Long ago, a crow and a mink lived together. The crow called the mink his
cousin. They made a little cabin where there was a sand bar and willows.
In summer time when the weather was fine they played together on the
sand bar, which was bigger than any sand pile any children ever had.
One day they saw some dead salmon on the beach, and the tracks of a
brown bear.
The crow said to the mink, his cousin, “What shall we do if that brown
bear comes around here?”
The mink answered, “We cannot catch that bear. He is bigger and stronger
than we are. He will kill us.”
Then the crow laughed, “Haw, haw! I know how to kill that bear; it is
easy. Cousin, you will go inside the dead salmon, and I will put it in
the bear’s track.”
“O no!” said the mink. “I am afraid. You go yourself into the salmon.”
But the crow was boss. “I do not wish to go into the salmon,” said he.
“You go yourself. I am bigger than you, and I have wings. I will put you
into the salmon, and I will put the salmon in the bear’s track, and
don’t you move one bit, even if you are scared. I will tell you what to
do. If the bear comes, keep very still. If he opens his mouth to bite,
you just jump down his throat, and go in as far as you can. Bite him
hard inside, and then he will drop dead.”
The mink was terribly afraid, but the crow said, “I will help you. When
the bear drops dead, I will run out of my hiding-place, and cut a little
door in his side with my knife, and you will jump out. If you do that,
we will live well and have lots of meat to eat all winter.”
The poor mink looked very sad indeed, but did not dare to refuse to do
what the crow told him.
“All right,” said the mink, “I will do it, but I know that I shall die.”
The crow went to work to prepare the big fish. He skinned it nicely, and
when it was ready, put his cousin, the mink, inside of it, and laid it
where the bear track was.
The mink was terribly frightened inside the salmon, because he knew the
bear would eat him up. The crow hid among the willows and watched his
cousin.
[Illustration: “The bear came around by the same track and saw the
salmon”]
After a while the bear came around by the same track, looking for a fish
to eat, and saw the salmon. First he sniffed at it, and noticed that it
smelled a little different, but very good. Then he sniffed again, and,
being very hungry, he opened his big mouth wide, and the mink popped
right down his throat. Down he went, down as far as he could jump,
biting hard all the time. The crow was watching from the willows, and
pretty soon the bear danced around on his hind legs and fell to the
ground. Quickly the crow flew to the bear, and with his little knife cut
a door for the poor frightened mink to jump out of.
“See,” said the crow, “I told you it was easy to kill the big bear. Now
we have killed him, we will have meat all winter, and will not have to
go out to hunt in bad weather.”
The mink said nothing, but went to work to help the crow fix up the bear
into fine steaks.
They dried the meat and hung it up, and there was enough to feed the
whole village.
One night the crow said to the mink, “Cousin, once upon a time in the
olden days people of one village used to invite the people of another
village to come to a feast and dance. I should like to do that myself.”
“Why,” said the mink, “I have never heard of that before. I don’t know
what that would be like, but I should love to see it.”
“We will do it,” said the crow. “We have plenty of fine bear meat for
every one, and we will give a party. I will tell you what to do, Cousin,
and tomorrow you will start, but you must do just what I tell you.”
Then they went to sleep, and early in the morning, the crow sent his
cousin to the sea.
“You walk until you come to a village,” said he, “but don’t stop at that
one; go right on until you come to a second village; pass that one also.
When you come to the third village, stop, and the people will ask you
where you come from. Say to them, ‘I come from a big village. We have a
chief in our village, and he has sent me to invite you all to his big
dance.’ If they ask you what kind of a chief you have, don’t tell them
it is a crow, because if you tell them that, no one will come. Just say,
‘We have a fine chief.’”
When the crow had finished talking, the mink jumped on to the ice, and
went toward the sea. He went on until he came to a village, but he did
not stop at that one; he passed it as his cousin had told him to do, and
went on again. Then he came to the second village, but he passed that
one too, and at last came to the third village. Here he stopped, and the
people were happy when he gave them his cousin’s invitation.
Everybody in the village wanted to go to the feast, and the next morning
they all started off.
When they passed the first village, where the crow had told the mink not
to stop, two people came out and asked if they might go also.
The mink said, “No, we do not want you.” But they came anyway.
Just before dark the mink got home to the crow. What was his surprise to
see a fine village, where he had left only a cabin the day before; and a
lot of people coming out to meet him and his guests.
The mink saw his crow cousin surrounded by a crowd of people, all
dressed up in fine clothes, looking very fine indeed. The crow was so
happy to see the mink coming with the people of the sea village that he
started up a great shout. They all shouted loudly, and the crow, in his
excitement, forgetting that he was a crow, tried to shout with them, but
all he could say was “Caw, caw!”
The two people from the first village, who had not been invited, were
watching very closely to see what sort of people these were who gave
this great feast, and when they heard the crow shouting, “Caw, caw,”
they called, “Look out, friends. We see that the chief of this village
is a crow!”
Then the crow spoke up and said, “I am not a crow, people. Don’t be
afraid. I promise you a good time. We will dance tonight only, then I
will send you home.”
Before the dance they had some races. The marten came first, then the
wolf, then the lynx. The Arctic hare came fourth, and fifth, the fox.
The Arctic hare could have won first prize if he had wanted to, but he
kept sitting down every minute. One of the people, a muskrat, had not
come back from the race when the dance started, and when he came in all
hot and tired the people laughed and made fun of him. That made him so
angry that he was in a great temper, but the crow said, “Don’t you mind
them; you are all right.” So he felt better about it.
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.