Summary of "The Theft from the Sun" (Native American Mythology)

Summary of “The Theft from the Sun”

In Blackfoot mythology, there was a very foolish Old Man who tried to steal from the Sun. Old Man was traveling and the Sun asked him to stay at his lodge for a while. Together, Old Man and the Sun went hunting. Sun had a pair of leggings he wore while hunting that were decorated with porcupine quills and feathers. If you walked by brush when you wore them, they’d set fire to the brush scarring the deer out. Old Man wanted them, so at night, he stole the leggings. During his wandering at night, he fell asleep. When he woke up he realized that he was in Sun’s lodge again. The Sun asked Old Man why he had his leggings and Old Man told him that he was using them as a pillow. As soon as night fell, he stole the leggings again, however, he forgot that the whole world is the Sun’s lodge. When he awoke, Sun gave him the leggings. Immediately, when Old Man was out of food, he put the leggings on and went hunting. The fire Old Man started when he walked by the brush went out of control. He had to jump in water to take the leggings off and as a result of his foolishness the leggings were burnt up. Old Man realized it was for this reason, his foolishness for trying to steal from the Sun, that Sun may have did this.






“The Theft from the Sun.” Indian Mythology. 2006. 7 November 2008.
http://www.indianmythology.org/blackfoot/rock.htm#sun.