REMAKING
THE WORLD (continued)
The Creating
Power sang a second song and took otter out of the bag.
Otter was ordered
to dive and bring up mud.
Otter, who was
sleek, dove into the water at once
using his strong
webbed feet to go down furher than loon.
Down, down,
down he went staying for a very long time.
But, when
otter finally came back, otter was also empty handed.
Out of the pipe
wrapping came beaver.
Creating Power
sang a third song.
Creator commanded
beaver to dive
and bring back
mud from the bottom of the waters.
Beaver dove into
the water and used his broad tail to go down.
Although beaver
dove deeper and
stayed under
the water longer than the others,
he too brought
back nothing.
The Creator then
sang the fourth song and brought turtle out of the bag.
Turtle was very
strong.
"You must bring
back the mud," said Creator to turtle.
Turtle dove into
the water.
turtle stayed
so long that the others began to shout,
"Turtle is dead.
Turtle will never come up again."
And, all the
while, crow had been circling and flying.
It seemed forever
before turtle broke the surface of the water
and paddled over
to the Creator.
"I found the
bottom!"
turtle cried
out.
"I brought some
earth!"
And sure enough
there it was.
Earth...filling
all the spaces and cracks between turtle's toes and claws.
Earth...packed
into the spaces separating the upper and lower shell.
The Creating
Power began to sing
as it took the
mud from turtle's side and feet.
Creator sang
the entire time while shaping the mud.
The mud was shaped
and spread on the water to make a spot of dry land.
By the time the
fourth song was finished,
there was enough
dry land for the Creator and crow to sit.
"Come down and
rest," said the Creator to the crow.
Crow was very
glad and did as Creator said.
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Turtle stands
for long life, endurance and the power to survive.
The turtle heart
is great power because
it keeps beating
a very long time after the turtle is dead.
GRAPHICS BY
