While walking along the highroad, one of the brothers chanced to gaze upward. He saw three eagles high in the air. He thought nothing of this, however, for the air was full of all sorts of birds, large and small. But finally he noticed that the birds were following along with them. At last the brothers began to joke about the incident. "I choose the white bird," said Lekh, the eldest. "And I the black one," said Russ. "Then I must take the only one left," remarked Tchekh. And, in this merry manner, they passed the time as they continued their march. At length the travellers came to three roads, diverging like the rays of a fan. One road led to the north, the direction they were then pursuing; another turned to the northeast, and the third to the northwest. "Which shall we take?" asked one of them, as they halted their footsteps in order to decide the important question. "I am for going straight on," Lekh said. "And I, too," spoke up the other. "There is no use in separating so soon. Let us wait a while!" As they were arguing the point back and forth, Lekh saw the white eagle, _his_ eagle, winging its way due north. The other two birds were each following the direction of the other two diverging roads. "There goes your bird," Lekh said to his brother Russ, as he pointed to the black eagle flying toward the right. "Mine goes straight onward, and so shall I. As for the rest of you, you may do what you like." "Then I shall follow my bird," Russ replied. "Perhaps it will bring us good luck." So the three brothers bade one another an affectionate farewell and parted. Russ followed the black eagle until he came to the present country of Russ-ia, which he founded and named. Tchekh founded the country of Bohemia, the people of which are even to-day known as Czechs; as for Lekh, he wandered due north until he came to the broad plain where he settled. As his guide had been a white eagle, he thought it but appropriate to make that his emblem; and, in this way, it happened that Poland has a white eagle upon its flag. Lekh, as I have just said, settled in an immense plain, the Polish word for which is "Pola." Then Lekh added his own name to that, making Po-Lekh, sometimes written Lakh, and now we have the word Po-lakh, meaning the people of Lekh who lived in the plain. CHAPTER II THE ARRIVAL AT THE DWÓR