The Storytelling Stone Tales and myths of the American Indian

In  the beginning. Prairie Falcon and Crow were sitting on a
log which projected above the waters that covered the
world.  They asked Duck what number he had dreamed of,
and duck replied, 'Two."   Prairie Falcon assigned him the
number three and told him to dive  into the water and bring
up some sand from the bottom.  Duck dived to get the sand,
but before he reached the bottom,  the three days he had
been allotted expired . He awoke from his dream, died, and
 floated to the surface.  Prairie Falcon brought him back to
life, however,and asked him what the trouble was.  Duck
said that he had come out of his dream, died, and then
floated to the top.

   Prairie Falcon now asked Coot what number he had
dreamed of.  Coot replied, 'Four'.  then Prairie Falcon
assigned him the number two and ordered him to dive for
sand.  Before Coot reached the bottom, two days elapsed,
and he came out of his dream.  He too died, and his body
floated to the surface of the waters.  Prairie Falcon saw the
corpse, recovered it, and brought Coot back to life.  He
asked Coot what had been the trouble, and  Coot replied
that he had passed out of his dream.

   Then Prairie Falcon asked Grebe what number he had
dreamed of.  Grebe replied that he had dreamed of five.
Prairie Falcon  assigned him the number four, and told him
that was the number of days he had to bring sand from the
bottom of the waters.  Grebe was successful.  He dived all
the way to the bottom of the waters and secured  some sand
in each hand.  As he was returning to the surface, he passed
out of his dream, died, and floated to the surface.  Prairie
Falcon brought him back to life and  asked if he had se-
cured and sand.  Grebe said that he had, so Prairie Falcon
wanted to know what he had done with it. Grebe explained
that it had all slipped from his grasp when died.  Prairie
Falcon and Crow both laughed at him and said that they
didn't believer him.  Then they looked at his hands and found
sand under the finger nails.  They took that sand and threw
it in every direction.  This is the way in which they made
the world.