A hawk flying about in the sky one day decided that he would like to
marry a hen whom he often saw on earth. He flew down and searched until
he found her, and then asked her to become his wife. She at once agreed
as long as he would wait until she could grow wings like his, so that
she might also fly high. The hawk agreed to this and flew away, after
giving her a ring as an engagement present and telling her to take good
care of it.
The hen was very proud of the ring and placed it around her neck. The
next day, however, she met the cockerel who looked at her in
astonishment and said, “Where did you get that ring? Do you not know
that you promised to be my wife? You must not wear the ring of anyone
else. Throw it away.”
The hen threw away the beautiful ring.
Not long after this, the hawk came down bringing beautiful feathers to
dress the hen. When she saw him coming she was frightened and ran to
hide behind the door, but the hawk called to her to come and see the
beautiful dress he had brought her. The hen came out, and the hawk at once saw that the ring was gone.
“Where is the ring I gave you?” He asked. “Why do you not wear it?”
The hen was too frightened and ashamed to tell the truth so she
answered, “Oh, sir, yesterday when I was walking in the garden, I met a
large snake and he frightened me so that I ran as fast as I could to the
house. Then I missed the ring and I searched everywhere but could not
find it.”
The hawk looked sharply at the hen, and he knew that she was deceiving him.
He said to her, “I did not believe that you could behave so badly.
When you have found the ring I will come down again and make you my
wife. But as a punishment for breaking your promise, you must always
scratch the ground to look for the ring. Every chicken of yours that I
find, I shall snatch away.”
Then he flew away, and ever since all the hens throughout the world have been scratching to find the hawk’s ring.
