The Possum and the Rabbit gambled together to see if it should be dark all the time or light all the time. Possum kept singing a song that it should be dark, and he sang this over and over. Rabbit kept singing his song that it should be daylight. Along toward morning, Rabbit began to get a little bit tired. Possum said, "You might as well give it up, Rabbit. It's going to be night all the time." Well, they argued about this. Then Possum said to Rabbit, "Suppose you did win and daylight came to stay. Why, children would abuse you. They would chase you into a hollow log and take a stick and twist the fur off of you." Rabbit said, "I don't care. They'll have lots of fun playing with me anyway." Now, while they were arguing, Rabbit kept singing, "Daylight, daylight, daylight!" And when Possum looked around, there he saw the daylight was coming. He grabbed Rabbit's mouth to make him shut up, and split his upper lip. That's why Rabbit has a split lip. (As told by Nancy Stand to Truman Michelson, 1916; after Knoepfle 1993)

Nancy Stand, United Peoria and Miami Tribe. (photograph)