Before the dance started, the crow stood up on top of the house, and called out, “People, I am going to do something fine for you. I am going to rub some oil on your eyes that will make you all see every animal when you go hunting. Last fall I killed a bear, and the oil is from that bear.”
At this the mink was in a terrible rage, because the crow did not tell them that it was he who had killed the bear, and he began to shout, “He lies, he lies! He did not kill the bear. I killed it myself.”
Well, the crow was so embarrassed and surprised when he heard his cousin say this that he fell right down from the top of the house where he had been standing.
The mink, too, was terribly sorry he had spoken so hastily, and he called out to the crow, “O dear Cousin, forgive me; I did not mean that. I was only jealous. People, listen to me. I did not kill the bear at all. My cousin told the truth. He really killed that bear.”
Then the crow was happy again, and flew back to his high perch, where he recovered his dignity.
Then the people began to ask about the oil, and all stepped up to the crow in turn, and he put it on their eyes.
The two people from that first village were watching the crow all the time, and suddenly one of them jumped up and began to shout, “Stop, people! Stop! He is putting glue on your eyes!”
There was great excitement, and the people tried to open their eyes, but could not, for their eyes were stuck together with glue.
All at once salt water began to pour into the house, and every one rushed to get out of the door, but their eyes were glued, so they could not see the hole to go out.
Now the crow took a big stick, and the mink one also, and all the crow’s people armed themselves with big sticks, and killed all the people the mink had gone to sea to invite, and who turned out to be seals after all.
Then the treacherous and tricky crow gave one of the seals to each of his own people and sent them home.
This is how the crow got the name of being the trickiest of all the birds, and no animal really likes him, because they know they cannot trust him.
Long ago, on the shores of the Arctic Ocean, two Eskimo boys were walking from their own home to a far-away village. While they were going along, a terrible storm overtook them and they had to hold each other by the hand to keep from falling. Pretty soon the wind rose so high, and the snow fell so fast, they felt they could go no farther. In despair, they clung to each other, blinded by the snow, when a tremendous gust of wind suddenly caught them, and blew them against the side of a little snow house. How glad they were to find shelter!
