THE MOON AND THE SUN

"The Sun was a young woman and lived in the East, while her
brother, the Moon, lived in the West. The girl had a lover
who used to come every month in the dark of the moon to
court her. He would come at night, and leave before daylight,
and although she talked with him she could not see his face
in the dark, and he would not tell her his name, until she
was wondering all the time who it could be. At last she hit
upon a plan to find out, so the next time he came, as they
were sitting together in the dark of the asi (sweat house),
she slyly dipped her hand into the cinders and ashes of the
fireplace and rubbed it over his face, saying, "Your face is
cold; you must have suffered from the wind," and pretending
to be very sorry for him, but he did not know that she had
ashes on her hand. After awhile he left her and went away again.

The next night when the Moon came up in the sky his face was
covered with spots, and then his sister knew he was the one
who had been coming to see her. He was so much ashamed to
have her know it that he kept as far away as he could at the
other end of the sky all the night. Ever since he tries to
keep a long way behind the Sun, and when he does sometimes
have to come near her in the West he makes himself as thin
as a ribbon so that he can hardly be seen."
James Mooney, "Myths of the Cherokee"

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