The ipi, looking at the big scales fastened to the shell of the turtle, wondered why they could not move like her own, and thought to herself, “Strange indeed is the coat of the turtle.” She also wondered at the way the turtle had of hiding herself under her shell, for the turtle’s head, tail, and legs would now and then suddenly disappear.
The porcupine, in the mean time, was examining the coat of the ipi and of the turtle. Finally he said to them: “I have the best coat of you all; when I make my formidable quills stand up, no one dares to handle or attack me or tread upon my body.”
Then he gave a great porcupine laugh and cried: “Ipi and turtle, monkeys and men of the wood can toss you about; njokoos can tramp upon you,—for though your coat protects you it does not sting, pierce, or hurt like mine. You are harmless.”
After a while all three went on their way to get their living, each thinking his coat better than the others’. It happened that the turtle came under a tree where a large nshiego (chimpanzee) was resting. When he saw the turtle he came down from his tree. When the turtle saw the nshiego come toward her, she drew her head, tail, and legs under her shell, for she was terribly afraid. It looked then as if the turtle were dead.
But the nshiego had seen the turtle moving, and wondered what it was, and soon the poor, frightened turtle was in his two hands, and he turned her over, first on one side, then on the other, tossed her around, and, when he got tired, dropped her, and went away. The poor turtle had never been handled in that way before, and was so scared that she did not dare to peep her head out of her shell for a long time afterward, when she went into hiding under the roots of a big tree.
The nshiego farther on met the porcupine, who when he saw the nshiego rolled himself up and put out his quills. The nshiego came up to him, looked at him carefully, and said to himself: “I am afraid of thee, porcupine, and I will not toss thee as I did the turtle, for those ugly-looking quills will pierce my hands and hurt me dreadfully. I am afraid of them.” And he went his way.
Toward evening the same nshiego saw the ipi walking. When the ipi heard the nshiego, she rolled herself in a coil, and with all her strength made the coil as tight as she could. Then the nshiego came toward her, and soon the ipi was in his hands. He played with her, tossed her about, and, when tired, dropped her and went away.
When the ipi came to her burrow, she told her mate all the things she had seen that day, of the turtle and the porcupine, and what had happened to her with the nshiego, and how afraid she had been.
When the porcupine came to his burrow, he told his mate of the strange creatures he had met, of the ipi and the turtle, and said: “Dear, I met also a nshiego who stood by me quite a while, but, thanks to my good coat of quills, he did not dare to handle me, as I saw he did the turtle and the ipi.”