to lay their
heads down at night upon solid land, and to sleep unrocked by the
tempestuous billow.

Chappewee, on landing, saw that there were no trees on the earth: he
would have some. He stuck a piece of a stick into the ground; it
became a fir-tree, and grew with such amazing rapidity, that its top
soon reached the skies. Once upon a time, Chappewee being out hunting,
saw a squirrel, and gave chase to it. The nimble animal ran up the
fir-tree, pursued by the hunter, who endeavoured to knock it down, but
he could not overtake it. He continued the chase, however, until he
reached the country of the stars. As he went, he saw many curious
things, meteors, comets, departed friends dancing their dances in the
Northern sky; clouds of every kind and colour; spirits flying about
the air. Now he felt keen winds, and now warm breezes; now he passed a
company of storms marching down upon the earth; or a lightning or two
straggling back again to the skies; or a thunder riding a cloud; or a
troop of hail rushing to battle with a deal of bluster and fury; or a
crowd of snows looking for colder weather and a roosting-place. At
last, he reached the country of the stars. He found a land far more
beautiful than that he had left behind him, upon the narrow strait,
between the two tempestuous and stormy seas. He found it one vast
plain, over which led a wide and smooth-beaten road, but he did not
see the squirrel. After feasting his eyes awhile upon the surrounding
splendours, and regaling his ears with soft music, which came he knew
not whence, nor from whom, he bethought him of setting, in the road,
with a view to catch the squirrel, a snare made of his sister's hair.
This done, he descended the tree till he came to the earth. The next
morning the sun appeared as usual in the heavens; but, at noon, it was
caught by the snare which Chappewee had set for the squirrel, and the
sky was instantly darkened. This, never having happened before,
created much surprise and consternation among the people that dwelt at
the narrow strait, between the two tempestuous and stormy seas.
Chappewee's wife said to him, "You must have done something very wrong
when you were up the tree, for we no longer enjoy the light of the
day. The glorious orb, which the old man Chappewee brought to us,
before his children ate of the black fruit, has disappeared. Alas, for
us, who have lost our best friend, the sun! Alas, for us, who, it may
be, are involved in a night