Have you seen the beautiful patterns on the backs of tortoises? This fairy tale tells how it came about:

A poor woman once lived in a village in the Rif. She worked as a seamstress so that her children would not go hungry. She sewed caftans or djellabas from precious fabrics for the rich. The poor, on the other hand, had their clothes sewn from simple fabrics.

The woman kept a little of each fabric for herself and used it to sew clothes for her children. She put one small piece of fabric on top of another until a colorful pattern was created.

The people in the village knew that she kept fabrics for herself, but as long as she only took from the rich people's fabrics, nobody minded. 

But then the woman became greedy and kept more and more fabrics for herself. 

Once she sewed a djellaba for a poor farmer. Because she wanted to keep a lot of fabric, she sewed the tunic too short, the sleeves too tight and the hood so small that it didn't fit over the head.

The farmer was already old, and when winter came and the ice wind blew, he couldn't protect himself with the hood. His legs became freezing cold, and eventually he died in the cold.

Then the woman was turned into a tortoise. She hides her head under her shell, which is decorated with elaborate patterns reminiscent of the poor woman's pieces of cloth.

Fassung Djamila Jaenike, nach: E. Chimetti, Légendes Marocaines, Paris 1959, unter dem Titel «Fekroune, la Tortue» © Mutabor