Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 3 (Celtic and Slavic).djvu/490

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BALTIC MYTHOLOGY

bitterly because the golden apple has fallen from the tree (a myth of sunset), but "God" will make her another of gold, brass, or silver.41 She is herself an apple, sleeping in an apple- garden, and decked with apple-blossoms (the fleecy clouds of dawn).42 Disregarding the counsel of Perkúnas, she betroths her daughter to Morning Star, though first she gives the maiden to the moon, who takes the young girl to his home, i. e. at twilight the moon is the first to become visible, thus pre- ceding the morning star, which bears away the dawn.43

She strikes the moon with a silver stone; in other words, her rising orb obliterates the moon, this being the cause of three days' battle with "God."44 She dwells on a mountain (the vault of heaven), and standing in mid-sky, she reproves her daughters because one had not swept the floor, while the other had failed to wash the table.45

She, "God's daughter" (Dė̃vo dukrýtė), watches over all things, as is set forth in a charming little dainà.46

""O thou Sun, daughter of God,
Where delayest thou so long,
Where sojoumest thou so long,
Since thou hast from us withdrawn?

O'er the sea, beyond the hills,
Wheat there is that I must watch,
Shepherds, too, that I must guard;
Many are my gifts in sooth.

O thou Sun, daughter of God,
Tending thee at morn and eve.
Who doth make for thee thy fire,
Who prepares thy couch for thee?

Morning Star and Evening Star:
Morning Star doth make my fire,
Evening Star prepares my couch;
Many are my kin in sooth."

In comparison with the sun the moon is a very minor figure,47 and his chief importance is his connexion with the sun. When his spouse reproaches him for his pale colour, he replies that