Story: The Tortoise and the Heron

An Indian pond heron. Photography by J.M Garg (2007).

Many, many years ago, there was a large pond. This pond was fed by a wide stream which swept down from the mountains, through the jungle, across the plains, and into a river. It bubbled and gurgled all day, bringing fresh water to those plants and animals which lived in the pond. The land around the pond was remarkably fertile and all kinds of things were able to grow in that little shaded pond.

Among those animals that lived in the pond, the oldest of them all was the tortoise. He had been there far longer than anyone else. In fact, he had been there so long that he couldn’t remember when he had come here. He might have always lived here, but no one could say for sure. So wise and venerable did he seem that the animals treated him as something of a god-king. They thought he could commune with the other gods and ask for favors.

During one particularly hot summer, the stream which fed this pond started to dwindle. After a few weeks, the stream dried up completely and all that could be seen was the rocky bed. Pretty soon, the pond itself began to dry up. All of the animals were frightened. Of those animals which lived in the water, the fishes were the most frightened. They cried out to the tortoise, expecting him to have some wise plan. Surely he had seen days such as this, when there wasn’t enough rain to sustain the pond. Perhaps he knew how to bring the water back.

“Oh, wise tortoise!” they cried. “Why has the stream dried up? Please help restore it! If you don’t, we shall all die.”

The tortoise cleared his ancient throat and replied, “It has dried up because not enough of you have brought me the choicest plants. Go forth! Bring back the best herbage and I shall restore the stream.”

All of the little animals helped find the choicest plants for their tortoise. When they brought them back, he made quick work of all the herbage. Rather than being satisfied with this, he told them to bring back some ripe, juicy berries. They did this and he ate them even more quickly than he did the plants. He then demanded even more food. So did the animals eventually strip their pond and the surrounding land bare. There wasn’t anything for the tortoise’s subjects to eat now.

The tortoise still demanded food, but those few remaining animals (so many having perished of hunger) told him there was nothing left. The tortoise thought he would be able to save the pond, so confident was he in his genius. He soon realized that nothing could be done.

One day, while the tortoise sat despairing, a heron appeared at the pond. Sh saw the predicament all of these animals were in.

“Who is your king?” she asked one of the fish.

“The tortoise,” the fish replied. “He is the wisest king we could possibly have.”

The heron went to the tortoise and said, “I see that this pond is close to drying up.”

“Yes, oh, yes!” the tortoise cried, unable to contain his tears. “I thought I could save it but no rain has fallen and the stream is still dry.”

“I know of another pond not too far from here,” said the heron.

“Really?”

“I could take you and your subjects there. You would only have to climb in my beak.”

“How can I be sure you won’t eat all of us?”

“Why would I do that? I have seen how desperate you and your subjects are, so I must help you. It is my duty as your fellow animal.”

The tortoise agreed, but on the condition that he would stay behind until the last animal had been moved. He would be able to help coordinate this exodus if he stayed behind for some time. The fish all gathered in little schools in order to be picked up by the heron and flown to the new pond.

But the heron had no intention of bringing them to the new pond. When the heron was out of the sight of the old pond, she would gulp down whatever creature she had in her mouth. She flew back and forth several times before it was the tortoise’s turn.

As the heron was flying off towards “the new pond,” the tortoise looked down and saw all of the brilliant white fish bones scattered along the fields. He cried out and the heron tried to gulp him up. Unfortunately for the heron, the tortoise was too big to swallow in one gulp and started biting the bird’s tongue. The heron tried to get the tortoise out of her mouth now, but the tortoise held on tight to her tongue. Soon, the heron was forced to land by a small pond and to let the tortoise out. But before the tortoise left, he made sure to bite off the heron’s tongue.

“Both you and I have taken advantage of desperate animals. Of that, we are both guilty. But I thought what I was doing would truly help them. You, on the other hand, always intended to eat us. For that, you are to be cursed for the rest of your days. No longer do you have a tongue with which to deceive others!”

With this, the tortoise climbed into the new pond and the heron flew away, angered that he had been so thoroughly deceitful to the tortoise and the fish.

Author’s Note

This story is a combination of two folk tales from Dutton’s Fables of Bidpai: “The Tortoise and the Geese” and “The Crane and the Crab.” The theme of taking advantage of someone in desperate circumstances is present in my own story, while the carrying of aquatic creatures by birds is also present. In my own story, I decided to make the tortoise somewhat of a bad creature in order to allow him a redemption at the end of the story. In this story, while the tortoise does deceive his subjects in a way, he is able to finally suffer from that same deception. He repents of his terrible deeds and becomes a better person because of it. The heron, on the other hand, must go through life with the mark of her deception.

Bibliography

Maude Dutton. The Tortoise and the Geese and Other Fables of Bidpai (1908).