The World has not yet acquired its usual form-"darkness reigns everywhere, it is like a syrup (the thick mixed with the fluid)".
There is no sun, there are no stars, there is no man. When man does come into being, his nature and life are not yet settled according to the usual laws. His whole body is covered with a horny skin; he has no tools, he does not know how to work; his age, speech, and subordination are still undetermined, there are no classes, no authorities. The flora and fauna are chaotic as well. The dog does not bark, nor does it serve man or chase cats and hares. The cat does not catch mice or purr; the squirrel does not have a fluffy tail; the ram does not boast curved horns; the ass has no long ears; the birds have not yet chosen their king, their feathers are not yet col-ored, they do not yet sing in a variety of voices; the fish do not live in water, but fly in the sky instead; the perch does not have its spikes; the crayfish does not have its eyes; the trees still talk to people, and the latter grant the trees’ wish not to be felled; birches are not yet sorrowful; the aspen does not tremble; the barley does not have its long beard.
This initial stage in the world’s development (sometimes fully expressed, sometime implied) is presented at the beginning of the etiological legends created by the common folk. It is the stage on which two creators - God and the velnias [devil]-undertake the molding of the present-day world. God creates all that is useful
and beautiful, and velnias-all that is harmful and disgusting. God creates the earth smooth, while velnias is responsible for the uneven surfaces, mountains, and swamps. God shapes a healthy man, but the velnias imprints diseases on him. God creates useful animals-the velnias creates the wolf. God sows trees and plants, but the velnias-stones. God’s activities are conscious and purposeful while those of the velnias are just a poor imitation and the result achieved has nothing to do with what had been intended.
In order to create land, God sows earth and creates it, while the velnias makes marshes and rough terrain. God molds man and all the animals, while the velnias (with the same aim in view) just man-ages to create the wolf and the goat. God creates the lark to glad-den the plougher’s heart, but the velnias (trying to create the same kind of bird) produces the toad.
The God of etiological tales is earthly and peasant-like. He rows a boat across the primeval ocean of the universe and does other mundane work, such as making hay , building cowsheds, kindling a fire, or washing His face. He does not lose His simplicity even when engaged in the creation of the world. The world’ s very creation is not presented as a mysterious, supernatural act, as the manifestation of God’ s limitless power as seen in the Bible, but as an every-day task. God sows earth or molds it from the dirt brought along by the velnias and He shapes man from "pure clay." After producing animals and birds, He fixes them up with eyes, names and tells them where and how to live, whom to obey, He dyes the birds’ feathers using some paints and a brush. The treatment of the supreme supernatural being—God-as a man adds warmth and humanity to His image. Nevertheless, in most legends, the image of God is marked with majesty. God is majestic because of His wisdom, shrewdness, and creative power. In addition, He is an embodiment of justice (punishing braggarts, the lazy , and the greedy , while rewarding the laborious and the just) and the founder of the entire culture (teaching people how to accomplish various tasks and giving them the tools they need). He is a cultural hero, to use a term common in folklore study.
However, the image of the velnias is comic. The comic effect arises from the velnias’ foolish pretences. The velnias still wants to imitate and even kill the Creator, though he is worthless, unintelligent, and devoid of God’s creative power. His failure to produce something great and the incongruity of the input of work to the output make one smile. Although the velnias of etiological tales is portrayed as a comic personage, he still retains traits bespeaking his divine origin and the same nature as that of the cultural hero.  Sometimes he is even referred to as a god. To make hay in his meadow, he Uses a sort of scythe that even God does not possess. He is also able to weld iron. He is a kind of patron of the trades.
These two major characters of Lithuanian etiological legends, though associated with the images of good and evil propagated by Christianity, are essentially different from the Christian images.  They are more archaic and taken over from pagan mythology. It is obvious that the image of a simple, peasant-like God is not borrowed from the Bible (which does not contain such imagery of . God), but is created to correspond to the ancient land-tillers’ some-what primitive w ay of life and their hard struggle against natural and social powers. Such creators of the world and founders of human culture are to be found in the folklore of not only the Indo-Europeans, but also among many other peoples. These creators can have the form of a human, an animal, or a bird. God of Lithuanian etiological tales is close in nature and function to the Native Americans’ mythical water child, coyote, and raven. Need-less to say, the same applies to the velnias of etiological tales. This image hardly has anything in common with the evil spirit of the Bible. This velnias is a jester (sometimes even a cultural hero) just like the coyote of the American Indians, the spider of some African tribes, and the maui of the Polynesians. The only difference is that in the folklore of primitive tribes no strict dualistic division of characters is made (e.g. the same coyote in American Indian fairy tales is both the hero and the jester).
Legends containing the images of God and velnias are the most popular ones and constitute the classics of Lithuanian etiological legends.
In other legends, it is not God or the velnias that take part in the formation of the present-day world, but personified celestial bodies (Sun, Moon, and Earth), Perkunas [the mythical smith and god of thunder and lightning], the giant Spjudas, the first human Adam, Noah, Mary (mother of God), Christ, the saints, and, finally, ordinary humans, animals, wild beasts, birds, and plants. Their activity is sometimes conscious and purposeful and sometimes not.  Wishing to reconcile Sun and Moon, both engaged in a lawsuit, Perkunas decided to let Sun protect her daughter Earth by day and to let Moon protect her by night. Longing for light, the smith spent six years forging the sun and, climbing onto the roof of the highest house, flung it into the sky. To punish a lazy horse, Mary and Christ arranged that it might eat and never have enough; to thank the hazel shrub, they granted it drooping branches; to re-ward a good farmer, they turned his gloves into a cat to fight against mice. Meanwhile, Adam went striding and unwittingly left mountains in his footsteps and swamps and barren earth where he did not tread. The hoop of Noah’ s barrel broke and turned into a rainbow. Falling down from the ass, Sun caught hold of its ears and the ass’ ears became long. While sliding down the back of the ass, Sun left a mark on its back.
Since these characters perform the same functions as God and velnias, it is easy to trace out their genetic relationship. The images of the personified celestial bodies, Perkunas, the smith, and the giant Spjudas belong to the ancient period in mythology, unaffected by Christianity. It seems that these tales are of the same age or even older than the classical ones with the images of God and velnias. However, recorded tales with the archaic mythical images are very rare-there are only solitary examples-and the authenticity of some of these is questionable. It might be assumed, therefore, that some of those legends have been deliberately created in recent times using the archaic images. The personas of the New Testament (Mary, Christ, St. Peter) are clearly younger than the traditional images of the gods and the velnias (replaced now by images under the influence of Christianity). That influence, however, was not substantial. It changed the characters’ names and some of the motives, but the structure of the legends and the entire interpretation has remained the same. One curiosity proves that the effect of Christianity was just superficial. The functions of God in these legends are taken over by Christ and Mary, while those of the velnias-by St. Peter. Therefore, St. Peter’s actions, thoughts, and decisions are not like those of a positive character, thus provoking laughter. For example, God granted superiority to men, while St.Peter wanted to give it to women. As a result, a woman gives him a thrashing and plucks his hair, leaving him bald-headed.  God tells St. Peter to separate a fighting velnias and an old woman.  St. Peter chops their heads off, but mixes them up in trying to reattach them. God orders that the humans be given some rain when they ask for it, but St. Peter gives them rain during hay season.
As a result of some activities of God, the velnias, and other characters, the world acquires the usual present-day form, which is shown at the end of etiological tales: "From that time on, the sun shines only during the day and the moon and stars only at night," " And, to this day, it [the sun] still hangs there," " And now the sandpiper doesn’t have a tail, but the wagtail flies about and wags its long tail." These are the most common endings of etiological legends. A complete world is implied at the end of the legend, though it may not be explicitly stated.