The enamoured star

Once there was a conflict under the stars and one of them was banished from heaven and banned to the earth. He wandered from one Indian tribe to the other and often stayed at the camp fires before the people went sleeping. Everywhere, where the star came, the people considered him with amazement and fear. Often he shone on the heads of little children as if he would like to play with them. But the children only got frightened and banished him with their shouting.

From all the people on earth only one didn't fear the beautiful star. It was a little girl, daughter of a warrior in the north. She didn't fear the star. In opposite, she loved him with all her heart and was happy with her love. The star seemed to return her love, because wherever the girl wandered through the wilderness with her father, the star wandered with them. When she awoke at night, the star hovered directly above her head. He was so steady in his vigilance that she could never open her eyes without beholding his sparkling.

The people were amazed about the loyalty of the star. The wondered the more as they saw that the girl's father never came home from a hunting expedition without a great deal of venison.

"The star must be the son of the good soul" the said. And always the spoke about him with awe amd respect.

After some month midsummer came and the fruits ripened. One day the girl went out to the woods alone to berry. She discovered that the Checkerberries were already eaten by the birds and deer and as she saw that the lingonberries just ripened, she wandered with her wicker basket out to a great swamp. But in the matted coppice of the lingonberries she got lost. Full of fear she called for her father. But the only answer came from the frogs and the lonely bittern. Even when it dawned she hadn't refound her way and wandered deeper and deeper to the wayless coppice of the swamp. Once she waded in the water to the knees, anonther time she fell in a hole and nearly drowned in the toxic mud. When the night came she looked up to the sky in the hope to see the star that she loved. But the sky was covered with clouds. A storm moved together. Soon it was pouring with rain. To the horror of the girl the water rised up and finally she was washed up to the lake. Nobody has ever seen her anymore.

The seasons came and went. The star still shone over the camp fire's of the Chipewyans, but his light became clouded and he never stayed long at one place. It always looked like he was on the lookout for something he could nevertheless find. "He is unlucky about the death of the girl that he loved" the people said among themselves.

Some years passed and the star disappeared with the autumn leaves. The next winter was cold and long. The following summer was the hottest that the Chipewyans had ever experienced.

In this hot summer one evening a young hunter followed a bear into one of the biggest swamps in the land of the Chipewyans. To his amazement he suddenly saw a little light, that seemed to hang over the water. It was so beautiful that he followed it for a long distance, but it leaded him to such dangerous places that he finally gave up and went back to tell his people what he had seen.

The oldest man of his tribe then explained him: "The light, that you have seen, is the star that was banished from heaven. Till now he wanders over the earth and looks for the girl that he loved."

Also today this star is near to the earth. He is often seen by hunters who range the wilderness.

(From: "Indian legens of North America" written by Ella Elizabeth Clark)