Long ago, after Raven freed the stars from the Great Chief of the Sky, the sky glittered with tiny dots of light. At first the people down below felt afraid.
"Do not fear," the wise shamans told their people. "The stars will not fall upon us. The sky will be bright with starlight. We will no longer live in complete darkness all the time."Soon the people's fears vanished. Still, they were cold and lived in near darkness, for the Great Chief still owned the Moon and the Sun. These were his secret treasures, kept hidden in boxes. No one else was permitted to see them.
Raven knew he must free the Moon and the Sun. The stars glistening above offered no warmth, and they didn't give enough light for the people to see the world around them.
And so, once more, he flew to the village of the Chief of the Sky. When he landed on the ground, he once again turned into the shape of the Chief's grandson. Disguised in this way, Raven went into the Chief's house to sleep.
For a while Raven pretended to sleep. After a few hours, he woke and began to wail as if in agony. His mother, the Chief's daughter, ran to his side. She stroked his hair and spoke gently to him. "My child, what is wrong? Tell your mother what has made you unhappy."
"I was dreaming, Mother," said the boy. "I dreamed I heard a roar like thunder and wind. I dreamed the world was ending."
"My child, calm yourself," his mother said.
Still Raven moaned and cried.
"Dear son," said his mother, "tell me what will comfort you. I will give you anything you wish."
At this Raven stopped crying and lay back in his bed. "Mother," he said quietly, looking into her eyes, "the only things that will bring me happiness are the Moon and the Sun. I want to play with them. I wish my grandfather would give me his boxes. The light of the Moon and the Sun is the only comfort I can imagine."
The Chief's daughter went at once to her father.
"Please, father," she pleaded, "my child is so unhappy. He wants you to allow him to play with the Moon and the Sun."
The Great Chief shook his head. "No one can play with my treasures," he said. "No one at all. They belong to me and to no one else."
"But father," begged the Chief's daughter, "your grandson cannot sleep. He says only one thing will stop his tears, and that is to play with the Moon and the Sun."
The Chief began to soften. He could not bear the thought of his grandson's misery.
"All right," he said. "My grandson shall play with the Moon and the Sun. My guards will take care that they are not lost or ruined."
The next morning the guards stood over the boy as he took the boxes in which the Chief had hidden the Moon and the Sun. As he lifted the lids, brilliant light flashed out of the boxes.
Soon the boy began to taunt the guards. Raven, you see, had a plan.
"None of you is strong enough to throw the Moon," he said. "You think you are strong, but the Moon is stronger than any of you. The Moon is the strongest in the world."
The guards grumbled. "We are as strong as we must be," they said.
"Prove it," the boy challenged.
"We will hold a contest," said the guards. "We will prove that we are strong."
And so the first guard tossed the Moon up into the sky. It spun and flashed and flew high above the treetops. Then it plunged down again. It landed in the boy's arms.
Next another tried. Then still another. But each time the Moon fell back again.
At last the strongest guard stepped forward. "Watch," he said, and with a mighty thrust, he tossed the Moon as high as he was able. Up and up it flew, higher and higher. At last it rose so high, Raven knew it would never return.
He pretended to cry. "The Moon is lost," he said. But in truth, Raven was glad, for now the Moon was high above the earth, spinning round and round. And he knew it would always help to light the earth and guide the tides.
Down below, on earth, beneath the light of the new Moon, the people danced for joy. For the first time they could begin to see - the trees, the wild animals, the stones and rocks, the mountaintops, the streams and creeks and rivers.
Raven, still disguised as the boy, was not done.
"Give me the Sun," said Raven to the guards. "Give me the Sun or I will tell my grandfather that you have lost the Moon."
The guards, fearing their Chief, handed the Sun to the boy. And the moment he held it in his hands, he changed shape so swiftly that he was only a feathery blur.
As he sped across the sky, the light of the Sun filled the world. When Eagle, Raven's rival, saw Raven, he raced after him. Eagle's wings were larger and stronger than Raven's, and before long, Eagle stretched out his talons. He almost had Raven in his grasp.
Raven knew the Sun was slowing him. He had to do something before Eagle could steal the Sun. Quickly, he tossed the heavy globe away.
Off it flew, up and up.
Eagle stared, and Raven stared, and soon all the people below stared too, for the Sun filled the whole world with brilliant light and warmed the people as they never had been before.
Day had come to the world. And forever afterward, the people praised Raven for his marvelous gifts, the Sun, the Moon and the stars.