--- title: Just So Stories, The Beginning of the Armadillos, part 1: Painted Jaguar and the muddled advice — a lesson of Mova's school · trees and pragmatics description: «Just So Stories, The Beginning of the Armadillos, part 1: Painted Jaguar and the muddled advice», a lesson of the books course of Mova's primary school, sentence by sentence with dependency trees and pragmatics. It begins: On the banks of the muddy Amazon live two friends: Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog, --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/) / [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/) / Just So Stories, The Beginning of the… # Just So Stories, The Beginning of the Armadillos, part 1: Painted Jaguar and the muddled advice Lesson 82 of the books course of Mova's primary school: 26 sentences, each with its syntax tree and pragmatics. The lessons are written for Mova, and their agreed trees are part of Mova corpus 0.4 (CC BY-SA 4.0). How Mova does on its tests: [the lesson at school](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/school-run/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/). - [0](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/0/) — On the banks of the muddy Amazon live two friends: Stickly-Prickly Hedgehog, who eats snails, and Slow-Solid Tortoise, who eats lettuces. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/1/) — Painted Jaguar lives there too, and his Mother has told him how to eat them: drop a Hedgehog in the water so he uncoils, and scoop a Tortoise out of his shell with your paw. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/2/) — One night Jaguar finds the two under a fallen tree. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/3/) — Hedgehog curls into a ball and Tortoise pulls in his head and feet, so Jaguar cannot tell which is which. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/4/) — The two friends tease him by saying his Mother's advice back to him all jumbled up, until his head spins. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/5/) — Hedgehog says «you can scoop me out of my shell», so Jaguar thinks he must be Tortoise and grabs him. - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/6/) — His paw fills with prickles, and Hedgehog flies off into the dark bushes. - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/7/) — Tortoise then talks in such knots that Jaguar orders him into the river, which is just what Tortoise wanted: he dives and swims away. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/8/) — Jaguar roars for his Mother. - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/9/) — She explains clearly: a Hedgehog curls up and his prickles stick out; a Tortoise cannot curl up, he only pulls in his head and legs. - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/10/) — The friends, listening from under a leaf, are worried: even Jaguar cannot forget such clear directions. - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/11/) — This is the seventh of Kipling's twelve Just So Stories (1902); it begins again with «O Best Beloved» and «the High and Far-Off Times», like the Elephant's Child. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/12/) — Painted Jaguar eats everything he can catch; when he cannot catch deer or monkeys, he eats frogs and beetles. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/13/) — «Turbid» means muddy and cloudy; Kipling calls the Amazon «the turbid Amazon» again and again. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/14/) — Mother Jaguar's rule: «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». - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/15/) — Hedgehog and Tortoise answer with the same words shuffled: «when you water a Hedgehog you must drop him into your paw». - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/16/) — The words are real but the sense is nonsense, and that is the joke. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/17/) — Jaguar says «to save my spots» and «You are making my spots ache»; in old English «paddy-paw» is a baby word for paw. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/20/) — Jaguar thinks it must be a trick, so he orders him into the river, and Tortoise swims away under water and comes out on the bank where Hedgehog is waiting for him. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/22/) — Hiding under a leaf as Mother Jaguar explains, they say: «I don't like this old lady one little bit.» - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/24/) — Jaguar turns it into a rhyme: «Can't curl, but can swim, Slow-Solid, that's him! - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/26/) — Real life: hedgehogs live in Europe, Asia and Africa, not by the Amazon in South America. - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/27/) — Kipling put them there for the story. - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/28/) — Real life: jaguars really live by the Amazon, love water and swim well, and their bite is strong enough to crack a turtle's shell, so a real tortoise would not be safe. - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/29/) — Real life: a jaguar's spots are rosettes, rings with little dots inside; the leopard of Africa and Asia has rings with no dots. - [30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/82-justso-armadillos-1-painted-jaguar/30/) — In Kipling's earlier tale the Leopard got his spots from a man's fingertips, which is made up too. - ← previous: [Just So Stories (Rudyard Kipling), 6: The Sing-Song of Old Man Kangaroo](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/81-justso-old-man-kangaroo/) - next →: [Just So Stories, The Beginning of the Armadillos, part 2: swimming lessons, curling lessons, and a new name](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/83-justso-armadillos-2-the-first-armadillo/) - ↑ back to [Books](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/school/books/)