MYTHS AND LEGENDS OF
times it was light when Coyote sang loudest. But neither won.
At last Grizzly Bear became tired. He said, "Let's have it dark half the time, and light half the time." Coyote agreed. He said, "Hereafter it shall be light from the time that the sun prepares to follow the trail through the Sky Land until he reaches the edge of the Darkening Land. The rest of the time shall be night. Thus every day shall Sun travel. When he leaves the Earth Plain, the darkness shall follow him."
After a while, Grizzly Bear said, "I do not like the length of the year. Winter is far too short. Let winter be as many moons long as there are feathers in the tail of Blue Grouse." So they counted and found twenty-two feathers in the tail of Blue Grouse. Grizzly Bear wanted winter to be twenty-two moons long!
Coyote said at once, "Oh, no! The people would die. Let winter be half that number." Grizzly Bear objected. Then Coyote said, "Let there be as many moons in the year as there are feathers in Flicker's tail." Grizzly Bear agreed, because he thought there were many feathers in Flicker's tail.
Now, when they counted, there were only twelve feathers in Flicker's tail. But it was too late to make
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