Page:The Mythology of All Races Vol 3 (Celtic and Slavic).djvu/493

Rh daughter as she bathes, he Is the morning star, gazing on the beauty of the rising dawn.$62$ When all the other stars are visible, the morning star is absent, for he has gone to woo the daughter of the sun; she hastens toward him; and they are wedded in Germany beyond the sea.$63$ Of course lovers occasionally quar- rel, and so the daughter of the sun breaks the sword of "God's son" (dawn surpasses the brightness of the morning star); and, in their turn, "God's sons" deprive her of her ring (the solar disk) at evening, though, as we shall see, they presently fish it from the sea (at dawn) when it falls from her finger at evening.$64$ But "lovers' quarrels are love's renewal," and since evening star and evening twilight, morning star and morning dawn, are inseparably associated, "God's sons" dance in the moon- light beneath an oak by the spring with "God's daughters," as the following dainà tells.$65$

'Neath a maple lies a fountain Whither God's sons hast'ning Go to dance with God's own daughters While the moon shines o'er them.

In the fountain by the maple I my face was laving; While my white face I was bathing, Lo, my ring I washed off.

Will the sons of God come hither With their nets all silken? Will they fish my ring so tiny From the depths of water?

Then there came a hero youthful, His brown charger riding; Brown the colour of the charger, And his shoes were golden.

'Hither come, maiden, Hither come, O youngling! With fair words let us be speaking, With fair counsel let us counsel Where the stream is deepest, And where love is sweetest.'