How the Summer Birds Came
A Zuni myth explaining the origin of small summer birds. In the days of the ancients, there were no little birds — only large birds like eagles, crows, and hawks. A Zuni man discovered a magical bundle of feathers left by the spirits. When he walked into a field of flowers, the bundle began to flutter, and small wings flew out from it, becoming the Sacred Birds of Summerland. The feathers were made living by the lives of the birds that had once borne them, and they came to life again in the environment of flowers and summer that they had loved. This is why, according to Zuni tradition, there a