"I'm tired of creeping on the ground," Turtle grumbled. "I want to fly!"
"Jump on," said Crow; up they flew.
Crow got tired and said, "Buzzard can take you higher."
Turtle jumped on Buzzard; up they flew.
Buzzard got tired, and Eagle flew by. "I'll give you a real ride!" he said.
Turtle jumped on, and Eagle flew so high Turtle got scared.
"High enough!" Turtle cried. "Take me down!"
Eagle just laughed.
Turtle had some thread in his pocket, so he tied one end to Eagle and slid on down.
Turtle didn't grumble anymore about creeping on the ground.
The original story is much longer with all kinds of details about just how grumpy Turtle is, and how boastful he is when he gets to go flying, and how scared he is when Eagle takes him the highest of all. You can read the original folktale here:
Animal Tales from North Carolina by Emma Backus, published in Journal of American folklore v.11 (1898).
Emma Backus collected stories in Saluda, North Carolina, but sadly she did not take record the names of the storytellers she worked with, in much the same way that Joel Chandler Harris collected Brer Rabbit stories from many storytellers, but published them under his own name.
Backus's version of the story uses the word "Terrapin" instead of Turtle; Terrapin is a word of Native American origin, from an Algonquian word: torope.
No comments:
Post a Comment