It was all prickles , ' said Painted Jaguar . ' I know it was . Just look at my paw ! ' ` You told me to drop into the turbid Amazon and be drowned , ' said Slow-Solid . ` Why are you so rude and forgetful to-day ? ' ` Do n't you remember what your mother told you ? ' said Stickly-Prickly , -- ` Ca n't curl , but can swim -- Stickly-Prickly , that 's him ! Curls up , but ca n't swim -- Slow-Solid , that 's him ! ' Then they both curled themselves up and rolled round and round Painted Jaguar till his eyes turned truly cart-wheels in his head . Then he went to fetch his mother . ` Mother , ' he said , ` there are two new animals in the woods to-day , and the one that you said could n't swim , swims , and the one that you said could n't curl up , curls ; and they 've gone shares in their prickles , I think , because both of them are scaly all over , instead of one being smooth and the other very prickly ; and , besides that , they are rolling round and round in circles , and I do n't feel comfy . ' ` Son , son ! ' said Mother Jaguar ever so many times , graciously waving her tail , ' a Hedgehog is a Hedgehog , and ca n't be anything but a Hedgehog ; and a Tortoise is a Tortoise , and can never be anything else . ' ` But it is n't a Hedgehog , and it is n't a Tortoise . It 's a little bit of both , and I do n't know its proper name . ' ` Nonsense ! ' said Mother Jaguar . ` Everything has its proper name . I should call it `` Armadillo '' till I found out the real one . And I should leave it alone . '
So Painted Jaguar did as he was told , especially about leaving them alone ; but the curious thing is that from that day to this , O Best Beloved , no one on the banks of the turbid Amazon has ever called XXXXX and Slow-Solid anything except Armadillo .
Amazon Hedgehog Jaguar Mother Slow-Solid Stickly-Prickly Tortoise cart-wheels drowned prickles