Laughing with the Trickster by Tomson Highway

Author:Tomson Highway
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: House of Anansi Press Inc
Published: 2022-09-06T14:20:26+00:00

Last, here’s a story about the role of Weesaa-geechaak, the Trickster’s Cree incarnation, in the coming into being of tibikye-geesis, the “night sun,” our word for the moon.

There are to this day a race of sky people living in the misty white clouds. Very little is known about these supernatural people because they are not often mentioned in our stories. But it is known that, in the very long ago, there was no moon; only geesis, the day sun, crossed the heavens. Geesis was kindled and kept burning by one of the sky men, who had a son and a daughter.

As the golden leaves fell from the birch trees season after season, the sky father became very old and weary of his duty, the kindling of the sun’s fires. He told his children that one day he would disappear forever and they must look after the sun’s fires; otherwise, the people of the world would die.

Finally, one day, the father returned to his wigwam high in the clouds and told the children that he had finished his obligations to the Great Spirit. No longer would he need the sun’s fires, and he was leaving forever. The children were very sad that their father had left them. They talked of his goodness and his kind ways during the black of the night, but soon it was morning and time for the first of the geesis to be set alight.

“I will set geesis aflame,” said the young girl.

“No, I am the man of this family now, and it is my privilege and honour to look after the sun’s flames,” said the boy.

They could not agree, and soon they were fighting each other, rolling in the clouds, pulling one another’s hair. The time to light the sun’s fires came and passed; still, the young sky people quarrelled fiercely. Below on the Earth, people and animals stared into the black sky, waiting for geesis to send his warm light to them. They were frightened because they knew they could not live without the sun.

Weesaa-geechaak was travelling in the forest and he realized something was wrong. The sky people were not looking after the sun. Shape-shifting into the form of binay-sih (bird), he flew into the floating clouds to see what had happened. He found the children fighting. Angrily, he said, “Stupid children! Why are you fighting like starving wolves? Why are you not kindling the fires of geesis?”

“Our father has left us, great Weesaa-geechaak, and I am to care for geesis,” the girl said quickly.

“And you quarrel and fight while there is blackness on the earth below? How foolish, sky children. You must be punished,” Weesaa-geechaak told them bitterly.

Then the great Weesaa-geechaak told the sky children their fates. “You, sky man, shall tend the fires of geesis until the end of time. You, sky woman, will look after another eternal fire in the heavens. It will burn only in the darkness of the night and will be very difficult to keep aflame, so you will have to work hard to keep it from dying out.

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