or its
accommodation. The first thing to be thought of was, who should support
the burden?

The sea-bear first presented himself for a trial of his strength. At
once the other animals gathered round and jumped upon his back; while
the bear, unable to bear up such a weight, sank beneath the water, and
was by all the crowd judged unequal to support the weight of the earth.
Several others presented themselves, were tried, and found wanting. But
last of all came the turtle, modestly tendering his broad shell as the
basis of the earth now to be formed. The beasts then made a trial of
his strength to bear by heaping themselves on his back, and finding by
their united pressure they could not sink him below the surface,
adjudged him the honor of supporting the world on his back.

Thus, a foundation being found, the next subject of thought was how to
procure earth. Several of the most expert divers plunged to the bottom
of the sea and came up dead; but the _mink_ at last though he shared
the same fate, brought up in his claws a small quantity of dirt. This
was placed on the back of the turtle.

In the mean while the woman kept on falling, till at last she alighted
on the turtle's back. The earth had already grown to the size of a
man's foot where she stood, with one foot covering the other. By-and-by
she had room for both feet, and was able to sit down. The earth
continued to expand, and when its plain was covered with green grass,
and streams ran, which poured into the ocean, she built her a house on
the sea-shore. Not long after, she had a daughter, and she lived on
what grew naturally, till the child was grown to be a woman. Several of
the animals wanted to marry her, they being changed into the forms of
young men; but the mother would not consent, until the turtle offered
himself as a beau, and was accepted. After she had lain herself down to
sleep, the turtle placed two arrows on her body, in the shape of a
cross: one headed with flint, the other with the rough bark of a tree.
By-and-by she had two sons, but died herself.

The grandmother was so angry at her death that she threw the children
into the sea. Scarcely had she reached her wigwam when the children had
overtaken her at the door. She then thought best to let them live; and
dividing the body of her daughter in two parts, she threw them up
toward the heavens, when one became the sun, the other the moon. Then
day and night first began. The children soon grew up to