24 THE WILD TURKEY AND ITS HUNTING 



and girl playing, and their playthings were the 

 sun, moon, and stars belonging to the earth. As 

 soon as the earth creatures saw the sun, moon, 

 and stars, they rushed for them and, gathering 

 them into a basket, took the children of man 

 and hurried back to earth through the trap- 

 door. In their hurry to get away from the man 

 whom they saw running after them, the trap- 

 door was slammed on the tail of the bear, cut- 

 ting it off. The blood spattered over the lynx 

 and trout, and since that time the bear has had 

 no tail, and the lynx and trout are spotted. 

 The buffalo fell down and hurt his back and 

 has had a hump on it ever since. The sun, 

 moon, and stars having been put back in their 

 places, the rain stopped at once and the waters 

 quickly dried up. On the first appearance of 

 land, the turkey, who had been flying around 

 all the time, lit, although warned not to do so 

 by the other creatures. It at once began to 

 sink in the mud, and its tail stuck to the mud so 

 tight that it could hardly fly up, and when it 

 did get away the end of its tail was covered with 

 mud and is stained mud color to this day. The 



