his tail hang in the cold water. When it began to freeze, he felt a pain; but as he wanted to catch lots of fish, he did not stir until his tail was frozen fast in the ice. The Fox's instructions were not forgotten: so he suddenly jumped up in the expectation of getting heaps of fish; but he merely broke his tail off near the body instead. And ever since the Bears have had short tails.
(Myths of the Cherokee, by James Mooney.)
THE MEASURE-WORM ROCK
THERE were once two little boys living in a valley, who went down to the river to swim. After paddling and splashing about to their heart's content, they went on shore and crept up a huge bolder that stood beside the water, on which they lay down in the warm sunshine to dry themselves. They soon fell asleep and slept so soundly that they never wakened more. Through sleeps, moons and snows, winter and summer, they slumbered on. Meanwhile the great Rock on which they slept was treacherously rising, day and night, little by little, until it soon bore them up beyond the sight of their friends, who sought them everywhere, weeping. Thus they were borne up at last beyond all human help or reach of human voice—lifted up, inch by inch, into the blue heavens—far up, far up, until their faces scraped the moon; and still they slumbered and slept, year after year. Then at length, upon a time, all the animals assembled together to bring down the little boys from the top of the mighty Rock. Every animal made a spring up the face of the wall as far as he could leap. The little Mouse could only jump up a hand-breadth, the Rat, two hand-breadths; the Raccoon, a little higher; and so on; the grizzly Bear making a prodigious leap far up the wall, but falling back, in vain like
