Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 3 (Celtic and Slavic).djvu/492

326 There I found a youthful hero Who was riding on God's charger. 'O fair youth, O valiant horseman, Hast thou not seen father, mother?'

'O my maiden, O my youngling, Seek the region of the valley; There thy father, there thy mother Plan the marriage of thy sister.'

So I hasted to the valley; 'Father, good day and good morning; Mother, good day and good morning; Why did ye leave me, an infant, To the mercy of the stranger?

'Grown to be a sturdy maiden, I alone have found the cradle Where in childhood I was happy.'"

Here sun and moon have departed from their daughter, the morning twilight. Yet, though so heartlessly abandoned, she seeks them, climbing the sun-tree. There she finds "a youthful hero, mounted on God's charger," who is plainly the evening star; and he tells her that she will find her parents "in the valley," I.e. at the place of sunset In the darkening west.$57$ The sun also seems to have had a night-tree. In addition to the rose-tree of day.$58$

The "youthful hero" Introduces us to a veritable love-myth of "God's sons" with the "daughters of the sun." We have already had $59$ some fugitive allusions to the wooing and we may now trace the story In more detail. Seeking to win the "daughter of the sun," "God's son" makes for her an Island In the midst of the sea (I.e. either the first dark shadows of evening or the first bits of light at dawn);$60$ or the two sons kindle two lights In the sea, awaiting her, and In the centre of the ocean they build a bridal chamber, which she enters tremblingly; and she is urged to awake early, for "God's sons" are coming to roll apples.$61$ When "God's son" rides a grey steed in his wooing, he Is the evening star, since greyness covers the sky at evening; but when from the golden bushes he watches the sun's