The Eagle Brothers
“I want to get to the sun. Oh, as near as I can!” said Big-Brother Jattayu.
And day after day Little-Eagle Sanpati kept wondering how this could be managed.
And his love for Jattayu was so great that it found a way.
“If one should fly between him and the sun to protect him,” he said, “it could be done.”
So, one day he made the little-eagle heart of him very brave, and made Jattayu believe that he too was wanting to see the sun; but that he was afraid of falling back upon the earth in terror, when he got near the sun’s brilliance. So he begged Jattayu to fly just under him to protect him.
And Jattayu consented; and they circled, Little-Eagle Sanpati and Big-Brother Jattayu, higher and higher, till they got so near to the sun that even Jattayu had had enough, and turned to fly back to the safe quiet nest in the white earth mountains, taking Little-Eagle Sanpati with him.
“It is wonderful,” he kept saying, “that I got so near, and yet was not struck or burnt by the Sun-God and the fierceness of his rays. It is a tale of wonder for all the bird-people to hear. Well was it, Little-Eagle Sanpati, that I was there when you fell on my back in terror.”
And in Little-Eagle Sanpati’s heart was a great gladness that Jattayu had had his desire. Nor did Jattayu, nor anyone in all the bird-world, know the reason why Little-Eagle Sanpati from that day forward remained the home-stay eagle who could not fly.