MOON WAS TIRED OF WALKING ON AIR

In the time before this time..."" begins one of these 14 creation myths of the South American Indians. The title story tells why Moon made the earth; others explain how rivers were led into their courses by a running fox; how people came to earth from the sky through a hole dug by a giant armadillo; how Rain and Sky gave man food; how the seasons were made from songs of a reed flute; and why Rainbow is bent (his back was hurt in wrestling). Belting's language is spare, rhythmic, and resonant, while Hillenbrand's powerful dark-toned art conveys a sense of primeval mystery. A map locates the ten tribes where the myths originated, but there are no source notes. A handsome, evocative collection, for a somewhat older audience than Joanna Troughton's retellings (How the Birds Changed Their Feathers; How Night Came; both 1986); a good supplement to Hamilton's In the Beginning (1988), which includes no South American material.