How the Armadillos Began

Deep by the great Amazon River, where the sun glittered on the water and the trees' shadows became long and cool, lived two very good friends. One was called Prickly-Spotty Hedgehog because he had plenty of strong spines. The other was called Slow-and-Steady Turtle because he carried a round, hard shell and took his time with everything.

The two friends often rested on a sandbank and talked about life. Prickly-Spotty rolled up into a little ball when he wanted to be safe. Slow-and-Steady pulled in his head and legs under his hard shell when he got scared. They laughed at how different they were, knowing that was precisely why they fit together so well.

Not far from there, the Painted Jaguar, spotted and lithe, padded through the thicket. He was young and hungry, eager to learn everything about hunting. One day he saw the two friends on the sandbank. He crept close, approaching Prickly-Spotty first. But when he nosed too close, the spines pricked him! The jaguar yelped, shook his paw, and ran straight to his mother by the river's edge.

"Mother," whined the Painted Jaguar, "by the river there's a prickly animal that can roll up, and another that's hard and slow. How shall I catch them?" Jaguar mother licked him on the head and said calmly: "Listen carefully, my cub. The prickly one is called a hedgehog. It rolls up. Roll it into the water – then it will have to unroll to swim, and then you can take it. The hard one is called a turtle. It can't roll up at all. It sits in its shell. Poke it out carefully with your paw – then you can take it. But remember: don't mix them up. They're very different."

Prickly-Spotty and Slow-and-Steady had heard every word. They looked at each other with big eyes. "Did you hear, friend?" whispered the turtle. "He's going to roll you into the water." "And he's going to try to poke you out of your shell!" whispered the hedgehog back. They were quiet for a moment. Then they smiled. "Then we'll do something new," said Prickly-Spotty. "We'll trade tricks! You teach me what you can, and I'll teach you what I can."

So the exercises began. Slow-and-Steady taught the hedgehog to swim. At first, Prickly-Spotty splashed clumsily and got water in his nose. But the turtle showed him how to float and paddle calmly with his paws. Soon the hedgehog could roll out just right in the water, glide a bit, and roll up again – plop, splash, swim! Then it was the turtle's turn. Prickly-Spotty showed him how to roll up really tight. The turtle pulled in his head and legs, squeezed hard, and pressed his tail close. His shell almost creaked as he became so round and compact. "Look!" he called proudly. "I can roll too!"

When the Painted Jaguar came back, he crept forward toward Prickly-Spotty, just as his mother had said. With his nose he rolled the hedgehog down into the water. But what happened? Prickly-Spotty rolled out, swam calmly and quickly, and rolled up again in the middle of the river. The jaguar jumped after, but the hedgehog dove away and swam like a little star. "That's not right!" growled the jaguar and paddled angrily ashore.

Then he spotted Slow-and-Steady. "Aha!" he thought. "Turtles can't roll. You poke them out!" He set his paw against the turtle's edge – but the turtle had learned well. Slow-and-Steady rolled up so tight he became nothing but a hard, round shell. The jaguar poked, pulled, and scraped. Nothing helped. The shell was like a steady mountain. "That's not right either!" he whined, confused and wet.

Back to his mother he ran. "Mother, nothing went as you said! The prickly one was rolled into the water, but swam like a fish and got away. The hard one shouldn't be able to roll, but he rolled up, hard as a stone. What shall I do now?" Jaguar mother wrinkled her forehead. "If the prickly one swims and the hard one rolls – then they're neither hedgehog nor turtle in the old way," she said slowly. "Then they're something new. And when something is new, you must learn anew."

Meanwhile, the friends continued to practice. They rolled, swam, rolled again. They grew better and better at each other's tricks. Prickly-Spotty's spines lay softer and smoother, like narrow bands over his back from rolling so often. Slow-and-Steady's shell developed flexible stripes, so he could roll even tighter. They still looked like themselves – but also a little different, as if the sand and water had shaped them.

One evening, the Painted Jaguar stood on the sandbank again. "Are you a hedgehog?" he asked Prickly-Spotty. "Not only," answered the hedgehog and swam out in a soft arc. "Are you a turtle?" he asked Slow-and-Steady. "Not only," said the turtle and rolled up into a perfect ball. The jaguar blinked. He now knew he stood before something new – animals that could both roll and swim, and were both hard and flexible.

He padded back to his mother and told her. She looked out over the river that glittered in the moonlight. "My cub," she said, "when an animal wears bands of protection over its back, rolls up like a ball, and yet swims softly in the river – then we call it an armadillo. Now you know how the armadillos began. And henceforth, you shall hunt with greater respect, for clever animals find clever ways."

Prickly-Spotty and Slow-and-Steady smiled at each other in the darkness. They were still friends, just as before. But within them was something new: the courage to learn, the wisdom to share, and the joy of becoming something more together. And from that day, there were armadillos by the Amazon – with striped protection over their backs, rolling like balls whenever they wanted and swimming like shadows in the soft, warm river. So the armadillos began, just so.