The Beginning of the Armadillos

Long ago, by a big brown river, there lived a Hedgehog. He was prickly. And a Tortoise. He was slow.

They were best friends.

One night, along came a Jaguar. Spotty and hungry.

'Aha!' said the Jaguar. 'Dinner!'

His mother had told him: if you catch a Hedgehog, drop him in water. If you catch a Tortoise, scoop him out of his shell.

But the Jaguar could not remember which was which. 'Are you the one I drop, or the one I scoop?' he asked.

Hedgehog and Tortoise looked at each other. Then Hedgehog rolled into a prickly ball. Ouch! Jaguar's paw filled up with prickles.

'Not that one,' said the Jaguar, blowing on his paw.

Tortoise waited until Jaguar tried to scoop him. Then he slipped into the water and swam away.

'Bother,' said the Jaguar.

Now Hedgehog and Tortoise met again by the river. 'That was close,' said Hedgehog. 'I wish I could swim like you.'

'And I wish I could roll into a ball like you,' said Tortoise.

So they helped each other. Hedgehog learned to swim. Tortoise learned to curl. And as they practised — plip splash, twist bend — a strange thing happened.

Hedgehog's prickles turned into scales. Tortoise's shell went bendy.

The next time they saw the Jaguar, he stared.

'You are neither a hedgehog nor a tortoise,' he said. 'What are you?'

'We don't know,' they said.

'Well, until you find out,' said the Jaguar's mother (who had turned up too), 'I shall call you Armadillos.'

And that's the name they've had ever since.