VIII. D, 2 Beyer: Myths Among Mountain Peoples 91 



THE 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. Two children were the issue 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 fields. Before departing, she 

 crooned the children to sleep and told her husband to watch them but not 

 to approach 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 perceiving this he wept and quietly betook himself to the adjoining 

 forest in great fear of his wife. 



The Moon returned duly, and after depositing her burden in the house 

 turned to where the children slept but found only their dried, 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 loud long 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 the wife, became angry and called 

 her his chattel. 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 to the 

 ground in different directions. Then the husband became angry again, 

 and, seizing some taro leaves that his wife had brought from the fields, 

 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 stars stand 

 scattered in the sable firmament, for they, too, accompany her in her 

 hasty flight. Ever and anon a shooting star breaks across her path, but 

 that is only a messenger from her husband to call her back. She, how- 

 ever^ heeds it not, but speeds on her way in never-ending flight with the 

 marks of the taro leaves " still upon her face and her starry train accom- 

 panying her to the dawn and on to the sunset in one eternal flight. 



On myths such as these the religions of the pagan tribes of 

 Mindanao are built up. These religions are by no means primi- 

 tive, but are accompanied by sacrifices, sometimes human, and 

 the ceremonies are performed by a well-developed priest class. ^* 



" Some say that the spots upon the moon are a cluster of bamboos, 

 others, that they are a balete tree. 



" Our information concerning these peoples is limited, but of much in- 

 terest. Besides the work of Garvan, the chief sources are the Letters of 

 the Jesuit Fathers and a paper on the Subanuns [Christie, Pub. P. I. 

 Bur. Sci., Div. Ethnol. (1909), 6, pt. 1]. The latter does not record any 

 myths, but gives several song-stories about great culture-heroes which 

 throw much light on the character of the Subanun mythology and identify 

 it with the mji;hologies of the other pagan tribes of Mindanao. These 

 hero-stories are too long to be given here. 



