A12D. Birds overshadow the stars. 11.12.18. (.22.) .24.25.27.29.
30.34.35.43.45.47. (.50.) .52.68.72.
Birds attack the sun or moon during an eclipse (cover them with their wings) or (*) cover the sun during sunrise or sunset. See motive A12.
Chagga, Bambara, Aranda, (Shans), Semangi*, Western Toraja, Wana, Bagobo, Subanon, Hungarians, Abkhazians, Armenians*, Zoroastrianism, South Altai Tuvans, Southern and Northern Selkups, Alsea, cous, yurok, penobscot, chumash, yokutz, (western ceres), Nahuatl (San Luis Potosi), popoloka, iranche, bacairi, matako (mataguayo), lule.
Bantu-speaking Africa. Chagga [in the east, the Sun is protected by people who are always awake; otherwise it would be pecked by birds]: Sicard 1966:63.
West Africa. Bambara [Kama Kamasoro, an 8-year-old boy, has a sister of Fatima Kamasoro, 15 years old; when he died, his mother and father told his sister to obey his brother in everything; (hereinafter F. tries to object to K every time, but he reminds to her about his parents' will); K. tells F. to make him a bow and arrows to hunt rats; he hit a rat, and she hid in the barn; K. set fire to the barn and killed the rat, the grain burned down; ate the rat, left his head on a stone; their only slave ate it; K. killed the slave to get a rat's head out of her belly; F. hid the cow, but K. tied a bag of gold to her leg, found the cow on the ash trail, and stabbed her to arrange a wake for his father; tells F. to go wandering with him; comes to the lion, who offers to hunt together; K. climbs a tree, asks the antelopes who have come why they were not there before: the lion has been waiting for them; the antelopes ran away; then the lion hunts F., and K. stayed with the lions; he killed them, made stuffed animals; wrapped the lion {in cloth?} , carried it, exchanged it from the chief for jewelry for his sister, saying that it was selected meat; when he later unwrapped the bag, the living lion jumped out, but told him not to be afraid: he would go to pay K.; when the lion was ready eat K., a big bird took K. and F. under its wings and carried it away; K. broke the bird's wings, K. and F. fell and crashed; the turtle took the amulet and revived F.; she advised not to revive K., but the turtle revived and him; K. roasted the turtle, but F. refused to eat it; they came to the king, where there is eternal darkness; every time the sun is about to rise, the big bird says three magic words and the sun hides again; K. and F. stopped at the old woman's house, she gave porridge, K. broke a plate of porridge on the old woman's head, forcing her to serve two roasted roosters; K. mockingly responds to the bird's three cries; she comes to eat it, K. cut off her head; plucked the bird (F. could not do it, the feathers were too big), fried it; F. said she could not eat it; the sun was rising; the leader would give the hero half of the kingdom, but let him show the bird's head; the impostors bring only feathers; K. comes to dance; someone Sambou says he is too small, let him dance after him; K. hit him, he fell, ran away; K. took out his head the birds and showed everyone; the sun (at the sight of the bird's head) disappeared again; K. hid his head, the sun appeared again; K. refused to take half of the kingdom and the leader's nine daughters; took one for himself and the other as servants sister; they are on their way again; the leader's daughters cannot walk so fast, K. killed them; the chief was told that he sent soldiers; K. broke an egg, a tree grew, K. and F. climbed on it; the chief ordered him to cut tree; monitor lizard hits its tail and the felling overgrows; K. killed the monitor lizard; the tree collapsed; rope and chain descended from the sky; K. climbed the rope, and F. climbed the chain; they were not seen again]: Zeltner 2013:47-62.
Australia. Aranda [Strelow 1907:19; during an eclipse, the sun is obscured by a big black bird]: Hamacher 2011:138
(Wed. Burma - Indochina. Shana [hurricanes cause the wings of the huge bird Galon, one of Mount Meru's guards, to flap]: Milne 1910:204).
Malaysia-Indonesia. Semangs (Kintak Bong) [a huge bird swallows the sun every evening; in the morning the sun rises from the bird from the other end]: Ewans 1937:164 (same from Shebeshta's material in Schmidt 1925:729); western toraja [eclipses are caused by a giant bird that feeds on humans and buffaloes]: Kruyt 1938, No. 25:372; wana [the eclipse of the moon causes Tolongkungku's pecking bird]: Kruyt 1930:419 in Maaβ 1933:296.
Taiwan - Philippines. Bagobo [a Minokawa bird grabs the moon and sun]; subanon [a big bird covers the sun].
The Balkans. Hungarians [during solar and moon eclipses, they are swallowed by the Markaláb (Morkoláb) bird, probably from a Slavic vrkolak; its nest is on the "sunset tree"]: Lash 1900:142.
Caucasus - Asia Minor. Abkhazians [Atiyu catches and devours the sun and moon, but people start shooting at the sun (moon); it is believed that one out of a hundred bullets reaches the target, and Atiyu releases the sun; according to information N.S. Janashia, atyu is not a dragon, but a big owl]: Zukhba 1995:46; Armenians [in the morning the sun comes out of the sea, moves close to the ground, can burn it; a giant bird flies out to meet him and shades the ground with its wings; by noon the sun rises, its heat weakens, and the bird falls dead into the sea; in the morning it meets the sun again]: Ganalanyan 1979, No. 350:129.
Iran - Central Asia. Zoroastrianism: Chunakova 2004 [kamak is the name of the mythical bird killed by Sami; according to the Persian rivayat Sad dar Bundehesh, the giant Kamak bird was killed by Krshasp for covering it with its own The sun and the earth with its wings, depriving it of rainwater, and devoured people and animals as if they were wheat grains]: 132; (cf. Braginsky 1980b (written sources) [hero Garchasp killed the Kamak bird, which blocked the light of the sun and moon]: 641).
Southern Siberia - Mongolia. South Altai Tuvans [once the sun did not rise in Beijing; asked Jowgun Mergen for help; he said that the bird Han Gerdy covered the sun's eye with its wing; warned that if it shot, the sun will appear again, but the whole city will die; Eshen Khan agreed to this condition; when JM killed the bird's wing with an arrow and the sun appeared again, people became afraid of him; he left and became a black stone; and then the stone has disappeared]: Taube 1978, No. 66:301.
Western Siberia. Southern Selkups: Pelikh 1998 [minley (real name Lab-ira, old eagle) is a bird with iron wings; when it waved its wings, a storm began, when it opened, it began sunny eclipse]: 66-67; Funk 2000 [the black raven covers the Sun with its wing, guarding its winter sleep]: 235; the northern Selkups [the sun (not clear at night or during eclipses) covers the eagle (also a cloud, labyrä)]: Prokofieva 1961:70.
The coast is the Plateau. Alsea [crow, eagle, hawk, owl, all birds attack the Month]: Frachtenberg 1920, No. 22:227; cous [A month works for the Food Master; when food is scarce, all birds fly to the Month and peck his]: Jacobs 1939, No. 9:68.
Northeast. Penobscot [The skunk lived in the Gluskabe wigwam, wanted to know why the snow is falling, goes to strange creatures; sees a bird sitting in the sky (upon the floor of the sky); its fluff falls, turns into snow; a huge eagle stretches its wings, night falls; when it lowers, day comes; the Skunk tied one wing to it, night fell on part of the earth, the other part was day; one the eagle's feather fell on the mountain; the mountain became small, then disappeared altogether]: Speck 1935b, No. 27:74-75.
California. Yurok [crows, lizards and other birds and animals slaughter and kill the Month; only the Raccoon helps it; Raccoon's skin is raised above the house during lunar eclipses; after the eclipse, the Month revives from drops of blood collected by his wife Frog]: Kroeber 1976, No. D3:246-249; chumash [does the upper world support the cannibal eagle Slo? w; eclipses the moon, spreading its wings; this explains the phases of the moon]: Blackburn 1975, No. 1:91; yokutz [condor spreads its wings, causing moon and sun eclipses]: Driver 1937:88, Gayton 1948:162 in Hudson, Underhay 1978:53.
(Wed. The Great Southwest. Western Keres (Laguna, Akoma) [Uretsete (Indian ancestor) competes shamanic abilities with her sister Naotsete (European ancestor); W. manages to name turkey traces , N. cannot name the traces of a wild cockerel; W. calls the snake's trail, she goes to her voice, W. lubricates her head with prayer meal; N. calls W. a witch; sisters fast for four days and argue who will be the first to fall on the ray of the rising sun; the Spider sends Magpie to cover the sun with its wings so that the first rays fall on the eagle feathers on W.'s head; military leaders bind defeated N., she rips open her chest, takes out her heart; a squirrel jumps out of one half of it, a dove flies out of the other; in the Akom version, there is no episode with her chest ripped open, but there is a magpie and by the sun]: Parsons 1939:244).
Mesoamerica Nahuatl (San Luis Potosi) [during an eclipse, the Sun fights against a huge eagle]: Croft 1957:321; Polka [every morning Si Gu (Shi-Gu, "born in the forest") kills an eagle with an arrow, sitting in front of the sun and plunging the earth into darkness; an arrow, an eagle, eggs from the nest fall to the ground; to get to the sun, SG builds a road across the sea from ant excrement; SG himself is identified with with the sun and with Jesus]: Jäcklein 1974:275.
Southern Amazon. Iranshe [during an eclipse, a huge eagle covers the moon]: Pereira 1985, No. 41 (note 400): 180; bakairi [Crotophaga covers the sun with its wings during an eclipse]: Steinen 1897:313.
Chaco. The bird covers the sun with its wings and/or a month. Matako (mataguayo) [a huge bird produces eclipses, killing stars with open wings]: Orbigny in Rivera de Bianchi 1973:697; lule [the bird covers the sun with its wings]: Lozano; Guevara at Metraux 1946b: 366; in Rivera de Bianchi 1973:698.