Qong, whose name is simply the Mota word for 'night', is Night personified in the Banks Islands cosmogony. When the world knew only ceaseless day, Qat heard that night dwelt at the edge of the world where the sky comes down to the sea, and sailed there to buy it. Qong received him, taught him sleep, gave him eyebrows so that his eyes might close, and revealed the reddening of the eastern sky and the birds whose song brings the day again. Bearing night home, Qat set the round of day and darkness in motion. Qong stands apart from the kin of Qat, entering the cycle solely as the keeper and giver of night.