while she shines for man by day, he can only look at himself by night in the water.48 He wears a mantle of stars 49 and, like the sun, is liable to be destroyed (i.e. eclipsed) by dragons, serpents, and witches.50
The sun, as we have seen, has daughters, and "God" (i.e. Perkúnas, the deity of thunder and storm, yet—at least in germ—the sky-god) has sons. Though the latter are sometimes given as nine or five in number,51 only two have any real individuality, and they are "God's sons" (Dė̃vo sunelei) par excellence, just as the sun has only one daughter or two daughters (Sáules duktélė;;),52 according as the twilights of evening and morning are considered as separate phenomena or as the same phenomenon in twofold manifestation.53 The "sons of God" are the morning and the evening star (sometimes combined as the planet Venus), the former being by far the more important;54 the "Sun's daughters" are the morning and the evening twilight; and their close association is a common theme in the dáinos. They are the Baltic counterparts of the Vedic Aśvins and Uṣas, or of the Greek Dioskouroi and Helen.55
We may begin our study of these figures with a dainà which has at least a partial resemblance to the familiar "Jack and the Beanstalk" cycle.56
"O Żemina, flower-giver,
Where shall I now plant the roses?
'On the lofty mountain-summit.
By the ocean, by the sea-side.'
O Żemina, flower-giver.
Where shall I find father, mother,
I, deserted and a pauper?
'Haste thee to the lofty mountain.
By the ocean, by the sea-side.'
Forth then from the rose-trunk springing.
Grew a mighty tree and lofty
Till its branches reached the heavens;
I will climb up to the heavens
On the branches of the roses.
