"Best ask the Crows," Rabbit said.
The Crows agreed to help Turtle fly to the other pond. "We'll take the ends of this stick," they said, "and you bite onto the middle. But keep your mouth shut; don't say anything."
The Crows rose up.
Turtle was flying!
He looked down and saw the big pond. "That's it!" he said. "The big one! Over there!"
But when he opened his mouth, he crashed down to the ground.
The angry Crows flew away, and Rabbit just laughed.
Inspired by: South Carolina Folk Tales. Bulletin of University of South Carolina (a WPA project).
Notes: This story is "Crow en Cootah." I added in Rabbit to set it up, and I had Rabbit make fun of Turtle at the end instead of the crows. The editors identify this as an Aesop's fable, but it's not actually in Aesop; it's a folktale from India dating back to both the Panchatantra and the Jatakas: The Turtle and the Two Birds. My guess would be that it reached South Carolina from India by way of Africa; there are many stories from India that circulated in Africa. It reached Europe via Latin translations and later via European translations from Islamic sources, most famously appearing in La Fontaine.
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