How The Sun Got Its Rays
It all started in the village of Setukula a long, long time ago. What we call the sun today, was just a tiny golden ball in the sky. It did not warm the gardens in the morning. It did not light the day very much. The villagers wandered around bumping into things since it was almost as dark in the daytime as at night. They wore heavy coats all the time, because the sun did not give any heat. The reason was because the sun did not have any rays. Without rays, the light and warmth of the sun could not travel down to the earth.
One day, as the villagers went about slowly doing their chores, which they hated to do, a little lost child appeared from the woods. It was a little girl with long hair, full of cockle-burs and dry leaves. She looked very hungry. Nobody wanted to take her in since that would mean an extra mouth to feed.
Nobody, that is, except, Boris - an old man whose daughter had married and moved away. This girl looked like his daughter, too. After she got a meal and washed up, it turned out her hair was a beautiful golden color. She grew and soon was seen dancing and singing in the village square. Since her hair was never cut, on windy days it would flow all over the place. Then she spent all evening combing out the tangles.
The villagers were not a happy people, and they did not like the girl singing and dancing with joy. One day a mean boy threw a rock at her when she was dancing. It did not hit her, but she cried and ran away. The old man tried to comfort her and felt bad that she did not go dancing any more. One gray, cold day the old man, being now over a hundred years old, died.
The girl could not stop crying when this happened. While sobbing, she remembered something the old man had told her years ago. He said that when he died, he would go up to heaven. The girl wanted to go there, too, so she could be with the kind old man.
It was a very, very windy day when she decided to carry out her plan. She went into the village square, ignoring the villagers saying bad things to her. Then she raised her hands, singing and dancing as hard as she could. She began to swirl and twirl and jump. Her hair flowed in all directions, this way, that way, and upward.
And then it happened. One of the strands of her hair touched the golden ball which was the sun. Immediately, light and heat began streaming down on the girl and spreading to the village square and even to the other villagers and their houses.
Suddenly, everything looked bright and beautiful. The gardens, now a bright green, began to grow fast. Flowers of all colors began to open. The villagers felt the warmth and took off their heavy old jackets and hats. They started to feel better. Some of them even went to the village square and started dancing and singing.
The mayor wanted to thank the girl for this miracle. He decreed that the strands of her hair that touched the sun be called 'sun-rays' and that they should build a statue of her in the middle of the village. When they went to tell her, they could not find her. She had disappeared. To this day nobody knows where she went.
If you are ever in the village of Setukula, you can ask almost anybody there and they will tell you how the sun got its rays and why the day is so bright and pretty and the weather so warm and nice, most of the time.
