How The Tortoise’s Shell Got Cracked

All the animals in a particular town were dying of hunger. There was no food to be found anywhere. All the rice, cassava, potatoes and everything else they had planted, had been eaten. Everyone was getting thinner and thinner. Their faces were thin, and their eyes had sunk into their sockets. So, they all gathered together to hold a meeting about what to do about the situation. After everyone had had their say, it was agreed that they would take it in turns to kill their old mothers and eat them. So, one by one, the leopards, the deer, the rabbits, all brought their mothers, killed them and the entire town feasted on them. In time, everyone had brought their mother, except Brer Tortoise. When it was his turn, he told them, “My mother died a long time ago from the hunger in town.”

The truth was that Tortoise had taken his mother and hidden her up in the clouds so she would not be killed and eaten. However, secretly, whenever he felt hungry and he wanted to eat, all he had to do was to find a place a long way away from the town, where there was no one, and sing to his mother who was up in the cloud. He would sing:

Send the chain, send the chain,
Mama, send the chain

After he had sung two or three times, his mother would send a long chain down and Tortoise
would hang on it. Then he would start singing:

Draw the chain, draw the chain,
Mama, draw the chain

When his mother heard that, she would draw the chain up as he was singing until he got
up to the cloud. His mother would cook for him, and Tortoise would eat until he was full. Then
he would wipe his mouth, hang on the chain and go down again. He did this every day.

He got fatter, his cheeks filled out and his eyes shone with good health. Meanwhile all the other animals were getting thinner, their eyes sinking even deeper into their sockets. Some were even beginning to find it difficult to walk.

What was going on? How could Tortoise look so good when there was nothing to eat in the town? That’s when Cunning Rabbit decided to start watching Tortoise. Whenever he saw Tortoise walking by himself, he would hide and stealthily follow him. One day, he saw him stop, look up to the clouds and start singing:

Send the chain, send the chain,
Mama, send the chain

Cunning Rabbit’s eyes opened wide in wonder. What was Tortoise up to? Suddenly, he saw a long chain coming down from the cloud until it got to the ground. Then he saw Tortoise hang on to the chain and start singing:

Draw the chain, draw the chain,
Mama, draw the chain,

Cunning Rabbit watched the chain going up, with Tortoise hanging on to it, until he disappeared into the cloud. Cunning Rabbit’s mouth hung open. He sat down and waited until he saw Tortoise come back down with the chain. His mouth was shining with the oil from the food. So, he concluded that this was what Tortoise had been doing all the time; he would go up to eat with his mother whom he had hidden up in the cloud while lying to his townmates, telling them he too was just as hungry as they were.

Cunning Rabbit quickly went back and told all the other animals what he had seen. So, they all agreed that the next day they would meet at the place he had told them about.

Read the full story to find out what happened next by going to the Sa Lon publication: Krio Nansi Stori Dɛm.