In the early days the earth was wrapped in darkness. The animals could not see more than a step in front of them. They were always bumping into each other, and they had bruises all over their bodies. Their limbs were growing stiff through lack of exercise; yet no one dared to run for fear of colliding with some other animal. They just groped about with staring eyes, trying to see what was ahead of them.
One day Coyote was thinking hard as he walked and forgot to peer into the darkness. Suddenly his head banged into somebody moving fast toward him. He fell back and saw lights dancing up and down before his eyes.
"Caw-hou!" came Hawk's voice. "My head is split. Oh, this terrible darkness! I wish we had some way of seeing how to get about. Oh, my poor head is split!"
"And my poor head, too," rejoined Coyote. "You 're not hurt worse than I. Lights are dancing up and down before my eyes."
"Is that you, Coyote? You can't be hurt so much as I, for you are heavier. If you have lights dancing before you, why don't you catch them and hang them up to give us all light?"
"The lights are gone now," answered Coyote, "but your thought is a wise one. Let us see what we can do."
