TRADITIONS OF THE SUN AND MOON—LEGENDARY HORSES. 251 
brought this stone, and gave it to the Indians; this was the origin of fire. 
Originally, the sun had nine brothers, all like to himself, flaming hot with 
fire, so that the world was like to perish; but the coyote slew nine of the 
brothers, and so saved mankind from burning up. The moon also had nine 
brothers, all like unto himself, made of ice, so that in the night people went 
near to freeze to death. But the coyote went away out on the eastern edge 
of the world with his knife of flint-stone, heated stones to keep his hands 
warm, then laid hold of the nine moons one after another and slew them 
likewise, and thus men were saved from death by freezing. 
When it rains there is some Indian sick in heaven, weeping. Long, 
long ago there was a good young Indian on earth, and when he died all the 
Indians wept so much that a flood came on the earth, and rose up to 
heaven and drowned all people, except one couple. 
Many: hundreds of years ago, according to the old Indians, there 
existed on earth a horse and amare which were extremely small. The 
Indians called them by a name (sd-to-wats), which they at once applied to 
the first horses brought by the Spaniards. They perished long before 
white men ever saw California. It is possible that these liliputian ponies 
of the Indian fable refer to an extinct species of horse, of which the 
remains have been discovered by Mr. Condon, in Oregon. 
