Then Water Spider said she would go. This is not the water spider that looks like a mosquito, but the other one—the one with black downy hair and red stripes on her body. She could run on top of the water, or dive to the bottom.
The animals said, “How can you bring back fire?”
But Water Spider spun a thread from her body and wove it into a tusti bowl which she fastened on her back. Then she swam over to the island and through the grass to the fire. Water Spider put one little coal of fire into her bowl, and then swam back with it.
That is how fire came to the world. And that is why Water Spider has a tusti bowl on her back.
THE ANCESTORS OF PEOPLE
Osage
There are people who come from under the water. They lived in the water weeds that hang down, all green, into the water. They have leaves upon their stems. Now the water people lived in shells. The shells were their houses and kept the water out.
There were other animals who lived under the earth. Cougar lived under the earth, and bear, and buffalo. These creatures came up out of the ground. Then the shell people came up to the earth also; and the sky people came down. So all these three peoples lived together. They are the fathers of the people who live on the earth today.