An ancient Indonesian myth of the Batak people, this is a sun and a moon story.
Our story begins a very long time ago after the great god Mula Jadi Na Bolon sent his granddaughter Sideak Parudjar to create the earth and everything else that fills it. In the beginning when she had just moulded it, the earth was slushy, gooey and wet. So Father Mula Jadi created nine suns to light up the place and dry all the wet lands.
Father sun and his eight sons blazed on and the earth was soon dry. But the searing heat was too much to bear for the earth and its people. It was only when dusk fell and the moon arrived with her children, the ten thousand stars, that they got some respite.
One full moon night, the people of the earth assembled on a plain together and prayed to the moon. “Beloved moon mother, you are the one who brings us some solace from the nine blisteringly hot suns that beat down upon us day after day. Please help us!”
Moon mother was compassionate. “Dear people, I understand your difficulty but know that I’m no match for father sun and his eight children. But maybe I can manage to outwit him somehow. Come back here in another four weeks, when I’m whole once again. I’ll think of a plan.”
And so after twenty seven days had passed, the people gathered at the same place and the moon mother came to them in her luminous full beauty. “Greetings! I have good news for you. I have come up with a plan but I need you get me as many betel leaves as you can.’’
Now betel leaves were common in those parts and people chewed them all the time. It kept their mouths moist and helped them handle the parched feeling in their mouths in the heat of the day. They returned to their homes and collected all the betel leaves they had stocked and gave them to the moon mother. “Thank you. Now go home and wait, I will bring you good news soon,” smiled the moon.
After they had gone, the moon went about collecting all the mist there was and built a huge wall of it. Behind this, she hid all her ten thousand sparkling star children who found all this hide and seek business an amusing game. Then she put some betel leaves in her mouth and started chewing. As she chewed and chewed, the thick red liquid started oozing out of her mouth. She went everywhere spitting out the juice all over the night sky, painting it a bloody red. Her mouth was red too and her chin was stained as the juice dribbled down.
When morning arrived, father sun came along with his eight sons in tow. As the sunlight brightened the morning sky, he saw to his great surprise that the whole place was painted red!
“It looks like a massacre has taken place here! How many must have been killed? And by whom?” father sun asked.
“A massacre indeed!” said the moon helpfully. She was standing, grinning wickedly as more red juice flowed down her chin. “It’s me. I killed all my children and ate them!”
Father sun was stumped for a second but he quickly recovered and noted that the moon lady seemed least regretful of her act.
“You... you ate all your children? Yes, I don’t see any stars around.”
“All ten thousand of them!’ said the moon smiling some more.
“How did they taste? “ asked father sun still surprised but feeling deep within himself a brutal hunger too.
“Delicious, scrumptious, yummy!” grinned the moon as she dribbled more red down her chin. “You should try it too. You have such big children and I’m sure they taste just as good.”
Father sun needed no more persuasion. Turning around, he grabbed all eight of his sons and ate them one by one! Now there was just one sun and no more. But after he ate all his sons, father sun became more powerful as he absorbed all the heat and power of his sons. All day, he blazed the skies with an intense heat, filled with greed, hate and in the end, a hint of regret maybe.
Finally the night fell and the moon came out. Along with her came her ten thousand children, the stars, who twinkled and twinkled. Father sun saw them too and
realised that he had been tricked by the moon.‘’What have I done, in a foolish moment, listening to that wicked moon who tricked me? I have killed my own sons and eaten them too! She shall pay for this, that moon lady!”
Father sun began to chase the moon round and round and across the skies. Moon mother ran as fast she could but father sun managed to catch her and reduced her to almost nothing.
Escaping from the angry father sun, the moon went into hiding so that he couldn’t see her. When she reappeared in the night sky, she was painfully thin and just a tiny sliver. By and by, she grew and grew to become whole again. The Batak people had a prayer. “Let not the sun get hold of the moon mother and eat her up. We need the moon and her soothing light. Oh great gods, keep her safe! We love our moon mother, we do, we do!”