The Raven and the Owl --- An Eskimo Fairy Tale

[Robert Spiritwalker Murchison]

Believe it or not, but in olden times the raven and the owl were both white
as snow.


One day they met in the tundra, and the raven said:


"Aren't you tried of being so white, Owl? I know I am. Why don't we each
paint the other a different colour?"


"All right," the owl replied. "We can try and see what comes of it, I
suppose."


The raven was pleased.


"Good! Good!" he cried. "Let us begin."


And he added:


"You paint me first and then I'll paint you."


"Oh, no" said the owl. It was you who suggested it, so it's you that has to
begin."


"Very well," the raven agreed.


He scraped some of the burnt-out fat from a lamp, and, using that and a large
feather plucked out from his own tail, set to painting the owl. He took great
care doing it and drew gray spots of every size on each feather, larger ones
on the owl's wings and smaller ones on her breast and back.


"Oh, how beautiful I've made you, owl!" cried he when he had finished. "Just
look at yourself."


The owl looks at herself and could not get her fill of looking. "Yes,
indeed!" she said at last, pleased. "These spots are lovely. And now let me
do the same for you. By the time I get through with you'll be so handsome you
won't know your own self."


The raven turned his head towards the sun, squinted his eyes and froze to the
spot. He was very eager for the owl to make a good job of painting him.


The owl set about it with great zeal. It looks her some time to get done, and
when she had, she looked the raven all over. Then glancing from him to
herself, she found that the raven was now brighter and more beautiful and
more beautiful than she. Angered that this should be so, she came up close to
him, poured what was left of the fat she had been using over him and flew
away.


The raven rubbed his eyes, and, seeing that he was now quite black all over,
cried:


"Oh, you sharp-clawed owl, oh, you keen-eyed owl, what have you done! You
have made me blacker than soot, blacker than night!"


That is the end of my tale, and from that day on never has a raven been seen
that was not black.