A Guide to MythologyClarke, Helen A. (Helen Archibald)
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A Guide to Mythology
Clarke, Helen A. (Helen Archibald)
Mythology -- Juvenile literature
It was now night; but early in the morning Taranga rose up, and suddenly,
in a moment of time, she was gone from the house where her children were.
As soon as they woke up they looked all about to no purpose, as they
could not see her; the elder brothers knew she had left them, and were
accustomed to it; but the little child was exceedingly vexed; yet he
thought: “I cannot see her, ’tis true, but perhaps she has only gone to
prepare some food for us.” No-no—she was off, far, far away.
Now, at nightfall when their mother came back to them, her children were
dancing and singing as usual. As soon as they had finished, she called
to her last-born, “Come here, my child, let us sleep together”; so they
slept together; but as soon as day dawned, she disappeared. The little
fellow now felt quite suspicious at such strange proceedings on the part
of his mother every morning. So, at length, another night, he crept out
of bed in the night and stole his mother’s apron, her belt, and clothes,
and hid them; then he went and stopped up every crevice in the wooden
window, and in the doorway, so that the light of the dawn might not shine
into the house, and make his mother hurry to get up. But after he had
done this his little heart still felt very anxious and uneasy, lest his
mother should, in her impatience, rise in the darkness, and defeat his
plans. But the night dragged its slow length along without his mother
moving; at last there came the faint light of early morn, but his mother
still slept on; then the sun rose up, and mounted far up above the
horizon; now at last his mother moved, and began to think to herself,
“What kind of night can this be, to last so long?” and having thought
thus, she dropped asleep again. Again she awoke, and began to think to
herself, but could not tell that it was broad daylight outside, as the
window and every chink in the house were stopped up closely.
At last up she jumped; and finding herself without her clothes or her
belt or her apron, she ran and pulled out the things with which the
windows and chinks in the doors were stopped up, and whilst doing so, oh,
dear! oh, dear! there she saw the sun high up in the heavens; then she
snatched up, as she ran off, the old flax cloak, with which the door of
the house had been stopped up, and carried it off as her only covering;
getting, at last, outside the house, she hurried away, and ran crying at
the thought of having been so badly treated by her own children.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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