Excerpt from Traditions of the Arapaho, Vol. 5: Collected Under the Auspices of the Field Columbian Museum and of the American Museum of Natural History
In the first place there was nothing but water, except the waterfowls; and the Grandfather saw that there was a Father [flat pipe] of the Indians floating on the water, on the four sticks (tripod). Knowing that that person floating on the water was fasting and weeping and crying, and seeing that he was really fasting for the good, the Grandfather took mercy on him. So the Father floating on the water, and who was fasting on this tripod, called all the water-fowls, and so they all came.
"Now," says this man, "I want some of you who can do the work of diving to come and search for the bottom of the sea and see if you can find dirt." So they all came in rotation according to their size. And they dived and came out dead. It took some days for these birds to dive. Finally it was the turn of the duck, who was somewhat timid about doing this work, and he said, "I guess I will try my luck and see if I can do this work." So the duck dived and was a few days and nights under the water, and the Father who was on the tripod was anxiously watching to see the return of the duck, and the time came and he saw the sign of its return on the surface of the water as though the duck was coming. And as the duck came out of the surface of the water (his feet closed the moment he barely reached the bottom) it had mud stuck to its claws. The Father took it and cleaned its feet, and the mud that was on its feet he put on his pipe. Still it was not satisfactory. There was not enough to do good. So the turtle came swimming toward the tripod and said, "I am going to try too." So he went down and down days and nights, for a long time. Toward the last the man saw the bubbles coming up. The circles of water began to form and the turtle came up with his feet closed together. The Father took him and stretched his legs apart and took the mud off from the four feet. And these were the two animals that did the work in diving to the bottom of the sea to get the clay. The Father took the clay and put it with the other and spread it out thin and then he dried it.
About the Publisher
Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com
This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works. Это и многое другое вы найдете в книге Traditions of the Arapaho, Vol. 5 (George A. Dorsey)