342 GEOGRAPHICAL DISTRIBUTION OF MYTHS. 



told in a story of wliicli the European fable of the Lion and the 

 Mouse might be a mere moralized remnant. 



In the story found among the Wyandots, in the seventeenth 

 century, by the missionary Paul le Jeune, it is related that 

 there was a child whose father was killed and eaten by a bear, 

 and his mother by the Great Hare ; a woman came and found 

 the child, and adopted him as her little brother, calling him 

 Chakabech. He did not grow bigger than a baby, but he was 

 so strong that the trees served as arrows for his bow. When 

 he had kiUed the destroyers of his parents, he wished to go up 

 to heaven, and climbed up a tree ; then he blew upon it, and it 

 grew up and up till he came up to heaven, and there he found 

 a beautiful country. So he went down to fetch his sister, 

 building huts as he went down to lodge her in; brought her 

 up the tree into heaven, and then broke off the tree low down : 

 so no one can go up to heaven that way. Then Chakabech 

 went out and set his snares for game, but when he got up at 

 night to look at them, he found everything on fire, and went 

 back to his sister to tell her. Then she told him he must have 

 caught the Sun, going along by night he must have got in un- 

 awares, and when Chakabech went to see, so it was ; but he 

 dared not go near enough to let him out. But by chance he 

 found a little Mouse, and blew upon her till she grew so big 

 that she could set the Sun free, and he went again on his 

 way ; but while he was held in the snare, day failed down here 

 on earth .^ 



The first and second American versions of the Sun- Catcher 

 come from near the great lakes, but the third is found among 

 the Dog^Rib Indians, far in the north-west, close upon the 

 Esquimaux who fringe the northern coast. When Chapewee, 

 after the deluge, formed the earth, and landed the animals upon 

 it from his canoe, he " stuck up a piece of wood, which became 

 a fir-tree, and grew with amazing rapidity, until its top reached 

 the skies. A squirrel ran up this tree, and was pursued by 

 Chapewee, who endeavoured to knock it down, but could not 



' Le Jeune (1637) in ' Eelatious des Jesuites daus la Nouvelle -France ;' 

 . Quebec, 1858, vol. i. p. 54. Schoolcraft, part iii. p. 320. See also page 336, in the 

 present Chapter. 



