i82C1. Two Wives of the Month .11.13.20.59.
The Month has two wives (usually the Morning Star and the Evening Star). For a caring woman, he is getting fat, at the other he is starving and losing weight.
Luba hemba, Como, Karanga, Mbuti Pygmies, Zande, Marshall Islands, Taulipan.
Bantu-speaking Africa. Luba-hemba [Kaiye man month; after creating him, Kabetya mpungu gave him two wives; the first accompanies him from the new moon; the second, the Morning Star, accompanies him when he gets old and dies]: Colle 1913:715-716; Como [The evening star is the good wife of the Month, feeds him, he gets fat; the morning star is bad, tells you to postpone eating until later, he loses weight; the Sun is more often associated with a woman, but when in zenith, considered male and female in the hotter months]: Mahieu 1975:237-238; karanga [=Scheub 2000:138-139; god Maori created a Mwuetsi man at the bottom of the lake ("Month"); he went to nothing earth; God gave him a wife, Mossassi ("The Morning Star"), she gave birth to plants; two years later, Maori took her to live in the sky, eight years later he gave his wife Morongo (Evening Star) for two years; on the first day she gave birth to pets, the second to wild herbivores and birds, and the third to humans; contrary to warning, the Month slept with her for the fourth time, she gave birth to predators, snakes, scorpions; the Month met its daughters, they gave birth to many children, the Month became the king of a large people; the Evening Star, out of jealousy, sent a snake to bite her husband, he fell ill, the rains stopped; the children killed the Month, threw them into the sea, chose another king; the Month has ascended to heaven, chasing its first wife, the Morning Star, with whom he was happy]: Beier 1966:15-17.
Sudan - East Africa. Mbuti Pygmies [there are two wives next to the Month; Mataligeda is bad, she is losing weight for a month, and Marubogeda is good, she is getting fat]: Dupré 1963:82; zande [month - male, star next door with him - feminine; there are two of them; the one who appears next to him in the east feeds him, and when he is in the West, he loses weight; with the sun, a month quarrels; but the zande do not know what a month is, it is like to them an animal; and the sun is not an animal, it is fire]: Lagae 1920:144-145.
Micronesia-Polynesia. Marshall Islands (Ratik) [The Month has two wives; the one who cares for him in the east rises in the form of a full moon; the one in the west does not feed him well, there he looks like a narrow one sickle; spots on the moon are an apron (fiber apron) under which a concubine girl is hidden]: Erdland 1914:311.
Guiana. Taulipan [Jupiter and Venus are wives of the Month, living in the east and west; one feeds him, he gets fat; the other does not feed, he is losing weight]: Koch-Grünberg 1924, No. 16:55.