Many years ago, the ruler of the kingdom of Nowhere had in his great hall a sacred tortoise. The outside of the shell of this tortoise was inscribed with the most exquisite and mysterious markings. The ruler had brought this turtle back as a prize of war after he had conquered the rival kingdom of Nowhen; for, when the seige of the palace of the King of Nowhen was lifted, there was not one creature alive in the palace, except for the sacred tortoise, which had been an oracle and a household god there for many years. The King of Nowhen, desperate, starving and without hope, left the marks of his teeth all around the shell of the tortoise when he gnawed upon it in his dying moments; the tortoise indifferently withdrew its extremities into its shell until the siege ended. The tortoise was carried off and survived to decorate another palace. Now the ruler of Nowhere is dead, and his palace is in ruins, and the tortoise is dead, and its empty shell is under glass in a museum; or perhaps it is in a crate in a warehouse, or in the rubble of the ruined palace.
