THE ORIGIN OF SWALLOWS 



IN the long ago, before it had all been quite settled 

 whether the human creatures on this earth of ours were 

 to remain in human form or to take the form of birds 

 and animals, or whether the birds and animals were to be 

 changed into human creatures, a group of children at play- 

 were building mud houses on the edge of a cliff near their 

 home, when a magic spell was cast over them, changing them 

 into swallows — ^birds who would evermore spend their time 

 in playing at children's games in the upper air and in build- 

 ing houses of clay. 



To-day we see their homes like children's play-houses 

 under shelving rocks, on the edges of forests, or under the 

 eaves of our bams, or in the form of holes in sandy cliffs; 

 and on summer evenings, as darkness descends, like earth 

 children pursuing fireflies, we may see these aerial children 

 darting about in the sky in pursuit of those will-o'-the-wisps 

 of the air. 



f^Eskimo Legend. 



56 



