Note 23 — NOTES AND PARALLELS TO MYTHS

The ground squirrel’s stripes—According to a Creek myth in the Tuggle collection the stripes on the back of the ground squirrel were made by the bear, who scratched the little fellow in anger at a council held by the animals to decide upon the proper division of day and night. Precisely the same explanation is given by the Iroquois of New York state23 and by the Thompson River Indians of British Columbia.24