‘When you scoop water with your paw you uncoil it with a Hedgehog,’ said Stickly-Prickly. ‘I don’t think it was at all like that,’ said Painted Jaguar, but he felt a little puzzled ‘but, please, say it again more distinctly.’ ‘Are you quite sure? Perhaps she said that when you water a Hedgehog you must drop him into your paw, and when you meet a Tortoise you must shell him till he uncoils.’ ‘Are you sure of what your Mummy told you?’ said Slow-and-Solid Tortoise. ‘Are you quite sure? Perhaps she said that when you uncoil a Tortoise you must shell him out the water with a scoop, and when you paw a Hedgehog you must drop him on the shell.’ ‘Are you sure of what your Mummy told you?’ said Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog. Now which of you is Hedgehog and which is Tortoise? because, to save my spots, I can’t tell.’ My mother said that when I meet a Hedgehog I am to drop him into the water and then he will uncoil, and when I meet a Tortoise I am to scoop him out of his shell with my paw. ‘Now attend to me,’ said Painted Jaguar, ‘because this is very important. They could not run away, and so Stickly-Prickly curled himself up into a ball, because he was a Hedgehog, and Slow-Solid Tortoise drew in his head and feet into his shell as far as they would go, because he was a Tortoise and so that was all right, Best Beloved. One beautiful night on the banks of the turbid Amazon, Painted Jaguar found Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog and Slow-Solid Tortoise sitting under the trunk of a fallen tree. She said to him ever so many times, graciously waving her tail, ‘My son, when you find a Hedgehog you must drop him into the water and then he will uncoil, and when you catch a Tortoise you must scoop him out of his shell with your paw.’ And so that was all right, Best Beloved. When he could not catch deer or monkeys he would eat frogs and beetles and when he could not catch frogs and beetles he went to his Mother Jaguar, and she told him how to eat hedgehogs and tortoises.
Do you see?īut also, and at the same time, in those High and Far-Off Times, there was a Painted Jaguar, and he lived on the banks of the turbid Amazon too and he ate everything that he could catch. And he had a friend, a Slow-Solid Tortoise, who lived on the banks of the turbid Amazon, eating green lettuces and things. In the very middle of those times was a Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog, and he lived on the banks of the turbid Amazon, eating shelly snails and things.
This, O Best Beloved, is another story of the High and Far-Off Times. You should visit Browse Happy and update your internet browser today! The embedded audio player requires a modern internet browser.
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