Light and Darkness
The eternal alternation of day and night
The orderly alternation of light and darkness, of day and night, is governed by Zhuk, or Zhuk-and-Time. He is a white-haired elder seated upon a high mountain. Zhuk-and-Time holds in his hands two spools, one white and one black. He rolls one or the other down from the mountain in turn. From one side of the mountain he unwinds a spool and rolls it down, while from the opposite side he winds up the other. When the white spool unravels downward — it grows light, and the sun rises. But when the white spool is wound up and the black one unravels and rolls down — darkness falls, and the sun sets.
The darkness of night is personified by the black and malevolent Night Mothers — ancient witches, enchanters of black serpents. They are the enemies of the sun and of light, who have pursued the sun since the very day of creation, yet have never been able to overtake or seize it. When evening descends, they emerge from behind the mountains into our world to catch the sun — but the sun has already set, and only the last glimmers of twilight still illumine the earth. At that moment they blow as one, and darkness envelops the entire world. The old Night Mothers, clutching black serpents in their hands, begin to rush in all directions — into mountains, rocks, forests, houses, villages, and cities — believing the sun has hidden there. After long searching and failing to find it, they descend into abandoned mills and dried-up wells, which have become their accustomed passages, and through these they pass beneath the earth and to the floors of the seas in search of the sun. At that very moment, in the east the dawn blazes red, the sky brightens, and the sun rises from beneath the earth into the heavens. If the Night Mothers were ever to behold the face of the sun, no living creature on earth would survive; everything would be annihilated and destroyed, and the world would be filled with nothing but their serpents. But, fortunately, they can never behold the face of the sun.