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The Story of the Birds That Went to the Sky Once every year, in a far-off land, all the birds went to the sky to mark the end of the harvest season. This important celebration also marked the end of one year and the beginning of another . It marked the period of rest that stretched lazily from the end of the harvest to the beginning of the next farming season. At the feast, the birds enjoyed a rowdy celebration, guttling mounds of food and guzzling kegs of wine until they were exhausted from merriment. The year of our story, Torokee-the-Tortoise decided to accompany the birds to the skies. He had lived with the birds for thousands of years and many were his friends. He had never asked to accompany them before and was certain they could not refuse him an invitation. He made his intentions known to one of his closest friends, Magheb-the-Hawk. “Ha ha ha! But you have no wings,” Hawk guffawed, flapping his wings in Tortoise’s face. “How on this earth of our ancestors do you intend to fly without feathers? I know you are quite the trickster, capable of doing anything you put your mind to—after all, you won a race against Hare, the fastest animal in the land. You made a fool of the largest animal in our forests. I don’t know how Elephant sleeps at night after that tug-of-war. You not only convinced Tiger to kill his mother, you went as far as killing him yourself. You outsmarted and turned 15 You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. the wealthy Pig into a pathetic, grunting sight, digging the earth for the rest of his life. I know all that, but this . . . ?” “My friend, our people say that if you follow the king’s train you will eat the head of a chicken. I will have wings. I will borrow feathers from all the birds.” Hawk looked at his friend, suppressed a chuckle, shook his head, and flew away. Tortoise watched Hawk go, chuckling along with him, but promptly proceeded to go from home to home, friend to friend, nest to nest, persuading each and every one of the birds to give him a feather. He collected quite a pile. He took the bundle home. Using nleh, Tortoise’s wife glued the assortment of feathers all over his smooth shell. He now had a pair of flappable wings. You could hardly see his little head sticking through the bouquet. I tell you, Tortoise looked so regal that some of the birds were openly jealous of the beautiful patterns their feathers had fashioned for him. But they soon forgot about Tortoise while they anxiously prepared for the feast. At last, they woke to the day of their departure and all the birds assembled at gbweshi, the place of gathering. Mashii’yeh-the-Parrot made a quick head count.1 All the birds had arrived on time. Before Parrot could announce it was time for them to begin their long journey, Tortoise cleared his throat. “Did you swallow a toad for breakfast?” Parrot teased, to boisterous laughter. “Now that you mention it, I wish I had,” Tortoise joked back. “This is what I wanted to say. I propose we change our names.” “Why?” Toor inquired, his tone baleful. Sunbird was one who never trusted Tortoise and worse, envied him his celebrated cunning. “That’s an element of surprise that will intrigue and impress our hosts. Let’s choose names they’ve never heard of. They’ll 16 / Makuchi 1 Mashii is a generic term meaning bird; yeh means talk, noise; hence, bird-of-talk, bird-that-talks; also, bird-of-noise. You are reading copyrighted material published by Ohio University Press/Swallow Press. Unauthorized posting, copying, or distributing of this work except as permitted under U.S. copyright law is illegal and injures the author and publisher. wonder why they’ve never given such names to their own children . I’m certain our hosts will see this as innovative,” Tortoise replied with his usual poise. Some birds protested and refused to change their names but others agreed it was a good idea; some saw it as a playful ploy nonetheless. Weren’t they after all going to the sky...

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