carelessness got the better of
prudence, and they suffered the arrow to be stolen; the sacrilege so
enraged the Bird of Ages, that he quitted the earth, and winged his
way to the place he inhabited before he descended from above. He has
never been seen on earth since; but the Chepewyans, and other tribes
whom this tale has reached, believe that the thunder of the hot moons
is the clapping of his wings, and the lightning which accompanies it,
the glancing of his eye. When a dark cloud that has no rain crosses
the earth, they say he is flying between it and the sun; and they
believe that the snow of the winter is the down which he strips from
his breast.

IV. THE GREAT HARE.

Michabou, or the Great Hare, sat upon the face of the waters--he, and
his creatures, which were all four-legged. The form of this Being was
unlike that of any thing ever seen on the earth, before or since. He
had four legs, or rather two legs and two arms, but he used them all
as if they were legs, and he used the two arms for purposes for which
legs could not be used to advantage. So he had four legs and two arms,
and yet there were but four in all. Each of his creatures was unlike
the others: all were known and distinguished by something which did
not belong to another. Some had but one leg, some had twenty; some had
no legs, but many arms; and some had neither legs nor arms. The same
diversity prevailed with regard to the eyes, and mouth, and nose, and
ears. Indeed they were a strange crowd of creatures, and not the least
strange of all was Michabou himself, the head chief, or rather great
father of all the creatures which moved over the face of the mighty
waters.

Michabou was married to a woman quite as odd and deformed as himself,
who bore him many children, of strange and various shapes. When the
time had come for her to bring forth her one thousandth child, she
had a strange dream. She dreamed that the child within her refused
to see the light, till he had something firm and stable to stand
upon--something which would permit him to enjoy rest undisturbed by
motion. She told this dream to her husband, whom it puzzled very much.
At length he made out that he was to create a world. He knew before,
that the bottom of the ocean was covered with sand. So he dived down,
and brought up from thence a glittering grain to serve as the germ of
the world.

Having taken this grain of glittering sand into the hollow of his
hand, Michabou blew upon