How the Rainbow Was Made
A Creation Tale from the Ojibwe Nation
One day when the earth was new, Nanabozho looked out the window of his house beside the wide
waterfall and realized that all of the flowers in his meadow were exactly the same off-white color. How boring! He
decided to make a change, so he gathered up his paints and his paintbrushes and went out to the meadow.
Nanabozho sat down in the tall grass and arranged his red and orange and yellow and green and blue
and violet paint pots next to him. Then he began to paint the flowers in his meadow in many different colors. He
painted the violets dark blue and the tiger lilies orange with brown dots. He made the roses red and pink and
purple. He painted the pansies in every color combination he could think of. Then he painted every single daffodil
bright yellow. Nanabozho hummed happily to himself as he worked in the brilliant daylight provided by Brother
Sun.
Overhead, two little bluebirds were playing games with each other. The first little bluebird would chase his
friend across the meadow one way. Then they would turn around and the second bluebird would chase him back
the other way. Zippity-zip went the first bluebird as he raced across the sky. Zappity-zing went the second bluebird
as he chased him in the brilliant sunshine.
Occasionally, Nanabozho would shade his eyes and look up…up into the endless blue sky to watch the
two little birds playing. Then he went back to work, painting yellow centers in the white daisies. Above him, the two
birds decided to see how fast they could dive down to the green fields below them. The first bluebird sailed down
and down, and then pulled himself up sharply just before he touched the ground. As he soared passed
Nanabozho, his right wing dipped into the red paint pot. When the second bluebird dove toward the grass, his left
wing grazed the orange paint pot.
Nanabozho scolded the two birds, but they kept up their game, diving down toward the grass where he sat
painting and then flying back up into the sky. Soon their feet and feathers were covered with paint of all colors.
Finally Nanabozho stood up and waved his arms to shoo the birds away.
Reluctantly, the bluebirds flew away from Nanabozho and his paint pots, looking for another game to play.
They started chasing each other again, sailing this way and that over top of the giant waterfall that stood next to
Nanabozho's house. Zippity-zip, the first bluebird flew through the misty spray of the waterfall. The first bluebird
left a long red paint streak against the sky. Zappity-zing, the second bluebird chased his friend through the mist,
leaving an orange paint streak. Then the birds turned to go back the other way. This time, the first bluebird left a
yellow paint streak and the second left a pretty blue-violet paint streak. As they raced back and forth, the colors
grew more vivid. When Brother Sun shone on the colors, they sparkled radiantly through the mist of the waterfall.
Below them, Nanabozho looked up in delight when the brilliant colors spilled over his meadow. A gorgeous arch of
red and orange and yellow and green and blue and violet shimmered in the sky above the waterfall. Nanabozho
smiled at the funny little bluebirds and said: "You have made a rainbow!"
Nanabozho was so pleased that he left the rainbow permanently floating above his waterfall, its colors
shimmering in the sunshine and the misting water. From that day to this, whenever Brother Sun shines his light on
the rain or the mist, a beautiful rainbow forms. It is a reflection of the mighty rainbow that still stands over the
waterfall at Nanabozho's house.
Attack of the Mammoth
A British Columbia Myth
from Kaska First Nation
A man and his family were constantly on the move, hunting for beaver. They traveled from lake to lake, stream to
stream, never staying any place long enough for it to become a home. The woman sometimes silently wished that they
would find a village and settle down somewhere with their little baby, but her husband was restless, and so they kept
moving.
One evening, after setting up camp on a large lake, the young mother went out to net some beaver, carrying her
baby upon her back. When she had a toboggan full of beaver meat, she started back to camp. As she walked through the
darkening evening, she heard the thump-thump-thump of mighty footsteps coming from somewhere behind her. She
stopped; her heart pounding. She was being followed by something very large. Her hands trembled as she thought of the
meat she was dragging behind her. The creature must have smelled the meat and was stalking the smell.
Afraid to turn around and alert the beast, she bent over as if to pick something off the snowy path and glanced
quickly past her legs. Striding boldly through the snowy landscape was a tall, barrel-shaped, long-haired creature with huge
tusks and a very long trunk. It was a tix - a mammoth - and it looked hungry. She straightened quickly and hurriedly threw
the meat into the snow. Then she ran as fast as she could back to camp, dragging the toboggan behind her. Her little baby
cried out fearfully, frightened by all the jostling, but she did not stop to comfort him until she was safe inside their shelter.
She told her husband at once about the terrible mammoth that had stalked her and taken the beaver meat. Her
husband shook his head and told her she was dreaming. Everyone knew that the mammoth had all died away. Then he
light-heartedly accused her of giving the meat away to a handsome sweetheart. She denied it resentfully, knowing that he
really believed that she had carelessly overturned the toboggan and had let the meat sink beneath the icy waters of the lake.
After her husband went to set more beaver nets, she prepared the evening meal. While it was cooking over the fire,
she walked all around the camp, making sure that there was an escape route through the willow-brush just in case the
hungry mammoth attacked them in the night.
The husband and wife lay down to sleep next to the fire after they finished the evening meal. The husband
chuckled when he saw that his wife kept her moccasins on and the baby clutched in her arms. "Expecting the mammoth to
attack us?" he asked jovially. She nodded, and he laughed aloud at her. Soon he was asleep, but the woman lay awake for
a long time, listening.
The wife was awakened from a light doze around midnight by the harsh sounds of the mammoth approaching.
"Husband," she shouted, shaking him. He opened his eyes grumpily and demanded an explanation. She tried to tell him that
the hungry mammoth was coming to eat them, but he told her she was having a nightmare and would not listen. The wife
begged and pleaded and tried to drag him away with her, but he resisted and finally shouted at her to begone if she was
afraid. In despair, she clutched her little child to her chest and ran away from the camp.
As she fled, she heard the harsh roar of the giant creature and the sudden shout of her husband as he came face
to face with the creature. Then there was silence, and the woman knew her husband was dead. Weeping, she fled with her
child, seeking a village that she had heard was nearby. Sometime in the early hours of the morning, she heard the thumpthump-thump of the creature's massive feet stomping through the snow-fields, following her trail. Occasionally, it made a
wailing sound like that of a baby crying.
The woman kept jogging along, comforting her little baby as best she could. As light dawned, she saw a camp full
of people who were living on the shores of an island on the lake. She crossed the icy expanse as quickly as possible and
warned the people of the fierce mammoth that had killed her husband. The warriors quickly went out onto the ice and made
many holes around the edges of their village, weakening the ice so that the mammoth would fall through and drown.
As evening approached, the people saw the mammoth coming toward them across the ice. When it neared their
camp on the island, the creature plunged through the weakened ice. Everyone cheered, thinking that the animal had
drowned. Then its large hairy head emerged out of the water and it shook its long tusks and bellowed in rage. The mammoth
started walking along the bottom of the lake, brushing aside the ice with his large tusks.
The people panicked. They screamed and ran in circles, and some of them stood frozen in place, staring as the
mammoth emerged from the ice and walked up onto the banks of the island. The wife of the eaten man fled with her baby,
urging as many of her new-found friends as she could reach, to flee with her. But many remained behind, paralyzed with
fear.
Then a boy emerged from one of the shelters, curious to know what was causing everyone to scream in fear. He
wore the bladder of a moose over his head, covering his hair so that he looked bald. He was a strange lad, and was
shunned by the locals. Only his grandmother knew that he was a mighty shaman with magic trousers and magic arrows that
could kill any living beast.
When the boy saw the hungry, angry mammoth, he called out to his grandmother to fetch the magic trousers and
the magic arrows. Donning his clothing, he shook his head until the bladder burst and his long hair fell down to his waist.
Then he took his magic bow and arrows and leapt in front of the frightened people and began peppering the beast with
arrows, first from one side and then the other. The mammoth roared and weaved and tried to attack the boy, but the
shaman's magic was powerful, and soon the beast lay dead upon the ground.
Then those who fled from the mammoth returned to the camp, led by the poor widow and her baby. The people
whose lives had been saved by the bladder-headed boy gave a cheer and gathered in excitement around the boy. In
gratitude, the people made the shaman their chief and offered him two beautiful girls to be his wives, though he accepted
only one of them. The widow and her baby were welcomed into the tribe, and a few months later she married a brave warrior
who became close friends with the shaman-become-chief.
And from that day to this, the people have always had chiefs to lead them, and no mammoths have troubled them
again.
Fire
A Myth from the Alabama Tribe
In the beginning of the world, it was Bear who owned Fire. It warmed Bear and his people on cold nights
and gave them light when it was dark. Bear and his people carried fire with them wherever they went.
One day, Bear and his people came to a great forest, where they found many acorns lying on the forest
floor. Bear set Fire at the edge of the forest, and he and his people began eating acorns. The acorns were crunch
and crisp and tasted better than any other acorns Bear and his people had ever eaten. They wandered further and
further away from Fire, eating the delicious acorns and seeking out more when the acorn supply grew low.
Fire blazed up merrily for awhile, until it had burned nearly all of its wood. It started to smoke and flicker,
then it dwindled down and down. Fire was alarmed. It was nearly out. "Feed me! Feed me!" Fire shouted to Bear.
But Bear and his people had wandered deep into the forest, and then did not hear Fire's cries.
At that moment, Man came walking through the forest and saw the small, flickering Fire. "Feed me! Feed me!"
Fire cried in despair.
"What should I feed you?" Man asked. He had never seen Fire before.
"I eat sticks and logs and wood of all kinds," Fire explained.
Man picked up a stick and leaned it on the North side of Fire. Fire sent its orange-blue flames flickering up
the side of the stick until it started to burn. Man got a second stick and laid it on the West side of the fire. Fire,
nourished by the first stick, burned brighter and stretched taller and eagerly claimed the second stick. Man picked
up a third stick and laid it on the south side of Fire and laid a fourth stick on the East. By this time, Fire was
leaping and dancing in delight, its hunger satisfied.
Man warmed himself by the blazing Fire, enjoying the changed colors and the hissing and snapping
sound Fire made as it ate the wood. Man and Fire were very happy together, and Man fed Fire sticks whenever it
got hungry.
A long time later, Bear and his people came back to the edge of the forest, looking for Fire. Fire was
angry when it saw Bear. It blazed until it was white-hot and so bright that Bear had to shade his eyes with both
paws. "I do not even know you!" Fire shouted at Bear. The terrible heat rolling of Fire drove Bear and his people
away, so they could not take it and carry it away with them.
And now Fire belongs to Man.
How Fire Was Given to Men
Greek
In those old, old times, there lived two brothers who were not like other men, nor yet like those Mighty Ones who
lived upon the mountain top. They were the sons of one of those Titans who had fought against Jupiter and been sent in
chains to the strong prison-house of the Lower World.
The name of the elder of these brothers was Prometheus, or Forethought; for he was always thinking of the future
and making things ready for what might happen to-morrow, or next week, or next year, or it may be in a hundred years to
come. The younger was called Epimetheus, or Afterthought; for he was always so busy thinking of yesterday, or last year, or
a hundred years ago, that he had no care at all for what might come to pass after a while.
For some cause Jupiter had not sent these brothers to prison with the rest of the Titans.
Prometheus did not care to live amid the clouds on the mountain top. He was too busy for that. While the Mighty Folk were
spending their time in idleness, drinking nectar and eating ambrosia, he was intent upon plans for making the world wiser
and better than it had ever been before.
He went out amongst men to live with them and help them; for his heart was filled with sadness when he found that
they were no longer happy as they had been during the golden days when Saturn was king. Ah, how very poor and
wretched they were! He found them living in caves and in holes of the earth, shivering with the cold because there was no
fire, dying of starvation, hunted by wild beasts and by one another–the most miserable of all living creatures.
“If they only had fire,” said Prometheus to himself, “they could at least warm themselves and cook their food; and
after a while they could learn to make tools and build themselves houses. Without fire, they are worse off than the beasts.”
Then he went boldly to Jupiter and begged him to give fire to men, that so they might have a little comfort through
the long, dreary months of winter.
“Not a spark will I give,” said Jupiter. “No, indeed! Why, if men had fire they might become strong and wise like ourselves,
and after a while they would drive us out of our kingdom. Let them shiver with cold, and let them live like the beasts. It is
best for them to be poor and ignorant, that so we Mighty Ones may thrive and be happy.”
Prometheus made no answer; but he had set his heart on helping mankind, and he did not give up. He turned
away, and left Jupiter and his mighty company forever.
As he was walking by the shore of the sea he found a reed, or, as some say, a tall stalk of fennel, growing; and
when he had broken it off he saw that its hollow center was filled with a dry, soft pith which would burn slowly and keep on
fire a long time. He took the long stalk in his hands, and started with it towards the dwelling of the sun in the far east.
“Mankind shall have fire in spite of the tyrant who sits on the mountain top,” he said.
He reached the place of the sun in the early morning just as the glowing, golden orb was rising from the earth and beginning
his daily journey through the sky. He touched the end of the long reed to the flames, and the dry pith caught on fire and
burned slowly. Then he turned and hastened back to his own land, carrying with him the precious spark hidden in the hollow
center of the plant.
He called some of the shivering men from their caves and built a fire for them, and showed them how to warm
themselves by it and how to build other fires from the coals. Soon there was a cheerful blaze in every rude home in the land,
and men and women gathered round it and were warm and happy, and thankful to Prometheus for the wonderful gift which
he had brought to them from the sun.
It was not long until they learned to cook their food and so to eat like men instead of like beasts. They began at once to
leave off their wild and savage habits; and instead of lurking in the dark places of the world, they came out into the open air
and the bright sunlight, and were glad because life had been given to them.
After that, Prometheus taught them, little by little, a thousand things. He showed them how to build houses of wood
and stone, and how to tame sheep and cattle and make them useful, and how to plow and sow and reap, and how to protect
themselves from the storms of winter and the beasts of the woods. Then he showed them how to dig in the earth for copper
and iron, and how to melt the ore, and how to hammer it into shape and fashion from it the tools and weapons which they
needed in peace and war; and when he saw how happy the world was becoming he cried out:
“A new Golden Age shall come, brighter and better by far than the old!”
How Diseases and Cares Came Among Men
Greek
Things might have gone on very happily indeed, and the Golden Age might really have come again, had it not been for
Jupiter. But one day, when he chanced to look down upon the earth, he saw the fires burning, and the people living in houses, and
the flocks feeding on the hills, and the grain ripening in the fields, and this made him very angry.
“Who has done all this?” he asked.
And some one answered, “Prometheus!”
“What! that young Titan!” he cried. “Well, I will punish him in a way that will make him wish I had shut him up in the
prison-house with his kinsfolk. But as for those puny men, let them keep their fire. I will make them ten times more miserable than
they were before they had it.”
Of course it would be easy enough to deal with Prometheus at any time, and so Jupiter was in no great haste about it. He made
up his mind to distress mankind first; and he thought of a plan for doing it in a very strange, roundabout way.
In the first place, he ordered his blacksmith Vulcan, whose forge was in the crater of a burning mountain, to take a lump
of clay which he gave him, and mold it into the form of a woman. Vulcan did as he was bidden; and when he had finished the
image, he carried it up to Jupiter, who was sitting among the clouds with all the Mighty Folk around him. It was nothing but a mere
lifeless body, but the great blacksmith had given it a form more perfect than that of any statue that has ever been made.
“Come now!” said Jupiter, “let us all give some goodly gift to this woman;” and he began by giving her life.
Then the others came in their turn, each with a gift for the marvelous creature. One gave her beauty; and another a
pleasant voice; and another good manners; and another a kind heart; and another skill in many arts; and, lastly, some one gave
her curiosity. Then they called her Pandora, which means the all-gifted, because she had received gifts from them all.
Pandora was so beautiful and so wondrously gifted that no one could help loving her. When the Mighty Folk had admired
her for a time, they gave her to Mercury, the light-footed; and he led her down the mountain side to the place where Prometheus
and his brother were living and toiling for the good of mankind. He met Epimetheus first, and said to him:
“Epimetheus, here is a beautiful woman, whom Jupiter has sent to you to be your wife.”
Prometheus had often warned his brother to beware of any gift that Jupiter might send, for he knew that the mighty tyrant
could not be trusted; but when Epimetheus saw Pandora, how lovely and wise she was, he forgot all warnings, and took her home
to live with him and be his wife.
Pandora was very happy in her new home; and even Prometheus, when he saw her, was pleased with her loveliness.
She had brought with her a golden casket, which Jupiter had given her at parting, and which he had told her held many precious
things; but wise Athena, the queen of the air, had warned her never, never to open it, nor look at the things inside.
“They must be jewels,” she said to herself; and then she thought of how they would add to her beauty if only she could
wear them. “Why did Jupiter give them to me if I should never use them, nor so much as look at them?” she asked.
The more she thought about the golden casket, the more curious she was to see what was in it; and every day she took
it down from its shelf and felt of the lid, and tried to peer inside of it without opening it.
“Why should I care for what Athena told me?” she said at last. “She is not beautiful, and jewels would be of no use to her.
I think that I will look at them, at any rate. Athena will never know. Nobody else will ever know.”
She opened the lid a very little, just to peep inside. All at once there was a whirring, rustling sound, and before she could
shut it down again, out flew ten thousand strange creatures with death-like faces and gaunt and dreadful forms, such as nobody in
all the world had ever seen. They fluttered for a little while about the room, and then flew away to find dwelling-places wherever
there were homes of men. They were diseases and cares; for up to that time mankind had not had any kind of sickness, nor felt
any troubles of mind, nor worried about what the morrow might bring forth.
These creatures flew into every house, and, without any one seeing them, nestled down in the bosoms of men and
women and children, and put an end to all their joy; and ever since that day they have been flitting and creeping, unseen and
unheard, over all the land, bringing pain and sorrow and death into every household.
If Pandora had not shut down the lid so quickly, things would have gone much worse. But she closed it just in time to
keep the last of the evil creatures from getting out. The name of this creature was Foreboding, and although he was almost half
out of the casket, Pandora pushed him back and shut the lid so tight that he could never escape. If he had gone out into the world,
men would have known from childhood just what troubles were going to come to them every day of their lives, and they would
never have had any joy or hope so long as they lived.
And this was the way in which Jupiter sought to make mankind more miserable than they had been before Prometheus
had befriended them.