THE NAVAJO STORY OF THE MAKING OF THE SUN, MOON, AND STARS
At the beginning, when the people had all crept out of the aperture in the cave in which they had previously lived, a council of wise men was held to discuss the propriety of introducing more light upon the earth, which at that time was very small, being lit only by a twilight, like that seen just at the breaking of dawn. Having deliberated some time, the wise men concluded to have a sun and moon, and a variety of stars placed above the earth. They first made the heavens for them to be placed in; then the old men of the Navajos commenced building a sun, which was done in a large house constructed for the purpose.
To the other tribes was confided the making of the moon and stars, which they soon accomplished; when it was decided to give the sun and moon to the guidance of the two dumb Fluters, who had figured with some importance as musicians in their former place of residence in the cave, and one of whom had accidentally conceived the plan of leaving that place for their present more agreeable quarters. These two men, who have carried the two heavenly bodies ever since, staggered at first with their weight; and the one who carried the sun came near burning the earth by bearing it too near, before he had reached the aperture in the mountain through which he was to pass during the night. This misfortune, however, was prevented by the old men, who puffed the smoke of their pipes toward it, which caused it to retire to a greater distance in the heavens. These men have been obliged to do this four times since the dumb man—the Fluter—has carried the sun in the heavens; for the earth has grown very much larger than at the beginning, and consequently the sun would have to be removed, or the earth and all therein would perish in its heat. Now, after the sun and moon had taken their places, the people commenced embroidering the stars upon the heavens the wise men had made, in beautiful and varied patterns and images. Bears and fishes and all varieties of animals were being skilfully drawn, when in rushed a prairie wolf, roughly exclaiming: “What folly is this? Why are you making all this fuss to make a bit of embroidery? Just stick the stars about the sky anywhere;” and, suiting the action to the word, the villainous wolf scattered a large pile all over the heavens. Thus it is that there is such confusion among the few images which the tasteful Navajos had so carefully elaborated.