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Dr. Pimentel informs me that there is found on the Amazonas a variant of the same myth, in which the race was between a deer and a carapato[1]. The latter at the beginning of the race laid hold of the tail of the deer[2]. During the contest, when the deer called out to the insect, the answer came from so near, that the deer, exerting himself more and more, died at last of fatigue.

The myth of the race between the tortoise and the

    O veado acceitou, e collocados, um na beira do matto e o outro no campo, partirão ao signal dado. O veado correu a toda a força e o jabutí deixou-se ficar.

    O veado no meio da carreira gritou pelo jabuti para saber onde estava. A resposta foi lhe dada um pouco adiante, por um dos jabutís collocados de vedeta no matto. O veado redobrou de esforços e de vez em quando gritava pelo seu competidor e tinha a resposta sempre adiante. Afinal o veado cahio morto de cansaço e o jabutí ficou vencedor.

  1. Yalíyúka, Lingua Geral. A species of Ixodes very common in Brazil, infesting especially the grass and bushes of the Campos. It attacks all animals, even the jabuti, and burying its proboscis in the flesh, soon swells to the size of a large castor bean, which it remarkably resembles, both in shape and coloration.
  2. This reminds one of the Little Tailor who pretended to help the giant carry the big tree, but who, instead of lifting his snare, seated himself on one of the branches, and was carried by the giant. The Valiant Tailor. Grimm.