Metzaka is the personified Moon of the Rarámuri, addressed as 'the mother' and paired with Rayénari, the Sun. In the creation story the two begin as small dark-skinned children alone in the world, clothed only in palmilla leaves and lit by the Morning Star; in some tellings the Moon eats the lice from the Sun's head for want of any other food, until both are cured with crosses of madroño dipped in tesgüino and begin to shine. Once grown, Sun and Moon create the first Rarámuri. As the Moon, Metzaka guards human beings by night while the Sun guards the day, the two together expressing the complementary male-female order that runs through Rarámuri cosmology. Under mission influence the Mother-Moon was assimilated to the Virgin Mary (Eyerúame, 'Great Mother'), yet she remains the lunar guardian honoured in the dances and tesgüino offerings of the Sierra Tarahumara.