TUG-OF-WAR

TUG-OF-WAR

There is a Zairean fable about a tortoise who used his intelligence to a great effect.

One day a tortoise met an elephant, who trumpeted, “Out of my way, you weakling—I might step on you!” The tortoise got scared and moved out of the way but seeing the arrogance of the elephant it shouted from behind,  “Do not boast, Mr. Elephant, I am as strong as you are!”. The elephant just laughed and asked the tortoise asked him to come to his hill the next morning to show his strength.

The next day, before sunrise, the tortoise was walking down the hill to the river, thinking, now that he had accepted the mighty elephant’s challenge, how could he prove his worth. Suddenly he saw a hippopotamus roaming around lazily. An idea struck tortoise.

“Mr Hippo! Shall we have a tug-of-war? I bet I’m as strong as you are!” said the tortoise.

The hippopotamus laughed at this ridiculous idea, but agreed.

The tortoise produced a long rope and told the hippo to hold it in his mouth until the tortoise shouted “Hey!” Then the tortoise ran back up the hill where he found the elephant, who was getting impatient. He gave the elephant the other end of the rope and said, “When I say ‘Hey!’ pull, and you’ll see which of us is the strongest.”

Then he ran halfway back down the hill, to a place where he couldn’t be seen, and shouted, “Hey!” The elephant and the hippopotamus pulled and pulled, but neither could budge the other and neither of them were aware that it was not the tortoise who was anyway involved in holding the role. Finally they both agreed that the tortoise was as strong as they were.