Characters: Laura Hunter--Narrator

Martina Prince--The Female Bird

Stella Walker--The Eyes

Setting: A small female bird is flying around looking for a good tree to build her nest and lay her eggs in. She finds it near a river.

Narrator: A long time ago there was a small female bird who was looking for a tree to build a nest and lay her eggs in. She flew around for many days but could not find a tree that suited her, until one day she flew over the tundra and saw a tree that she really liked.

Bird: "Ah, ha!" she said. "There it is!" "The tree I've been looking for." "This is the spot where I want to make my nest."

Narrator: Soon after she started building the nest, she began feeling uncomfortable with the branches all over her, so she took out her eyes and told them to watch carefully for anything that might harm her. As she started building again, her eyes began to play tricks on her. They sang a false warning song twice, saying

Eyes: Qalaara, qalaraa-aa, caag makut, qiag makut, arigpagait kuk, qalaraa.

Narrator: As soon as she heard the song, she felt around for her eyes, and when she found them, she put them back on and looked around to see if there was anyone or anything coming. But after looking around, she didn't see anything. So she took out her eyes and went back to work again. Not long afterwards, her eyes again began to sing a warning song saying:

Eyes: "Qalaara, qalaraa-aa, caag makut, qiag makut, arigpagait kuk, qalaraa."

Bird: "This time I don't believe you." "Don't try and pull that dirty trick on me, and, just watch for danger," the female bird said.

Narrator: But after a while, the bird heard no noise at all coming from her eyes. So she felt around for them. But though she groped for a long time, she couldn't find them. They were gone. So what she did was search around till she found some berries, which she put in her eye sockets. And when she opened her eyes, everything was blue. (Her new eyes were blue berries). She never did find her real eyes, though. So she just continued to use the blue bersies for her eyes from that time on. That is why those small birds have blue eyes today.