Previously, the sun was a man who lived on earth, in his house, and his name was Sun Armpit - a radiance emanated from one of his armpits. During the day the sunlight was white and at night it was red like fire. When he lay with his hand raised up, everything around him became as light as day. As soon as he lowered his hand, darkness came everywhere. And as soon as he raised his hand again, a glow spread around his home. But the rest of the country was twilight, and the sky was black then - there was as much light as there is now on a cloudy day, when the sky is completely covered with dense clouds hiding the sun. And so the people of the ancient people decided to make the sun rise into the sky so that it would heat and illuminate the entire earth and so that they could sit and bask in the sun.
One old woman who had no children of her own told another to send her sons to this old man, Sunny Armpit. She said that the children should go to him and wait until he fell asleep. She told the woman that her children should approach carefully, pick up the Sun Armpit and throw it into the sky. And then the sun will walk across the entire sky and will shine everywhere, and the whole earth will be illuminated. And the termite larvae will dry in the sun.
The mother conveyed to the children everything that this old woman told her. She told the children:
- Children! Wait until the sun goes down and approach carefully. Then all together grab the sleeping person, lift him up and throw him up into the sky.
This is what the old woman told her, and this is how she passed everything on to her children.
And so the children got ready to go, and the old woman said to them:
“You must go and sit there and watch him: if he lies with his eyes open and watches, then sit and wait until he falls asleep.”
And she also said:
- Oh children! Tell the old man that he must turn into the sun, he must become a hot sun, From now on he will move across the sky, he will live above in the sky like a hot sun, and then the termite larvae will dry up.
And the children listened to this old woman, whose head was gray, listened to everything she told them, and they listened to their mother, who conveyed to them the weight of what the old woman said about it.
And so the children went to him. They came, sat down and began to wait, and he lay with his elbow raised up, and his Armpit illuminated everything around. They sat and waited. Then they stood up and walked a little further, approaching him cautiously. They stopped again and looked at him, then went forward again, carefully crept up to him and, grabbing him all together, lifted him up, and he was hot. And they threw him, red-hot, up and said to him, red-hot:
- Oh the sun! You must hold tight up there and move across the sky like a hot sun
They did everything as the old woman told them.
Their father said:
- The Sunny Armpit holds tightly up there. It was the children who threw him up while he was lying and sleeping.
The children have returned. They came and told how it all happened. The eldest of them said:
“This young man was holding it; I also held it; my younger brother held it; and my other younger brother also held it; and this young man and his younger brother were holding him. I said: "Hold him tight! Hold the old man tight!" Then I said; "Throw him up! Throw the old man up!" And we threw up the old sun man.
The young man said to the old woman:
- Oh grandma! We threw it up. We said that he should turn into the sun, the hot sun, because we were freezing. We told him: “O Grandfather, Sun Armpit! Stay there, become the hot sun, so that the termite larvae can dry, so that the whole earth becomes light, so that the whole earth becomes warm, so that you warm everything. You must always shine, driving away the darkness. When you come, the darkness will go away.”
The sun comes - the darkness goes away. The sun sets - darkness comes, and with it the moon comes at night. When it is dawn, the sun comes out and the darkness goes away. At night the moon comes out, the moon illuminates the darkness, and the darkness recedes. The moon shines, taking away the darkness, and then the moon sets and the sun comes out, it disperses the darkness and drives the moon away. But the moon stops, and the sun pierces the moon with its knife, and the moon weakens and fades away. Then the moon says:
- Oh the sun! For the sake of my children, at least leave me a spine!
And the sun gives in to her requests, it leaves her spine for the sake of the children. This is what the sun does, and the sick moon goes away, she moves on with difficulty and, sick, returns home. She feels like she is dying.
But the moon comes to life again and becomes the full moon again. When she becomes a new moon, her belly grows again and she becomes a large, full moon. She comes to life and comes out, she moves across the sky at night. She is the Tsagna sandal. He once threw it into the sky and ordered it to become the moon - the darkness bothered him. And now the moon wanders in the night.
The sun appears and the whole earth shines, the sun appears and illuminates everything around - and people can walk everywhere. People see the bush, they see each other, they see the meat they eat; they see a gazelle, they chase the gazelle, and they shoot the gazelle; they chase the ostrich, they sneak up on the antelope, they also sneak up on the kudu when it's light. They visit each other when the sun is shining and there is light on the earth, and the sun illuminates their path. They wander, they hunt and shoot, they find the gazelle, they chase the gazelle, they ambush it and lie in hiding. They lie, having dug a hole in the ground and covered themselves with bushes. They lie in this little bush house and wait for the gazelle to appear.
Translated from Russian · original on wisdomlib.ru