Page:Myths and Legends of British North America.djvu/152

 his back. When Raven saw how comical Loon looked, he laughed so much that Loon became ashamed and ran away to a near-by pond. Loon always faces a person so as to show his white breast and hide the spots on his back. Raven refused to be painted in that way. He ran away.

Guillemots.—Some Eskimo children were very fond of playing on the level top of a high cliff near their village, while the larger ones watched them. Now this cliff overhung the sea and the sea was still covered with ice. There was an icy strip near the shore, so that even the seals could not approach. The wind was cold and the children played hard to keep warm, shouting and calling to each other. Just then the strip of ice along the shore broke away, and the water was rilled with seals. The men saw them, and ran for their kayaks, and put them into the water to pursue the seals. The children saw all this, and they shouted all the louder. The seals were so frightened that they plunged into the water and were out of sight.

The men were so angry that almost at once the cliff toppled over, and the children slipped down with the fragments to the bottom. When they reached the bottom, they had become sea pigeons with red feet. They still live among the fragments of rock and earth at the foot of the cliff.