I wish I were not I! If only I were a handsome
feathered creature how happy I would be! I'd be so glad to sit upon a
very high tree and bask in the summer sun like you!" said he suddenly,
pointing his bony finger up toward the peacock, who was eyeing the
stranger below, turning his head from side to side.

"I beg of you make me into a bird with green and purple feathers like
yours!" implored Iktomi, tired now of playing the brave in beaded
buckskins. The peacock then spoke to Iktomi: "I have a magic power. My
touch will change you in a moment into the most beautiful peacock if you
can keep one condition."

"Yes! yes!" shouted Iktomi, jumping up and down, patting his lips with
his palm, which caused his voice to vibrate in a peculiar fashion. "Yes!
yes! I could keep ten conditions if only you would change me into a
bird with long, bright tail feathers. Oh, I am so ugly! I am so tired of
being myself! Change me! Do!"

Hereupon the peacock spread out both his wings, and scarce moving them,
he sailed slowly down upon the ground. Right beside Iktomi he alighted.
Very low in Iktomi's ear the peacock whispered, "Are you willing to keep
one condition, though hard it be?"

"Yes! yes! I've told you ten of them if need be!" exclaimed Iktomi, with
some impatience.

"Then I pronounce you a handsome feathered bird. No longer are you
Iktomi the mischief-maker." Saying this the peacock touched Iktomi with
the tips of his wings.

Iktomi vanished at the touch. There stood beneath the tree two handsome
peacocks. While one of the pair strutted about with a head turned aside
as if dazzled by his own bright-tinted tail feathers, the other bird
soared slowly upward. He sat quiet and unconscious of his gay plumage.
He seemed content to perch there on a large limb in the warm sunshine.

After a little while the vain peacock, dizzy with his bright colors,
spread out his wings and lit on the same branch with the elder bird.

"Oh!" he exclaimed, "how hard to fly! Brightly tinted feathers are
handsome, but I wish they were light enough to fly!" Just there the
elder bird interrupted him. "That is the one condition. Never try to fly
like other birds. Upon the day you try to fly you shall be changed into
your former self."

"Oh, what a shame that bright feathers cannot fly into the sky!" cried
the peacock. Already he grew restless. He longed to soar through space.
He yearned to fly above the trees high upward to the sun.

"Oh, there I see