The owner of the sun

Years and years ago, the people of the earth lived in complete darkness. There was no sun and no moon, no day and no night. Warao, who was the very first of the Warao people and their chief, had heard of a deity that was known to be the owner of the sun, so he devised a plan to obtain the light for himself and his people. He asked his eldest daughter to follow the path to the owner of the sun, and bring the light back to their home, but the way was tricky and hard to follow, so he asked her to be very careful and pay attention to where she was going. The girl began her journey, but as she had not paid attention to her father's words, she soon became lost and stumbled upon a deer. She remained there for several days, living and playing with the deer, until she remembered her father and returned home. Warao, seeing that she did not bring the light with her, called upon his youngest daughter and also asked her to go find the sun for him.

The youngest daughter was much more careful than her sister, and she soon arrived at the house of the owner of the sun. The owner of the sun was surprised to see a mortal girl at his home, and though he did not expect her, he was pleased to have her as a visitor. The girl explained that her people lived in darkness and that she needed the light to bring back to her father, but the owner of the sun would not give it to her. They spoke for hours and fell deeply in love with one another, thus they became husband and wife. Every day the owner of the sun would take the sun out of its bag and let the Warao girl marvel in its beauty and play with it, and then every night he would put away once more.

Time passed, days, months, perhaps even years, when suddenly the Warao girl remembered her father and her people. She pleaded with her husband to allow her to return to her home with the sun so that her people would not have to live in darkness ever again, and he agreed. Man and wife said their goodbyes, and soon the girl began her journey back to her family. When she arrived and Warao saw that his daughter had brought the sun back with her, they all rejoiced. Warao took the bag with the sun and hung it in one of the poles in his palafito, from which the light could shine all over the Orinoco river.

People from all over the Amazon came to see the sun and its beauty, but soon there were so many people that the palafito could not hold their weight. Thus, Warao took the bag and threw it to the sky with all of its strength, freeing the sun for everyone to see. To one side flew the sun, embedding itself on the east, and to the other the bag where it was stored, embedding itself on the west and becoming the moon. Everyone marveled at the lit up sky, but Warao had thrown the sun with so much strength that it kept flying past too quickly, making the days and night a mere few minutes long. Warao then asked his youngest daughter to find the slowest morrocoy she could find and bring it back to him. Once he had the tortoise, he waited for the sun to pass right above the palafito and threw the morrocoy at the sun. He told it that the tortoise was a gift to honor the light, and asked to wait for it to join him. From then on, the sun has walked at the same speed as his morrocoy friend, a gift from the Warao people, thus giving us the days and nights as we know them today.

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