Turtle and the Wintu Maiden

A beautiful Wintu girl reached puberty. Her sisters were sent to find maple bark to make her an apron. It so happened that Turtle, the mischievous son of the mighty ‘Sky Turtle’ stopped at the village on his way to Las Vegas; as was his custom he was going to hit the blackjack tables there. The young girl was mighty surprised later when her mother presented her with the apron. “Mother”, she said, “what is this strange thing for”? “It is to keep you secret from the likes of Turtle the erstwhile son of the ‘Earth Maker’, the mighty ‘Sky Turtle’,” her mother replied with a note of trepidation in her words. Little did she know that Turtle was close by her lodge listening, however ironically, little did Turtle know that the Great Father, ‘Sky Turtle’, was about to play a prank on his trickster son. Turtle considered the morality of seducing such a young girl, and almost slunk away disgusted with himself, but then he reasoned: ‘what could be the harm in talking to the maiden, and maybe even taking her to Vegas to see the lights; just a harmless road-trip to entertain the child’. It came to pass that the girl (who prayed often to Big Sky Turtle) though still naive, was given that day the crucial gift of ‘foresight’ by Turtles mighty Father. Later that night, to her astonishment she found that the pretty apron that she had been told to wear, had turned into a hideous bark mask; upon it were fashioned the most gruesome of features. The creature depicted there displayed many sharp and crooked fangs, its ugly maw opened wide, and between the teeth, a noxious looking flow of hellish flux exuded. With her new gift of foresight she stayed awake knowing that a sly visitor would surely come soon. Meanwhile Turtle was dressing in his finest duds. Of course he put on his sequined blue jeans, his rhinestone studded vest, his ruffled cream undershirt and his jet-black bolo, then his white Stetson with its three proud eagle feathers in its band, lastly he put on his hand-made alligator-skin boots. That Turtle was always one fancy dude. Sure enough, Turtle snuck into the girls lodge, holding a flashlight ahead of him. He was whispering sweet-nothings as he entered, but when the light fell upon the hideous apron between the maidens legs, he yelped and jumped back like a jack-rabbit, bounding away real fast, and he did not wait for the dawn, but got in his truck and skedaddled down the road, vowing to do better.