He persuaded his sister to make him a noose of her
own hair. He fixed it just where the sun would strike the land as it
rose above the earth's disk; and, sure enough, he caught the sun, and
held it fast, so that it did not rise.
"The animals who ruled the earth were immediately put into _great
commotion. They had no light._ They called a council to debate upon
the matter, and to appoint
[1. Brinton's "Myths of the New World," p. 165.
2. Ibid., p. 217.]
{p. 182}
some one to go and cut the cord, for this was a very hazardous
enterprise, as the rays of the sun would _burn up whoever came so
near_. At last the dormouse undertook it, for at this time the
dormouse was the largest animal in the world" (the mastodon?); "when
it stood up it looked like a mountain. When it got to the place where
the sun was snared, its back began to _smoke and burn with the
intensity of the heat_, and the top of its carcass was reduced to
_enormous heaps of ashes_. It succeeded, however, in cutting the cord
with its teeth and freeing the sun, but it was _reduced to very small
size_, and has remained so ever since.
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