THE TREACHEROUS CROW AND HIS COUSIN, THE MINK
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.
“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.