The Hummingbird and the Crane

A very long time ago the hummingbird was a large bird.  He was one day sitting on a tree near a pond.  The crane came there to catch fish.   

The hummingbird looked at him a while and said, “You are a very lazy bird, and you cannot fly fast.  As for me, I can beat all the birds in flying.” 

The crane became angry and said, “I will bet that I can beat you flying to the end of the world and back.”  

The hummingbird took up the bet.  The bargain was that the bird that won the bet should do what he pleased to the other.  They both now began to fly.  The hummingbird was like an arrow shot from a bow, and he soon left the crane far behind.  They flew towards a place in the north which was the end of the world.  They flew all that day. Night  came on and the hummingbird went to sleep in a cedar tree.  The day and the night were all the same to the crane.  By day break, he got near the cedar tree, in which the hummingbird was sleeping. 

The hummingbird woke up and again flew far ahead of the crane.  The two birds in this way flew several days.  The hummingbird flew only in the day time and the crane flew both in the day and night time.  On the morning of the sixth day, a little after sunrise the crane got to the end of the world.  He waited for the hummingbird.  It was nearly midday before the hummingbird came. Both now ate their dinners, and then rested and slept. 

The next morning, they started back.  They flew back in the same way.  The hummingbird flew only in the day time, and the crane flew both day and  night.  The crane got back to the pond before the hummingbird and so won the bet.  The crane now took the hummingbird, and with a sharp flint he cut him down into a very small bird not much bigger than a butterfly.  It  was in this way that the hummingbird became the smallest.

(from “Choctaw Stories” in Henry S. Halbert Papers)

Published in agreement with the Alabama Department of Archives and History