Constance Goddard Du Bois - The Mythology of the Diegueños - Impiety Of The Frog lyrics

When the moon had grown very little all the people were over there running races; and after all had finished running, the rabbit and the frog ran together; and all the people stood around looking on and laughing at the frog, because he had the shape of a man, but wore no clothes. Then the frog was very angry at the Maker, and the thought entered his head, "Because you did not make me well, you shall pay for it." Tu-chai-pai had gone away to a very high place, and he was asleep up there, and the frog was down in a deep place holding up his hands in defiance of the Maker. Then came the sunshine, and Tu-chai-pai with it. He had a long stick, pointed at both ends, and he held it up over his head. And he took the stick and felt in the deep place with it, and it touched the back of the frog, where it made a long white mark. By that time the frog had planned a wrong deed. He meant to exude poison, swallow it, and die. When thoughts of this evil entered the heart of Tu-chai-pai, he said to himself, "I shall die." Then some boys came and told him what the frog had done. Tu-chai-pai said, "I shall die with the moon. Go, look at the moon, Ach-hulch-la-tai. Look again, Hup-lach-sen. Look at it a third time, Hucht-la-kutl. 1 Then I will die." p. 184 "Oh, it is a bad time." They looked at the moon, and they watched it to see when Tu-chai-pai would die. It was very little, and they watched it grow smaller, and in six months he finished his life. And all the things on this earth are the children of Tu-chai-pai, and they will die, too.