Echidna
Note for teachers: click here for some lesson ideas to go with this story.
If this story whets your appetite for Dreamtime stories, take a look at our In The Beginning programme!
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Telling Tips:
- Why not pretend you have a pet flea who is telling you this story? Hold out your hand with your tiny (invisible...) friend, occasionally bringing your palm to your ear so you can listen to what s/he's saying. This idea will work best if you allow yourself to get small details wrong - suddenly say, "What's that, mate?" and tell your audience how the flea is correcting you.
The echidna is a funny looking creature. It has a long, long nose for eating ants, long, long claws for digging, and long, long spines on its back. But Echidna didn’t always have those spines. He got them long, long ago, one hot Dreamtime summer.
It hadn’t rained for ages, and everything was drying up. The animals were all terribly thirsty and had very little energy. They were flopping around in the shade under the trees, barely able to move. All except Echidna. The funny little creature seemed fine, going about his business with a cheerful “Hello!” to everybody. The other animals became suspicious.
“He knows where some water is,” said Koala, “and he’s hiding it from the rest of us. How else could he be so cheerful?”
“I know,” offered Finch, “I’ll follow him and find out where the water is.”
So for the whole of the next day, Finch followed Echidna. Echidna knew he was being followed, and he didn’t go near any water, but Finch knew that Echidna must be getting thirstier and thirstier and would have to give in.
Echidna was wilier than that. He started to dig, and pretty soon he was underground and Finch had lost him. Finch had to go back to the other animals and admit, “Echidna started to dig, and I can’t dig. I lost him, and I don’t know where the water is.”
The next day, Koala had a go at following Echidna, trying to stay in the trees above his head. But once again, Echidna knew that he was being followed. Koala had to return to the other animals that evening and admit, “Echidna started to dig, and I can’t dig. I lost him, and I don’t know where the water is.”
The animals sat around, trying to decide what to do. None of them could dig. As they sat there feeling more and more hopeless, Kangaroo suddenly started to scratch like mad, and a tiny voice said “Let me go and follow Echidna! I’ll find out where the water is!”
“Who are you?” they all asked.
“I’m a flea!” the tiny voice replied.
“A flea?” said Koala sneeringly, “You’re far too small to be of any use!”
“I can jump really far,” answered the flea, “and I can ride on Echidna’s back, you’ll see.”
“I think he’ll know you’re there” grimaced Kangaroo, still scratching.
“I promise I won’t bite Echidna until I find the water” said the flea.
There were no other volunteers, so the animals let Flea hop away to find Echidna. Flea landed on Echidna’s back so lightly that Echidna had no idea he was there, and carried on shuffling around looking for ants to eat. Flea, hanging on to Echidna’s back, almost couldn’t wait to take a bite of the animal, but he remembered his promise not to bit until he found the water.
Eventually, Echidna got thirsty. He ambled over to a large flat stone, and pushed it to one side. Underneath was the water hole he had been keeping secret from the other animals. As soon as Flea saw the water, he couldn’t wait any longer and sank his teeth into Echidna’s back. Echidna started to itch like mad, and as he swiped at his back with his paws, he lost his balance and fell into the water hole with a splash, taking Flea with him.
Echidna couldn’t climb out of the water hole; the sides were too steep. But Flea could jump right out, and in another two jumps he got back to the place where all the animals were sitting and told them where the water was. When they got there, they pulled out a very wet and itchy Echidna and told him off.
“It was very selfish of you to keep all this water to yourself! We could have died!” the animals cried, and they flung Echidna into a thorn bush.
Echidna felt miserable, wet and very very itchy. Stuck in the thorn bush, he wriggled and scratched his back until the flea’s bite didn’t itch any more. But when he came out, his back was stuck full of long thorny spines – and it still is today.