Melianarrheyal
Page 50
Once there was a kretchin girl who was dying of cold. She had no blankets and no fire and no candles, and so she whistled to Snake to save her; and Snake listened.
He went to the darkness beneath the earth, to find the place where the Sundancer dances around his great sun-fire. As below, so above; so the Sundancer guides the sun on its way across the sky, to bring night and day and the turn of the seasons.
There was the Sundancer dancing, as always; and Snake hoped to take a piece of his fire, and bring it to warm the girl. He knew well that the Sundancer would not share his fire. It is the fire of the world, the fire that keeps all alive. It is the Sundancer's duty to protect it as well as to guide it.
So Snake thought instead to steal it, and trick the Sundancer.
He said: “How well you dance! Might I learn to dance as you do?”
The Sundancer has nothing but contempt for Snake, as have all the gods. He said: “You will never dance as I do; but try, if you like.”
So Snake danced. He wound his coils around the world, and he swam through the darkness, and he danced the pattern of the stars. He danced as only Snake can.
“I know the dance of the stars,” he said, “but I cannot dance the dance of the sun, without a fire.”
“Seek your fire elsewhere, Snake! This dance is mine.”
“Let me try,” Snake said. “Let me but try to dance it, and you can watch and tell me what I am doing wrong.” And he danced the dance of the sun, but without a fire it was a dim shadow of a dance, and the Sundancer could hardly see it.
“All right,” he said at last; “try with my fire, and I will watch. But be careful; a mistake might bring down the sun, or send it far away into the sky.”
Snake agreed, and he took the Sundancer's place, and danced the sun through the sky.
“You know the dance well,” said the Sundancer; “I have nothing to teach you.”
But then Snake swallowed a piece of the sun-fire, and fled lightning-quick from that darkness. The Sundancer's spear fell short, and that piece of the fire was gone. Snake brought it to the girl, and there spat it out, and she was warmed with the fire of the sun, and saved; and she whistled to Snake in thanks.
But the sun darkened, until the Sundancer could restore his fire, and the rest of the world was turned cold.
Part 3
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End