ORIGIN OF SUN AND MOON
[Illustration: MASK USED TO APPEASE CRYING CHILDREN—OLD-MAN-HOUSE TRIBE]
Joe Anderson, a Port Madison Indian, tells the story of the origin of
the sun and moon, a story which many of the Indians still continue to
believe, notwithstanding their present Christian education.
Long, long ago an Indian woman went to a creek to wash some clothes and
left her little babe at home alone. When she returned she found that the
child had been stolen and she wept bitterly. When she again went to the
creek to wash she took the baby’s clothes with her. While washing, some
of the baby’s dresses sunk to the bottom of the creek and some mud got
on the inside of them. When she lifted them out of the water the mud was
transformed into another baby. However, it was not a bright clean baby
like the other, but a very black and dirty one. The new baby thrived and
grew very rapidly and the mother loved it dearly, although she longed for
her kidnapped child to return.
When the new baby got big enough he was always out at play in the mud
puddles, seldom returning until late at night.
After awhile the prodigal boy returned and played with the other boy, who
still continued to wear a dirty face.
The parents loved the clean boy best and the dirty boy became very
jealous. So one day the dirty boy thought he would go home as clean as
the other boy and spent the whole day in washing himself. At night when
he returned he was as clean and bright as the sun, and his brother who
had hitherto been so clean shone only like the moon in comparison. Then
the clean boy said: “You be the sun and I’ll be the moon,” and together
they flew away and the once dirty boy became the spirit of the sun which
throws bright light on the earth by day, and the once lost boy became the
moon which reflects dim light on the earth by night.