WHY THE MOON IS PALE
Wyandot
Now Small Turtle made Sun out of lightning when she climbed up into the sky. She also made Moon for his wife. Moon was smaller than Sun, but she was very bright. Then the animals bored a hole through the edge of the earth so that Sun and Moon could pass through at night, and begin their trail again at the east.
Small Turtle never meant Sun and Moon to travel together. But one day Moon ran into the hole at the edge of the earth much too soon. She also ran in ahead of her husband, Sun. Sun was very angry. Moon stayed under the earth for a long while. Small Turtle went after her one day to see what was the matter. She found Moon small and pale because of Sun’s anger. Then Small Turtle tried to make her large again. Moon would grow larger for a while, and then remember Sun’s anger, and fade away again, until she was only a strip. She does so even today. That is why Moon is so pale, and why she keeps changing as she does.
THE WOMAN IN THE MOON
Shuswap
Moon was a very handsome man. During the winter he traveled constantly, camping every night in a different place. He had a wife called Wala and many children. When they were traveling, Moon always went ahead and prepared a house for his wife and children. White men call his house a halo.
Wala was always loaded down. She carried large birch-bark baskets on her back, and a birch-bark snow shovel in her hands. Wala used the shovel to fill the baskets with snow, for melted snow was all the water they could get in winter time.
One morning Wala said to Moon, “Where are you going to camp tonight?” Moon did not answer. Wala said, “Where will you pitch camp tonight?” Still Moon did not answer. Thus Wala kept asking, “Where are you going to camp tonight?” until Moon said crossly, “Oh, camp on my face!”
And Wala did that. She jumped right on his face and stuck there. We know this is true because Wala may still be seen on Moon’s face, holding her birch-bark baskets and her snow shovel.