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Transport

1/31/2016

The tortoises, therefore, which frequent the lower districts, when thirsty, are obliged to travel from a long distance. Hence broad and well-beaten paths branch off in every direction from the wells down to the sea-coast; and the Spaniards by following them up, first discovered the watering-places.

Galápagos Tortoises, Charles Darwin, in A World of Turtles, edited by Gregory McNamee and Luis Alberto Urrea. Photo taken on Mass Pike

Presto

1/28/2016

If you wished to communicate on the High Plains of the nineteenth century and spoke no Native American languages, you could still make yourself understood – but only if you had mastered a complex sign language. Linguist W.P. Clark here describes how to indicate "turtle."

Hold right hand, back up, in front of and lower than right shoulder, hand near body, hand nearly closed, but back of fingers from knuckles to second joints nearly on line with back of hand; move the hand horizontally to front, at same time, by wrist action; twist the hand to right and left.

Making the Sign of the Tortoise, W.P. Clark, in A World of Turtles, edited by Gregory McNamee and Luis Alberto Urrea. Photo of photo of Patti Smith, dated 1977, signed by photographer, Richard McCaffrey

Amalgam

1/27/2016

The turtle is almost indestructible.

Trickster: Tukano (South American Indian) myth, in A World of Turtles: A Literary Celebration, edited by Gregory McNamee and Luis Alberto Urrea

Orientation

1/26/2016

Even a tortoise can climb a fallen tree. Malay

Proverbs and Sayings, in A World of Turtles: A Literary Celebration, edited by Gregory McNamee and Luis Alberto Urrea. Photo taken in the New York Public Library, at the remarkable "The ABC of It: Why Children's Books Matter" exhibit several years ago. (Wish it was still up, and that I was there right now!)

Impact

1/25/2016

Just because he is round does not mean that the snapping turtle should be compared to the moon. Japanese

Proverbs and Sayings, in A World of Turtles, edited by Gregory McNamee and Luis Alberto Urrea

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