The Book of Nature Myths | Page 4

with light

and shadow, of birds and their nests in the leafy trees. He sang of long
summer days and the music of waters beating upon the shore. He sang
of the moonlight and the starlight. All the wonders of the night, all the
beauty of the morning, were in his song.
"Dear southwind," said the Great Spirit "here are some beautiful things
for you to bear away with, you to your summer home. You will love
them, and all the little children will love them." At these words of the
Great Spirit, all the stones before him stirred with life and lifted
themselves on many-colored wings. They fluttered away in the
sunshine, and the southwind sang to them as they went.
[Illustration]
So it was that the first butterflies came from a beautiful thought of the
Great Spirit, and in their wings were all the colors of the shining stones
that he did not wish to hide away.

THE STORY OF THE FIRST WOODPECKER.
In the days of long ago the Great Spirit came down from the sky and
talked with men. Once as he went up and down the earth, he came to
the wigwam of a woman. He went into the wigwam and sat down by
the fire, but he looked like an old man, and the woman did not know
who he was.
"I have fasted for many days," said the Great Spirit to the woman.
"Will you give me some food?" The woman made a very little cake and
put it on the fire. "You can have this cake," she said, "if you will wait
for it to bake." "I will wait," he said.
When the cake was baked, the woman stood and looked at it. She
thought, "It is very large. I thought it was small. I will not give him so
large a cake as that." So she put it away and made a small one. "If you
will wait, I will give you this when it is baked," she said, and the Great
Spirit said, "I will wait."

When that cake was baked, it was larger than the first one. "It is so
large that I will keep it for a feast," she thought. So she said to her guest,
"I will not give you this cake, but if you will wait, I will make you
another one." "I will wait," said the Great Spirit again.
Then the woman made another cake. It was still smaller than the others
had been at first, but when she went to the fire for it, she found it the
largest of all. She did not know that the Great Spirit's magic had made
each cake larger, and she thought, "This is a marvel, but I will not give
away the largest cake of all." So she said to her guest, "I have no food
for you. Go to the forest and look there for your food. You can find it in
the bark of the trees, if you will."
The Great Spirit was angry when he heard the words of the woman. He
rose up from where he sat and threw back his cloak. "A woman must be
good and gentle," he said, "and you are cruel. You shall no longer be a
woman and live in a wigwam. You shall go out into the forest and hunt
for your food in the bark of trees."
The Great Spirit stamped his foot on the earth, and the woman grew
smaller and smaller. Wings started from her body and feathers grew
upon her. With a loud cry she rose from the earth and flew away to the
forest.
And to this day all woodpeckers live in the forest and hunt for their
food in the bark of trees.

WHY THE WOODPECKER'S HEAD IS RED.
One day the woodpecker said to the Great Spirit, "Men do not like me.
I wish they did."
The Great Spirit said, "If you wish men to love you, you must be good
to them and help them. Then they will call you their friend."
"How can a little bird help a man?" asked the woodpecker.

"If one wishes to help, the day will come when he can help," said the
Great Spirit. The day did come, and this story shows how a little bird
helped a strong warrior.
There was once a cruel magician who lived in a gloomy wigwam
beside the Black-Sea-Water. He did not like flowers, and they did not
blossom in his pathway. He did not like birds, and they did not sing in
the trees above him. The breath of his nostrils was fatal to all life.
North, south, east, and west he blew the deadly fever that killed the
women and the little children.
"Can I help