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An old one that one of my brothers brought in he put under a large heavy box, meaning to feed and keep it; but in the morning it was gone: it had lifted the edge of the box and was away, nor could he find out how it had contrived to make its escape from the room. This is all that I know about the Canadian land-tortoise."
The Indian then took the empty shell of a land-tortoise and gave it some heavy blows with an axe. I asked why he did that. He said it was to let the cayman hear that something was going on. In fact, the Indian meant it as the cayman's dinner-bell. Having done this we went back to the hammocks, not intending to visit it again till morning.
Reduced wings would keep the birds near the shelter and the food afforded by the island and its neighbourhood, and in some cases would become adapted to act as fins or flappers for swimming under water in pursuit of fish. The reduced size of the wings of these island birds is paralleled by the remarkable thinness, &c., of the shell of the "gigantic land-tortoise" of the Galapagos Islands.
In these KORA, the land-tortoise, and PLANDOK, the tiny mouse-deer, figure largely as cunning and unprincipled thieves and vagabonds that turn the laugh always against the bigger animals and man. The NGARONG or Secret Helper An important institution among some of the Ibans, which occurs but in rare instances among the other peoples, is the NGARONG or secret helper.
"I have seen them sometimes on the shores of the lakes, and once or twice I have met with the small land-tortoise, in the woods on the banks of the Otonabee river. The shell that covers these reptiles is black and yellow, divided into squares those which I saw were about the size of my two hands.
The path to it led across a clearing between little hillocks of freshly turned earth, and the high forest overhead was bursting into tiny green darts of growth like flame. The rattles were sewed to the leggings of the women little yellow and black land-tortoise shells filled with pebbles who sang as they danced and cut themselves with flints until they bled.
I stood prepared with my stick to strike it without any sensation of fear; indeed, no snakes need be dreaded by persons of good nerve and correct eye, if seen in time. I watched the spot, when, instead of a snake, a land-tortoise came creeping along. I immediately pounced upon it, and carried it off. It weighed, I judged, about twenty pounds. Sambo was well-pleased at seeing it.
Nor does the ant-bear, in the meantime, suffer much from loss of aliment, as it is a well-known fact that he can go longer without food than, perhaps, any other animal, except the land-tortoise. His skin is of a texture that perfectly resists the bite of a dog; his hinder-parts are protected by thick and shaggy hair, while his immense tail is large enough to cover his whole body.
And Captain Andrews pliability without ease. Poor Andrews! he's a defenceless animal safe in impenetrable armour. Give him but time as a man said, who once showed me a land-tortoise give him but time to draw his head into his shell, and a broad-wheeled waggon may go over him without hurting him. Lord Glenthorn, did you ever observe Captain Andrews's mode of conversation?"
Hans' bow, I may explain, was of the most peculiar nature, more like a skulpat, as the Boers call a land-tortoise, drawing its wrinkled head into its shell and putting it out again than anything else. Then Harût remarked in his peculiar English, which I suppose the White Kendah took for some tongue known only to magicians: "So you get here, eh? Why you get here, how the devil you get here, eh?"
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