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据说，很久以前天上住着一个美丽的女人叫做雨，她的腰上系着一条美丽的彩虹作为腰带。雨和创造地球的人结了婚，生了三个美丽的女儿。大女儿长大了，希望离开家，去下面的地球上看一看。她的父母同意了。她一到了尘世，就爱上了一个英俊的猎人，并和他结了婚。在她离幵的曰子里，她的妈妈雨又生了另一个孩子，一个男孩儿，她给儿子取名叫艾布。当艾布长大后，他的姐姐们恳求妈妈让他们也到人间逛一逛。但是他们的妈妈雨，害怕失去他们就拒绝了。然而，一个熟人狼，看到那两个女儿长得很漂亮，就掩饰着邪恶的内心，对她们的父亲说：“请让他们去吧，我自己也会同他们一起，照顾他们。”因此，尽管妻子很悲痛，丈夫还是同意了他们的请求。他们很高兴地离开了 不久之后，他们下凡来到人间，到了一个村庄，那儿住着好人和坏人。一个女人从他们旁边经过，使劲盯着艾布看,说：“怎么会是这样呢？这个男孩的眉毛长得像我妈妈。” 那个女人为他们准备了食物，但是狼没有给艾布一点儿，他说：“艾布不是一个人，他只是一件东西。"艾布生气地转过脸，但是女孩们吃了。他一个人坐在草地里时,捉到一只从他身旁飞过的美丽的红鸟，把它藏在衣服里面。 那晚,那个女人在家里为他们提供了栖身之处。但是狼不允许男孩进入屋子，让他躺在—个小棚屋里。黄昏以后，狼去村子里召集了一些坏人，放火烧掉了小棚屋，那个男孩也在里面。但是当火快烧到屋顶时,一只红色的鸟飞向夜空，越飞越高，一直飞到男孩的妈妈雨那里。 “艾布死了！他被火烧死了，然而他的姐姐们却不知道。"那只鸟儿鸣叫着。 "你听到那只鸟唱什么了吗？"雨问她的丈夫，"他们杀死了我们的儿子，你该怎么办呢？" 过了一会儿，村子里的好人和坏人看到一块巨大的暴风云飞快地迫近村庄，在它中间是—道彩虹。突然，闪电从云里闪过，到处击打着。它挑出狼和坏人，把他们劈死了。一个响亮的声音在云里咆哮着说："不要杀死天的儿子！"从那以后，住在澳洲丛林中的人们便害怕彩虹。 Rain and Her Son It is told that Rain was once a beautiful woman who lived long ago in the sky. For a girdle she wore a rainbow around her waist. Rain married the man who created the earth and they had three beautiful daughters. When she grew up, the eldest daughter wished to leave home and visit the earth below. Her parents let her go and once there she fell in love and married a handsome hunter. While she was away, her mother Rain bore another child, a son, whom she named Son-eib. When Son-eib was old enough his sisters begged their parents to let them also travel to see the world, but their mother, Rain, was afraid she would lose them all, and refused. However, an acquaintance, Wolf, had looked upon the two daughters and found them fair. Disguising his wicked heart, he said to the father； "Pray let them go, and I myself will go with them to look after them.” So the father gave them permission in spite of his wife，s grief. Off they went, full of happiness. Soon after they had come down to earth，they came to a village where both good and bad people lived. A woman passing by stared hard at Son-eib and said ： " How can this be? This boy has my mother，s eyebrows." She offered them food，but Wolf did not give any to Son-eib, saying，" He is not a person, he is just a thing. "Son-eib turned away angrily, but the daughters ate. While sitting by himself in the long grass the boy caught a beautiful red bird which fluttered past him, and concealed it under his coat. That night the woman offered them the shelter of her house. However, Wolf would not let the boy into the house but made him lie by himself in a little hut. After dark, Wolf went and fetched some of the bad people from the village and they set fire to the hut and burned it down with the boy inside, but as the roof fell in, a lovely red bird flew up into the night. Up, up it flew, straight to the boy，s mother, Rain. “Son -eib is dead! He perished in the fire and his sisters did not know that,” sang the bird. ‘‘Do you hear what the bird sings?” asked Rain of her husband. “You, whose name is Flame, what will you do now that they have killed our son?" A little while later, the good and bad people in the village observed a great black storm cloud approaching fast and around its middle was a rainbow. Suddenly lightning flashed wildly from the cloud, striking here and there. It singled out Wolf and all the bad people and struck them dead. A mighty voice roared out of the cloud ； " Do not kill the Children of the Sky. " And ever since then，the Bushman has feared the rainbow. |
