In the sky-lore of the Andi and their Andic and Avar neighbours the sun is a luminous woman, the elder of two heavenly siblings. A widely told etiological tale explains the dark markings of the moon as the trace of a quarrel between the sister sun and the brother moon, when the sun flung dough, soot or a handful of earth into her brother's face. The dimming of the sun in eclipse is understood as the moment the sky-dragon overtakes and swallows her, a crisis that villages met with noise and prayer to force the monster to release her.