RANGE, VARIATION, AND NAME %3 



earth, all birds, beasts, and fishes lived in har- 

 mony as one family, speaking the same language, 

 and subsisting on sweet herbs and grass that 

 grew in abundance all over the earth. Sud- 

 denly one day the sun ceased to shine, the sky 

 became covered with heavy clouds, and rain 

 began to fall. For a long time this continued, 

 and neither the sun, moon, nor stars were seen. 

 After a while the water got so deep that the 

 birds, animals, and fishes had either to swim or 

 fly in the air, as there was no land to stand on. 

 Those that could not swim or fly were carried 

 around on the backs of those that could, and 

 this kept up until almost every living thing was 

 almost starved. Then all the creatures held 

 a meeting, and one from each kind was selected 

 to go to heaven and ask the Great Spirit to send 

 back the sun, moon, and stars and stop the rain. 

 These journeyed a long way and at last found 

 a great ladder running into the sky ; they climbed 

 up this ladder and found at the top a trapdoor 

 leading into heaven, and on passing through the 

 door, which was open, they saw the dwelling- 

 place of man, and before the door were a boy 



