The story of the fallen crow

By: D.Messaoudi

A long time ago, in the early days of the creation of the world, all birds were white. One day, God gathered all the birds in a vast plain and assigned to everyone a task. The crow was put in charge of transporting two packages; one, full of knowledge and cleanliness, which was intended for Arabs and another, full of dirt and ignorance, which was meant for Westerners. To remember God's instructions, while he was flying, the crow was repeating to himself: "knowledge and cleanliness to Arabs, dirt and ignorance to Westerners; knowledge and cleanliness to Arabs, dirt and ignorance to Westerners ...." But halfway, while he was flying over a vast prairie, the crow met a butterfly. The flight of the butterfly was so irregular and clumsy that the proud bird began to twirl and laugh for a while. When the butterfly had finally gone out of sight, the bird resumed its normal flight and began to sing "Knowledge and cleanliness to Westerners, dirt and ignorance to Arabs ...". So, when he got to the land of the Westerners, the crow poured knowledge and cleanliness; and when he arrived at the land of the Arabs, he spread dirt and ignorance. Believing he had accomplished the task successfully, the crow returned proudly to the Creator. "What did you do, crow? " God said. "I only did what you commanded me to do, Lord; I gave to Westerners knowledge and cleanliness and to Arabs dirt and ignorance," The crow answered. "What?" But you did the opposite of my instructions! God shouted at him. Realizing at last that he had erred, the crow began to justify his error. But God stopped him and told him angrily: "Because of this unforgivable negligence, I condemn you to wear a lousy black coat all your life and twirl in the sky above stinking cadavers. Go away, now!" Since then, the crow, which became black and filthy, kept turning over in the sky above rotten corpses with shouting "Error! Error!", in the hope that God forgive him his carelessness.

_________________________ A Kabylian folktale Blog: http://thaqarvuzth.unblog.fr