Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 3 (Celtic and Slavic).djvu/491

Rh while she shines for man by day, he can only look at himself by night in the water.$48$ He wears a mantle of stars $49$ and, like the sun, is liable to be destroyed (i.e. eclipsed) by dragons, serpents, and witches.$50$

The sun, as we have seen, has daughters, and "God" (i.e. Perkúnas, the deity of thunder and storm, yet—at least in germ—the sky-god) has sons. Though the latter are sometimes given as nine or five in number,$51$ only two have any real individuality, and they are "God's sons" (Dė&#x303;vo sunelei) par excellence, just as the sun has only one daughter or two daughters (Sáules duktélė;;),$52$ according as the twilights of evening and morning are considered as separate phenomena or as the same phenomenon in twofold manifestation.$53$ The "sons of God" are the morning and the evening star (sometimes combined as the planet Venus), the former being by far the more important;$54$ the "Sun's daughters" are the morning and the evening twilight; and their close association is a common theme in the dáinos. They are the Baltic counterparts of the Vedic Aśvins and Uṣas, or of the Greek Dioskouroi and Helen.$55$ We may begin our study of these figures with a dainà which has at least a partial resemblance to the familiar "Jack and the Beanstalk" cycle.$56$

O Żemina, flower-giver, Where shall I now plant the roses? 'On the lofty mountain-summit. By the ocean, by the sea-side.'

O Żemina, flower-giver. Where shall I find father, mother, I, deserted and a pauper? 'Haste thee to the lofty mountain. By the ocean, by the sea-side.'

Forth then from the rose-trunk springing. Grew a mighty tree and lofty Till its branches reached the heavens; I will climb up to the heavens On the branches of the roses.