AAboriginal Stories

When the Snake bites the Sun
Told by David Mowaljarlai
Illustrated by Pamela Lofts

In the East there were two suns, a fat mother sun and a daughter sun. These two suns lived in logs. They came out to give the world light but they burnt up the ground, dried up the rivers and the animals begun to die. The mother sun got too fat and couldn’t get out of her log to shine so the daughter sun was sent out alone. She rolled across to sea to an island where two men lived. One was a good man who was good to the suns and the other man was bad. The bad man chased the sun and poked it with his spear. She didn’t want him to kill her and leave the world in darkness. She escaped to space, getting hotter as she climbed. In the sky there was a snake that bit her. She got weaker and cooler and could not go on any further rolling to the edge of earth. She became snagged in the fork of a tree and the sky became red with blood. She slipped down into the mist below and the world was filled with darkness. She went back to her mother who nursed her until she was well again. Ever since that time the sun has made the journey east to west which gives the world day and night, heat and coolness.