Week 9 Story: The Moon Made of Cheese

Story Source: Nigeria: Why the Moon Waxes and Wanes by Elphinstone Dayrell 1910


There was once a young boy who was very poor, and lived in a small mud hut thatched with mats made from the leaves of palm trees. He was often very hungry as he had four other siblings whom he had to share his food with.

In the olden days, the moon used to often come down to the earth, although she lived most of the time in the sky. The moon was a fat woman with a skin of wax, and she was full of delicious cheese. She was quite round, and in the night used to give plenty of light.

(The Cheesy Moon)

The moon was sorry for the poor starving young boy and his brothers and sisters, so she came to him and said, "You may cut some of my cheese away for your food." This the young boy did every evening, yet he never shared with his siblings, and the moon got smaller and smaller until you could scarcely see her at all. Of course this made her give very little light, and all the people began to grumble in consequence, and to ask why it was that the moon was getting so thin.

At last the people had a meeting to discuss this matter. There was a young girl who had been there for some little time and had seen the moon come down every evening, and the young boy go out with his knife and carve his daily supply of cheese out of the moon. As she was very frightened, she told the people all about it. The people went to the young boy's house, where he was asleep while his siblings played with stones. Determined, the people requested the siblings keep watch on the young boy.

That very night the moon came down as usual, and the young boy went out with his knife and basket to get his food, but before he could carve any cheese his siblings rushed out shouting, and the moon was so frightened that she went back again into the sky and never came down again to the earth. The young boy was left to starve in the bush.

Ever since that time the moon has hidden herself most of the day, as she was so frightened, and she still gets very thin once a month, but later on she gets fat again, and when she is quite fat she gives plenty of light all the night, but this does not last very long, and she begins to get thinner and thinner, in the same way as she did when the young boy was carving cheese from her.

Author's Note:

In the original story, the moon was made of meat. The main character was a poor old woman. I wanted to change the meat to cheese, because that was a myth we often heard as children. I also figured the story might be more interesting or heartfelt when the main character is changed to a poor young boy.