My grandfathers told me this story when I was a boy, so it must be true.
In the Before Times, this world was covered in darkness, and all the Peoples of this world kept getting hurt because they bumped into each other in the dark. Fox, who had been everywhere, looking and spying with his long, sharp nose, said, “I know where there is light all the time, but the people over in that place won’t share it because they are greedy.” He was speaking of the world of the Thunders, who had the Sun all to themselves.
Raven said he would go and steal some of the light and bring it back. And everyone thought he would do it because he is so strong. But, he got too near the Sun — because that is what it was — and his feathers were burned black and he got frightened and flew home.
Possum said, “I have a big bushy tail, I can hide a piece of the Sun in my tail and the people over there won’t see me take it.” So Possum went, and stole a piece of ;the Sun and hid it in his tail. But the Sun was so hot, it burned off all his beautiful tail fur, and the Thunders saw it shining and took the piece of the Sun back. And that is why Possum has a bare tail now.
And Vulture said, “I will go and steal it, and fly high with the piece of the Sun on my head so I can see where I am going.” And he took the piece of the Sun and did that, and it burned all the feathers off his head, and he dropped it, and this is why his head is bald now.
But Grandmother Spider had been studying and watching, and she said, “I think I know how to bring back a piece of the Sun.” And she made a little pot of her web, lined with clay, and she went to the place where the Sun was, spinning web behind her all the time so that she could make her way home in the dark, until she saw the Sun hanging in a tree. And she stole a piece, and put it in her pot and closed the lid. And the clay kept the Sun from burning up her web, and the lid kept the Thunders from seeing that she had stolen it. And she followed her web through the darkness, back to this place, where she hung the Sun in the sky for all the Peoples to see by.
And this is why she is the wisest of us all, and meant to be a teacher. The old men told me this story when I was a boy, so it must be true.
— from LACKEY, MERCEDES. 2021. JOLENE. [S.l.]: DAW BOOKS.
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