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Titre : Annual report of the Bureau of American ethnology to the Secretary of the Smithsonian institution
Auteur : Bureau of American ethnology (Washington, D.C.)
Éditeur : Government printing office (Washington)
Date d'édition : 1895-1964
Contributeur : Powell, John Wesley (1834-1902). Directeur de publication
Type : texte,publication en série imprimée
Langue : Anglais
Format : application/pdf
Identifiant : ark:/12148/cb37575968z/date
Identifiant : ISSN 0097269X
Source : Bibliothèque nationale de France
Relation : http://catalogue.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/cb37575968z
Description : Périodicité : Annuel
Description : Etat de collection : n. 1 (1879)-n. 48 (1931)
Provenance : bnf.fr
Date de mise en ligne : 12/01/2009
1897 (N19,PART1)-1898. Note : Index.
Page
(Screen 357 / 708)
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Rechercher dans ce périodique
The text below has been produced using a process called optical character recognition (O.C.R.). Since it is an automatic process, it is subject to errors you might find in this page.
The recognition rate for this document is 92.82 %.
MooNEY] THE FIRST FIRE 241
account of the water, so they held a council to decide what to do. This
was a long time ago.
Every animal that could fly or swim was anxious to go after the 6re.
The Raven offered, andbecause he was so large andstrong they thought
he could surely do the work, so he was sent first. He flew high and
far across the water and alighted on the sycamore tree, but while he
was wondering what to do next, the heat had scorched ail his feathers
black, and he was frightened and came back without the nre. The
little Screech-owl ( T~'A-M/M~) volunteered to go, and reached the place
safely, but while he was looking down into the hollow tree a blast of
hot air came up and nearly burned out his eyes. He managed to fly
home as best he could, but it was a long time before he could see well,
and his eyes are red to this day. Then the Hooting Owl ( C~M&M') and
thé Horned Owl (;ZM~) went, but by the time they got to the hollow
tret the fire was burning so fiercely that the smoke nearly blinded
them, and thé ashes carried up by thé wind made white rings about
their eyes. They had to corne home again without the fire, but with
all their rubbing they were never able to get rid of the white rings.
Now no more of the birds would venture, and so the little Uksu'hl
snake, the black racer, said he would go through the water and bring
back some fire. He swam across to the island and crawled through
the grass to the tree, and went in by a small hole at the bottom. The
heat and smoke were too much for him, too, and after dodging about
blindly over the hot ashes until he was almost on fire himself he man-
aged by good luck to get out again at the same hole, but his body had
been scorched black, and he has ever since had thé habit of darting
and doubling on his track as if trying to escape from close quarters.
He came back, and thé great blacksnake, Gûle'gî, "Thé Climber,"
offered to go for fire. He swam over to the island and climbed up the
tree on the outside, as the blacksnake always does, but when he put
his head down into the hole the smoke choked him so that he fell into
the burning stump, and before he could climb out again he was as
black as the Uksu/hï.
Now they held another council, for still there was no fire, and the
world was cold, but birds, snakes, and four-footed animals, all had
some excuse for not going, because they were all afraid to venture
near the burning sycamore, until at last Kânâne'skï Amai'yëhï (the
Water Spider) said she would go. This is not the water spider that
looks like a mosquito, but the other one, with black downy hair and
red stripes on her body. She can run on top of the water or dive to
the bottom, so there would be no trouble to get over to. the island, but
the question was, How could she bring back the nre? ~ni manage
that," said the Water Spider; so she spun a thread from her body and
wove it into a ~M~ bowl, which she fastened on her back. Then she
crossed over to the island and through the grass to where the fire was
19 ETH–01–––16
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