Wednesday, February 21, 2018

Reading Notes B: What Caused the Shadows on the Moon




  • Family of deities - 3 daughters, 1 son
    • Daughters: Ka Um (water), Ka Ding (fire), Ka Sngi (Sun)
    • Son: U Bnai (Moon)
  • Sun and Moon considered more beautiful/lovely than the elder sisters (Water/Fire)
  • Moon became wayward as he grew up
    • Came and went without telling mother and sisters
    • "Consorted" with people far beneath him in rank
  • Mother and sisters tried to get him to be more respectable but Moon was arrogant and ignored them
  • Moon spent a long time with goblins and evil
  • When he returned home, Moon was dazzled by Sun's beauty and asked for her hand in marriage from his mother because the only one who could rival her beauty was himself
  • Mother dismissed Moon from her presence, and Sun threw hot ashes into Moon's face
  • Ashes burnt Moon so bad that the marks scarred his face, causing the shadows on the moon and preventing the Moon from showing his face in the day-time
Full Moon near Snowcap Mountain, AhmedRadwan on Pixabay
  • Potential: bring in Ka Um and Ka Ding, taking sides between Ka Sngi and U Bnai - make the dispute more equal on each side
    • Take out the marriage proposal and the explicit terribleness of how U Bnai acted
    • Make dispute about U Bnai's willingness to spend time with people of lower rank
    • Ka Um sides with U Bnai, shocking the rest of the family, while Ka Ding sides with mother and Ka Sngi
    • Results in association of fire with the sun and water with the moon
      • Fire refusing to ever be in the same place as water (i.e. water puts out fire) and the moon and sun perpetually avoiding each other 
      • The sun and the fire still live together (the sun is a giant ball of fire) and Ka Um follows U Bnai's lead (moon controls the tide)


Bibliography: What Caused the Shadows on the Moon from Folk-Tales of the Khasis by Mrs. K. U. Rafy. Web Source

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