Indian Legends Retold
Book Excerpt
The fourth time that he sang the verse and shook the water from his feathers, they really became bright blue!
Just then Coyote appeared, in time to see the transformation. "If you can make yourself beautiful by bathing in the lake, I can do as much," said he, and accordingly he took the plunge. Coyote could not swim, and he choked and strangled and was almost drowned. When at last he contrived to get upon dry land, he was shivering with cold. He rolled and rolled in the warm sand, which stuck to his fur, and he became dirt color, just as you see him now.
CHEROKEE TALES
THE FIRST FIRE
In the old days there was no fire on earth, and the world was a cold and a dreary place, especially at night and in the winter. Think what it would be if we had no hearth at which to warm ourselves, no coals to broil our venison!
One night, in the midst of a thunderstorm, the lightning struck a great hollow sycamore, and it began to burn. Whe