| | | GREAT DEITY & ‘HALF-CHILD’ IN LODA MYTHOS
Erle Frayne D. Argonza
Source: www.oldandsold.com/articles29/mythology-14.shtml
A story of quite wide distribution is that of the half-child. According to the Loda version, the first man and woman lived by a river, on whose banks they had a garden. A boy was born to them, but later, when a second child was about to be brought into the world, a great rain and flood came and washed away half of the garden, whereupon the woman cursed the rain, the result of her malediction being that when the child was born, it was only half a human being and had but one eye, one arm, and one leg. When Half-Child had grown up, he said to his mother, "Alas, what shall I do, so that I may be like my brother, who has two arms and two legs?" Determining to go to the great deity in the upper world. and beg him to make him whole, he climbed up and laid his request before the god, who, after some discussion, agreed to help him, telling him to bathe in a pool which he showed him, and at the same time cautioning him not to go into the water if he saw any one else bathing. Half-Child went to the pool, found no one else there, and after bathing came out restored to his proper shape and made very handsome.
Returning to his home, he found his brother eating his dinner, and the latter said to him, "Well, brother, you look very beautiful!" "Yes," said Half-Child, "the deity, granted me to be even as you are." Then his elder brother asked, "Is the god far away?" and the other replied, "No, he is not far, for I was able to reach him easily." The elder brother at once went up to see the divinity, and when asked why he had come, he said that he wished to be made as handsome as his younger brother. The deity replied, "No, you are now just as you ought to be, and must remain so"; but since the other would not be satisfied, at length the god said, "Well, go to that pool there and bathe; but you must not do so unless you see a dog (i. e. the image or reflection of a dog) in it, in which case you must bathe with a piece of white cloth tied round your neck." So the elder brother went to the pool, tied a piece of cloth around his neck, and bathed, and behold! he was turned into a dog with a white mark around his throat; whereupon he returned to this world and found his brother, Half-Child, at dinner. "Alas!" said the younger brother, "I told you not to go, but you would do so, and now see what has become of you!" and he added, "Here, my brother, you must always remain under my table and eat what falls from it."
REFLECTION
The process of anthropogenesis in the mythos ...Read the whole post...
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