XXXII. THE SEVEN STARS OF PLEIADES
(Iroquois)
even little Iroquois boys were in the habit of carrying their dishes of succotash to the top of a little hill near their wigwams. They would sit on this little hill and eat their supper. When the succotash was all gone, then the best singer would sing while the other six would dance around the mound. Every night they would do this. No other boys came with them.
One night they planned to have a feast of soup. Each boy was to bring a piece of meat. They would cook it on the hill and then fill their clay bowls with the soup.
Their parents would not give them the meat. The boys had eaten nothing all day, but they took their empty bowls and had a mock feast. They piled their dry bowls after this empty feast and danced around the mound.
Their heads and their hearts were very light. They forgot their hunger. They danced faster than ever [[175]]before; their feet left the ground and they were dancing in the air. The six boys were around their leader who was singing.
Up, up, went the boys into the sky. Their parents saw them and called to them to come back. They could not do it. Whirling, floating, dancing, they took their places in the sky, where every one may see them.
The leader stopped his singing and tried to return. As he was not content in the Great Star Wigwam, his light is not so bright as that of the six other stars. [[176]]