Native American Legends
Fox and Magpie
An American Indian Legend - Nation Unknown
One time, Fox and Magpie were roaming about the land. Each of them
had an empty stomach. They were hungry. As they walked about, they
looked into a nearby water, that was flowing, and sighted a fish
swimming by. The Fox and magpie wanted something bigger and left
the fish alone. They had thoughts of how deer meat would be very
delicious, right now. They had hoped to come upon a large deer,
by itself. They hoped the deer would be slow, so they could make
their hunt successful. The image was so real in their thoughts,
that they thought there was a real deer in their sights, but the
image vanished very quickly. There was no deer in sight.
The Fox and Magpie continued their journey from there into the
trees, after the last experience. It was beginning to get dark outdoors
and under the trees where they were. Sometimes there was no light,
because the tall trees were blocking the sun. They could hear something
rustling around in the trees, what could it be? Both the Fox and
Magpie became very frightened. The sound was coming nearer and nearer
to them. The sound was like that of thunder. Just then, the wind
picked up and blew very hard. When the wind became unbearable, they
found shelter in a hold in the ground. They hid in that hole. Much
later, they were both still afraid of that rumbling sound, because
they did not know what was making that noise. As they sat in the
hole, Fox looked up and over the edge and he could see buffalo in
the distance. Magpie also looked out and saw the great herd of buffalo.
This great herd of buffalo were moving by walking. The buffalo were
enormous in size, and there were so many of them. The backs of the
buffalo, as they were moving, looked to Fox and Magpie, like the
darkness of the night.
Fox and Magpie were now getting very, very hungry. The buffalo
looked very delicious to them. The two of them got out of the hole
they were hiding inside, and started towards the where the buffalo
were. They walked over to them. Along the way Fox and Magpie came
across an ant pile. They looked at the ant pile, and they could
many ants working while moving in a single line. Fox stopped, looked,
and jumped on top of the ant pile, and stomped his feet onto it.
He scattered the small pebbles which make up the outside of an ant
pile.
Fox and Magpie were so hungry that their stomachs were beginning
to rumble. Since they were at the ant pile, they began to eat some
of the ants. They ate a lot of the little ants. The little ants
crawled into Fox's nose and into his hair. The little ants were
running all over his body and even down to the end of his tail.
The little ants were also crawling onto Magpie's feet and legs,
soon they were in his wing feather, and shortly they were running
all over his body. Even though the ants were running all over their
bodies, the Fox and Magpie had had their fill of ants. They had
eaten enough to lay down and relax in the grass. Much later, as
they were laying around being very comfortable, each of them felt
an itch inside their stomach. As the itching became unbearable,
both the Fox and Magpie jumped up and looked as though they were
dancing, they were only trying to relieve the itch inside their
stomach. Soon the two of them were sweating heavily, from the strange
itch dance that they were doing. The Fox and Magpie ran to the nearest
running water and stuck their heads in, to relieve the itch. While
they were at this stream, they each had a drink of water. They both
laid down in the grass again, after they had a drink of water.
After they each took a bath in the water. That night when they
slept, they had stomach pain. Overnight, their stomach had become
numb, and the following morning they could not feel anything, especially
inside their lungs.
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