen the tortoise escape from the jaguar by going into a burrow by one opening and retiring by another, just as the sun appears to go into its burrow in the west, and come out in the east. ”

“ Before Tortoise had disappeared, the people (following his orders) began to throw back the earth into the pit, filling it solidly.
After Tortoise had laid in his house for six days, he suddenly appeared in the street; and he called all the mass of the Beasts, and he told them the news. He said, "Over there is so beautiful! I will not stay in this town any more for as long as ten days. But, as I am here, I shall lie here only for three days, and two days over there." At once Tortoise was regarded as a person of great importance, and his fame was spread abroad. ”

“ From the serpents the visitor should turn to the families of the
Testudinata, or
TORTOISES. Tortoises are broadly divided into three species, namely, land tortoises; fresh water tortoises, of which there are no less than forty-six varieties; and marine tortoises, well known to the citizens of London, in the shape of turtle-soup. The land tortoises subsist on vegetables, and are said to live occasionally more than two hundred years. The two first cases devoted to Testudinata (18, 19) contain the American, Indian, and African varieties of the land tortoise. ”

“ In the very young tortoise the ribs are separate as in other animals; as they grow older they begin to expand at the upper side of the upper end, and, with increased age, the expansion extends throughout the length. The ribs first come in contact where the process commences, and in the land-tortoise they are united to the end. In the sea-turtle, the union ceases a little above the ends. The fragments of the Protostega were seen by one of the men projecting from a ledge of a low bluff. ”

“ The rising sun extinguishes the old moon, and buries her, but after a time, the new moon appears and begins the pursuit of the sun. The fact that the race continues day after day, and that the scent grows constantly stronger suggests, however, that the pursuer may, after all, be the sun. May not the story, perhaps, have become confused through an interchange of characters?
THE TORTOISE KILLS THE OPOSSUM BY INDUCING HIM TO BURY HIMSELF.
A jabutí made a bet with a mukúra, or Amazonian opossum, to see which could the longer stay buried. ”

“ The reason why Tortoise lives in brooks is his fear of Leopard.
All the Beasts were living long ago in one place, separate from the towns of Mankind; but they had friendship for and married with each other.
Among the towns of Mankind was living a man named Njambo. There was born to him a female child named Ndenga. In the town, at one end of it, there was a very large tree.
Njambo said of his daughter, "This child shall be married only with Beasts." So when the Beasts heard of that one of them, House-Rat, said, "I'm going to marry that woman!" ”

“ The hare, mistaking one for the other, acknowledges himself beaten. In Northamptonshire [13] the fox is substituted for the hare, but, in other details, the myth is identical with the German.
Sometimes, in Old World mythology, it is a hare that runs a race with a tortoise [14] but who, confiding in his swiftness, goes to sleep, while the tortoise, persevering slowly, first reaches the goal.
In Siam the myth takes the following form:— [15]
"The bird Kruth, no doubt a limited and particular form of Garudas, wishes to eat a tortoise (here perhaps the moon) which lies upon the shores of a lake. ”

“ What the jaws have got hold of is not allowed to escape again. The tortoise holds on and tears the prey to pieces with the sharp-clawed fingers. This takes a long time, only the scraped-off flesh and the intestines being eaten. The skeleton remains and sinks to the bottom, while in the case of a fish, the air-bladder floats away on the surface, and remains there as one of the surest signs of the existence of tortoises in that locality. ”

“ Then Boa said to Tortoise, "Tell me what the journey is about." Tortoise told him, "A great hunger is in our place. There also we have two plants; the one,—this is its fruit; and this grass,—the leaves. Are they eaten?" Boa replied, "The tree of this fruit, its name is Bojabi; and it is eaten. But, I, Mbâmâ, here, I eat leaves and drink water; and that is enough for me. These things are the food for All-us Beasts. We have no other food. Go and tell AU-the-Beasts so." Tortoise replied, "Yes; it is well." ”

“ They are voracious: their living prey is taken, by stealing slowly towards it, and seizing it with a sudden snap.
It is a curious fact that whenever this Tortoise eats a fish, it rejects the air-bladder; and the peasants, who seek these animals for the market, judge of the number that are to be found in any pond, by the number of fish-bladders floating on the surface. Professor Bell has mentioned to us that he had a Tortoise of this species in his possession, to which he once threw six small living fishes ”

“ That is: As we go, no one of us is to start any new affair on the way; only steadily down to the Seacoast.” They all said, “Yes! we are agreed.”
So, they started through the forest, going on their journey. They went, and they went, on and on, expecting to go a long way, until they should by evening come to their camping-place for the night. But, on the way, Civet began to say, “Ah! my stomach aches! Ah! my stomach aches!” [146] Tortoise asked, “What do you mean by ‘stomach-ache?’ ” Civet answered, “ ‘Stomach-ache’ means that my bowels trouble me, and that I need to go.” ”

“ Tortoise added, “But, when we tug, if one overpulls the other, he shall be considered the greater; but, if neither, then we are Mwĕra.”
Then Tortoise went to the forest, and cut a very long vine, and coming back to Elephant, said “This end is yours. I go off into the forest with my end to a certain spot, and tomorrow I return to that spot; and we will have our tug, and neither of us will stop, to eat or sleep until either you pull me over or the vine breaks.” Tortoise went far off with his end of the vine to the town of Hippopotamus, and hid the vine’s end at the outskirts of the town. ”

“ The Tortoises have no teeth, but yet are able to crop the herbage with perfect ease. In lieu of teeth the edges of the jaws are sharp-edged and very hard, so that they cut anything that comes between them like a pair of shears. Leaves that are pulpy and crisp are bitten through at once, but those that are thin, tough, and fibrous are rather torn than bitten, the Tortoise placing its feet upon them, and dragging them to pieces with its jaws. ”

“ The tortoise, or sun, has a trial of strength with the jaguar or tapir, the moon, and vanquishes by substituting another in his place, in which case, we have simply a different form of the myth of the Tortoise and Deer. ”

“ Meanwhile Urashima looked at the tortoise, which looked back at him with wistful eyes full of meaning; and, though it could not speak, the young fisherman understood it perfectly, and his tender heart went out to it.
'Poor little tortoise!' he said, holding it up and stroking it gently to soothe its fears, 'you are all right with me. But remember, sweet little one, you've had a narrow squeak of losing a very long life. How long is it? Ten thousand years, they say; — that's ten times as long as a stork can boast of. ”

“ Well, besides the toys there is the big tortoise. That was brought home by a sailor many years ago, and has now crept and crawled over Madam Knoll’s floor for at least ten years. It is slow and clumsy about turning around, but it has lively little black eyes. Sometimes when I sit and look at the tortoise I think how dreadful for it just to crawl about in the half-darkness between the chair legs when it had been used to glorious sunshine and soft warm white sand and sea-water thoroughly warmed by the sun, down on the coast of Guinea where it came from. ”

“ So, Wild-Rat dug a big hole, in size sufficient for Tortoise and his traveling-bag and his spears.
Then Tortoise went and gathered together his spears and his traveling-bag. He went out the next day, early in the morning, and stood and announced in the street, “All the Tribes must come! I want to tell them the news of what I have seen.”
Then all the Beasts came to meet in the town of Tortoise. It was full of every kind of beast. Tortoise spoke, and said, “I have called you to say, that really we are not worth anything at all. Actually, the only dwelling we have is in the grave. ”

“ Just as, even today, it destroys the poor; not only of Africa, but also in the lands of Manga-Manĕne (White Man's Land) . And, as the days passed, people continued sitting in their hopelessness.
One day, Tortoise went out early, going, going and entering into the jungles, to seek for his special food, mushrooms. He had said to his wife, "I am going to stroll on the beach off down toward the south." As he journeyed and journeyed, he came to a river. It was a large one, several hundred feet in width. There he saw a coco-nut tree growing on the river-bank. ”

“ The Tortoises live only on the land. The Gopher Tortoise is found from South Carolina to Florida, and west as far as Texas. It feeds on vegetation. It inhabits principally the dry and sandy places and makes long burrows into which it retires from the hot midday sun. The eggs of this tortoise are buried in the sand and are hatched by the sun's rays Agassiz's Tortoise, or the Desert Tortoise, is distributed over the deserts of Arizona and southern California. ”

“ Jackal thereupon made a violent jump, and found, with horror, that his hind feet were now also fast. "Tortoise," said he, "I have still my mouth and teeth left, and will eat you [77] alive if you do not let me go." "Do as you like," Tortoise again replied. Jackal, in his endeavors to free himself, at last made a desperate bite at Tortoise, and found himself fixed, both head and feet. Tortoise, feeling proud of his successful capture, now marched quietly up to the top of the bank with Jackal on his back, so that he could easily be seen by the animals as they came to the water. ”

“ Surely beautiful combs, boxes, and a number of ornamental things are made of tortoise-shell, and if so, it seems a pity to use it for a water-trough.”
“Your turtle, Fritz, is only fit for eating, its shell is worthless as regards ornament; whereas the species whose shell is prized so much is unfit for food. Tortoise-shell is subjected to the action of heat, the outer layer peels off, leaving a beautifully marked, semi-transparent surface, which is susceptible of a very high polish.”
The sledge quickly received its second load from the raft. ”

“ The feet have separate toes, and are adapted for walking. They are strictly herbivorous. Examples of this family are the large and strong Gopher-tortoises of the Carolinas, which burrow in the earth, the massive Amazon Tortoise, used for food by the natives, the Galapagos Tortoise, and the small Garden Tortoise.
Mud Tortoise (Emys lutaria) is frequently seen in Italy and the south of France. It inhabits lakes and slow-flowing waters, and feeds upon [221] small fish, spawn, frogs, water insects, etc. It lays its eggs in a hole, which it digs in the bank. Its flesh is edible. ”

“ In the Old World, the Tortoise Myth belongs especially to India, and the idea is developed there in a variety of forms. The Tortoise that upholds the earth is called in Sanskrit Kúrmarâdja, "King of the Tortoises," and the Hindus believe to this day that the world rests upon its back. Sometimes the snake Sesha bears the world on its head, or an elephant carries it upon its back, and both snake and elephant are themselves supported by the great tortoise. ”

“ Njambo answered, "Of Vyâdu. I killed him on account of this eating my Plantation." Then Tortoise asked, "And that skin?" Njambo answered, "Of Uhingi; and I killed him for eating my Kuba." Tortoise again asked, "And this other?" Njambo answered, "Of Njâbu; for eating my sugar-cane."
Then Tortoise said, "There were four of us in the Plantation. What have I eaten? Tell me. If I have eaten, then I should die." Njambo told him, "I've found no reason against you." Tortoise then asked, "Then, why should I die?" So, Njambo untied Tortoise from the roof, and said to Ivenga, "Let Kudu go ”