From American Indian Myths and Legends
Three-Legged Rabbit Fights the Sun - Posted by ~Little
Wing~
(This story comes from an unknown Western Rocky Mountains Tribe)
Once there
was a rabbit with only three legs, but he made a wooden leg for himself so that he could move fast.
At the time the sun was very hot, and Rabbit said to himself, "I'll go and see what the problem is."
As he hopped along toward Sun, he found it getting hotter every day.
"The only thing on earth
that doesn't burn," said Rabbit, "is cactus." So he made a house of cactus to stay in during the day,
and he traveled only at night.
When he came to the east, he rose early in the morning and ran
toward the place where Sun should appear. He saw the ground boiling and knew that Sun was ready to come
up. Rabbit stopped, sat down, and took out his bow and arrows.
When Sun was about halfway out
of the earth, Rabbit shot. His first arrow hit the heart and killed Sun. Rabbit stood over the corpse
and cried: "The white part of your eye will be clouds." And it was.
"The black part of your eye will
be the sky." And it was.
"Your kidney will be a star, your liver the moon, and your heart the
dark."
And they were. Then Rabbit said to Sun, "You will neer be too
hot again, for now you are only a
big star."
Sun has never been too hot since, and after that day, rabbits have had brown spots
behind their ears and on their legs. Their rabbits' fur was scorched during their journey, long, long
ago, to see why Sun was so hot.
Told by Ella Clark in 1966.
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