The man asked me if I knew where to find the Blue Mountains.

I didn’t know where they were. I couldn’t find them in any of my books. If the Blue Mountains existed, only the birds would know it.

Since the man had traveled so far, and I had not seen a single man for three hundred years, I told him that I would call the birds. I took out my whistle and I blew it.

He would soon see how well the birds know the earth.

Master of the Birds in The Blue Mountains, Yellow Fairy Book. Illustration by Kay Nielsen.