The Turtle and the Tapir

The turtle and the tapir On how the tapir got its large extendable penis.

Based on a legend of the Ese Ejja tribe from the Bolivian Amazon. (As registered by Bamonte & Kociancichi)

By Vincent A. Vos

As they do every morning, a group of howler monkeys sings from the top of a large tree near the Beni River. While eating some recently fallen fruits, a turtle listens intrigued by their loud voices.

Later that night the turtle makes up his mind and a few minutes later he’s climbing up the tree to meet the howler monkeys. On reaching the large limb where the group of monkeys is sleeping, he wakes up one of the monkeys and asks him to teach him to sing as beautifully as they do.

However, the monkey rubs his eyes sleepily and simply says: “It’s still too early, we only sing at sunrise”.

The turtle accepts disappointed, but eager to learn how to sing, at about three in the morning he again wakes up the howler monkey, tells him the sun is already visible on the horizon, and asks him to please teach him to sing. The howler monkey gives a great show, but the turtle fails to make any significant sounds. The howler monkey explains he won’t be able to teach the turtle because he doesn’t have the special throat of the howler monkeys. While the turtle keeps nagging the sleepy monkey for more singing lessons, the howler monkey gets more and more cranky, even more so when he notices it’s not anywhere near sunrise yet. So when the turtle suggests borrowing the monkey’s throat he’s had it. The monkey pushes the turtle off the tree and it falls to the forest floor where it lands upside down in the mud.

When the turtle tries to get up he notices he’s terribly stuck in the mud. After a few days the turtle has tried wiggling all of its body parts, but to no avail; it’s still completely stuck, with no hope of getting out of the mud on its own. Just when the turtle thinks he will die of thirst, a tapir walks by nibbling on some saplings. The turtle calls out to it and asks it to help out. On the turtle’s instructions the tapir uses its mouth to hold onto one of the turtle’s legs. However, when he starts

to pull the turtle is stuck so badly that it doesn’t move an inch. Now the tapir really puts all its strength into it, but instead of the turtle getting loose the tapir’s mouth is stretched out with its lips dangling down. Displeased with its new and rather strange appearance the tapir gives up. But the turtle asks the tapir to at least help it quench its thirst by urinating in the turtle’s mouth. So the tapir puts his penis near the turtle’s mouth to start urinating, when the turtle suddenly sticks out his neck, and his mouth closes firmly around the tapir’s penis. The tapir is shocked by this sudden twist of affairs, and in despair jumps away from the scene. This was just what the turtle planned for, and while holding on with all its might, the tug from the tapir pulls him loose from the mud.

But the turtle does not let go of his grip. So while the tapir runs like crazy through the dense undergrowth of the Amazon forest, the turtle dangles from side to side until the tapir passes between two boulders and the turtle is shattered to pieces of all sizes. These different pieces were the beginning of all species of turtles we can now find throughout the Amazon.

Relieved that he has finally lost his burden, the tapir walks on to continue feeding, but he discovers that his penis has been stretched so long that it gets tangled up in the vines and twigs of the forest vegetation. So he holds onto his penis and tugs it into his belly. That’s how the tapirs got the large extendable penises they have to this day.

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Bamonte, G. & S. Kociancich. 2007. Los Ese Ejja, el mundo de los hombres y el mundo de los espíritus entre los indios del río. Plural Editores. La Paz Bolivia.