_Ojibwa_
Once there was a poor boy who lived with his grandmother. He set
snares for birds and rabbits because they were very poor. Now one
day this boy set his snares, and then went home to his grandmother.
But he had set his snare on Sun’s trail.
The next day when Sun came up over the edge of the earth and started
off on his trail, he was caught in the snare. He could not go on.
There was only a little light and Sun did not rise all day. People
began to be anxious at the gloom. They said, “What has happened?”
Then someone asked the boy, “Where did you set your snare?” and the
boy told him. They went to look, and there was Sun caught fast in
it. People said again, “What shall we do?” because Sun was so hot no
one could go anywhere near him. Someone said, “We shall have to gnaw
through the cords of the snare,” and somebody else asked, “Well, who
will do that?”
At last a number of the animals tried to gnaw the string. They were
all burned. They said, “Let Beaver-Mouse try it. He has such sharp
teeth.” So Beaver-Mouse tried it, and he gnawed the string so Sun
could rise and follow his trail. But Beaver-Mouse’s teeth were so
burned that they are brown even to this day.