Drawing of a serpent monster image engraved on a shell pendant from the Spiro site, Oklahoma.

Caddo Indians attribute the origins of the sun and other Above World deities to an event in which all three realms are symbolically represented. After the Middle World was formed, there lived a woman with her two daughters. One of the daughters was expecting a child. One day the daughters were out by themselves. Suddenly there appeared a huge, misshaped serpent with horns that disappeared into the sky. The ferocious monster attacked and killed the pregnant daughter, then went after her sister. The sister meanwhile climbed to the top of a very tall tree. The serpent followed but the climb was too difficult for him. While he struggled, the sister dove into a deep pool at the foot of the tree and swam away under the water. The serpent sucked up the water but did not find the girl. When she arrived home, she told her mother what had happened. The mother and daughter returned to the scene of the attack, where they found only a tiny drop of blood in a little acorn shell. They carried it home and put it into a covered jar. That night the mother was awakened by a noise in the jar. She saw that the drop of blood had turned into a boy merely the size of her finger. She covered the jar again, and the next night, upon hearing the same sound, she awoke to discover that the boy had turned into a grown man. The mother was so pleased that she at once made him a bow and some arrows. When the young man learned what had happened to his own mother, he took the bow and arrows and went after the serpent. When he found the serpent he shot it so hard that it went away and has never since returned. The young man went back to his grandmother and aunt, took them by the hands, and ascended with them into the sky where he has governed the world ever since. He placed his grandmother and aunt in charge of seasons and the weather.