The Sun and the Moon Fairy Tale

Long ago a mother lived with her two children, a boy and a girl, in a little house at the foot of the mountains. One day the mother worked at a feast and was walking home in the evening with sweet rice cakes for her children.

On the way she met a sly tiger. "Give me a rice cake and I won't eat you," said the tiger. The mother gave him one. The tiger asked again and again until all the cakes were gone. The mother ran away in fright, but the tiger put on her clothes and went to the children's house.

"Children, open the door. Mother is home," said the tiger. The children peeped through a crack and saw a hairy, striped paw. "You are not our mother!" they cried. They ran out of the back door and climbed up a tall tree.

The tiger could not climb the tree. "How did you get up there?" he asked. The little sister answered innocently, "We cut steps with an axe." So the tiger took an axe, cut steps in the trunk and started to climb.

The children looked up at the sky and pleaded, "Lord of Heaven, save us!" A strong rope came down from the sky. The children grabbed it and were pulled up into the heavens. The tiger asked for a rope too, but a rotten one came down. It snapped, and the tiger fell.

In the sky the brother became the Sun and the sister became the Moon. But the sister was afraid of the dark, so her brother changed places with her. Since then, by day the sister shines as the Sun, and by night her brother the Moon watches over the earth.