Origin of sun and moon

The origin of the sun and the moon

A story about a woman and her brother. The man was called Omalikopui and the woman Lemalikopui. They went together to the garden ground to gather rose-apples. The man stayed below while the woman climbed the tree. When he had eaten the fruit he said,

:When you descend I will catch you."

He caught her, put her down and committed incest. His sister ran away to the village, took her personal possessions, painted herself red, anointed herself, and then took her mat-blanket and skirt, saying,

"My mother, I am going now."

She said,

"Where are you going?"

She replied,

"Oh, no-where.:

She went down to the beach, climbed up on a coral reef and sang:-

"We will go out, we two,
We will go out my brother and I,
Omalikopui will follow after his sister.

We lay together, we two,
We lay together my brother and I,
Omalikopui will follow his sister."

When she had sung this, she sank into the sea and swam away out.

Now she is the sun. When it is near sunrise we see the red glow, and we know it is the red paint on the head of Lemalikopui. Later on we see the rays shooting down through the clouds. It is her eyelashes.

When Omalikopui learned that she was gone he was angry with his sister. He followed her into the sea in the night and now appears as the moon.