Kotharian Lightning

From Nicobarese Folklore

Long, long ago when the world was new and the skies were still low down and near to the earth, the moon was changed into the sun. The sun too was changed into the moon, and the heat was terrific, so that boards cracked and the ground was cleft asunder.

So one day the ancients who dwelt in these lands of ours met together to take counsel as to what was to be done. As a result of their deliberations, they directed the fletchers to make some long-bows, and they prepared arrows of ta-choi (tree bark) and of cha-luok (coconut fibre).

Then they shot at the sky until the sky removed a long way off.

Some of the arrows they shot up at the sky never came down again, but remained stuck up in the sky. Those made of the strands of the coco-nut leaf burst into flame and became stars. Those made of ta-choi sticks did not burst into flame.

Source:

In the Nicobar Islands, George Whitehead, 1924