The Hummingbird and the Crane were both in love with a pretty
woman. She preferred the Hummingbird, who was as handsome as the Crane
was awkward, but the Crane was so persistent that in order to get rid
of him she finally told him he must challenge the other to a race and
she would marry the winner. The Hummingbird was so swift--almost like
a flash of lightning--and the Crane so slow and heavy, that she felt
sure the Hummingbird would win. She did not know the Crane could fly
all night.
They agreed to start from her house and fly around the circle of the
world to the beginning, and the one who came in first would marry the
woman. At the word the Hummingbird darted off like an arrow and was out
of sight in a moment, leaving his rival to follow heavily behind. He
flew all day, and when evening came and he stopped to roost for the
night he was far ahead. But the Crane flew steadily all night long,
passing the Hummingbird soon after midnight and going on until he
came to a creek and stopped to rest about daylight. The Hummingbird
woke up in the morning and flew on again, thinking how easily he
would win the race, until he reached the creek and there found the
Crane spearing tadpoles, with his long bill, for breakfast. He was
very much surprised and wondered how this could have happened, but
he flew swiftly by and soon left the Crane out of sight again.
The Crane finished his breakfast and started on, and when evening came
he kept on as before. This time it was hardly midnight when he passed
the Hummingbird asleep on a limb, and in the morning he had finished
his breakfast before the other came up. The next day he gained a little
more, and on the fourth day he was spearing tadpoles for dinner when
the Hummingbird passed him. On the fifth and sixth days it was late
in the afternoon before the Hummingbird came up, and on the morning
of the seventh day the Crane was a whole night's travel ahead. He took
his time at breakfast and then fixed himself up as nicely as he could
at the creek and came in at the starting place where the woman lived,
early in the morning. When the Hummingbird arrived in the afternoon he
found he had lost the race, but the woman declared she would never have
such an ugly fellow as the Crane for a husband, so she stayed single.