Talk-Talk : This folktale begins with a tortoise who has a pineapple farm. The pineapple farm was close to a stream and at the side of the road. Mango, orange, and pineapple were fed to the farm’s tortoises along with other fruits.
Most times the fruits on his farm would go ripe and they would fall. A single squirrel would visit the tortoise pineapple farm with her young each time the fruits ripened and fell, and they would take the fruits. On the tortoise pineapple farm, the squirrel and her offspring would devour every ripe pineapple as well as anything else they could discover.
One annoying thing is that the squirrel and her children would not only eat the ripe pineapple but they would also take a bite out of every fruit on the large farm. This made the tortoise very angry. The tortoise couldn’t sell his pineapples or give them away as gifts because of the squirrels’ actions.
As soon as there was a bite out of the ripe pineapple, there would be a smell. This smell attracted other animals and they would easily find the pineapple. After a while, the tortoise noticed this and he would stay watch to catch those who were responsible.
The tortoise found out that it was the squirrel and her children that were responsible. The tortoise then warned them not to take a bite out of his pineapple again. Then the tortoise also asked his neighbors for help; however, the squirrel and her children did not listen to the tortoise.
The squirrel and her young ones continued eating the pineapple on the farm where the tortoises are housed. This got worse and it made the tortoise very angry. The tortoise was ready to face the squirrel to keep her and her children away from his farm.
The tortoise was prepared to confront the squirrel, but there was just one issue. The squirrel was always on top of a palm tree or somewhere high and this was impossible for the tortoise to climb the tree. This made it a little more difficult for the tortoise to battle the squirrel.
However, the tortoise had a plan to stop the squirrel from taking a bite from his pineapple on his farm. The tortoise then asked the local priest to put a curse on anyone who takes a bite out of his pineapple. This news reached the squirrel and so she begged the tortoise. The tortoise then forgave her because other people also joined in begging the tortoise for the actions of the squirrel.
Although the tortoise had forgiven her, still he would not stop talking about the squirrel’s actions. Each time that the squirrel and her children passed through the farm, they could hear the tortoise talking about them taking a bite out of the fruits on his farm
The tortoise gathered all his friends and he would narrate the whole story to them. This made the squirrel sad and so she went to meet the tortoise. She told the tortoise that he had forgiven her so why was he still talking about the incident.
The tortoise told her that although he had forgiven her still, he would continue talking about what she did and that she would be the center of gossip. She shouldn’t be annoyed when she heard him gossiping about her or having small talk (talk-talk). He asked that she not find it annoying.
After that, each time the tortoise and her children passed by the pineapple’s farm, they would feel like eating some of the pineapples, however, they couldn’t. Most times, the pineapple would ripen and would fall on the ground. This wouldn’t tempt the squirrel so they stopped eating from the tortoise farm. They weren’t afraid of the tortoise but they didn’t want to be the center of gossip.