Old Indian Legends | Page 9

the fire on his fur. Iktomi's
eyes were almost ready to jump out of his head as he stood cooling a
burn on his brown arm with his breath.
Sitting on his haunches, on the opposite side of the fire from where
Iktomi stood, the coyote began to laugh at him.
"Another day, my friend, do not take too much for granted. Make sure
the enemy is stone dead before you make a fire!"
Then off he ran so swiftly that his long bushy tail hung out in a straight
line with his back.

IKTOMI AND THE FAWN

IKTOMI AND THE FAWN
IN one of his wanderings through the wooded lands, Iktomi saw a rare
bird sitting high in a tree-top. Its long fan-like tail feathers had caught
all the beautiful colors of the rainbow. Handsome in the glistening
summer sun sat the bird of rainbow plumage. Iktomi hurried hither with
his eyes fast on the bird.
He stood beneath the tree looking long and wistfully at the peacock's
bright feathers. At length he heaved a sigh and began: "Oh, I wish I had
such pretty feathers! How I wish I were not I! If only I were a
handsome feathered creature how happy I would be! I'd be so glad to
sit upon a very high tree and bask in the summer sun like you!" said he
suddenly, pointing his bony finger up toward the peacock, who was
eyeing the stranger below, turning his head from side to side.
"I beg of you make me into a bird with green and purple feathers like
yours!" implored Iktomi, tired now of playing the brave in beaded
buckskins. The peacock then spoke to Iktomi: "I have a magic power.
My touch will change you in a moment into the most beautiful peacock
if you can keep one condition."
"Yes! yes!" shouted Iktomi, jumping up and down, patting his lips with
his palm, which caused his voice to vibrate in a peculiar fashion. "Yes!
yes! I could keep ten conditions if only you would change me into a
bird with long, bright tail feathers. Oh, I am so ugly! I am so tired of
being myself! Change me! Do!"
Hereupon the peacock spread out both his wings, and scarce moving
them, he sailed slowly down upon the ground. Right beside Iktomi he
alighted. Very low in Iktomi's ear the peacock whispered, "Are you
willing to keep one condition, though hard it be?"

"Yes! yes! I've told you ten of them if need be!" exclaimed Iktomi, with
some impatience.
"Then I pronounce you a handsome feathered bird. No longer are you
Iktomi the mischief-maker." Saying this the peacock touched Iktomi
with the tips of his wings.
Iktomi vanished at the touch. There stood beneath the tree two
handsome peacocks. While one of the pair strutted about with a head
turned aside as if dazzled by his own bright-tinted tail feathers, the
other bird soared slowly upward. He sat quiet and unconscious of his
gay plumage. He seemed content to perch there on a large limb in the
warm sunshine.
After a little while the vain peacock, dizzy with his bright colors,
spread out his wings and lit on the same branch with the elder bird.
"Oh!" he exclaimed, "how hard to fly! Brightly tinted feathers are
handsome, but I wish they were light enough to fly!" Just there the
elder bird interrupted him. "That is the one condition. Never try to fly
like other birds. Upon the day you try to fly you shall be changed into
your former self."
"Oh, what a shame that bright feathers cannot fly into the sky!" cried
the peacock. Already he grew restless. He longed to soar through space.
He yearned to fly above the trees high upward to the sun.
"Oh, there I see a flock of birds flying thither! Oh! oh!" said he,
flapping his wings, "I must try my wings! I am tired of bright tail
feathers. I want to try my wings."
"No, no!" clucked the elder bird. The flock of chattering birds flew by
with whirring wings. "Oop! oop!" called some to their mates.
Possessed by an irrepressible impulse the Iktomi peacock called out,
"He! I want to come! Wait for me!" and with that he gave a lunge into
the air. The flock of flying feathers wheeled about and lowered over the
tree whence came the peacock's cry. Only one rare bird sat on the tree,

and beneath, on the ground, stood a brave in brown buckskins.
"I am my old self again!" groaned Iktomi in a sad voice. "Make me
over, pretty bird. Try me this once again!" he pleaded in vain.
"Old Iktomi wants to fly! Ah! We cannot wait for him!" sang the birds
as they flew away.
Muttering unhappy