In the old days, the Great Ones came to know that there were no sparrows in the Far Lands. This troubled them greatly, for there was no one to eat their pests, to give homes to their spilled grain, or to decorate the eaves of their homes with festive nests. They approached the elders of the sparrows in the Nearlands, and made to them a request: their hardiest birds for the task of colonizing the vast lands now open to them.

The elders agreed, and provided the volunteers that they asked for, with one condition: they would brook no restrictions on the great quest of all sparrows, to be fruitful, to multiply, and to cover all the earth. The Great Ones agreed, but with a condition of their own: the sparrows could do as they liked, but if they interfered with the Great Ones, or caused them annoyance or irritation, the lives of the offending sparrows were forfeit.

That was the covenant, made in the days of old and kept to this very day.

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