{"collection":"African","html_url":"https://unchartedknowledge.5gfusion.net/browse/afr/yl/yl42.htm","path":"afr/yl/yl42.htm","source_url":"https://sacred-texts.com/afr/yl/yl42.htm","text":"Sacred-Texts African Index Previous Next\nTHERE was a famine in the land, and everyone longed for food. Each day Tortoise went into the forest to see if he could p. 81 find anything to eat, but in the evenings he came home discouraged with only a few herbs and dried-up nut-kernels for his family.\nOne day, as he walked through a grove, he saw two trees close together\u2014a small stunted tree and a big tree with thick foliage and spreading branches. \u201cWhat sort of tree are you?\u201d he asked the little tree.\n\u201cI am the Chop-tree,\u201d was the reply.\n\u201cWell, Chop-tree, what can you produce?\u201d asked Tortoise. And at the words the little tree waved its branches and a shower of food fell to the ground. Tortoise ate until nothing remained, and then turned to the tall and handsome tree.\n\u201cAnd what tree are you?\u201d he asked, thinking that such a splendid tree must produce rich fruit. The tree told him that its name was Whip-tree, to which Tortoise replied: \u201cWhip-tree, what can you produce?\u201d\nAt these words the Whip-tree bent its p. 82 branches and beat Tortoise until he cried for mercy. When the beating ceased, Tortoise went home, but, being of a greedy nature, he said nothing of the two trees, and showed his wife only a few poor nuts which he had found.\nAfter that he went every day to the Chop-tree and feasted to his heart\u2019s content. While his family and all the people, even to the King, became thin and meagre, Tortoise appeared daily fatter and more prosperous, until Nyanribo, his wife, began to suspect.\nOne day Nyanribo resolved to follow him into the forest, and great was her surprise when she saw her husband stand under the little tree and say: \u201cTree, do your duty!\u201d The branches waved, and rich titbits fell to the ground.\nNyanribo cried out in astonishment and reproached her husband for his greediness. She hastened back to the town and returned with the whole family of children and cousins. She stood under the Chop-tree and said: \u201cTree, do your duty!\u201d p. 83 When the food fell down, they all partook of the feast.\nBut spiteful Tortoise was displeased, and exclaimed:\n\u201cI wish you would stand under the other tree and receive your proper reward!\u201d\nHearing this, they all went to stand under the Whip-tree, and Nyanribo again cried: \u201cTree, do your duty!\u201d Alas! The branches began to beat them all soundly until they died.\nTortoise was alarmed at this and hastily returned to his house, but the neighbours soon noticed that his wife and family were absent, and the King ordered Tortoise to account for their disappearance.\nTortoise therefore led the King and all the nobles and the people into the forest, and when they were gathered under the Chop-tree he cried out: \u201cTree, do your duty!\u201d and, as before, a feast appeared, which the hungry people soon devoured.\nTortoise then asked them to stand underneath the othet tree, and this they were p. 84 eager to do. The King himself was the one to cry out: \u201cTree, do your duty!\u201d and the branches began to beat all those who stood below until they cried out with pain.\nIn a great rage the people hunted for Tortoise, desiring to kill him; but he hid inside his shell, in a secret place, and they could not harm him.\nHe stayed in concealment until the King died and a new King was found, and then he thought it safe to appear in the town. But whenever he hears the two words \u201cChop\u201d and \u201cWhip,\u201d he hides in his shell, thinking himself in danger.","title":"XXXIX TORTOISE AND THE WHIP-TREE","type":"page"}