FABLES 



77 

 THE TURTLE AND THE MONKEY 



There was once a turtle and a monkey who went to make a clearing. 

 The monkey did not work, but the turtle was the one which cleared the 

 land. When one day passed, "Let us go to plant," said the turtle. 

 They went, and banana was what they went to plant. The turtle 

 planted his in the clearing, but the monkey hung his in a tree when he 

 went to climb. Five days passed. "Let us go to see our planting," 

 said the turtle. When they arrived where they had planted, the mon- 

 key saw that his banana was dry, but that which the turtle had planted 

 bore ripe fruit. When the monkey reached the place where the turtle 

 sat, "I am waiting for you, monkey, for I cannot climb my banana 

 tree." "Give me fruit, and I will go to climb. My banana which I 

 hung in the tree did not bear fruit," said the monkey. The turtle 

 laughed and agreed, but when the monkey climbed in the tree he only 

 ate and did not throw down any fruit. "Give me, monkey," said the 

 turtle. "The thumb still eats," replied the monkey. Then he pushed 

 a banana up his anus and after that threw it down. The turtle ate it 

 and again asked for fruit. "The little finger still eats," said the mon- 

 key. Then he finished eating the fruit and he slept on the banana tree. 

 The turtle went to search for long sharp shells, and when he had secured 

 them he planted them upright around the tree, and cried, "Bad in the 

 east. Bad in the west." Then the monkey jumped, and the shells 

 pierced his side so that he died. 



The turtle dried his meat and sold it to the other monkeys, and 

 when he had finished selling he went under the house and hid beneath a 

 coconut shell. When all the monkeys had eaten the turtle cried, 

 " They eat their relative." Then the monkeys heard, but could not see. 

 The turtle called many times until at last they found him beneath the 

 coconut shell. They agreed to kill him with the axe, but the turtle 

 laughed and pointed to the marks on his back. 1 The monkeys believed 

 him when he said he had often been cut by his father and grandfather; 

 so they did not cut, but went to get fire. "You cannot kill me with 



1 A similiar incident is found in the Northern Celebes and among the Kenyah of 

 Borneo. See Bezmer, Volksdichtung aus Indonesien, p. 304. (Haag, 1904.) Hose 

 and McDougall, Pagan Tribes of Borneo. Vol. II, p, 148, London, 1912. 



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