pund-jel, who was maker of men, sat in his high place one day and looked at the world. the blacks believed that in the very long ago he had made the first men and women out of clay; and from there they had spread over all the earth. pund-jel had made them to be good and happy, and for a long while he had been satisfied with them. but now it was different, and he was angry.

all over the world he could see his black people. they had grown tall and strong, and he thought them beautiful. they were skilled in hunting, and fierce in battle: the women were clever at making rugs of skins, at cooking, at weaving curious mats and baskets of pliant rushes. the forests were full of game for them—-birds, beasts and reptiles, all good to eat: there were fish in the lakes and rivers, fat mud-eels in the creeks and swamps, and gum and manna to be found on every hill-side. the world was a good, green world, and there should have been only happiness. but the people themselves had grown wicked.

pund-jel bent his brows with anger as he looked down upon them. instead of being peaceful and content, his people had grown fierce and savage. they thought only of fighting and conquest, and were too lazy to work. the laws that he had made for them were as naught in their eyes. they said, "oh, pund-jel is very far away. he will never come down into our world to see what we do. why should we obey him?" so they did just as they pleased, and all the world was evil because of their wickedness.

pund-jel thought gravely as he looked down into his world, and all the sky was dark with the blackness of his frown.

"my people have grown too many," he said. "when they were few, each helped the other: there was no time for feuds or fighting, for all had to work together in order to live. now all is changed. they are many and powerful, and they over-run the world, and each man hates his brother. it were better if i made them fewer, and scattered them far and wide. i will send my whirlwinds upon the earth."

so pund-jel caused storms and fierce winds to arise often, and they swept across the world. in the flat lands there came suddenly whirlwinds of great force, that twisted and eddied through the plains, carrying men aloft in their choking embrace, and letting them fall, broken and dead, miles away from the places where they had lived. on the mountains great hurricanes blew shrieking from peak to peak, tearing up the largest trees by their roots, and tossing them down into the fern-strewn gullies far below. huge boulders were loosened and went crashing down; and often a landslip followed them, when all the soil would be stripped from a hill-side and fall, thundering, carrying with it hundreds of people and leaving the bare rock behind it, like a scar upon the side of the mountain. thunder and lightning came and shook the world with terror: mighty trees were riven and shattered, and fires swept through forest and plain, leaving blackness and desolation behind. then came floods, that covered the low-lying parts of the earth, and made of the rivers roaring torrents, that ran madly to the sea. the world trembled in the terror of the wrath of pund-jel.

and yet, men had grown so wise and cunning that not very many died. when the whirlwinds and hurricanes came, they crept into holes in the hill-sides, or sheltered themselves in deep gullies. they strengthened their houses, so that the wind should not blow them away. sometimes they floated down the rivers in bark canoes; and a great number found refuge in caves. those who were killed were the careless ones, who would not take the trouble to protect themselves against the fury of the storms, thinking that they would only be ordinary gales; but though they died, innumerable people were left.

just for a little while, they were afraid. they knew they were wicked, and that pund-jel must be angry with them; and the thought that possibly the storms were the message of his wrath made them careful for awhile. but as time passed they forgot the storms and whirlwinds, and the fate of their brothers and sisters who had been killed; and they went back to their wickedness, becoming worse than they had been before.

and then there came a day when pund-jel's anger broke anew.

one morning a blackness came out of the sky, and in the blackness a flame of gleaming fire. the people clustered together, in terror, and there were cries of "pund-jel! pund-jel is coming!" then the magic-men began to chatter and make magic, hoping to turn the wrath of the maker of men; and the people flung themselves upon the ground, crying aloud, and calling upon the good spirits to save them.

the blackness swooped down upon the earth. in the air were strange whisperings and mutterings, as if even the rustling leaves and the boughs of the trees were crying, "pund-jel is coming!" and then, out of the glowing heart of the cloud came pund-jel himself, that he might see these men and women that he had made. he spoke no word. his glance was like lightnings, playing about the stricken eyes of those that gazed. but he trod among the black multitudes, and the noise of the trampling of his feet shook the earth.

in his hand he carried his great stone knife, and the sight of it was very terrible. those who looked upon it fell back blindly. but as he walked on he cut his way among the people, with great sweeps of the cruel weapon, sparing none that came in his way, and cutting them into small fragments. and then the blackness of the cloud received him again, and hid him from the people of the world.

but the pieces of the slain were not dead. each fragment moved, as tur-ror, the worm, moves; and from them rose a cry. it came from the fragments of those who had been good men and good women, yet who had met death at the knife of pund-jel with the guilty ones.

then a great and terrible storm came out of the sky, sweeping over the places where pund-jel had trod; and with it a whirlwind, that gathered up the pieces of those who had been men, women and children, and they became like flakes of snow, white and whirling in the blackness of the air. they were carried away into the clouds.

and when they came to where pund-jel sat, once more looking down upon the world, he took the flakes that had been bad men and women, and with his hand scattered them so far over the earth that no man could say where they fell. so they passed for ever from the sight of man, and now they lie in the waste places of the world, where there is neither light nor day.

but pund-jel took the snowflakes that had been good men and women, and he made them into stars. right up into the blue sky he flung them; and the sky caught them and held them fast, and the light of the sun fell upon them so that they caught some of his brightness. there they stay for ever, and you would not know that they are in any way different from the other stars that twinkle at you on a frosty night when the sky is all blue and silver. only the magic-men, who know everything, can tell you which among the stars were once good men, women and children, before pund-jel left his high seat to punish the wickedness of the world.