Three Years on the Plains | Page 7

all came the turtle, modestly tendering his broad shell as the

basis of the earth now to be formed. The beasts then made a trial of his
strength to bear by heaping themselves on his back, and finding by
their united pressure they could not sink him below the surface,
adjudged him the honor of supporting the world on his back.
Thus, a foundation being found, the next subject of thought was how to
procure earth. Several of the most expert divers plunged to the bottom
of the sea and came up dead; but the mink at last though he shared the
same fate, brought up in his claws a small quantity of dirt. This was
placed on the back of the turtle.
In the mean while the woman kept on falling, till at last she alighted on
the turtle's back. The earth had already grown to the size of a man's foot
where she stood, with one foot covering the other. By-and-by she had
room for both feet, and was able to sit down. The earth continued to
expand, and when its plain was covered with green grass, and streams
ran, which poured into the ocean, she built her a house on the sea-shore.
Not long after, she had a daughter, and she lived on what grew
naturally, till the child was grown to be a woman. Several of the
animals wanted to marry her, they being changed into the forms of
young men; but the mother would not consent, until the turtle offered
himself as a beau, and was accepted. After she had lain herself down to
sleep, the turtle placed two arrows on her body, in the shape of a cross:
one headed with flint, the other with the rough bark of a tree.
By-and-by she had two sons, but died herself.
The grandmother was so angry at her death that she threw the children
into the sea. Scarcely had she reached her wigwam when the children
had overtaken her at the door. She then thought best to let them live;
and dividing the body of her daughter in two parts, she threw them up
toward the heavens, when one became the sun, the other the moon.
Then day and night first began. The children soon grew up to be men,
and expert with bow and arrows. The elder had the arrow of the turtle,
which was pointed with flint; the younger had the arrow pointed with
bark. The first was, by his temper and skill and success in hunting, a
favorite of his grandmother. They lived in the midst of plenty, but
would not allow the younger brother, whose arrow was insufficient to

kill anything but birds, to share with their abundance.
As this young man was wandering one day along the shore, he saw a
bird perched on a limb hanging over the water. He aimed to kill it, but
his arrow, till this time always sure, went aside the mark, and sank into
the sea.
He determined to recover it, and made a dive for the bottom. Here, to
his surprise, he found himself in a small cottage. A fine-looking old
man sitting there welcomed him with a smile, and thus spoke to him:
"My son, I welcome you to the home of your father! To obtain this
meeting I directed all the circumstances which have combined to bring
you hither. Here is your arrow, and an ear of corn. I have watched the
unkindness of your brother, and now command you to take his life.
When you return home, gather all the flints you can find, and hang up
all the deer's horns. These are the only things which will make an
impression on his body, which is made of flint."
Having received these instructions, the young Indian took his leave,
and, in a quarrel with his brother, drove him to distant regions, far
beyond the savannas, in the southwest, where he killed him, and left his
huge flint form in the earth. (Hence the Rocky Mountains.) The great
enemy to the race of the turtle being thus destroyed, they sprang from
the ground in human form, and multiplied in peace.
The grandmother, roused to furious resentment at the loss of her
favorite son, resolved to be revenged.
For many days she caused the rain to descend from the clouds in
torrents, until the whole surface of the earth, and even the highest
mountains, were covered. The inhabitants escaped by fleeing to their
canoes. She then covered the earth with snow; but they betook
themselves to their snow-shoes. She then gave up the hope of
destroying them all at once, and has ever since employed herself in
inflicting smaller evils on the world, while her younger son displays his
good and benevolent feelings by showering