Answer:
12 Day after day Raven and his grandfather repeated this process. Raven would point to the sun’s box, play with it until he tired of it, and then watch as his grandfather put the fiery ball away into its series of boxes.
13 Finally the day came when the chief was not as careful as usual. He forgot to close the smoke hole, and he no longer watched Raven play with the fiery ball. The child resumed his Raven shape, grasped the ball of light in his claws, and flew up through the smoke hole into the sky, traveling in the direction of the river.
14 When he spied people fishing in the dark, he alighted on a tree and said to them, “If you will give me some fish, I will give you some light.”
15 At first they did not believe him. They knew that the light was well hidden and that Raven was often a lazy trickster. However, when Raven raised his wing and showed enough light for them to fish with ease, they gave him part of their catch. Day after day they repeated this procedure, until Raven tired of eating fish.
16 Finally he lifted his wing, grabbed the sun with both claws and tossed it high into the sky. “Now my people will have light both day and night!” he exclaimed. And from that day until this, the sun, moon, and stars have remained in the sky.
Second Read
• Reread the three myths to answer these text-dependent questions.
• Write any additional questions you have about the texts in your Reader/Writer Notebook.
1. Craft and Structure: Look at the first paragraph of “Huveane and Clay People.” What are some synonyms for the word “recount”? Why might the authors have chosen this word specifically?
2. Craft and Structure: Based on context clues, what is the likely meaning of “glumly” in “Huveane and Clay People”?
3. Key Ideas and Details: What qualities are important to the Bapedi and Bavenda? How can you tell? Provide textual evidence to support your thinking.
4. Craft and Structure: Using context, explain what “convulsed” means in “Mbombo.” How do you know?
5. Key Ideas and Details: What evidence supports the inference that the creation of the earth was a violent or volatile occurrence?
