Rabbit was given the job of placing the all stars in the sky so as to spell out all the laws that people had to live by. It was an important job, and a long one, because once a star was placed, it could not be moved -- so Rabbit was taking plenty of time to position each star accurately. All the stars were piled up on a blanket. He picked up each one in turn, scrutinized it, and placed it in the heavens.

Along came Coyote and said, "Let me help."

So, Rabbit and Coyote sat side by side for a while, putting up stars. After a while Coyote got impatient. This was to be expected, after all, for Coyote is the notorious trickster, whom the white men sometimes describe as kind of like god's brother-in-law.

Coyote said, "this is going to take forever! Let's do it this way instead." And he grabbed the blanket full of stars by one corner and gave it a shake. The stars spilled all across the sky, making the Milky way as we know it today. Rabbit was furious, but the Milky Way is pretty, even so.

Maybe it wasn't such a bad thing for Coyote to do that. For if all the laws that people had to obey were all spelled out for everybody to see, then there would be no freedom, and no chance to grow and change.