a Menominee Story

How The Young Hunter Caught The Sun  - Menominee 

The youngest brother had found their oldest brothers, so the sister made him a fine robe of beaver skins trimmed with beautifully colored porcupine quills. He wore the robe all the time. 

One day the oldest brothers went out hunting. The youngest was saddened because he could not join them. He had his bow and arrows and his beaver skin robe. The Sun rose high in the sky he laid down to weep, covering hisself with the robe to keep out the Sun. When the Sun was overhead, he sent down a ray which burned spots into the robe. The boy wept more. He felt the sun too, was treating him cruelly. 

He said to the Sun, "You have treated me cruelly and burned my robe, when I did not deserve it. Why do you punish me like this?" The Sun merely continued to smile, but said nothing. 

The boy gathered his bow and arrows and his burnt robe and returned to the wigwam. He laid down and wept again. His sister was not aware of his presence when she reentered the wigwam. She heard her younger brother crying in distress. 

She said to him, "My brother, why are you weeping?" 

He replied, "Look at me! I am sad because the Sun burned my beaver skin robe. I have been cruelly treated this day." Then he turned his face away and continued to weep. Even in his sleep he sobbed, because of his distress. 

When he awoke the next morning, he said to his sister,"My sister, give me a thread; I wish to use it." 

She handed him a sinew thread, but he said to her, "No, that is not what I want. I want a hair thread." She said to him, "Take this, this is strong." 

"No," he replied, "that is not the kind of a thread I want. I want a hair thread." She plucked a single hair from her head and handed it to him. He took the hair and smoothed the hair strand out. 

He then started on a journey to where the Sun's path touched the earth. When he reached the place where the Sun burned his robe, the little boy made a noose and stretched it across the path. So when the Sun came to that point the noose caught him around the neck and began to choke him until he almost lost his breath. It became dark, and the Sun called out to the mánidos, "Help me, my brothers, and cut this string before it kills me." The mánidos came, but the thread had so cut into the flesh of the Sun's neck that they could not sever it. When all but one had given up, the Sun called to the Koqkipikuqki (the mouse) to try to cut the string. The Mouse came up and gnawed through the string, it was difficult, because the string was hot and deeply embedded in the Sun's neck. When the Sun breathed again and the darkness disappeared. The mouse had saved the Sun's life. Then the boy said to the Sun, "For your cruelty I have punished you, now you may go." 

The boy then returned to his sister, satisfied with what he had done.