How Stars Came into Being

This is a story about a long, long time ago.

There was once an old man who smoked tobacco.

He smoked tobacco in terracotta or clay pipes, called pikka.

This old man had three sons.

When the three sons grew up, he got them married one after the other.

It happened once, that the eldest son went to his wife’s parents’ house to attend a marriage.

His wife’s entire family treated him like a king.

His wife’s sister prepared a pikka for him.

But the mischievous girl filled the pikka with salt and put a little tobacco on top.

The man lit the pikka and blew out the smoke.

As he did that, something extraordinary happened.

The salt caught fire and crackled.

Sparks flew.

But, he was not scared at all.

He blew so hard that the sparks flew high up into the sky and got stuck there.

They became stars.

Filed under: folktales
Tags: #stars