Once upon a time the world was populated by strange powers, magic powers. People who lived then were different from nowadays. They were very toll and strong. They lived at least 200 years. At 100 they were still young and able to marry. They were very smart, very educated – self-learners. With dots and dashes, on stones and wood they marked the things they needed.
But happened once that a terrible dragon closed all waters in a cave. A great drought came. Everything burnt, people were turning into stones from the drought. There was a beautiful maiden among the people and she decided to save them.
She dressed in a feast costume, she took three dishes of pepper and three mice and went to the forest where the cave of the dragon was.
He immediately felt a human was coming and went out of the cave. When he saw the beautiful girl however he did not eat her but stopped and talked to her. While talking he started to feel dizzy and sleepy from the pepper.
‘You have come here but you can not enter that cave. Otherwise you will turn to stone.’ The dragon said.
‘All right, I will not move a step from here.’
And the dragon fell asleep. The girl however knew that all the waters were closed in the cave and entered. The Night Mother was living there – a magic power which makes the night.
The girl let the three mice because the go mainly during the night and they started to play with the Night Mother. Then the girl caught the Night Mother in a net not to run away. She did so because she wanted the night to be long and dragon to sleep long. After this she entered deep into the cave and let the waters.
The waters flew again, rains poured, everything became alive, and the people who had turned to stone from the drought became humans again.
The Moon
There was no moon when man was created. The moon was made after the man was created. The people who lived at that time were very tall and thin. These people dealt with God’s things. Now we call them priests. At that time they were called zhiratzi, which meant ‘whatever they do they do it in the evening.’
An old woman lived at that time as well. She was called Lechikovitza. She was the only person able to heal people painlessly. Every night she kneaded a moon in a washbasin full of water. She used the moonlight from the water to heal sick people.
Therefore, the Lord created the Moon – for the people to be more healthy.