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He had with him his bow and arrows and his beaver-skin robe; but when
the Sun rose high in the sky he became tired and laid himself down to
weep, covering himself entirely with his robe to keep out the Sun. When
the Sun was directly overhead and saw the boy, it sent down a ray which
burned spots upon the robe and made it shrink until it exposed the boy.
Then the Sun smiled, while the boy wept more violently than before.
He felt that he had been cruelly treated both by his brothers and now by
the Sun. He said to the Sun, "You have treated me cruelly and burned my
robe, when I did not deserve it. Why do you punish me like this_" The Sun
merely continued to smile, but said nothing.
The boy then gathered up his bow and arrows, and taking his burnt robe,
returned to the wigwam, where he lay down in a dark corner and again wept.
His sister was outside of the wigwam when he returned, so she was not
aware of his presence when she reentered to attend to her work. Presently
she heard someone crying, and going over to the place whence the sound
came she found that it was her youngest brother who was in distress.
She said to him, "My brother, why are you weeping_" to which he replied,
"Look at me; I am sad because the Sun burned my beaver-skin robe; I have
been cruelly treated this day." Then he turned his face away and continued
to weep. Even in his sleep he sobbed, because of his distress.
When he awoke, he said to his sister, "My sister, give me a thread, I wish
to use it."
She handed him a sinew thread, but he said to her, "No, that is not what I
want: I want a hair thread."
She said to him, "Take this; this is strong."
"No," he replied, "that is not the kind of a thread I want; I want a hair
thread."
She then understood his meaning, and plucking a single hair from her
person handed it to him, when he said, "That is what I want," and taking
it at both ends he began to pull it gently, smoothing it out as it
continued to lengthen until it reached from the tips of the fingers of one
hand to the ends of the fingers of the other.
Then he started out to where the Sun's path touched the earth. When he
reached the place where the Sun was when it burned his robe, the little
boy made a noose and stretched it across the path, and when the Sun came
to that point the noose caught him around the neck and began to choke him
until he almost lost his breath.
It became dark, and the Sun called out to the ma'nidos, "Help me, my
brothers, and cut this string before it kills me." The ma'nidos came, but
the thread had so cut into the flesh of the Sun's neck that they could not
sever it. When all but one had given up, the Sun called to the Mouse to
try to cut the string. The Mouse came up and gnawed at the string, but it
was difficult work, because the string was hot and deeply embedded in the
Sun's neck.
After working at the string a good while, however, the Mouse succeeded in
cutting it, when the Sun breathed again and the darkness disappeared. If
the Mouse had not succeeded, the Sun would have died. Then the boy said to
the Sun, "For your cruelty I have punished you; now you may go."
The boy then returned to his sister, satisfied with what he had done.
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