Today’s reading comes from James Mooney’s Myths of the Cherokee, and is about a race between a hummingbird and a crane.
Reading Notes
- Hummingbird and Crane were both in love with a woman; while she only cared for Hummingbird because of his beauty, Crane was so persistent that she finally said that the two would need to race to see who would get to marry her.
- Now, Hummingbird was very fast, but Crane could fly throughout the night; the woman didn’t know this, so she thought Hummingbird would win.
- They agreed to start at her house and circle around the earth; whoever made it back first would get to marry the woman.
- Hummingbird flew off immediately; he flew for the entire day, then stopped at nightfall to rest.
- Crane, though left behind at first, flew throughout the night, and passed Hummingbird’s resting spot; eventually he stopped at daybreak to eat breakfast.
- Hummingbird expected to still be far ahead of Crane, and was surprised when he passed Crane eating; but he quickly flew ahead again.
- As the days went on, Crane slowly gained more and more of a lead over Hummingbird, until Hummingbird was a whole day behind Crane.
- On the seventh day, Crane took his time eating breakfast, and made sure to fix himself up so he looked nice; the following morning he arrived at the woman’s house.
- Hummingbird came in that afternoon to discover he’d lost, but the woman declared that Crane was so ugly she couldn’t marry him, so she stayed single.
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