Page:Myths and Legends of British North America.djvu/29

 Wyandot HE people were living beyond the sky. They were Wyandots. One day the shaman told the people to dig around the roots of the wild apple tree standing by the chief's lodge and Indians at once began to dig. The chief's daughter was lying near by. As the men dug, a sudden noise startled them. They jumped back. They had broken through the floor of the Sky Land, and the tree and the chief's daughter fell through.

Now the world beneath was a great sheet of water. There was no land anywhere. Swans swimming about on the water heard a peal of thunder. It was the first peal ever heard in this world. When they looked upward, they saw the tree and the strange woman falling from the Sky Land. One of them said, "What strange thing is falling down?" Then he added, "The water will not hold her up. Let us swim together so she will fall upon our backs." So the chief's daughter fell upon their backs, and rested there.