In an age before humans learned to mark time, there lived a lonely orphan child who travelled the earth. He wandered through the lands unloved and alone; no one who crossed his path befriended him. The child's sorrow was great. The pain swelled up inside of him until he thought his small body would burst from its heavy burden.
Today if a child were to carry the weight of this young orphan's loneliness, tears would fall and offer some small release. This young boy, however, could know no relief, for he lived before tears had been created.
As the youth wandered, he was not truly alone. Each night as the Moon ascended his place in the blackened sky, he watched over the young boy. From the depths of his great being, Moon felt pity for the orphan.
One night, Moon did not rise to his nightly station. Instead, he came to the earth to seek out the orphan in his misery. He urged the young boy to let his sorrow flow from him as tears. When the orphan did, the first tears of the world were shed.
"These tears must not fall to the earth", cautioned Moon, "for that is where the people of the fields grow their food. We must not taint the life of the plants with your sorrows, lest your comfort be their demise." Moon caught the tears of the orphan's sorrow on his own massive body. When the acid tears fell to Moon's surface, they left dark stains. If Moon had allowed these tears to touch the earth, the fertile race of plants might never have survived.
When Moon brought the boy release with the first tears, he also bestowed his blessing on the child. From that day on, the child was met with love by all he encountered. For the rest of his life, people cared for him.
As for Moon, the stains of the first tears can still be seen as he rises full. These stains will be a reminder of the time when Moon protected the plants of the Earth with his wisdom.
Taken from the book 'Moon Lore - Myths and Folklore from Around the World'
By Gwydion O'Hara