The other ten followed on, and the Mother Moon, quite dizzy with the sight of their dancing, turned aside from her steady course and begged them to heed her voice.
"The Sky Witches are seeking victims for their feasts," she warned them. "Turn away; turn away! They will destroy you!"
Yet in spite of her warning the witchery of the music led the youths on. And then the Mother Moon cried, "I will save you from their wicked spell in spite of yourselves!" With that she waved her girdle of vapors, and the ten youths were changed into fixed stars, and set forever in the heavens.
Seven of the youths were large and strong, and three were small and less sturdy; and so they were as stars. When the people of their village looked once more up into the sky, they saw seven bright stars dancing and twinkling above them. But those whose eyes were very strong, when the night was clear, could see ten.
And to this day these stars still dance and twinkle in the heavens—and this is the Indian legend of their origin.
We call these stars the Pleiades, but the Indians call them "The Stars That Dance."
