ECLIPSE OF THE MOON
The almost universal belief regarding an eclipse of the moon is that a gigantic tarantula2 has attacked the moon and is slowly encompassing it in its loathsome embrace. Upon perceiving 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.
2Tam-ban-a-káu-a. (Bisáya, ba-ka-náu-a.) Some say that a huge scorpion is the cause of eclipses.
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[sic] 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 her path, but that is only a messenger from her husband to call her back. She, however, heeds it not but speeds on her way in never-ending flight with the marks of the taro leaves4 still upon her face, and with her starry train accompanying her to the dawn and on to the sunset in one eternal flight.