Black
& White Moons
A Winnebago Tale - As Told By Cat
Long
ago in the beginning, the good spirits and the
evil spirits held a council to decide how the
world should be divided between them. The first
issue they decided would be the question of how
many moons there would be from one winter to the
next one. The first creature to come forward with
a suggestion was Turkey. He strutted forward drumming
and fanned his tail feathers. "I say there
should be as many moons as there are spots on
my tail feathers!" he declared.
The
council discussed this but in the end voted it
down, saying there were far too many spots on
Turkeys tail. Then Partridge came strutting forward.
He also suggested that there should be the same
number of moons as there were spots on his tail.
After counting the number of spots on the tail
of Partridge, the council decided that this was
still too long a time.
Then Chipmonk scampered in, throwing his tail
over his head in the manner of chipmonks everywhere.
"I say let the year have as many moons as
there are black and white stripes on my back!"
squeaked Chipmonk.
The
council discussed this and found it to be a good
plan. They decided that the six black stripes
would represent the summer moons and the six white
stripes would represent the winter moons. And
so it was settled.
But
everyone knows that evil spirits are greedy. When
they saw bright white moon lighting up the sky,
they decided that they had not been given enough
darkness. So the evil spirits began to eat away
at the moon until nothing remained but darkness.
But the great Earthmaker who had created the moon
refused to see his creation destroyed, leaving
the world dark for the evil spirits. So he devised
a plan, and began to re-create the moon a little
each night. And at the end of fourteen days the
moon was again full and covered the earth with
light. Then Earthmaker rested. But while he rested
the evil spirits once again ate away the moon
until darkness once again covered the earth.
So
the battle continues, the Earthmaker renewing
the moon and the evil spirits eating it away.
Cycle after cycle, year after year....
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Black
and White Moons
A Winnebago Tale retold by Cat |