Slaying The Monsters By Fire (2)

The following data is extracted from Traditions of the Caddo.

    In the beginning of the world there were animals that lived with human beings and were kind and friendly, but there were other animals that were very strong and dangerous. At that time, when the earth was new, the grass was taller than the highest trees are now, and many wild animals prowled through the high grass, and that was the reason why the world was so very dangerous. One time the people met in council to make plans to kill all the dangerous animals in the world, and Morning Star, who was one of the head men in the council, arose and said: "There is only one way to kill these animals and that is to burn the grass all over the world. I know how large the world is and what a big task we have, but we must do it."
    As every one was willing to try Morning Star's plan, he told a man who was present at the council that most of the work would fall to him, but that he would appoint two men to help him carry out the work. The man's name was Fire, and the first man appointed to help Fire was the fastest runner in the world, and his name was Black Snake; the second man was the slowest in the world, and his name was Skunk. Fire took hold of Black Snake's tail and put fire on the end of it, and then took hold of Skunk's hind foot and placed fire between his toes. They both started out at the same time, the one going to the north, the other around to the south, so as to meet somewhere in the west, since they started in the east. While these two were on their way the people decided to make a long rope out of soapweeds that would reach up to the sky. Everybody helped make the rope, and as they worked Pigeon would go up into the blue sky to see how near the fire had approached. After a time the people could see that the sky was getting very dark on account of the smoke from the fire, and so they worked hard and fast to get their rope long enough. Finally they had the rope finished, and they appointed Crow to take it up to the sky. Crow took the rope and flew and flew until he was out of sight, and it was a long time before he returned, but when he came he assured the people that he had the rope firmly fastened to the sky. The fire was approaching rapidly, and so the people began climbing up the rope. After the people had climbed up, all kinds of animals came and began to get hold of the rope, and all the bad animals came, and then the rope began to move upward. After the people were high up they sent a man down the rope as far as the first bad animal. This man's name was Bat, and because he had very sharp teeth he was sent to cut the rope. The animal saw him chewing something and asked him what he was eating. Bat said that his grandmother had parched some corn for him and that he was eating it. He kept on cutting the rope, and finally it broke and let the bad animals fall down. When the animals dropped down to the ground Bat followed them down to see what would become of them. He saw a large animal and heard it call all the other animals to enter his body through his nose, ears, and mouth. These animals went in, and so large was the big animal that it had room inside of it for all the bad animals. After all the others were in, Bat slipped in and began to pull out some hair from the animal's nose. That made the animal sneeze, and he sneezed so hard that he threw all the other animals out through his nose. The animals were scattered every place and burned, for the fire was upon them.
    Bat flew up where the people were, but he was scorched a little before he could get there, and that is the reason bats are yellowish in color. After the bad animals had all been burned the people returned to the world again, and ever since the world has been a good place to live upon.

Source: Traditions of the Caddo

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