Atondido Stories
fall to earth with a great crash. Night after night he did this, and
he chuckled to himself as he saw the sky-fairies sprawling
through the air and kicking their heels, while the earth-people
looked up wonderingly at them and called them Shooting Stars.
Many Star-people fell to earth in this way because of the Spider
Man's tricks, and they could never get back to the sky-country
because of their broken limbs or their disfigured faces, for in the
sky-country the people all must have beautiful faces and forms.
But Spider Man's tricks brought him no good; the people would
not drive him away because they needed his webs and he was
kept always at his tasks. At last he decided to run away of his
own accord, and, one night when the Moon and the Stars had
gone to work and the Sun was asleep, he said farewell to the sky
-country and let himself down to earth by one of his own strands
of yarn, spinning it as he dropped down.
In the earth-country he married four wives as he had
planned, for he wanted them to work for him while he took his
ease. He thought he had worked long enough. All went well for
a time and the Spider Man was quite happy living his lazy and
contented life. Not a strand did he spin, nor a web did he weave.
No men on earth were working; only the women toiled. At last,
Glooskap, who ruled upon the earth in that time, became very
angry because the men in these parts were so lazy, and he sent
Famine into their country to punish them for their sins. Famine
came very stealthily into the land and gathered up all the corn
and carried it off; then he called to him all the animals, and the
birds, and the fish of the sea and river, and he took them away
with him. In all the land there was nothing left to eat. Only water
remained. The people were very hungry and they lived on water
for many days. Sometimes they drank the water cold, sometimes
hot, sometimes luke-warm, but at best it was but poor fare.
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