# The Beginning of the Armadillos explained — Just So Stories

> Chapter companion for Just So Stories by Rudyard Kipling.

## What happens

In the High and Far-Off Times, Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog and Slow-Solid Tortoise live on the banks of the turbid Amazon. Painted Jaguar, following his mother's advice, tries to eat them but is confused by their clever wordplay. After a series of tricks, the Hedgehog and Tortoise adapt by learning to swim and curl, respectively, transforming into a new creature called the Armadillo. The Jaguar's mother advises him to leave them alone, and from then on, they are known as Armadillos.

## Themes in this chapter

### Cunning and Resourcefulness

The Hedgehog and Tortoise use clever wordplay and adaptation to outsmart the Jaguar, leading to their transformation into Armadillos.

### Adaptation and Camouflage

The Hedgehog and Tortoise physically change by learning new skills (swimming and curling), resulting in a new species with scaly armor.

## Character check-ins

### Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog

Lives on the Amazon banks, eats snails, and uses clever wordplay to confuse the Jaguar. Learns to swim and becomes part of the Armadillo.

### Slow-and-Solid Tortoise

Lives on the Amazon banks, eats lettuces, and collaborates with the Hedgehog to trick the Jaguar. Learns to curl and becomes part of the Armadillo.

### Painted Jaguar

Tries to eat the Hedgehog and Tortoise but is outwitted. Gets pricked and confused, eventually reports to his mother.

### Mother Jaguar

Gives advice to her son about eating hedgehogs and tortoises. Later suggests the name 'Armadillo' for the new creature.

### Best Beloved

The narrator's audience, addressed throughout the story.

## Key lines

> When you find a Hedgehog you must drop him into the water and then he will uncoil, and when you catch a Tortoise you must scoop him out of his shell with your paw.

To eat a hedgehog, put it in water to make it uncurl; to eat a tortoise, use your paw to remove it from its shell.

_Mother Jaguar's instructions to her son about how to eat hedgehogs and tortoises._

> Perhaps she said that when you uncoil a Tortoise you must shell him out of the water with a scoop, and when you paw a Hedgehog you must drop him on the shell.

Maybe your mother meant that to uncurl a tortoise, you scoop it from the water, and to handle a hedgehog, you drop it onto a shell.

_The Hedgehog deliberately misinterprets Mother Jaguar's advice to confuse the Jaguar._

> A Hedgehog is a Hedgehog, and can’t be anything but a Hedgehog; and a Tortoise is a Tortoise, and can never be anything else.

A hedgehog is always a hedgehog, and a tortoise is always a tortoise; they cannot change.

_Mother Jaguar insists on fixed identities, unaware of the animals' transformation._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/just_so_stories_se/chapters/the-beginning-of-the-armadillos
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/just_so_stories_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/just_so_stories_se/chapters