10

CALLING OUT SINGLE SUN AND SINGLE MOON

Gge di hle di gu

After this time,

the sun fled behind the mountains,

and the moon followed the sun.

For nine days no sun came out,

for nine days no moon appeared;

all was as black as paint under the sky.

If women sat under the eaves of the houses,

they fidgeted listlessly;

gray pullets walked under the porches,

weaving back and forth;

torches were lit on the cows’ horns

as the fields were harrowed to plant crops.

Bake Arra was born,

and he sat at Dijy Hlewa.

After that age the clouds covered the moon.1

White clouds and black clouds came out in turn,

and man-eating lightning

wildly screamed three times.

Bake Arra

wore a coiled red topknot,

a red topknot wound up on his head.

At his waist he wore a band of yellow hair,

a yellow band of hair wrapped around his waist.

On his feet he wore white hair,

his feet wrapped in white hair.

He sent a white rooster

to call the sun and moon out into the sky,

but the sun and moon did not listen.

So, now the rooster has nine ridges on its crest,

and has nine powers to resist opposing forces.

Grasping an iron needle,

he gave it to the sole sun, Nyojji,

and it became the eye of the sun.

Calling for three days until night,

he called out to the sun;

life stirred under the sun,

and day and night were differentiated.

It was decided when the rooster would crow:

At dawn the rooster would crow,

calling to welcome the sun.

At noon the rooster would crow,

watching the sun as it crowed.

In the evening the rooster would crow,

crowing to send off the sun.

For three nights it crowed until dawn,

and the moon appeared and

the moon had phases.

The ten thousand living creatures arose under the moon,

and the moon waxed and waned.

When the white dog saw the moon it howled;

afterward, the ten thousand living beings flourished.