After a long journey of many adventures the Hare-God came to the brink of the earth, and there watched long and patiently, till at last, the Sun-God coming out, he shot an arrow in his face; but the fierce heat consumed the arrow ere it had finished its course. Then other arrows were sped, till only one remained in his quiver; but this was the magical arrow that never failed its mark. Tä-vwotz, holding it in his hand, lifted the barb to his eye and baptized it in a divine tear; then the arrow was sped and struck the Sun-God full in the face, and the sun was shivered into a thousand fragments, which fell to the earth and caused a general conflagration. Then Tä-vwotz, the Hare-God, fled before the destruction he had wrought; and as he fled, the burning earth consumed his feet, consumed his legs, consumed his body, his hands and arms. All were consumed but the head alone, which rolled across valleys and over mountains, fleeing destruction from the burning earth, until at last, swollen with heat, the eyes of the god burst, and the tears gushed forth in a flood which spread over the earth and extinguished the fire. The Sun-God was now conquered; and he appeared before a council of the gods to await sentence.
In that long council were established the days and nights, the seasons and years, with the length thereof, and the Sun-God was condemned to travel across the firmament by the same trail every day.
Another view of the religion of the sun is shown in the Indian hymns to the sun, as it is rising, at mid-day, and at sunset. After the Indian hymn, we shall find it interesting to go to the opposite side of the earth and see what a Hindoo hymn to the sun is like. It is less a prayer than the Indian hymn, and, like the other Hindoo hymns, a song of praise.
HYMN TO THE SUN
(North American Indian)
Great Spirit! Master of our lives. Great Spirit! Master of things visible and invisible, and who daily makes them visible and invisible. Great Spirit! Master of every other spirit, good or bad, command the good to be favorable unto us, and deter the bad from the commission of evil.
O Grand Spirit! preserve the strength and courage of our warriors, and augment their numbers, that they may resist oppression from our enemies, and recover our country and the rights of our fathers.
O Grand Spirit! preserve the lives of such of our old men as are inclined to give counsel to the young. Preserve our children and multiply their number, and let them be the comfort and support of declining age. Preserve our corn and our animals, and let no famine desolate the land. Protect our villages, guard our lives!
O Great Spirit! when hidden in the west protect us from our enemies, who violate the night and do evil when thou art not present. Good Spirit! make known to us your pleasure by sending to us the Spirit of Dreams. Let the Spirit of Dreams proclaim thy will in the night, and we will perform it in the day; and if it say the time of some be closed, send them, Master of Life, to the great country of souls, where they may meet their friends, and where thou art pleased to shine upon them with a bright, warm and perpetual blaze!