Then anger having gone to the Lion, he sprang to eat the Turtle. Then the Turtle, having brought his head inside, became like a stone. After he became thus, the Lion turning the Turtle to that side and to this side, and having clawed him and bitten him, looked at him, having been unable to do anything to him. After he had been looking the Lion says, “Having been like a what-is-it stone, didn’t you preach to me in overbearing words?”
When he had been looking at him a little time, as the Turtle, having put his head outside again, was going off, the Lion says, “Bola, art thou a being who can do anything?”
“O Lord, the things that you, Sir, can do you do. I do the things that I can do,” the Turtle said.
“Bola, canst thou, who endest by drawing slowly and slowly what is like a lump of stone, run, jump, roar, swim in rivers that way and this way, equal to me? And what canst thou do to me, who having roared and caused the bottom of the ears to burst, and killed every animal, eats it?” the Lion said.
Then the Turtle says, “You, Sir, frighten and eat even all. You cannot frighten and kill, nor eat, me except on land. In the water, you, Sir, cannot swim that side and this side equal to me,” the Turtle said to the Lion.
After the Lion, having become angry, said, “Wilt thou come to swim that side and this side with me? If not, I will put thee under a large stone,” the Turtle having become afraid that he would kill him, having given his word to swim with the Lion that side and this side in a river, went near the river.
Having gone [there] the Turtle met with yet a Turtle, and said, “Friend, a great trouble has befallen me to-day.” After the friendly Turtle asked, “What is it, friend?” the other Turtle says, “The Lion King has come and wagered with me to swim that side and this side,” he said.
Then the Turtle says, “Why are you afraid of that, friend? Say, ‘It is good.’ I will tell you a good trick; you act in that way. What is it? You place a red flower in your mouth. I will place a red flower in my mouth. You having been on this side with the Lion King, and having sprung into the river and hidden at the bottom of the water very near there, remain [there]. I having hidden near the river bank on that side will be [there]. The Lion King having come swimming, as he is going to land on that side, I being near the river bank and having said, ‘Kūrmarsha,’[2] taking the flower will land [before him]. You also in that way having been hidden near the bank on this side, as the Lion King is going to land, having said, ‘Kūrmarsha,’ quickly land [before him].” The friendly Turtle having said [this], hid at the bottom of the water near the bank on that side of the river.
The Turtle that spoke with the Lion went near the Lion. Then the Lion asks, “Art thou coming to swim?” he asked.
“Yes, Your Majesty,” the Turtle said.