Myths and Legends of British North America/When Sun was Snared (Ojibwa)

by Katharine Berry Judson

WHEN SUN WAS SNARED

Ojibwa

ONCE there was a poor boy who lived with his grandmother. He set snares for birds and rabbits because they were very poor. Now one day this boy set his snares, and then went home to his grandmother. But he had set his snare on Sun's trail.

The next day when Sun came up over the edge of the earth and started off on his trail, he was caught in the snare. He could not go on. There was only a little light and Sun did not rise all day. People began to be anxious at the gloom. They said, "What has happened?"

Then someone asked the boy, "Where did you set your snare?" and the boy told him. They went to look, and there was Sun caught fast in it. People said again, "What shall we do?" because Sun was so hot no one could go anywhere near him. Someone said, "We shall have to gnaw through the cords of the snare," and somebody else asked, "Well, who will do that?"

At last a number of the animals tried to gnaw the string. They were all burned. They said, "Let Beaver-Mouse try it. He has such sharp teeth." So Beaver-Mouse tried it, and he gnawed the string so Sun could rise and follow his trail. But Beaver-Mouse's teeth were so burned that they are brown even to this day.