Why the Tortoise Has a Patchwork Shell

A great famine was in the land, but the birds were invited to a feast in the sky. The Tortoise, Mbe, had no food and no wings. He begged the birds to help him. "Lend me just one feather each," he pleaded, "and I will fly with you." The birds, taking pity, each gave him a feather, and he fashioned a magnificent pair of wings. Just before they left, the cunning Mbe said, "For such a special feast, we must all take new names. My name will be 'All-of-you'." The birds agreed. When they arrived in the sky, the hosts brought out mountains of food and said, "This feast is for all of you." Mbe the Tortoise stepped forward and replied, "That is my name!" He then ate the entire feast himself, leaving the birds with nothing but scraps. Furious, the birds each took back their feather, leaving Mbe stranded in the sky. To get down, Mbe asked the Parrot to deliver a message to his wife: "Tell her to bring out all the soft things—mattresses, pillows, leaves—and pile them up so I can jump safely." But the angry Parrot delivered a different message. "Your husband says to bring out all the hard things—hoes, mortars, stones." His wife obeyed. Mbe jumped from the sky, saw the pile, and crashed onto the hard objects below, shattering his shell into a hundred pieces. A local medicine man had to painstakingly glue the pieces back together. This is why the tortoise's shell is not smooth, but a mosaic of patched-up pieces.