Brother, one day the Sun resolved to marry. During nine years, drawn
by nine fiery horses, he had rolled by heaven and earth as fast as the
wind or a flying arrow.
But it was in vain that he fatigued his horses. Nowhere could he
find a love worthy of him. Nowhere in the universe was one who equaled
in beauty his sister Helen, the beautiful Helen with silver tresses.
The Sun went to meet her, and thus addressed her: “My dear little
sister Helen, Helen of the silver tresses, let us be betrothed, for we
are made for one another.
“We are alike not only in our hair and our features, but also in our
beauty. I have locks of gold, and thou hast locks of silver. My face is
shining and splendid, and thine is soft and radiant.”
“O my brother, light of the world, thou who art pure of all stain,
one has never seen a brother and sister married together, because it
would be a shameful sin.”
At this rebuke the Sun hid himself, and mounted up higher to the
throne of God, bent before Him, and spoke:—
“Lord our Father, the time has arrived for me to wed. But, alas! I
cannot find a love in the world worthy of me except the beautiful
Helen, Helen of the silver hair!”
God heard him, and, taking him by the hand, led him into hell to
affright his heart, and then into paradise to enchant his soul.
Then He spake to him, and while He was speaking the Sun began to
shine brightly and the clouds passed over:—
“Radiant Sun! Thou who art free from all stain, thou hast been
through hell and hast entered paradise. Choose between the two.”
The Sun replied, recklessly, “I choose hell, if I may have, for a
life, Helen, Helen of the shining silver hair.”
The Sun descended from the high heaven to his sister Helen, and
ordered preparation for his wedding. He put on her forehead the waving
gold chaplet of the bride, he put on her head a royal crown, he put on
her body a transparent robe all embroidered with fine pearls, and they
all went into the church together.
But woe to him, and woe to her! During the service the lights were
extinguished, the bells cracked while ringing, the seats turned
themselves upside down, the tower shook to its base, the priests lost
their voices, and the sacred robes were torn off their backs.
The bride was convulsed with fear. For suddenly, woe to her! an
invisible hand grasped her up, and, having borne her on high, threw her
into the sea, where she was at once changed into a beautiful silver
fish.
The Sun grew pale and rose into the heaven. Then descending to the
west, he plunged into the sea to search for his sister Helen, Helen of
the shining silver hair.
However, the Lord God (sanctified in heaven and upon the earth) took
the fish in his hand, cast it forth into the sky, and changed it anew
into the moon.
Then He spoke. And while God was speaking the entire universe
trembled, the peaks of the mountains bowed down, and men shivered with
fear.
“Thou, Helen of the long silver tresses, and thou resplendent Sun,
who are both free from all stain, I condemn you for eternity to follow
each other with your eyes through space, without being ever able to
meet or to reach each other upon the road of heaven. Pursue one another
for all time in traveling around the skies and lighting up the world.”
* * * * *
Fallen from a high estate by sin, wicked, and therefore wandering:
it was with such a story of being penitent pilgrims, doomed for a
certain space to walk the earth, that the gypsies entered Europe from
India, into Islam and into Christendom, each time modifying the story
to suit the religion of the country which they invaded. Now I think
that this sun and moon legend is far from being frivolous, and that it
conforms wonderfully well with the famous story which they told to the
Emperor Sigismund and the Pope and all Europe, that they were destined
to wander because they had sinned. When they first entered Europe, the
gypsies were full of these legends; they told them to everybody; but
they had previously told them to themselves in the form of the Indian
sun and moon story. This was the root whence other stories grew. As the
tale of the Wandering Jew typifies the Hebrew, so does this of the sun
and moon the Romany.