The Tandroy don't eat tortoise. Their ancestors deemed doing so taboo at an undefined point in history, and the code has passed down via oral tradition. Stories differ over the ancestors' reasoning. Naturalists think that they recognized the tortoise's importance to the ecosystem; that certain plants only grow if their seeds are broken by a tortoise beak, or pass through a tortoise belly. Softies say that because a supine tortoise can't get back on its feet, it's too defenseless to be hunted. In any case, they're untouched and abundant.
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