This story comes from the Atayal tribe in Taiwan and tells of a time when Earth had twin suns, one bright and one dimmer.
Tribal members saw what appeared to be a second, moonlike sun, which was bright enough to be visible in the daylight. In addition, the radiation was strong enough to wither grass and kill trees. That effect, along with climate changes, such as severe drought, probably led to many wildfires across the land.
Atayal Story:
Long ago, when the Atayal tribe first came across the water to Taiwan, there were twin suns in the sky; the normal one was large and yellow and the other was small and blue. Sometimes the normal sun came up in the day and the other shone brightly at night. When this happened, the birds stayed up all night singing and the animals ran around making noise just as if it were daytime.
When the suns came up together, the weather became so hot that the crops withered, leaves fell from the trees, and no one could go out in the scorching heat. The People could not sleep or get enough to eat, so they became very angry at the two suns.
Exhausted and hungry, the tribe called a meeting, at which the headperson said, "We must do something about the two suns if we are to have a normal life. Who has any ideas?"
One man suggested that they climb up to Heaven and put out the second sun like a candle, but no one had a ladder that long. One woman said someone should fly up like a bird and pour water on the second sun, but the headperson asked, "Are you going to put on wings and fly up there?" She shook her head and said no more. No one else had a solution to the problem of the two suns.
Finally, a young boy spoke up, "I have been practicing with my bow and arrow every day. I think I can shoot it down." All the older hunters laughed at the brash boy. One of them said, "You cannot even hit a monkey in a tree. How can you hit the sun, which is farther than any monkey?"
Indignant, the boy insisted, "I will hit it!" But nobody would listen to
him.
As they left the meeting, most of them still laughed about the boastful boy who wanted to shoot down the sun. Nobody thought he could do it, except his father.
The next morning, the father and his son packed their belongings for the long trip to the highest mountain on the far end of the island. The father said, "On the tall mountain, we will have the best chance to hit the sun and bring it down." Putting his arm around his son, he said, "I believe you can do it." With that, they set out, enduring many long days of baking heat, along with sleepless nights, vicious bandits, wild animals, and raging streams.
Finally, they arrived on top of the tallest mountain during what was supposed to be nighttime, when the blue sun was shining brightly. The boy did not want to rest, so he took out his bow and arrow and aimed carefully at the small blue sun. He pulled the string back as far as it would go and let the arrow fly. The arrow landed squarely in the round body of the sun. The sun shuddered, and then boiling blood poured out of the wound. The boy and his father had to get out of the way of the huge falling drop of blood, which splashed across the land, setting fire to trees and grass and even scalding the rocks. Then, in the same way that the light of life disappears from a dying animal, the life-light disappeared from the sun, and it went dark.
For the first time, the boy and his father clearly saw the moon and stars all over the night sky. They laughed and embraced each other and danced in the moonlight. Then they lay down and slept well for the first time in years.
Reference:
Flood, Fire, and Famine in the History of Civilization
https://archive.org/details/cycleofcosmiccat0000fire
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