Malecite tales / by W.H. Mechling.

  • Mechling, W. H.
Date:
1914
Catalogue details

Licence: In copyright

Credit: Malecite tales / by W.H. Mechling. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    and would kill him. Fisher knew that he could get off, but that Turtle could not, so he offered to carry him up a tree, as the place of greatest security.' Turtle accepted. So Fisher clambered up and made a nest on the limb of the tree. He told Turtle to remain there until things had quieted down and he came back. On the way down he pulled all the bark off the tree so that Turtle could not come down. Fisher went away as fast as he could. Soon Klu’s band came around to hunt for their chief. After a while they found some feathers and then they saw the wing hanging up. So they knew that Turtle had killed their chief. They began to hunt for him, but could not find him. When some of them got under the tree, he thought' it would be a good joke to defecate upon them. So he pushed himself backwards to get into the proper position. In so doing he lost his balance and fell down. Klu’s tribe saw him failing, but they could not see him when he landed. But after a while they found him hiding under a waltes.^ They wanted to kill him immediately, but could not decide on the means. One suggested hanging, but the turtle seemed to be very much pleased. He even went to get a rope for them. But when they saw his willingness, they said that it would not do to kill him this way. “He does not seem to mind it.” So they suggested burning and began to collect the wood, but when they saw Turtle also collecting wood, they decided that the method would not do. Another proposed drowning. When Turtle heard this, he appeared very sad. And when they began to push him, he held back. So now, thinking that they knew what Turtle surely hated, they decided to throw him into the water. This they did and he sank right to the bottom, and they thought they had killed him. But Turtle swam under the water and finally came up under some girls who were washing clothes. And he looked at the private parts of one and said, “She is fine,” and then at another and said, “She is a little better.” When the girls heard him talking down under the water, they ran up to the village to tell the people. They said, “We thought you said you had drowned Turtle. He did not appear to be very much dead when he looked up at us as we were washing on the logs.” 1 Probably a reference to the Turtle’s habit of getting under his shell, the shell resembling a waltes, or wooden plate.
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