The Men Who Became Birds

THE MEN WHO BECAME BIRDS.

Once upon a time there was a lady who had twelve children... eleven boys and one girl. The poor lady died, and her husband married again. His second wife was a witch, who was very bad. In the daytime she changed the eleven boys into birds, and allowed them to take their human form only at night. As to the girl, she changed her into a negress. Her father did not know her anymore, and put her out of his house. The witch treated her husband's children in that way because she wanted him to leave his money to her own children.

When the poor girl was put out of her father's house, she went to see her brothers and told them what had happened to her. They said that the next morning they would take her to another country. They made a bed with leaves; and the next day, when they were birds again, each one took hold of theb ed in his beak, and they carried their sister far away into another country. They placed her in a forest, and built a pretty litle hut for her. One day an old witch passed by the hut, and when she saw the young girl she asked her what she was doing there. The poor girl related her story, and the witch told her she would tell her how to make her brothers remain men all the time. She must make a shirt for each one of her brothers, and not sew the shirts but weave them, and stay without speaking until the shirts were ready. It took her a loong time to do the work; and when she was nearly through,-- only one sleeve was missing to one shirt,-- her stepmother found out where she was and had her arrested as a witch. They were taking her in a cart to prison when her eleven brothers came flying around the cart. She immediately threw the shirts over them, and they became men again and rescued their sister.

As one of the sirts had only one sleeve, the brother who had received that shirt had all his life, instead of an arm, a bird's wing.

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~~ from LOUISIANA FOLK-TALES (1895), collected by Alcée Fortier, D. Lt.