Why the Peacock Wears a Hundred Eyes

Back when the world was still young, the peacock was a plain brown bird. Just brown, all over, the colour of dry earth. He had a sweet voice and a kind heart, but with his dull little feathers, the other birds in their bright colours barely noticed him at all.

Then one night something terrible came to the forest. A great serpent, silent and hungry, slid out of the dark and began moving from nest to nest while everyone slept. The smaller creatures did not so much as stir. But the peacock slept lightly, and he saw the serpent’s shadow slipping along the roots below.

He could have flown high up and saved only himself. Nobody would ever have known. Instead, he flew from branch to branch above the sleeping forest, and he kept watch. All night long. Whenever the serpent crept too close to a nest, the peacock gave a soft, sharp call and frightened it back into the shadows. He did not close his eyes. Not once, not for a single moment, until the sun finally came up and the serpent gave up and slithered away.

The forest woke up safe. And not one of them ever knew how close the danger had come.

But the spirit of the forest knew. She had watched the little brown bird stand guard all night long, asking for nothing, expecting nothing. And as the morning mist rose, she came to him.

“You stayed awake for those who could not,” she said. “You watched over them with nothing at all to gain. So I am going to give you eyes that never sleep, so that everyone will remember the night the plain brown bird kept watch.”

She touched his long tail. And everywhere her fingers passed, the dull feathers burst into blue and green and gold, and on each one of them opened a bright, shining eye. A hundred of them. Watchful. Glowing.

And that is why, even today, the peacock carries a hundred eyes upon his tail. And when the first rains come and the dark clouds gather, he spreads them wide and dances, remembering the night he watched over the whole sleeping world.