7. The Rescue of the Sun

7. THE RESCUE OF THE SUN (67)

An old woman put the sun into an earthen pot and kept it there. Rabbit wanted it and stayed at her house dancing. Rabbit said to the people assembled, "Sing for me so that I can dance." "We don't know how to sing for you," they answered. "Sing 'Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit,'" he said. So they sang "Rabbit, Rabbit, Rabbit," and he danced. While he was dancing, he said, "Move it toward me," and they moved it toward him. Again he said, "Move it toward me. I am dancing like a crazy person." After they had moved it toward him farther, he seized the sun. They chased him as he ran away but he kept on with it. On the way he struck the pot repeatedly against the bushes but it did not break, so he again took it and ran on. Then he struck it against a hornbeam tree and broke it in pieces.

Then all creatures assembled and counselled, and all the flying things gathered together. They wanted to set it up in the sky. The flying things tried to move it but it did not move. The Tciktcikano (a bird like a wren) tried to move it and it rose a short distance but fell back again. He said, "If another should help me I could carry it up," so Buzzard and Tciktcikano helped each other. Grasping it on each side they flew up with it. They carried it up and placed it in the sky, and when they came back the people said to Buzzard, "You shall eat animals that have died." They said to Tciktcikano, "You shall wash in cold water every morning and so you will never be sick."