How Crow Brought Daylight

T he world had just begun and it was always dark in the north, where the Inuit people lived. They thought that the whole world was dark until an old crow told them about daylight and they begged him to fetch it for them.

“It’s too far and I’m too old now,” protested Crow, but the people insisted till he agreed. He flew east for days and was about to give up when he caught sight of the faraway glimmer of daylight. He followed it until the whole sky was bright. Exhausted, he landed on a tree near a village. Suddenly, he spotted the village chief’s daughter filling water from the river. Having heard of the chief’s magical powers, Crow took a chance. He quickly turned himself into a speck of dust and drifted down to settle on her fur coat. She walked back to her snowlodge and hung up her coat inside. The speck of dust floated towards the chief’s grandson, who was playing on the floor. It entered his ear making him cry from discomfort.

“What’s the matter, son?” asked the concerned chief.

“Tell him you want to play with a ball of daylight,” whispered the speck of dust into the boy’s ear. The boy lisped the words and the chief, a doting grandpa, conjured up a ball of daylight and handed it to his grandson.

“Say you want to play outside,” the speck of dust prodded. He did so and the chief took him out of the lodge.

As soon as they were in the open, Crow returned to his real form, snatched the ball of daylight and flew off. When he reached the Inuit land, he let the ball fall to the ground.

It shattered, sending light into every home and into the sky. People came out of their houses to see the wondrous sight. They thanked Crow, who shook his head sadly and said, “I could carry only one small ball of daylight — it isn’t enough to last the year round. It has to recharge after a while. So, you will have daylight only for half the year.”

Since then, in the Arctic, it is dark for one half of the year and bright for the other half.