Protected Turtle

Once upon a time there were two brothers, Demon and Tukan who lived in a village in Flores. Demon was the older brother of Tukan.

One day they quarreled over a bamboo cup of palm wine. Demon chased Tukan away from home. Tukan gave in to his older brother and decided to leave home for good.

He started his journey crossing over many villages. He finally arrived at the beach. He wanted to leave the island before being noticed by anyone. Knowing that there was no ship or even a canoe that could take him anywhere far from the island, he cried at the top of his voice. Hearing the touching cry, a turtle came closer and closer. The turtle finally reached him and asked why he cried. Tukan told the turtle all about his misery. The turtle then offered him help to take him to the most beautiful island that was full of fruits and food.

They started crossing the sea. Tukan sat on the turtle`s shoulders. It was not easy to cross the sea with thunder, storms, and rain. Sometimes Tukan was very frightened, but the lively turtle assured him that everything would be alright. After travelling for months they finally arrived at the most beautiful island. Tukan felt very happy and thought that his life would be far better than in the past at home. Tukan was deeply obliged to the turtle and swore that he and his offspring would never eat any kind of turtle meat.

One day one of Tukan`s great grand children, Paji, happened to see a turtle cast ashore. He then killed and cooked it for his lunch. Just before he finished his lunch, it rained suddenly and heavily and destroyed his house. Paji came to realize that the turtle was angry as he had already broken the vow spelt out by his great grandfather: “not to kill turtles”. He also realized that mother nature was angry with him. He then prayed hard asking the turtle and nature to cool down. He told his children and grand children not to kill any more turtles but instead to save their lives.