Alitoci, a beaver chief, who had become too old to work, spent most of his time when the weather was not too cold along the rivers, fishing. He had three dogs that helped him in winter, but in summer they did no work, though they must eat; so Alitoci fished for them.

One day he was sitting by a dark water-hole full of fish, saying to himself: “Here shall I get plenty of food for my faithful dogs.”

So he fished until he had caught all he could carry. As he was not strong, he had but few. He climbed up the bank to return home.

It was growing dark, and as his head was bowed from age, he could not see a great bird hovering over him. This bird was enormous in size, and its wings spread like the limbs of a large tree. Suddenly it swooped upon him, and took him up toward the clouds that were piled in the heavens like great banks of snow. On and on the frightened old man was carried. Still remembering his faithful dogs, he held on to his strings of fish until his hands were so tired he had to let them fall to the earth, many thousands of feet below.

His coat was old and he could hear the sinew giving under his weight, for though aged, he was still a heavy man, and there was a great strain on the coat.

The old man could see only the wings of the giant bird as they went up and down, slowly, in flight.

“Where are you taking me?” said he in great terror; but the bird did not reply.

After a long journey over rivers and mountains, he was dropped into a large nest that rested on the limbs of a dead tree. The bird said to his young ones, who seemed very much frightened: “Take good care of the old man; I will go for food.” So the bird departed to seek young animals like the rabbit, ermine, and small fox, as his children were too young to eat the larger game.

When it was growing light, for the morning dawned while the father bird was away, the mother returned. She was not quite so large and strong as her husband, but she also was big enough to carry a man for miles through the air.

“How does it happen that you smell of a man?” she asked her children.

“We should smell of a man when father brought one here for us,” the young ones said in chorus, without meaning to deceive their mother.

They were so large, although very young birds, that they could easily hide the man under their wings, and their mother did not know he was there, which was well for the old man, for she would have eaten him had she known the truth.

The old man trembled so that it shook the birds, and the mother, thinking them ill, said: “Why do you shake so; are you not well?”

“Oh, yes,” they replied, “we are very well indeed.”

She seemed satisfied.

The old man thought of his poor dogs who were waiting for food, and of the fish he had lost after working so hard to catch them. The fear for his own safety worried him, too, but greatest of all his troubles was the weight of the birds sitting on him, and the added weight of the mother caused him still more distress. When the sun came up he was sure he would be seen.

As the sun rose higher and higher, one by one the birds fell asleep. “Now is my chance,” thought the old man, lame and out of breath. So out of the nest he crawled and down the big tree he lowered himself. He waited at times to hear if there was any chattering in the nest, but heard none, so he went on and reached the ground in safety.

“Now,” thought the old man, “if I should try to return home they might wake up and find me gone and follow me, and take me back to the nest.”

He began to collect knots and dry wood which he piled at the foot of the tree. After heaping them as high as he could reach, he gathered dry blades of grass which he put under the pile of wood. Then striking together two pieces of flint which he took from his pocket, he lighted the grass and this lighted the fagots. The flames ran higher and higher until they set fire to the nest. The wings of the birds were burned, and they fell to the ground. They tried to fly, but could not. The old man walked as fast as he could, and hid behind a tree. The birds walked off in another direction. They did not suffer as only their feathers were burned.

And this is the way it came about that great birds like the ostrich, the emu, and the auk, though having feathers and wings, cannot fly.

Thus were the birds punished for trying to prevent the old man from returning and feeding his hungry dogs, who had always served their master so faithfully.