The Hunter and the Tortoise

One day a village hunter wandered farther than usual and came to a part of the forest he did not know. To his amazement, he heard someone singing. He stopped to listen. This was the song:

“It is man who forces himself on things,
not things which force themselves on him.”

Sweet music went along with the singing, and the hunter’s heart was completely charmed.

When the song ended, the hunter peered through the branches to see who the singer could be. Imagine his surprise when he found that it was a tortoise, with a tiny harp hanging in front of her. He had never seen anything so marvellous.

Again and again he went back to the same spot to listen to this wonderful creature. At last he persuaded her to let him carry her home to his hut, so that he could enjoy her singing every day in comfort. She agreed, but only on condition that she would sing to him alone.

The hunter did not stay content with this for long. Soon he began to wish he could show the wonderful tortoise to the whole world, and he imagined the honour it would bring him. He told the secret to one person, then another, until at last it reached the ears of the chief himself. The hunter was ordered to come and tell his story before the Assembly. But when he described a tortoise that sang and played the harp, the people jeered. They would not believe him.

Finally he said, “If I am not telling the truth, you may kill me. Tomorrow I will bring the tortoise here and you can all hear her. If she cannot do what I say, I am ready to die.”

“Good,” answered the people. “And if the tortoise can do what you say, you may punish us any way you like.”

With that settled, the hunter went home, very pleased with how things had turned out. As soon as morning came, he carried the tortoise and her harp to the Assembly Place, where a table had been set out for her. Everyone crowded round to listen.

But no song came. The people waited patiently and were willing to give the tortoise and the hunter every chance. Hours went by, and to the hunter’s horror and shame, the tortoise said nothing at all. He tried everything he could think of to coax her to sing, but it was no good. The people began to whisper, and then to speak openly, mocking the boaster and his claims.

Night fell and brought the hunter’s doom with it. As the last ray of sunset faded, he was put to death.

The moment it was done, the tortoise spoke. The people looked at one another, troubled and amazed. “So our brother was telling the truth, and we have killed him.”

But the tortoise went on to explain. “He brought his punishment on himself. I lived happily in the forest, singing my little song. He was not satisfied with coming to listen to me. He had to tell my secret, which was no business of his, to the whole world. If he had not tried to make a show of me, this would never have happened.

“It is man who forces himself on things,
not things which force themselves on him.”

Where this story comes from

“The Hunter and the Tortoise” is story XXI in W. H. Barker and Cecilia Sinclair’s West African Folk-Tales (London: Harrap, 1917). The tortoise’s two-line song frames the whole tale and returns as its last words, giving the tortoise the final word about responsibility—a judgment readers can examine rather than simply accept. In the book the hunter is beheaded; this page says more gently that he was put to death.

Sinclair drew the hunter and the tortoise together for the book. Barker’s introduction discusses tellers adapting inherited stories to audiences; the printed collection also reflects his own retelling and editorial decisions.

Read the original: Read it in West African Folk-Tales (Project Gutenberg)

Best for older readers with an adult — a public wager ends in the hunter’s execution, and the tortoise speaks only after he has died.

Reading the story closely

The tortoise agrees to private performance, not public display. The hunter breaks that condition, then raises the stakes by wagering his life on a performance he cannot control. But the Assembly makes a separate choice to enforce the deadly wager, and the tortoise’s final accusation does not erase that responsibility.

Compare the song at the beginning and end. At first it accompanies freely offered music; at the end it answers a death. Write three short accounts of the event, from hunter, tortoise and Assembly. Which account recognizes the broken boundary, and which recognizes that failure to prove a claim is not proof the claim was false?

Talk about it

• What promise did the hunter make when he took the tortoise home?
• Why do you think the tortoise refused to sing at the Assembly?
• What does the tortoise’s song mean in your own words?

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• Farmer Mybrow and the Fairies — a secret gift spoiled by a broken promise
• Ohia and the Thieving Deer — a magic gift that must stay secret
• Adzanumee and Her Mother — one broken promise undoes a marvel