Moon
Khasi · deity · primordial / perpetual · Recorded classification
Male lunar deity, counterpart of the female sun Ka Sngi — the second member of the foregrounded sun-sister/moon-brother dyad. 'U' marks masculine gender, 'Bnai' = moon/month. The myth doubles as a moral tale (incest punished) and a celestial etiology (moon's dimness; eclipses as the pursuit's climax). Khasi Roman orthography.
Parentage
- parent: Earth Mother
- parent: World-Guardian Consort of the Earth-Mother
Domains
- moon and night
- shame and transgression
Powers
- pursue the sun across the sky and cause the eclipse
Relations
- sibling: SunReciprocal of khasi_ka_sngi.sibling — Sun-sister and Moon-brother, children of the Earth Mother; when U Bnai desired his elder sister she flung ashes in his face, the etiology of the moon's spots and paler light.P. R. T. Gurdon, The Khasis (1907) (secondary)
Sources
- U Bnai is the Khasi Moon, conceived as male — the younger brother of the Sun Ka Sngi; his pale, ash-stained face results from the ashes she threw in punishment of his incestuous advance.: P. R. T. Gurdon, The Khasis, Macmillan, 1907 (ethnography)