the
science of meteorology, which exhibits an orderly succession of events
even in the fickle winds.

_Sun and Moon._--The _Ute_ philosopher declares the sun to be a living
personage, and explains his passage across the heavens along an
appointed way by giving an account of a fierce personal conflict between
_Tae-vi_, the sun-god, and _Ta-wats_, one of the supreme gods of his
mythology.

In that long ago, the time to which all mythology refers, the sun roamed
the earth at will. When he came too near with his fierce heat the people
were scorched, and when he hid away in his cave for a long time, too
idle to come forth, the night was long and the earth cold. Once upon a
time _Ta-wats_, the hare-god, was sitting with his family by the
camp-fire in the solemn woods, anxiously waiting for the return of
_Tae-vi_, the wayward sun-god. Wearied with long watching, the hare-god
fell asleep, and the sun-god came so near that he scorched the naked
shoulder of _Ta-wats_. Foreseeing the vengeance which would be thus
provoked, he fled back to his cave beneath the earth. _Ta-wats_ awoke
in great anger, and speedily determined to go and fight the sun-god.
After a long journey of many adventures the hare-god came to the brink
of the earth, and there watched long and patiently, till at last the
sun-god coming out he shot an arrow at his face, but the fierce heat
consumed the arrow ere it had finished its intended course; then another
arrow was sped, but that was also consumed; and another, and still
another, till only one remained in his quiver, but this was the magical
arrow that had never failed its mark. _Ta-wats_, holding it in
his hand, lifted the barb to his eye and baptized it in a divine tear;
then the arrow was sped and struck the sun-god full in the face, and the
sun was shivered into a thousand fragments, which fell to the earth,
causing a general conflagration. Then _Ta-wats_, the hare-god,
fled before the destruction he had wrought, and as he fled the burning
earth consumed his feet, consumed his legs, consumed his body, consumed
his hands and his arms--all were consumed but the head alone, which
bowled across valleys and over mountains, fleeing destruction from the
burning earth until at last, swollen with heat, the eyes of the god
burst and the tears gushed forth in a flood which spread over the earth
and extinguished the fire. The sun-god was now conquered, and he
appeared before a council of the gods to await sentence.