 |
A Diamondback Terrapin Turtle - 2016
Link |
The Terrapin Turtle's Great Escape!
The Terrapin and the River Rat go together every morning to collect
persimmons from the tree tops. The River Rat scampers up the tree, picks the fruits, and flings them to the Terrapin down below. The Terrapin picks them up from the ground, puts them in their bag, and keeps them safe. But on this morning as the River Rat tossed the first large fruit he found into the air, a Wolf came from behind the bushes and snatched it from the Terrapin. Without noticing, the River Rat continued to pick the fruit and tossed it to the Terrapin.
"WAIT!" yelled the Terrapin.
"Mister Wolf, do please find another set of species to torment. The fruit, here from this tree, is not for you," said the Terrapin.
"Ha," barked the Wolf, "I run across these marsh lands every day searching for easy food. Today just so happens to be your unlucky day."
The River Rat overheard the discussion from below and pulled out the large bone that he carried with him. He picked another large persimmon from the tree, poked the bone through the center, and tossed it into the air to the Terrapin. The Wolf jumped up, snatched the persimmon into his mouth, and then fell to the ground and choked to his death. The River Rat shimmied down the tree squeaking with laughter.
"That'll show 'em! Try'n' take our fruits 'n' not asking. Leave his body here for Vulchas," said the River Rat.
"Be it fine by me. I'm going to cut off this ears first. I will let them bathe in the sun until they harden, then I will soon use them for
hominy soup spoons," said the Terrapin.
The Terrapin cut the ears off the wolf before splitting the portions of the fruit with the River Rat and headed home.
---
After a long morning of gathering persimmons, they decided to call it a day. On their way home, the Terrapin stopped by his neighbor's house, the Opossum, and invited him over for some
kanahe'na gruel. The Terrapin and the Opossum then walked over to the Terrapin's house.
"Thank you for in the invitation. Where do you keep your leafy spoons for the soup?" asked the Opossum.
"Now, don't I have a treat for you?" said the Terrapin.
The two sat together and stuffed themselves with gruel using the ears of the wolf as spoons. Word of the delicious flavor of the Terrapin's gruel due to the ears of the wolf quickly spread across the town. All types of animals in the town began to interrupt the Terrapin's and the River Rat's morning routine and demand to taste his kanahe'na gruel with the wolf ear spoons. The Terrapin dismissed each rodent, bird, lizard, and creature that bothered him. But by the afternoon, a pack of wolves stopped the Terrapin on his way home. They captured him in a clay pot and brought him deep inside the woodlands. The wolves held a council meeting to decide how to kill the Terrapin. They quickly decided that they were going to use him to make a
Terrapin Stew.
"If you roast me over the fire, I promise that I will break the clay pot beneath my feet," said the Terrapin.
"HA!" laughed one of the wolves. "You will fall into the flames of the fire and burn to a crisp."
"You fools. With my durable shell I will survive and crawl away to freedom," remarked the Terrapin.
The wolves pondered some more of the proper way to kill the Terrapin. They ultimately decided that they would would bury him alive in the deepest hole by the river. The wolves took the Terrapin to the river, dug a deep hole, and buried him.
"The Terrapin cannot survive the depth of this hole. He has no claws and will not be able to escape," said one of the wolves.
After being buried, the Terrapin felt the dirt around him turn to mud. He started pushing the dirt behind him and soon found himself escaping to the river. He surfaced to the water, swam across to the bank across from the wolves, and laughed as the wolves were struck with awe.
---
Some say the Terrapin was picked up again from the other side and thrown against the rocks and then his shell broke into a dozen pieces. But the Terrapin sang a medicinal song after the wolves had gone:
Gû'daye'wû, Gû'daye'wû,
"I have sewed myself together, I have sewed myself together!"
And each piece of his shell came back together. That is why all turtles now have the scars on their shells.
Author's Note:
I wanted to keep the story theme and not alter the Cherokee culture throughout the story. I added more dialogue for more characterization to the characters. There wasn't much on the wolves and I didn't want to add to much dynamic to the story, because I wanted the main story to focus primarily on the Terrapin. I changed the persimmon hunting partner to the Terrapin, but in the original story it was the Opossum. I thought the River Rat would allow me to explore more characterization and be a character that juxtaposes the Terrapin Turtle. I also included links in this story so readers could learn more about the items and because I didn't want to take away from the story by adding more explanations of the different aspects. Like the soup, I figured it would be easier to click and follow the link to better understand in comparison to explaining it in the story and take the reader's focus away.
Fun Facts:
The River Rat is properly known as a Coypu. They are large, herbivorous, semiaquatic rodents that live alone riverbanks in burrows (
Wikipedia).
A Diamondback Terrapin is a species of Turtle native to coastal swamps of the eastern/southern parts of the U.S. They look much like their freshwater relatives, but with evolved traits to adapt to various salt levels in water/salinities (
Wikipedia).
Bibliography:
Title: Myths of the Cherokee
Author: James Mooney (1900)
Link to reading
