In a time when the sky was near the ground, a spinster hung her beads and comb on the low sky while pounding rice. Striking the sky with her pestle, she caused it to rise higher. The comb transformed into the moon, and the beads became scattered stars, forever adorning the heavens, beyond her reach.
Source
Philippine Folk Tales
compiled and annotated by
Mabel Cook Cole
A.C. McClurg & Co., Chicago, 1916
► Themes of the story
Creation: The story explains the origins of celestial bodies—the moon and stars—detailing how they came into existence.
Transformation: The narrative describes the metamorphosis of everyday objects—a comb and beads—into celestial entities, highlighting themes of change and metamorphosis.
Sacred Objects: The comb and beads, ordinary items, transform into sacred celestial bodies, emphasizing the significance and power attributed to these objects in the narrative.
► From the same Region or People
Learn more about Philippines peoples
One day in the times when the sky was close to the ground a spinster went out to pound rice. Before she began her work, she took off the beads from around her neck and the comb from her hair, and hung them on the sky, which at that time looked like coral rock.
Then she began working, and each time that she raised her pestle into the air it struck the sky. For some time she pounded the rice, and then she raised the pestle so high that it struck the sky very hard.
► Continue reading…
Immediately the sky began to rise, and it went up so far that she lost her ornaments. Never did they come down, for the comb became the moon and the beads are the stars that are scattered about.
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Dreamtime Whispers 