Folklore Pamphlets, 1921-1945

              AMERICAN INDIAN CLOUD TALES
A giant being swallows clouds. He eats them one after the other. Thus the country is deprived of needful rains. Great heat and drought follow the disappearance of the clouds. The growing crops, lacking moisture, wither and are destroyed and men, women, children and animals starve and die for want of food. A brave Indian shoots the giant and saves the lives of the people that remain.    (Southwest)..
THE MANITOU SMOKES
The cottony white clouds, which we often see floating in the sky on a fair summer day, are puffs of smoke from the great pipe or calumet of the Manitou. Seated on a large rock, hill or mountain he draws contentedly at the mouth of his long pipestem. The smoke arises to the sky from its kinik- innik-fiUed pipe bowl and from his mouth. He is thinking of his Indian children and of their happiness.    (Ojibwa).
GREAT THUNDER
Great Thunder and his sons live above the sky cloud plain. The lightning and the rainbow are their beautiful robes. Med¬ icine men pray to the thunder. There are other Thunders, who live in the mountains. These build invisible bridges from one to the other. They are always plotting mischief. One must never point at the rainbow.    (Cherokee).
THE CARIBS COME
The Caribs of Guiana have a beHef that man reached the earth from Cloud Land. The clouds, having brought him down to the earth ascended, leaving him behind. Being hungry, the first men were obliged to eat earth, which they baked. They followed the birds and the beasts to see what berries and roots they ate. These they tasted and found good and nourishing. So they learned to help themselves. They never returned to the Cloud Country.