Badgers and Weasels

Back in the days before the hanging garden grew, the weasel and badger looked a lot more alike than they do now.  The badger's face was almost all white.  They were kin; that's why when the weasel wanted to marry the Divine Priestess, who was the daughter of the King of the Smoking Hills and the Queen of the Night; he went to the badger for advice.

And the badger helped him.  "Bring her treasures from under the earth," the badger told the weasel.  "I'll dig some up for you."  The badger tunneled into the earth, and brought up gems and precious metals.  "I ask in return that the Priestess give me her blessing."

The Priestess was pleased by what the weasel brought before her, and consented to marry the weasel.  But the weasel didn't feel a need to rush to repay his kin.  "Let's go see the world for our honeymoon!"  So they rushed away.

"Give me what you owe me," cried the badger as he pursued them.

"What does that badger want," asked the Priestess.

"I don't know," answered the weasel.

The Priestess pulled some hairs from her comb and threw it behind them.  It sprang up into a hedge.  "Let's continue, my husband," she said to the weasel.

The badger began to dig.  He dug all the way under the hedge, killing its roots, and chased the couple.  "Give me what is my due!"

The Priestess threw down her outer garment.  It turned into a mighty river, too deep to forge and too fast to dare swimming across.

The badger began to dig.  He dug all the way under the river.  When he was on the other side, he stamped his feet, he was so angry.  Part of the tunnel collapsed.  No waters flow there now, but the channel is still there to this day.  "Give me what you promised," he cried.

"Is he talking to you, or to me?"  The Priestess removed one of her shoes.  

"I don't know," said the weasel.  

The Priestess threw her shoe back toward the badger; it became a forbidding mountain.  "You'll have to carry me," the Priestess told her husband, "now that I have only one shoe."

The badger began to dig.  He went all the way under that mountain, but it was so vast that the badger became lost.  A maze of tunnels came into being.  It's where the Singer and the star-gazing bats dwell now.  He finally came out on the other side.  "I'll never rest until you deliver!"

The weasel and his wife made very little progress, since the weasel had to carry the Priestess, so the badger had caught up to them.  He set his wife down and said "You've caught me at last.  But I was jealous:  I don't want my wife to owe anyone anything!"

"What do I owe this badger, my husband?"  The Priestess was angry.

"I gave him what he then gave you to win you," said the badger.  "I asked for your blessing in return."  After all that digging, his legs were even shorter than they used to be.

The Priestess's face softened.  She pulled her fingers across her black lips and leaned down to the badger and said "I'll give you two, for being so persistent."  She touched the badger's head with two fingers, leaving two black trails across his eyes and ears.

As you know, badgers are marked to this day.  And anyone with a persistent spirit in them is said to be badgering someone; anyone trying to escape their obligations is said to be weaseling out of it.