The tale of Four Bird Brothers are folk legend that repeatedly appears in Lee Yeongdo's fantasy novel The Bird That Drinks Tears and its sequel The Bird That Drinks Blood. In the fictional world of the series, according to the legend of Kitalzer Hunters there were once four bird brothers who each had taste for different kind of liquids. Sometimes in a form of story and sometimes in a form of riddle, the tale of this four brothers appears repeatedly throughout both The Bird That Drinks Tears and The Bird That Drinks Blood. The tale is told in many different versions by many different characters, and are often used as many different symbolic figures that represents themes that run through two novels.
The original riddle
The tale of Four Bird Brothers first appeared in the novel The Bird That Drinks Tears, through the mouth of the character Keygon Draka. The riddle involves four brother birds, who each had different tastes. One bird drank water, one drank poison, one drank blood and one drank tears. There are four riddle that can be asked, each one with a different answer.
One riddle that involves the four bird brothers, the riddle that Keygon asks, is Which bird will die earliest?. The proper answer for this riddle is that the bird that drinks tears will die earliest, even though it may seem that the bird that drinks poison will die earlier. This is due to that tear represents sadness of people.
Another riddle that involves this tale is Which bird will live longest? The proper answer for this is that the bird that drinks blood will live longest, although every one dislikes blood-drinking bird due to the smell of blood.
The third possible riddle is Which bird will fly fastest? The proper answer for this is that the bird that drinks water will fly fastest.
The last possible riddle is Which bird will fly slowest? The proper answer for this is that the bird that drinks poison will fly slowest.
In addition, the most sharpest thing is water.