A12C. A reptile or fish overshadows the stars.

.11.14.16.-.31.35.43.48.-.53.59.65.66.67.

Eclipses of the sun, moon, or their setting (marked with*) are caused by a snake, lizard, dragon, fish, crocodile; these creatures attack stars now or have attacked at the beginning of time. See motive A12.

Gabonese Pygmies, Tswana, Zulu, Venda, Swahili, Ancient Egypt, French, Western Asian Bedouins, Greek Cypriots, Cape King William, D'Entrecasteau, Bugun, Thais, Ancient India, Sora, Toda, Kota, Nayar, Halakki, Tamils, Nicobars, Semangs, Senoi, Malays, Bataks, Minangkabau, Mentawai, Rejang, Tabaru, Cebuan, Ancient Chinese, Koreans, Bosnians, Croats, Montenegrins, Bulgarians, Hungarians, Gagauz people, Poles, Russians (Novgorod, Vladimir), Belarusians, Ukrainians, Abazins, Adygs, Ingush, Rutulans, Georgians, Svans, Armenians, Turks, Persians, Ishkashim, Estonians, Khanty {northern?} , quarry, takelma, tututni, yurok, karok, hupa, atsugevi, northern payut, yuma, huichol*, Nahuatl Zap. Mexico*, lacandons, jicake, galibi, incas, eseeja, tupari.

Bantu-speaking Africa. The Pygmies of Gabon (next to the fang) [during the eclipse, a crocodile-like dragon tries to swallow the moon; it obeys the evil spirit of Thunder; you have to scream and beat the drums, the dragon is frightened lets go of the moon]: Trilles 1932:95; tswana [at sunset, the sun swallows a crocodile, spewing it out of its ass in the east in the morning]: Clegg 1986:34 (quoted in Koekemoer 2007:75); Swahili [snake sometimes swallows the moon and people have to drive it away]: Scheub 2000:161-162; Zulu, Venda [during an eclipse, the sun devours a celestial crocodile, thereby showing dissatisfaction with behavior people]: Godwin 2012:117-118 in d'Huy 2018:206.

Western Europe. The French (Franche-Sonté) [during an eclipse, the dragon devours the stars; the author himself saw how the peasants sympathized with the suffering moon during the eclipse]: Monnier 1874:137-138.

North Africa. Ancient Egypt [among the solar deities fighting the Magician's huge crocodile and piercing it with spears are Ra, Shu-Onuris (the eldest son of Ra), Montu, Noplu, etc.; while sailing in heaven Neil Shaw stands on the bow of the boat, protecting Ra from the crocodile; in an inscription from the Temple of Horus to Edfu Gore, Bekhdetsky flies with the "Great Winged Sun", shining with rainbow feathers, in front of the boat Ra, defeating crocodiles and hippos; a vignette from a text in the Book of the Dead, depicting a red cat cutting off the head of a snake; here is the text: "I am this great cat who fought sycamore in Heliopolis, on the night of the battle, who guarded the perpetrators on the day of the extermination of the enemies of the Almighty"; the most numerous references to Ra's struggle with the serpent Apop during a nightly underground journey; in the Egyptian religious literature Apop becomes collectively enemies of the sun;]: Mathieu 1956:32-42 Apop drinks the water of the underground Nile; Ra's satellites injure Apopa, who releases water; Ra's boat passes through the body of a snake and Comes out of hell through a hole in the eastern mountains]: 60-67.

Western Asia. The Bedouins of Arabia (and other Western Asian countries?) [from time to time, the Hawt dragon (this is a huge fish) tries to swallow the Sun or the Month; especially afraid of a lunar eclipse, everyone is screaming, asking the dragon to let go of the Month]: Montagne 1947:74.

Melanesia. D'Entrecasteau [snake attacks the moon]; Simbang (Cape King William; this is Papua Trans-New Guinean philia) [The month is decreasing because sharks, turtles, and others eat it in the sea predators; then little fish free him, the moon sickle rises, the children rejoice when they see it]: Hagen 1899:287.

Micronesia-Polynesia. Pukapuka [Lingutaimoa woman caught a fish, put it in a coconut shell, began to feed it; the fish grew, she placed it in a larger vessel, in a water pit, in a lagoon, and finally in the sea; fish swam, L. fed her; the fair-people-of-the-sky people pulled the hook from the sky, caught fish; L. asked the wave to carry it to the horizon; the first two waves were not good, the third one brought, L. climbed into heaven, asked everyone if he ate her fish, killed everyone who ate, returned home the same way; fish blood causes eclipses of the sun and moon]: Beaglehole, Beaglehole 1938.

Tibet is the Northeast of India. Bugun [Ettong snakes are grabbed by the Sun or the Month].

Burma - Indochina. Thais [during an eclipse, a dragon attacks the sun or moon]: Mills 1926:300.

South Asia. Ancient India [Rahu's dragon head swallows the Sun and the Month]; Hinduism [Vishnu beheaded two giants, they turned into snakes - Iraku into black, Keatu into red; during the eclipse, these snakes attack the sun and moon]: Lasch 1900:121; Marathi [explanation of eclipses - as in mainstream Indian tradition (demon Rahu)]: Dr. Sunil R. Parab, Shivalik Institute of Ayurved & Research, personal report 15.06.2018; nayar [Rahu devours the moon and sun during serpse eclipses]: Iyer 1912:88; litter: Elwin 1954, No. 35 [The sun and the moon tied a snake around the boy's neck; his blind father cursed the stars; now the snake will devour them, sometimes swallow them completely]: 55-56; Krylova, Renkovskaya 2017, field materials [solar eclipse - moyung (mo - swallow, yung - sun); sun swallows big snake; one day the sun went to the snake to ask for water, the snake gave it; the sun began to come to the snake every day for water, because of its heat all the snake's children died; the snake became angry and began to swallow the sun; she only punishes him and then releases him (belches); a pregnant woman should not leave the house during an eclipse, otherwise there will be problems with the child; lunar eclipse - mogay (mo - swallow, gay - moon); the moon is swallowed by another snake; the snake is dark at night, it asks the moon to give some light; the moon agrees, but promises the snake not to kill any of the people; the snake promises, but then eats several people; for this, the moon drops poison from the sky on the snake family, snakes die; before that, snakes were everywhere on earth; the snake frightens the moon by swallowing it]; toda [the snake tries to grab a hare hiding on the moon]; cat [the hunters chased the hare followed by a huge snake; the hare rushed to the Month, who hid it under his clothes; the snake swallows them]: Emeneau 1944:68 in Elwin 1949:69; halakki (Okkal) [snake or the beast is chasing the rabbit; the Sun and Moon brothers are trying to hide it; the stalker tries to swallow them themselves; people scare him away by hitting drums and gongs]: Gurumurthy 1981:346-347; Tamils [The king has only one daughter, she is on the seventh floor of the palace; every day he weighs her using lemons as weights; every day in the morning and evening the girl looks at the sun and laughs; Surya Bhagavan ( the sun, aka Shiva) decides that she is mocking him, comes at night, in the morning, the room is in a mess; the king notices that the daughter has become heavier (i.e. she is pregnant); then Shiva opens, they are happy; Shiva gives her a ring and goes for gifts; but the warrior replaced the collected dishes with an iron brazier; when she saw her, the princess told her not to let anyone in; offended Shiva predicted that she would starve and work To the point of exhaustion, his fingers will be cut off with a sickle and only much later his well-being will return; her son asks who his father is; she gives him Shiva's ring; tells him to go to the river and help the old woman raise a jug of water; let him throw a ring into the jug; when the ring was in the jug, there was only a little water left there immediately; Shiva asked for a drink, the old woman began to pour it out of the jug, the ring fell, and the old woman handed it to Shiva; he told him to be brought to him, took him to heaven; but he wanted to see his mother, because she was starving; Shiva gave him a box, told him not to open it on the way; but the boy opened it, from there valuables fell asleep, houses, land, cattle; the snake promises to collect everything back, but then it will bite on the wedding day; the boy agrees; now he and his mother are safe; the young man has grown up, but postpones the wedding day; finally, the day has come, the snake is ready to bite the groom; this is the snake that Shiva wears as a necklace; he can't let her bite his son, put his leg up and be bitten by a snake; it's an eclipse of the sun]: Blackburn 2005, No. 50.

Malaysia-Indonesia. The snake swallows stars, usually the moon. Semangs [moon and sun]; Nicobars [boa constrictor swallows the moon and sun]; senoi (sakai) [during an eclipse, the Rahu snake or dragon {obvious Indian borrowing} tries to swallow the moon]: Skeat, Blagden 1906:235; Malays [Rahu, who swallows the sun and moon, is considered a dragon; Danu is a rainbow serpent]: Winstedt 1951:35; Bataks (Toba Batak) [a shepherd broke snake eggs; The Sun and Moon tried to persuade the Snake to accept the ransom, she disagrees; then the Moon agrees to be the shepherd's deputy; the snake swallows it every month]: Pleyte 1894:97 in Antoni 1982:155; minangkabau [during eclipses, the seven-headed dragon garuda swallows]: Lasch 1900:131; mentawai [when the Sun and Moon descend westward in the sky, their crocodile living in the sea swallows, but they soon reappear; then red people living on the western edge of the world throw tarot dumplings into the crocodile's open mouth; the Sun and Moon return to heaven]: Schefold 1988: 71; regjang [a dragon swallows it during a moon eclipse]: Marsden 1785:207 in Lasch 1900:132; north Sulawesi (Bolaand Mongondow: minahasa?) [the snake attacking the moon is driven away with noise and screams]: Lasch 1900:132; Bakan, Patani, Galela [lunar eclipse - "the snake swallows"]: Lasch 1900:132; Tabaru [lunar eclipse -" eaten by a snake "]: Maaβ 1921:63; tidore [during the eclipse of the star, a dragon swallows, is driven away by screams and blows to the drum]: Lasch 1900:132-133; Halmachera (band not specified) [ The sun and moon are the toys of the souls of dead children; when the snake eats these souls, an eclipse occurs]: Lasch 1900:132.

Taiwan - Philippines. Cebuan [sea serpent swallows the moon].

China - Korea. Ancient Chinese: Yangshina 1984 [Zhou Rites: When the sun and moon are devoured, the king personally beats the drum; the word "devour" is given in the hieroglyph "eat" or the same determinative character" worm" (means "to be devoured by a worm, a reptile")]: 108; Antoni 1982 [a Shan-era vessel depicting a dragon from whose mouth a moon hare sticks out]: 157; Koreans [An eclipse happens when the moon fights a snake; makes noise during it, and then a clay snake is smashed {probably based on reports from Matthaus Eiboken and other Sperwer crew members, who lived in Korea in 1653-1666}: "Als het Eclipsis is, oordeelt het gemeene volk, dat de Maen met zeeker slang in stryt is, als wanneer zy een gemaekte slang by der hand hebben, en terwyl de verduisteringe duurt, met Trommen, Hoorens, en Bazuinen, allerhande geluit en getier maeken, tot dat de Eclipsis over gaet, wanneer zy zeggen, dat de slang overwonnen is; slaende zy haeren gemaekten slang van klei dan aen stukken, uit wraek en boosheit tegen den slang in den Hemel, die zoo stout was, om de Maen te durven bestryden"]: Witsen 1785:57.

The Balkans. Bosniaks, Croats [in Dalmatia say there were three or four suns; the Snake sucked in everything but one that the Swallow hid under its wing; two "blind" swallowed up by the Snake suns are sometimes visible; var: there were ten rays in the sun; the Snake drank nine, the tenth Swallow saved; according to legends from Bosanska Kraina and Lika, the Snake sucked in two suns, the third was saved by the Swallow and Lizard]: Gura 1997:283; Janković 1951 (Bosanska Kraina, Lika) [1) there were three suns, but God became angry with people for their bad deeds, sent a snake that sucked two suns, leaving the third weakest; 2) the snake drank two suns, took up the third (or there were two suns, the snake drank one), but the swallow covered the sun, and the lizard pulled the snake off the mountain where it lay in wait for the sun; the swallow and lizard cannot be killed ]: 38-39; Serbs [people born with six fingers are descended from month-eating dragon snakes]: Plotnikova 1997:6; Bosniaks [the winged serpent drank two suns, took up the third , but the lizard beat him off]: Janković 1951:39; Montenegrins [two of the three suns were sucked by a flying serpent avaya]: Gura 1997:283; Macedonians [the Sun had two eyes, the snake sucked one, the sun's light and heat weakened]: Tsenev 2004:31; Bulgarians (Central Rhodopes) [the sun had two or more eyes, but the snake sucked them]: Gura 1997:283; Hungarians [during their eclipses of the sun and moon swallows the bird Markaláb (Morkoláb), probably from a Slavic wrkolak; its nest is located on the "sunset tree"; in some areas it is believed that the stars are devoured by a dragon whose urine poisons wells]: Lash 1900:142; Gagauz people [winged snakes attack the sun or moon]; Cyprus (Greeks) [there is a dragon on the moon fighting a lion; lunar eclipse (before the capture of the moon) happens when the dragon wins and grabs the moon; to scare the dragon and make it release the moon, peasants knocked on tins (Cyprus)]: Choha 2009:186-187.

Central Europe. The snake attacks the sun. Poles [the eclipse occurs because a flying serpent obscures the sun; in a fairy tale, a twelve-headed snake causes an eclipse of the sun; a serpent or dragon ready to swallow the sun is in a Polish engraving 16th century]: Gura 1997:286; Russians (Novgorod) [a serpent or dragon ready to swallow the sun is wearing a 14th century Novgorod breast]: Gura 1997:286; Russians (Vladimirskaya) [when The lizard sits in the sun with its mouth open, it "sucks the sun" or "the sun drinks" or "the sun swallows"; that's why peasants kill lizards]: Zavoiko 1914:130; Belarusians: Gura 1997 [snakes suck the sun, which is why it gradually decreases in summer and grows back over the winter, when snakes do not see it]: 284; Dobrovolsky 1891, No. 13 (Dukhovshinsky U., Smolensk Gubernia) ["There used to be two suns, but God, angry at one of them, sent a snake that sucked the sun so much that God did not like it that it became completely pale - and it has been called for a month and has been shining ever since only at night "]: 235; Ukrainians (Transcarpathia) [when the sun disappears, we have to put water in the barrel and look at it; then we help the sun: the dragon (shuffling) cannot eat it; when the war broke out, the shuffling ate the sun and it was barely visible; two hours later it went on its usual path, the shuffling did not defeat it]: Bogatyrev 2007:128.

Caucasus - Asia Minor. Abazins [during "the sun is held captive by the dragon" or "the moon in captivity by the dragon"]: Kunizhova 2012:175; the Adygs [lague is the lord of rivers and lakes, a monster like a crocodile; it can drink alone take a sip of the lake or drain a deep river; the eclipse of the sun was explained by the fact that it was captured by the giant dragon Blague; the Adygs fought with him, creating noise with the help of basins, pans, kumgans, iron objects, ratchets]: Shortanov 1992:144; Ingush: Dakhkilgov 2003 [during the eclipse, Sarmak collects sea water and swallows the sun, but it burns through it and goes into the sky, and Sarmak lies in the sea until his belly heals]: 18; Rutulans [hit metal objects during the eclipse of the moon, believing that a dragon is holding the moon]: Lavrov 1962:140 in Hajiyev 1991:157; Georgians : Mashurko 1894 [eclipse of the moon - the serpent has captured it]: 258; Stepanov 1894, No. 7 [(=1893:141); during eclipses, the dragon grabs the moon or the sun with its mouth; you have to scare him away and shoot with guns]: 79; Chikovani 1966 (Lechkhumi residents are neighbors of the Svans) [an old man from the village of Tvishi personally saw Gveleshapi swallow the sun at noon and he smelled scorched]: 87; Svans: Janashvili 1893, No. 4 [snake gveliarshap tries to swallow the moon and the sun; the moon turns red because the serpent scratches and bites it; one side of the gveliarshap is not real, made of braided fabric; when he swallows the sun, it burns its side and comes out again illuminate the world]: 147; Chikovani 1965 [during an eclipse, the sun is freed from the dragon "by Amirani": burns a wooden fence that the hero inserted into the dragon's cut side]: 87; Armenians: Harutyunyan 2004 [during a thunderstorm, the vishapas try to swallow the sun, angels fight them]: 198; Ganalanyan 1979, No. 349 [when the sun eclipses, the vishap tries to swallow it]: 129.

Iran - Central Asia. Persians [during eclipses, God, angry with people for their sins, sends a dragon to swallow the sun or moon; people read prayers and make noise by hitting vessels]: Donaldson 1938:105, 170; Ishkashim residents [recorded by student Odinabekova Sharora from Bandishoeva Davlatsho, a resident of the village of Namadgut (Ishkashim); when the Moon eclipse occurs, in our village, Namadgut (Ishkashim), people leave at home and they hit hard on large iron dishes and scream; a woman who has one son goes up to the roof with her hair shattered and screams to the Lord, asking to save the moon from the dragon]: Lashkarbekov, manuscript.

Baltoscandia. Estonians [during an eclipse, snakes try to eat the Sun].

Western Siberia. Khanty {northern?} (unlikely Mansi): Karjalainen 1996 [a lizard instigated by a devil often looks at the sun with his mouth open to swallow it; therefore lizards must be killed]: 26; Islamov 2006 {with reference to Gondatti 1888:91?} and with regard to the Khanty [if you see a lizard with its mouth open, it must be killed, it wants to swallow the sun]: 73.

The coast is the Plateau. A month. Quarry ["dragon"]; takelma [lizards, frogs]; tututni [snake].

California. A month. Yurok [rattlesnake, lizards, crows]; karok [lizard]; hupa [cougars, snakes]; atsugevi [lizard].

Big Pool. Northern payutes [the snake swallows the Moon and the Sun, causes the phases of the moon].

The Great Southwest. Yuma [Moon: lizard].

NW Mexico. Huichol [a Tatu Ipou snake with heads on both ends of its body rings around the world; it is the sea itself; the sun sinks between its mouths every night and throws a person at each]: Lumholz 1900 : 80; 1986:120-121; Nahuatl Zap. Mexico [The sun wears a crown of flowers and a bow and arrows; the light of the crown illuminates the world, dispels demons; the Morning Star is ahead; on the path of the Sun there is a snake, wolf, bear, jaguar; he fought off the Jaguar arrow]: Preuss 1925, No. 2:466 (=1968, No. 18:151-154).

Mesoamerica Lacandons [Moon: Iguana].

Honduras-Panama. Hikake [Sun, Moon: Nen Water Snakes].

Guiana. Galibi [anaconda eats the moon].

The Central Andes. The Incas [Moon and Sun? : snake].

Bolivia - Guaporé. The moon. Eseeha [a huge winged serpent Uecajinene lives deep in the reservoir; it rises to the sky, swallows the moon, causing an eclipse]: Hissink, Hahn 1988:179; manashi [snakes]; tupari [Sun, Moon: caiman].