ah.

It has been suggested that night, covering up the world, gave the first
idea of the swallowing myth. Now in some of the stories the night is
obviously conceived of as a big beast which swallows all things. The
notion that night is an animal is entirely in harmony with savage
metaphysics. In the opinion of the savage speculator, all things are men
and animals. 'Ils se persuadent que non seulement les hommes et les
autres animaux, mais aussi que toutes les autres choses sont animees,'
says one of the old Jesuit missionaries in Canada. {55b} 'The wind was
formerly a person; he became a bird,' say the Bushmen.

G' oo ka! Kui (a very respectable Bushman, whose name seems a little hard
to pronounce), once saw the wind-person at Haarfontein. Savages, then,
are persuaded that night, sky, cloud, fire, and so forth, are only the
schein, or sensuous appearance, of things that, in essence, are men or
animals. A good example is the bringing of Night to Vanua Lava, by Qat,
the 'culture-hero' of Melanesia. At first it was always day, and people
tired of it. Qat heard that Night was at the Torres Islands, and he set
forth to get some. Qong (Night) received Qat well, blackened his
eyebrows, showed him Sleep, and sent him off with fowls to bring Dawn
after the arrival of Night should make Dawn a necessary. Next day Qat's
brothers saw the sun crawl away west, and presently Night came creeping
up from the sea. 'What is this?' cried the brothers. 'It is Night,'
said Qat; 'sit down, and when you feel something in your eyes, lie down
and keep quiet.' So they went to sleep. 'When Night had lasted long
enough, Qat took a piece of red obsidian, and cut the darkness, and the
Dawn came out.' {56}

Night is more or less personal in this tale, and solid enough to be cut,
so as to let the Dawn out. This savage conception of night, as the
swallower and disgorger, might start the notion of other swallowing and
disgorging beings. Again the Bushmen, and other savage peoples, account
for certain celestial phenomena by saying that 'a big star has swallowed
his daughter, and spit her out again.' While natural phenomena,
explained on savage principles, might give the data of the swallow-myth,
we must not conclude that all beings to whom the story is attached are,
therefore, the Night. On this principle Cronus would be the Night, and
so would the wolf in Grimm. For our purposes it is enough that the feat
of Cronus is a feat congenia