Chapter 7
this is a libri box recording all libri box recordings are in the public domain for more information and to find out how you can volunteer please visit libri box dot org read and recorded by reynard the beginning of the armadillos by rudyard best beloved, is another story of the high and far off times. In the very middle of those times was a stick turbid Amazon, eating shelly snails and things. And he had a friend, solid torquies, eating green lettuces.
And so that was all right, best beloved. At the same time, in those high, there was a painted jagged. And he lived on the banks of the turbid Amazon too. And he ate everything that he could catch. When he could not catch deer, he would eat frogs.
and he could not catch frogs and beetles he went to his mother jaguar and she told him how to eat hedgehogs and so many times graciously waving her tail my son when you find a hedgehog you must drop him into the water and then he will uncoil and when you catch a tortoise you must scoop him out of his shell with your paw and so that was all right best beloved one beautiful night on the banks of the turbid amazon a painted jaguar sitting under the trunk of a fallen tree they could not run away and so stickled himself up into a ball and a slow-drew in his head and into his shell as far as they would go because he was a tortoise it was all right best do you see now attend to me said because this is very my mother said that when i meet a hedgehog i am to drop him into the water and then he will uncoil and when i meet a tortoise i am to scoop him out of his shell with my paw now which of you is a hedgehog and which of you is torqued to save my spot i can't tell are you sure of what your mummy told you said stick are you quite sure that when you uncoil a tortoise you must shell him out of the water with a scoop
and when you paw a hedgehog you must drop him on the shell are you sure of what your mummy told you said slow and solid tortoise are you quite sure she said that when you water a hedgehog you must drop him into your paw and when you meet a tortoise you must shell him till he uncoils i don't think it was at all like that said jaguar but he felt a little puzzled but please say it again more distinctly when you scoop water with your paw you uncoil it with a hedgehog said stickly prickly remember that because it's important when you pour your meat you drop it into a tortoise with a scoop why can't you understand you are making my spots ache said painted jaguar and besides i didn't want your advice at all i only wanted to know which of you is hedgehog and which is tortoise i shan't tell you said stickly prickly but you can scoop me out of my shell if you like aha now i know your tortoise you thought i wouldn't now i will painted jaguar darted out his paddy paw just as stickly curled himself up
and of course jaguar's paddy paw was just filled with prickle worse than that he knocked stickly prickly away and away into the woods and the bushes it was too dark to find him then he put his paddy paw into his mouth hurt him worse than ever as soon as he could speak he said now i know he isn't tortoise at all but and then he scratched his head with his unprickly paw how do i know that this other is tortoise but i am tortoise said slow and solid your mother was quite right she said that you were to scoop me out of my shell with your paw begin you didn't say she said that a minute ago said painted jaguar sucking the prickles out of his paddy paw You said she said something quite different. Suppose you say that I said that she said something quite different. I don't see that it makes any difference, because if she said what you said I said she said, it's just the same as if I said what she said she said. on the other hand if you think she said that you were to uncoil me with a scoop instead of pouring me into drops with a shell i can't help that can i but you said you wanted to be scooped out of your shell with my paw said painted jaguar
If you'll think again, you'll find that I didn't say anything of the kind. I said that your mother said that you were to scoop me out of my shell, said Slow and Solid. What will happen if I do, said the jaguar, most sniffly and most cautious? I don't know, because I've never been scooped out of my shell before. But I tell you truly, if you want to see me swim away, you've only got to drop me into the water.
I don't believe it, said Painted Jaguar. You've mixed up all the things my mother told me to do with the things that you asked me, whether I was sure that she didn't say, till I don't know whether I'm on my head or my painted tail. And now you come and tell me something I can understand,
and it makes me more mixy than before. My mother told me that I was to drop one of you two into the water, and as you seem so anxious to be dropped, I think you don't want to be dropped. So jump into the turbid Amazon and be quick about it.
i warn you that your mummy won't be pleased don't tell her i didn't tell you said slow and solid if you say another word about what my mother said the jaguar answered but he had not finished the sentence before slow and solid quietly dived into the turbid amazon swam under the water for a long way and came out on the bank where stickly that was a very narrow escape said i don't rib painted jaguar what did you tell him that you were i told him truthfully that i was a truthful tortoise but he wouldn't believe it and he made me jump into the river to see if i was and i was and he is surprised now he's gone to tell his mummy listen to him they could hear painted jaguar roaring up and down among the trees and the bushes by the side of the turbid amazon till his mummy came son son said his mother ever so many times graciously waving her tail what have you been doing that you shouldn't have done i tried to scoop something that said it wanted to be scooped out of its shell with my paw and my paw is full of pur-icles said painted jaguar son son said his mother ever so many times graciously waving her tail by the prickles in your paddy paw
I see that that must have been a hedgehog. You should have dropped him into the water. I did that to the other thing, and he said he was a tortoise, and I didn't believe him. And it was quite true, and he has dived under the turbid Amazon, and he won't come up again, and I haven't anything at all to eat, and I think we had better find lodging somewhere else.
Too clever on the turbid Amazon for poor me. Son, son, said his mother ever many times, graciously waving her tail. now attend to me and remember what i say a hedgehog curls himself up into a ball and his prickles three which way at once by this you may know the i don't like this old lady one little bit said under the shadow of a large leaf i wonder what else she knows a tortoise curl himself up mother jaguar went on many times, graciously waving her tail. He only draws his head and legs into his shell.
By this you may know the tortoise. I don't like this lady at all, said slow and solid tortoise. The painted jaguar can't forget those directions. It's a great pity that you can't swim, Stickly Prickly. Don't talk to me, said Stickly Prickly. Think how much better it would be if you could curl up. Listen to painted jaguar. Sitting on the banks of the turbid Amazon, picking prickles out of his paws and saying to himself that can swim slow and solid that's him curls up but can't swim he'll never forget that this month of sunday said stickly hold up my chin slow and solid i am going to try to learn to swim it may be useful
he held up stickly prickly's chin while stickly prickly kicked in the waters of the turbid amazon you'll make a fine swimmer yet said slow and solid now if you can unlace my back plates a little i'll see what i can do towards curling up it may be useful stickly prickly helped to unlace so that by twisting and straining slow and solid actually managed to curl up a tiddy wee bit excellent said stickly but i shouldn't do any more just now it's making you black in the face kindly lead me into the water once again and i'll practise that side-stroke which you say is so easy and so stickly prickly and slow and solid swam alongside excellent said slow and solid a little more practice will make you a regular whale now if i may trouble you to unlace my back and front plate two holes more i'll try that fascinating bend that you say is so easy won't painted jaguar be surprised excellent said stickly prickly the turbid amazon i declare i shouldn't know you from one of my own family two holes i think you said a little more expression please and don't grunt quite so much or painted jaguar may hear us when you've finished i want to try that long dive which you say is so easy won't painted jaguar be
and so stickily prickly dived and slow and solid dived alongside excellent said slow and solid a little more attention to holding your breath and you will be able to keep house at the bottom of the turbid amazon now i'll try the exercise of putting my hind legs round my ears which you say is so peculiarly comfortable won't painted jaguar be excellent but it's straining your back-plates a little they are all overlapping now instead of lying side by side oh that's the result of the exercise said slow and solid i've noticed that your prickles seem to be melting into one another and that you're growing to look rather more like a pine-cone and less like a chestnut burr than you used to comes from my soaking in the water oh won't painted jaguar be surprised they went on with their exercises each helping the other till morning came and when the sun was high they rested and dried themselves then they saw that they were both of them quite different from what they had been Prickly, Prickly, said Portus after breakfast, I am not what I was yesterday, but I think I may
yet amuse Painted Jaguar. That was the very thing I was thinking just now, said Stickly Prickly. I think scales are a tremendous improvement on Prickle, to say nothing of being able to swim. Oh, won't Painted Jaguar be surprised? Let's go and find him. By and by, they found Painted still nursing his paddy hurt the night before. He was so astonished that he fell three times backward over his own painted tail without stopping good morning said stickly prickly and how is your dear gracious mummy this morning she is quite well thank you said painted jaguar but you must forgive me if i do not at this precise moment recall your name that's unkind of you said stickly
seeing that this time yesterday you tried to scoop me out of my shell with your paw but you hadn't any shells it was all prickles said painted jaguar i know it was look at my paw you told me to drop into the turbid amazon and be drowned said slow and solid why are you so rude and forgetful to-day don't you remember what your mother told you said stickly prickly can't curl that's him curls up but can't swim slow solid then they both curled themselves up and rolled round and round painted jaguar till his eyes turned truly cartwheels in his head his mother mother he said there are two new animals in the woods today and the one that you said couldn't swim swims and the one that you said couldn't curl up curls and they've gone shares in their prickles i think because both of them are scaly all over instead of one of them being smooth and the other very prickly and besides that they are rolling round and round in circles and i don't feel con's son said mother jaguar many times graciously waving her tail and can't be anything but a hand a tortoise is a tortoise and can never be anything else but it isn't a hedgehog and it isn't a tortoise
it's a little bit of both and i don't know its proper name nonsense said mother jaguar everything has its proper name i should call it armadillo i found out the real one and i should leave it alone The painted jaguar did as he was told, especially about leaving them alone. But the curious thing is, that from that day to this, O best beloved, no one on the banks of the turbid Amazon has ever called stickling and slow solid anything a armadillo. There are hedgehogs and tortoises in other places of course, there are some in my garden,
and clever kinds, with their scales lying lippity-lappity one over the other, like pine-cone gales that lived on the banks of the turbid amazon in the high and far are always called so that's all right best beloved do you see i've never sailed the amazon i've never reached brazil but the don and magdalena there when they will yes weakly from south hampshire great steamers white and gold go rolling down to rio roll down roll down to rio and i'd like to roll to rio some day before i'm old i've never seen a jaguar nor yet an armadillo o dilloing in his armour i s'pose i never will unless i go to rio these wonders to behold roll down roll down to rio roll really down to rio oh i'd love to roll to rio some day before i The beginning of the Armadillos by Rudyard Kipling.
