Once upon a long time ago there was a dog that was made of stars. It ran across the night sky, chasing the moon from when the sun went down. As the sun rose in the morning the dog was exhausted from running all night long, never catching up with the moon. The sky is so big. The dog put out its tongue that was also made of stars, and small lights, the tiniest stars of all, fell down from the sky. As the dog made of stars panted from all the running so more and more tiny stars fell from its tongue until the fields of earth sparkled like the heavens under the sun. It made the sun happy, but the sun knew the stars belonged in the sky. So the sun gathered the tiny stars and hid them behind the moon. Then when the dog made of stars fell to sleep the moon gathered it up and waited patiently for the chase to begin again at sunset.
Folktale by Simon Kellow Bingham, prompted by #folktaleweek
14thcenturypoet 