CHAPTER XV
THE NGOMBA, OR PORCUPINE—THE IZOMBA, OR TURTLE—THE IPI, OR ANT-EATER
One day an izomba (turtle) was walking in the forest, when suddenly she heard a noise, and became suspicious; as the noise came nearer, she drew her head, her four feet, and tail under her shell, and said, “Now I am safe.”
It happened that an ipi had made the noise that scared the turtle. The ipi stopped and looked at the turtle with great curiosity. Then she, too, heard a noise and became suspicious in her turn, coiled round and made her scales as tight against each other as she could, and said also, “Now I am safe.”
The noise had been made by a porcupine whose coat had the longest, hardest quills that porcupines have. It happened that he came between the ipi and the izomba. When he saw them, he stood still and looked at them both with great curiosity.
Suddenly he heard a crash through the jungle. A dead branch of a tall tree had broken off and had fallen on the ground. He in his turn was so scared that he rolled himself up and put his quills out, for he thought njokoos had made the noise, and then he, too, exclaimed, “Now I am safe.”
The three remained thus for sometime, feeling sure that so they were safe. At last, hearing no noise, the turtle peeped out slowly, her head and her four feet and tail issuing from her shell. The ipi, hearing no noise, unrolled herself, and so did the porcupine. Then the three looked at each other and wondered at their coats. The ipi said to the izomba, and to the porcupine, “Do not be afraid of me. I do not bite. I have no teeth and feed only on ants, so I cannot do you any harm.”
[Illustration: [Ant-eater]]
Next the porcupine said to the turtle and to the ipi: “Don’t be afraid. I am a rodent. I feed on roots, fruit, and nuts which I find on the ground. It is true I can bite, but I do not feed on blood and flesh; besides, my teeth could not go through your coats.”
Then the turtle, looking at the ipi and the porcupine, said: “Do not be afraid. I am enclosed in a hard shell-like coat—this is to protect me. I live chiefly on leaves. I can bite terribly, but how could I ever bite you with the grand coats you have.”
But, as it happened, the three did not understand one another, for each had a different language which belonged to their species. They kept talking nevertheless, each expressing his thoughts in his own way.
The ipi, looking at the big scales fastened to the shell of the turtle, wondered why they could not move like her own, and thought to herself, “Strange indeed is the coat of the turtle.” She also wondered at the way the turtle had of hiding herself under her shell, for the turtle’s head, tail, and legs would now and then suddenly disappear.
The porcupine, in the mean time, was examining the coat of the ipi and of the turtle. Finally he said to them: “I have the best coat of you all; when I make my formidable quills stand up, no one dares to handle or attack me or tread upon my body.”
Then he gave a great porcupine laugh and cried: “Ipi and turtle, monkeys and men of the wood can toss you about; njokoos can tramp upon you,—for though your coat protects you it does not sting, pierce, or hurt like mine. You are harmless.”
After a while all three went on their way to get their living, each thinking his coat better than the others’. It happened that the turtle came under a tree where a large nshiego (chimpanzee) was resting. When he saw the turtle he came down from his tree. When the turtle saw the nshiego come toward her, she drew her head, tail, and legs under her shell, for she was terribly afraid. It looked then as if the turtle were dead.
But the nshiego had seen the turtle moving, and wondered what it was, and soon the poor, frightened turtle was in his two hands, and he turned her over, first on one side, then on the other, tossed her around, and, when he got tired, dropped her, and went away. The poor turtle had never been handled in that way before, and was so scared that she did not dare to peep her head out of her shell for a long time afterward, when she went into hiding under the roots of a big tree.
The nshiego farther on met the porcupine, who when he saw the nshiego rolled himself up and put out his quills. The nshiego came up to him, looked at him carefully, and said to himself: “I am afraid of thee, porcupine, and I will not toss thee as I did the turtle, for those ugly-looking quills will pierce my hands and hurt me dreadfully. I am afraid of them.” And he went his way.
Toward evening the same nshiego saw the ipi walking. When the ipi heard the nshiego, she rolled herself in a coil, and with all her strength made the coil as tight as she could. Then the nshiego came toward her, and soon the ipi was in his hands. He played with her, tossed her about, and, when tired, dropped her and went away.
When the ipi came to her burrow, she told her mate all the things she had seen that day, of the turtle and the porcupine, and what had happened to her with the nshiego, and how afraid she had been.
When the porcupine came to his burrow, he told his mate of the strange creatures he had met, of the ipi and the turtle, and said: “Dear, I met also a nshiego who stood by me quite a while, but, thanks to my good coat of quills, he did not dare to handle me, as I saw he did the turtle and the ipi.”