Page:Myths and Legends of British North America.djvu/151

 hearing what the boat people said. She wandered around the cliffs with her children, crying over and over, the last word she heard, "Go over, goover, over, ove, oh—"

Hawks.—Once there was a woman whose neck was very, very short. All the people in her village laughed at her. One day the woman went to a very high place up on the rocks, and in the mountains. Then she began to go there very often because she did not like people, so she was changed into a hawk. Now, when she sees any one, she cries, "Kea, kea, kea—who, who was it said 'short neck'?"

Swallows.—Once there were some small children, who were very wise. They played a great deal on the edge of a high cliff near their village, and their play was always building toy houses on the cliff. One day when they were playing, they were changed into swallows. Even to this day they come to the cliff near the Indian village and build their houses in the side of the cliffs. They are very wise. Even the raven does not molest them, and the Eskimo children like much to watch these little swallows.

Loons.—Once a man had two children, Raven and Loon. He wanted to paint them so that they would look just alike, and he began with Loon. First he painted Loon's breast white, and then he painted square spots on