From Koya Folklore
There were forty Koya households in a village: the place grew and grew till it was very large. There were many boys and girls, and they learned to dance and did dance every night. Hearing the noise people used to come from neighbouring villages to watch and thus other boys and girls began to dance and soon they were dancing in every village.
But Deur was annoyed by the shouting and laughter. One day the Chief was arranging his son’s marriage. He told the boys and girls that at the wedding they must dance all night. After the feast therefore they assembled and danced. The shaman’s daughter was the cleverest of all the dancers. That night, with peacock’s feathers in her hand, she was dancing beautifully and the people watched her with delight. Deur turned one of his chaprasis into a cockroach and sent it to watch. Presently it jumped onto the peacock’s feathers and bit by bit cut out the eyes. These were blown by the wind to Deur and he stuck them one by one all over the sky.
But when the feathers were spoiled, the girl’s dance was spoiled. She stopped and sat down to see what had happened, but the cockroach flew away and escaped. The girl looked up and there were her bright feathers in the sky. The cockroach-chaprasi said, “Now your feathers are spoiled and Deur has turned them into stars.” Because the girl danced at night, stars shine at night.
Source:
Chapter 4, Tribal Myths of Orissa, Verrier Elwin, 1954
Kotharian Lightning 