The Underneath

Because the hummingbird can travel between the world of the living and the world of the dead, it symbolizes the transition to death. At the story’s conclusion, the hummingbird who comes to help Grandmother Moccasin transition is her granddaughter, Night Song and Hawk Man’s daughter, who was called to take the form of a bird soon after Night Song’s death. Although an omen of death, the hummingbird is a kind and reassuring creature. It comes to the calico cat when she drowns in the creek and assures her that her baby is safe; this brings the cat immense comfort as she goes with the hummingbird to her death: “‘Sister,’ it whispered, ‘your baby is safe’” (80).

The hummingbird often serves as a warning to creatures of their own mortality; she indicates that they’ll die if they continue on a bad path. Puck tries to use the rolling log to cross the creek and almost drowns. He briefly sees the hummingbird before giving up on this inadvisable plan: “The hummingbird. Here. There. Gone” (205). She departs because he’s no longer risking death by trying to cross the creek. Similarly, the hummingbird whirls around Gar Face’s boat as he poles on the river and decides to try to kill the Alligator King. The hummingbird’s appearance in this moment is a premonition that Gar Face’s arrogance and ambition will kill him: “If he had looked instead at the lantern hanging on the bow, he might have seen the hummingbird hover there, just inside the light” (120).

Characters like Ranger, who respect the power of the natural world, understand the hummingbird’s symbolism: “He knew what the hummingbird meant. But whom had she come for?” (231). On the other hand, Gar Face’s ignorance is evident when he sees the hummingbird and, not realizing that it’s a premonition of his own death that he should respect, shoots at it: “Gar Face saw the Hummingbird too. He held his rifle against his sunburned cheek” (231).