A man now emerged from the lodge laughing, “Ha, ha! Women are always in trouble, Hoh ho!” Laughing at the discomfort of his wife and sisters he ran down the spring path and sank his clay kettle beneath the surface of the spring. This was now the turtle’s opportunity and with a furious leap he fastened his jaws in the man’s leg. The man endeavored to suppress a howl as he felt the sudden pain and tried to beat off his enemy, but the turtle’s jaw was set and his back was armored.
“Oh get off,” begged the man doing his best to conceal his suffering, but the turtle only bit deeper.
Loudly the man cried and then began to threaten to kill the turtle. “I will drag you into the fire,” he said. This so frightened the turtle that he began to waver with fear but gathering up courage determined to escape without crying for quarter, so he said, “Hurry then, put me in the fire, it is my natural home and I am lonesome, hurry now!”
The man groaned and cried in desperation, “The river for you, I will drown you!”
The turtle pleaded most earnestly to be spared that fate but the man was resolute and limping to the river he thrust in his leg. The turtle gripped until he bit through the leg bone, then relaxing his jaws, he swam rapidly under the water and crawled out in a sheltered spot.
“Agī´!” exclaimed the man as he crawled to his lodge, “I am glad he is drowned.”
The turtle found his canoe but was unable to push it back up the stream against the swift current. Discouraged, he sank it and swam back to land where he lay lamenting his failures, then he turned on his back as if dead and gave himself up to grief. Grief gave place to meditation and at last he righted himself and crawled away saying:
“No, I am not a great chief, but I am a turtle and am satisfied, for the glory of turtles is that the earth and all creation rests upon the back of one. That is good enough.”
41. THE RACE OF THE TURTLE AND THE BEAVER.
There was a turtle who lived in a deep hole in a stream. He lingered there and it was a favorite spot for his fishing. On the shore there was a swampy place where he hid himself when not in the stream.