Chapter 7 - The Stars and the Stars’ Road - South African Folk-Lore Tales

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Episode Transcript

(00:00):
The stars, and the stars rodedarkly blue and illimitable. The ark of
the sky hung over the great carewlike a canopy of softest velvet, making
a deep, mysterious background for themyriad stars which twinkled brightly at a frosty

(00:20):
world. The three little boys gatheredat the window, pointed out to each
other the constellations with which cousin Minniehad made them familiar, and were deep
in a discussion as to the naturea number of the stars composing the Milky
Way. When Ota shuffled in Ota, do you think that there are a

(00:43):
billion stars up there in the MilkyWay? Asked villem A billion, you
know, explained Pity is a thousandmillion, and it would take a month
to count even one million. Ah, yeah, bassy, said the old
man, readily seizing with native adroitnessthe unknown word and making at his own.

(01:07):
Then there will surely be a billionstars up there, perhaps, he
added, judiciously, considering the matter, two billion, But no one knows,
because no one can ever count them. They are too many. And
to think that that bright road inthe sky is made of wood ashes after

(01:29):
all, He settled himself on hisstool and his little audience came to attention.
Yes, my basses, he wenton. Long long ago. The
sky was dark at night when theold man with the bright armpits lay down
to sleep. But people learnt intime to make fires to light up the

(01:52):
darkness. And one night a girlwho sat warming herself by a wood fire
played with the ashes. She tookthe ashes in her hands and threw them
up to see how pretty they werewhen they floated in the air. And
as they floated away, she putgreen bushes on the fire and stirred it

(02:15):
with a stick. Bright sparks flewout and went high, high, mixing
with the silver ashes, and theyall hung in the air and made a
bright road across the sky. Andthere it is to this day. Bassis
call it the milky way, butOta calls it the stars road. Ay.

(02:38):
But the girl was pleased. Sheclapped her hands and danced, shaking
herself like OTA's people do when theyare happy, and singing. The little
stars, the tiny stars, theymake a road for other stars. Ash
of wood, fire, dust ofthe sun. They called a dawn when

(02:59):
night is done. Then she tooksome of the roots she had been eating
and threw them into the sky,and there they hung and turn'd into large
stars. The old roots turned intostars that gave a red light, and
the young roots turned into stars thatgave a golden light. There they all

(03:22):
hung, winking and twinkling and singing, yes, singing my busses. And
this is what they sang. Weare children of the sun. It's so,
it's so. It's so him wecall when night is done. It's
so, it's so. It's sobright. We sail across the sky by

(03:46):
the stars, road high, sohigh, and we twinkling smile at you
as we sail across the blue.It's so, it's so, it's so.
Passes know when the stars twinkle upthere in the sky, they are
like little children, nodding their headsand saying, it's so. It's so,

(04:09):
it's so. At each repetition,Otar nodded and winked, and the
children, with antics of approval,followed. Suit basses have sometimes seen a
star fall, three little heads noddedin concert. When a star falls,
said the old man, impressively,it tells us some one has died.

(04:32):
For the star knows when a person'sheart fails and the person dies, and
it falls from the sky. Totell those at a distance that some one
they know has died. Footnote itis both curious and interesting to find the
identical belief obtaining among races so widelydifferent as the Scandinavians of northern Europe and

(04:59):
the bushmen of sou of Africa.See Hans Andersen's Little match Girl. Her
grandmother had told her that when astar fell down, a soul mounted up
to God end a footnote. Onestar grew and grew till he was much
larger than the others. He wasthe great Star, And singing he named

(05:21):
the other stars. He called eachone by name, till they all had
their names. And in this waythey knew that he was the great Star.
No other could have done so.Then when he had finished, they
all sang together and praised the greatStar who had named them. Footnote when

(05:46):
the morning stars sang together, andall the sons of God shouted for joy
job Chapter thirty eight, verse seven, end of footnote. Now, when
the day is done, they walkacross the sky on each side of the
Star's road. It shows them theway, And when night is over,

(06:12):
they turn back and sail again bythe Star's road to call the daybreak.
That goes before the sun. Thestar that leads the way is a big,
bright star. He is called theDawn's Hot Star. And in the
dark dark hour before the stars havecalled the dawn, he shines ach passes.

(06:34):
He is beautiful to behold. Thewife and the child of the Dawn's
Heart Star are pretty too, butnot so big and bright as he.
They sail on in front, andthen they wait, wait for the other
stars to turn back and sail alongthe star's road, calling, calling the

(06:57):
dawn, and for the sun tocome up from under the world where he
has been lying asleep. They calland sing, twinkling as they sing.
We call across the sky, Dawn, come dawn, You that are like
a young maid, newly risen,rubbing the sleep from your eyes. You

(07:19):
that come stretching bright hands to thesky, pointing the way for the sun.
Before who smile. The stars faintand grow pale, and the star's
road melts away. Dawn, comedawn, we call across the sky,
and the Dawn's Heart Star is waiting. It's so, it's so, it's

(07:42):
so so. They sing bussies becausethey know they are soon going out.
Then slowly the dawn comes rubbing hereyes, smiling, stretching out bright fingers,
chasing the darkness away. The starsgrow faint, and the stars road

(08:03):
fades, while the dawn makes abright pathway for the sun. At last,
he comes with both arms lifted high, and the brightness streaming from under
them makes day for the world andwakes people to their work and play.
But the little stars wait till hesleeps again before they begin their singing.

(08:26):
Summer is the time when they singbest. But even now, if passes
look out of the window, theywill see the stars twinkling and singing.
The children ran to the window andgazed out into the starlit heavens. The
last sight Ota had as he drainedthe soupy glass the bass was just in
time to hand him, was ofthree little heads bobbing up and down in

(08:50):
time to the immemorial music of thestars, while little Yan's excited treble rang
out, Yes, it's true,Ota, they do say, it's so,
it's so, It's so. Endof the Stars, and the Stars rode