The Girl Who Climbed to the Sky

In the days that followed, Sapana saved all the leftover strips of sinew from making buffalo robes. While the porcupine-man was away, she coiled them into tight strands that she hid under her bed. Over time she finished a long rope she hoped would be her ticket to freedom.

One day after the porcupine-man left to go hunting, Sapana took her rope and digging stick to the turnip, pulled out the turnip, tied her rope around her digging stick, placed the digging stick over the hole, and tied the other end of the rope securely around her waist. Then she slipped through the hole, letting the rope fall, and grasped the portion of the rope closest to the digging stick. Hand by hand, she lowered herself down.

Down Sapana dropped through the clouds. Soon she could see larger patches of green below that must be the treetops. But would the rope be long enough? When she had let out all the rope, she was still far above the treetops. Swaying back and forth in the air, she bemoaned her fate.

"You'll never escape!" she heard an distant yet awful voice above. It was the porcupine-man peering down the turnip hole. "Come up at once or I'll cut the rope. You'll drop to your death!"

"I'll never come up!" cried Sapana, knowing that sealed her own fate.

"Then you're done for!" he shrieked. He swung the rope and she pitched wildly, back and forth. Then with a jerk Sapana felt the rope give way. The final strand was severed and she started to pummel to earth.

But wait - something broke her fall. It was the back of buzzard. "Let me help you coast to earth, Sapana," said the buzzard, "though I may not be able to take you all the way." Indeed in less than a minute he was too tired since she was a far heavier weight than what he normally carried, and an eagle swooped up to take his place.

"I'll take you now," said the eagle, and she rode on his feathered back for several minutes, sometimes coasting the air currents, but her body was a load too heavy even for the mighty eagle, and before long he got tired.