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The young brother studied the ground, and soon he found
a few of his crumbs, which he picked up.
In this way, he found the path that led home. When they turned up in the house as unexpected guests, the parents
had mixed feelings: They were happy to have them back, but
they also knew they had to go through it all again.
The next time their father took them out to help him
carry firewood, the youngest brother had collected wild peanuts.
He dropped them one by one as they were following their
father through the bush.
The father finally said, “Wait for me here, do not
try to follow me.”
The youngest boy again studied the ground, but alas,
a raven had eaten all the peanuts.
They were in the wilderness, without food, shelter,
or direction. They wandered for a long time. One morning their little sister did not get
up; she had died of hunger in the night.
The two boys walked on and on until they came to a
lonely house. A woman lived in the house, and she gave them
food and water. When
they had eaten and drunk, however, she said, “You cannot stay
here, for my husband loves to eat people.”
Suddenly they heard a rustling noise. An enormous bird alighted on the roof. The two boys could only just barely escape
from the house, while the big bird entered it through the
smoke hole at the top. “Wife!”
shouted the bird-man, “What is this funny smell?
It seems I am smelling human kids! I have not had any
for a long time! Where are they?” The woman said, “I have only been using a new type of oil to rub
my skin with.” “No,”
said the bird-man, “It is not that, I never make a mistake,
I smell human puppies!” He ran out of the house, just in time to see
the children disappearing in the distance.
He took off and flew after them like a gigantic crow.
The smaller boy told the elder, “Go and hide in this hole
in the ground.” He
himself sat on top of his brother, with his behind sticking
out, to fill the hole. The birdman perched on the edge of the pit,
looking for the two boys, and the youngest noticed a ring
on the middle toe of the bird’s foot.
He quickly took hold of it and quietly slipped it off.
The bird-man took off again, wheeling overhead, but
he could not alight anymore, since all his magic power was
in that ring. He begged the boy to return the ring, promising
he would not eat them, but the youngest clung to the ring.
He understood that the bird-man could do them no harm
without this ring. The
boys went on and on, but the bird-man could not follow them
anymore. He had become an ordinary crow.
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