Excerpt From The Myth

"Inside the gates Dendeek saw the Woman who fell down from Heaven. She was lying on a couch covered with deerskins. Near her, all harnessed to the sledge were the three stags which Se’ sta had driven through the sky and the Lower World. There was a fire on the stone floor. Smoke rolled below the roof of the city. And water roared beneath the stone floors.

“I come for Mao’ ra,” said her father. “I must take her back.”"

Indian Myths

How A Man And His Daughter Became Stars

Dandeek and his wife lived in the village by the lakeside. They had a beautiful daughter named Mao’ ra.

Mao’ ra was not like other children. When she was seven years old, she was very wise. Some said a spirit always stood by her to teach her. She knew more than the hookies and the ookies. All the beasts loved her. The birds came when she called them. At the sound of her voice the fishes swam about her feet in the shining waves. The trees talked to her. The streams sang to her. She loved the stars. Sometimes when she looked at them one would shoot across the sky. It left a trail of fire in the night.

One day a deep sickness came upon Mao’ ra. The medicine of the hookies could not cure her. The medicine of the ookies was no better. She seemed to sink into the arms of death.

When Dendeek came home from hunting, the hookies said to him, “Mao’ ra is very sick. She is not on her couch. By our magic power we see her on the way to the land of the Little People. We must not lose her. Follow her. Go quickly and bring her back to us.”

Dendeek was a mighty warrior. He could run faster than a deer. It was a long way. But he thought only, of his daughter. So he ran as swiftly as the wind.

He came to the hill over a city. It was where Se’ sta put the people when he made the world over again. Se’ sta’s mother lived there. She kept the city. A man was on the hill. He took Dendeek safely past the great rocks. They were ready to fan on the stranger to crush him.

Inside the gates Dendeek saw the Woman who fell down from Heaven. She was lying on a couch covered with deerskins. Near her, all harnessed to the sledge were the three stags which Se’ sta had driven through the sky and the Lower World. There was a fire on the stone floor. Smoke rolled below the roof of the city. And water roared beneath the stone floors.

“I come for Mao’ ra,” said her father. “I must take her back.”

”Mao’ ra was here,” said the Woman. “She was weak. She was pale and tired. But the hookies called her away by their magic power. As she passed out she carried two torches. She took them from the fire kindled there by Heno.”

Dendeek wept. He cried out in grief. He feared Mao’ ra was 1ost. He could not go back without her. What could he say to her mother? What could he tell the people?

There was a great noise. The city was shaken. Dendeek looked up. He saw Mao’ ra. She was as bright as the two torches which she carried. She was running into the sky over the new path of the Beautiful Colors.

Dendeek saw the harnessed, stags. He leaped into, the sledge of Se’ sta. The stags sprang away over the Beautiful Bridge of Burning Colors. When their feet struck that bridge, thunder rolled over the Lower World and lightning flamed along the sky.

Then the Woman who fell down from Heaven said, “They go into the sky! People must never go there. Now they cannot return. Let them become stars to shine there forever.”

And so it was. If you look up at the stars on a cold winter night you may still see Mao’ ra with her torches. Behind her Dendeek sits in the sledge driving yet the three stags.

And now, when the North Wind roars in fury through the great trees, the Indian warriors say it is Dendeck driving down the sky to bring Mao’ ra back to her people.