The crane was a great fisherman. He used to hunt out the fish with his feet from underneath the logs in the creek, and so catch numbers.
One day, when he had a great many on the bank of the creek, a crow, who was white at that time, came up. He asked the crane to give him some fish.
"Wait a while," said the crane, "until they are cooked."But the crow was hungry and impatient, and would not cease bothering the crane, who kept saying, "Wait, wait."Presently the crane turned his back. The crow sneaked up and was just going to steal a fish. The crane turned round, saw him, seized a fish, and hit the crow right across the eyes with it. The crow felt blinded for a few minutes. He fell on the burnt black grass round the fire, and rolled over and over in his pain. When he got up to go away, his eyes were white, and the rest of him black, as crows have been ever since.
The crow made up his mind to pay out the crane for having given him white eyes and a black skin.
So he watched his chance, and one day, when he saw the crane fast asleep, he crept quietly up to him holding a fish- bone. This he stuck right across the root of the crane"s tongue.
Then he went off as quickly as he had come; careful, for once, to make no noise.
The crane woke up at last, and, when he opened his mouth to yawn, he felt like choking. He tried to get the fish-bone out of his throat. In the effort he made a queer, scraping noise, which was the only sound he could make. The bone stuck fast.
And to this day the only noise a crane can make is, " Gah- rah-gah, gah-rah-gah!" This noise gives the name by which he is known to the blacks.
From More Australian Legendary Tales, by K. Langloh ParkerAuthor.-Mrs. K. Langloh Parker passed many years on a station in the Murrumbidgee region of New South Wales. She was interested in the folk stories told by the older blacks in the neighbourhood, and wrote them down. Afterwards she brought out a book called Australian Legendary Tales, published by David Nutt, of London, and illustrated with the pen-and-ink drawings of an aboriginal artist. This succeeded so well that she wrote another book called More Australian Legendary Tales.
General Notes.-This is one of the nature stories that the old blacksused to tell to the piccaninnies. Now tell in your own words how the crow got his coat black, and how the crane lost his speech and could only croak. Draw a crow. Draw a crane.
