the sky, if the others had set. In those days people slept as they felt inclined, and there were no divisions of time.
After a long time To’ ′Ĕntah thought the heat too great, and devised a plan for reducing it, in pursuance of which he went to the moon, which then gave no light, and told her to call her husband Bíntang Tûnang,[1] the evening star, and the stars their children, and to put them into her mouth, but not to swallow them, and to await his return. When she had done this, To’ ′Ĕntah went to the female sun, and, by representing that the moon had swallowed her husband and children, induced her to swallow completely her husband and child, the other two suns. Having thus gained his end, To’ ′Ĕntah returned to the moon, and told her she could release her husband and children, which she did, flinging them out into the sky again.
As soon as she discovered the deception which had been practised on her, the sole remaining sun waxed very wrath, and withdrew in dudgeon to the other side of the heavens, declaring that when the moon came her way she would devour her, a promise which she carries out at the time of eclipses.[2]
It was from this time, this separation between the sun and the moon, that the division between day and night, and the rule of the moon and the stars over the latter took place.
Till the time of Bâtin To’ ′Ĕntah men used not to drink, no water
- ↑ "Bintang," star; "tûnang," magic. "Tûnángan" means a betrothed person, from "tûnang," to betroth; but I prefer the former meaning.
- ↑ The aborigines, as well as the Malays, seem to have borrowed from India in this as well as other points; the Malay term is "matâhâri mâkan rahu’," or "brîlan," ditto, i.e. sun or moon devoured by the dragon or beast: in Hindu mythology "rahu" is a "Daitya" (Titan), who is supposed to seize the sun and moon and swallow them, and so obscure their rays. The Malays also use "Garhâna," to denote eclipses, whether of sun, "mâtahâri" (eye of day), or "bûlan," moon (from "graha," the seizer, one of the Indian epithets of Rahu). So the aborigines of Johor speak of "mâtahâri," or "bûlan," "tângkak (Malay 'tángkap') rĕmâñ " (ñ=Fr, "gne"), i.e. sun or moon being caught by the beast. The phrases are rough and elliptical, not strictly correct Malay; literally they would be rendered "the sun" or "moon eats" or "catches the dragon" or "beast"; the passive form of the verb, followed by the preposition preceding the agent, being omitted; properly it should run "mâtahâri" or "bûlan," "di mâkan ûleh ráhu'," etc.
