Great joy was manifested upon their arrival at the starry plains. The Star Chief invited all his people to a feast; and when they had assembled, he proclaimed aloud that each one might continue as he was, an inhabitant of his own dominions, or select of the earthly gifts such as he liked best. A very strange confusion immediately arose; not one but sprang forward. Some chose a foot, some a wing, some a tail, and some a claw. Those who selected tails or claws were changed into animals, and ran off; the others assumed the form of birds, and flew away. Waupee chose a white hawk’s feather. His wife and son followed his example, and each one became a white hawk. He spread his wings, and, followed by his wife and son, descended with the other birds to the earth, where he is still to be found, with the brightness of the starry plains in his eye and the freedom of the heavenly breezes in his wings. CHAPTER VI MYTHS OF THE SKY AND AIR The sky and the air are identified with the highest conceptions of divinity reached in the myths either of savage or more cultured races. The Great Spirit of the North American Indians was the god of the sky. Varuna, the all-seeing, merciful god of the Hindoos, was the god of the vault of heaven. Zeus, the supreme god of the Greeks, was the sky god; also Odin, the great god in Norse mythology (although above him was a mysterious, unnameable god), Ormuzd in Persian mythology, Rangi in Polynesian, in Japan the Invisible Lord of the Middle Heaven. Closely related in power to the gods of the sky are the gods of wind or storm. Sometimes the god of the sky is himself the wielder of the thunder, as in the case of Zeus, and sometimes there is a special god of storm or thunder, as the Indra of the Hindoos or the Thor of the Norsemen. In Indian myths, Manabozho often wielded the thunder and lightning, and he has contests with another god of the air, Paup-puk-keewiss, the wind, a personage full of mischief, as wind gods are apt to be, like the Greek Hermes. The personification of wind and thunder as birds is very common, and many a quaint tale results from this mythical idea. The Sioux Indians believed in a god, Wah-keen-yan, in the form of a large bird, whose flapping wings made the thunder. He lived in the far, far west, on a mound rising from a mountain top. To his tent there are four openings, in which there are sentinels clothed in red down. At the east is a butterfly, at the west a bear; a fawn is at the south, and a reindeer is at the north. He fashioned the first spear and tomahawk, and attempted to kill the offspring of Oan-tay-hee, his bitter enemy. If Oan-tay-hee came near the surface of the earth, then Wah-keen-yan would fire a hot thunderbolt at him. Another of his enemies was Chaho-ter’dah, the god of the forest. It was said that the god of thunder often came racing along, hurling lightning at a tree, to kill the forest god, who, having been warned, had taken refuge in the water. Then Chaho-ter’dah would ascend