Then the Sun fell into a passion of rage; and he seized his big kampilan, [39] and slew the child.  He cut its small body into numberless little bits,—­as many as the grains of sand that lie along the seashore.  Out of the window he tossed the pieces of the shining little body; and, as the gleaming fragments sparkled to their places in the sky, the stars came to birth.

Origin of the Stars

All the old Bagobo men say that the Sun and the Moon once had a quarrel about the Moon’s baby.

The Moon had a baby in her belly; and the Sun said, “If our baby is a girl, we will kill it, because a girl could not be like me.”

Then the Sun went on a journey to another town, and while he was gone, the baby was born; but it was a girl.  Now, the Moon felt very sorry to think of her little child being killed, and she hid it in a box.  In a few days, the Sun came home to rest with his wife.  Then he asked her for the baby.

The Moon answered, “I killed it yesterday:  it was a girl.”

But the Sun did not believe what his wife said.  Then he opened the box to get his clothes, and there he saw a baby-girl.  And the Sun was very angry.  He seized the baby and cut it into many pieces, and threw the pieces out of the window.  Then the pieces of the baby’s body became the stars.

Before the Sun and the Moon had their quarrel, they journeyed together through the sky, and the sky was not far above the earth, as now, but it lay low down.

The Fate of the Moon’s Baby

The Sun wanted the Moon to have a boy-baby so that it would be like its father.  The Moon too hoped to give birth to a boy.  But when the child was born, it was a girl.  Now, at that time, the Moon was very hungry, and wanted to eat her own baby.  Then the Sun killed the girl-child, and ate it up himself.

The Black Men at the Door of the Sun

The men who live in that part of the world near to where the sun rises are very black.  They are called Manobo tagselata k’alo. [40] From sunrise until noon, they stay in a hole in the ground to escape the fierce heat of the sun.  Just before sunrise, they put their rice in the big pot, with water, and leave it without any fire under the pot.  Then they creep into their hole in the ground.  The rising sun cooks the rice; and, when the black men come out of the hole at noon, their meal is all ready for them.  From noon until sunset, and then all night, the black men play and work.  But before the sun rises, they fix their rice in the pot, leave it for the sun to cook, and go down again into the big hole.

Story of the Eclipse

Before time began, very long ago, a great bird called “minokawa” [41] swallowed the moon.  Seized with fear, all the people began to scream and make a great noise.  Then the bird peeped down to see what was the matter, and he opened his mouth.  But as soon as he opened his mouth, the moon sprang out and ran away.