MYTHOLOGICAL AND KINDRED BELIEFS 225 



She is a very watchful spirit and, in case one offends her, he must hurry to a house and get a 

 priest to appease her with an offering of blood. The belief in this tongue stone is universal, but 

 no one claims to have seen one nor can anyone tell where it can be found. 



ECLIPSE OF THE MOON 



The almost universal belief regarding an eclipse of the moon is that a gigantic tarantula 3 

 has attacked the moon and is slowly encompassing it in its loathsome embrace. Upon per- 

 ceiving the first evidences of darkness upon the face of the moon, the men rush out from the 

 houses, shout, shoot arrows toward the moon, slash at trees with their bolos, play the drum and 

 gong, beat tin cans and the buttresses of trees, blow bamboo resounders and dance around 

 wildly, at the same time giving forth yells of defiance at the monster saying, "Let loose our 

 moon," "You will be hit by an arrow. " The women at the same time keep sticking needles or 

 pointed sticks in the wall in the direction of the enemy that is trying to envelop the moon. 



The explanation of these curious proceedings is simple. If the moon does not become freed 

 from the clutches of this gigantic creature, it is believed that there will be no dawn and that, in 

 the eternal darkness that will subsequently fall upon the world, the evil spirits will reign and all 

 human apparel will be turned into snakes. 



During the eclipse the priests never cease to call upon their deities for aid against the mighty 

 tarantula that is menacing the moon. 



As to the origin, habitat, and character of this tarantula I have never been afforded the 

 least information. The huge creature seizes upon the moon, but soon releases it on account of 

 the shouts and menacing actions of the human spectators. Objections that one may raise as to 

 the invisibility, magnitude, and other obvious anomalies are at once refuted by the simple and 

 sincere declaration that such belief is true because it has been handed down from the days of 

 yore. 



ORIGIN OF THE STARS AND THE EXPLANATION OF SUNSET AND SUNRISE 



It is said that in the olden time the sun and the moon were married. They led a peaceful, 

 harmonious life and two children were the result of their wedlock. One day the moon had to 

 attend to one of the household duties that fall to the lot of a woman — some say to get water, 

 others say to get the daily supply of food from the little farm. Before departing she crooned the 

 children to sleep and told her husband to watch them but not to approach them lest, by the heat 

 that radiated from his body he might harm them. She then started upon her errand. The 

 sun, who never before had been allowed to touch his bairns, arose and approached their sleeping 

 place. He gazed upon them fondly and, bending down, kissed them, but the intense heat that 

 issued from his countenance melted them like wax. Upon preceiving this he wept and quietly 

 betook himself to the adjoining forest in great fear of his wife. 



The moon returned duly and, after laying down her burden in the house, turned to where 

 the children slept, but found only their inanimate forms. She broke out into a loud wail, and in 

 the wildness of her grief called upon her husband. But he gave no answer. Finally softened 

 by the long loud plaints he returned to his house. At the sight of him the wild cries of grief and 

 of despair and of rebuke redoubled themselves until finally the husband, unable to soothe his 

 wife, became angry and called her his chattel. 3 At first she feared his anger and quieted her 

 sobs, but finally, breaking out into one long wail, she seized the burnt forms of her babes and in 

 the depth of her anguish and her rage, threw them out on the ground in different directions. 

 Then the husband became angry again and, seizing some taro leaves that his wife had brought 

 from the farm, cast them in her face and went his way. Upon his return he could not find his 

 wife, and so it is to this day that the sun follows the moon in an eternal cycle of night and day. 

 And so it is, too, that the stars stand scattered. in the sable firmament, for they are her discarded 

 children that accompany her in -her hasty flight. Ever and anon a shooting star breaks across 



' Tam-ban-a-kdu-a. (Bisaya, ba-ka-ndu-a.) Some say that a huge scorpion is the cause of eclipses. 



8 Mdrig-gad (chattel) and bin-6-tuHg (purchase slave) are the ordinary terms of reproach used by an angry husband toward his wife and refer to 

 her domestic st atus as originating in the marriage payment. 



