Yu.E. Berezkin, E.N. Duvakin

Thematic classification and distribution of folklore and mythological motifs by area

Analytical catalogue

Introduction
Bibliography
Ethnicities and habitats

A2F. Suns are fruits. (.26.35.)

Suns grow on tree branches like fruits.

China - Korea. Ancient China: Yuan Ke 1987, ch. 6 [ten suns are children of Xihe, wife of the eastern heavenly deity Di-Jun. In the bubbling sea, a fusan tree grows several thousand zhans high and a thousand zhans thick; ten sun sons live on it; nine were on the upper branches, one on the lower branches (In the Book of Mountains and Seas - on the contrary); appear in the sky one by one; they ride a chariot ruled by S.; although there are ten suns, people always see one in the sky; ten suns, under the supervision of their mother, take turns every day; the way repeats from day to day, gets bored; sun sons agree to fly together, not wanting to get into a boring chariot; people are poor; before sending the arrow And to people (hollow mulberry gave birth to Yi Yin, pp. 216-217), Di-Jian gives him a bow and arrows; apparently, And he should only frighten the sun; And sympathizes with people, hits the sun with arrows, every time a three-legged golden crow falls to the ground ; wise Yao orders to remove one arrow from Y.'s quiver, one sun remains alive]: 139-148; burial in Mawangdui, prov. Hunan, Western Han, 168 BC, depicted on a painted silk banner placed face down on the lid of the inner coffin from Princess Dai's tomb [apparently cosmological diagram; at the top left is a moon sickle with a toad and a rabbit, at the top right is a tree (or rather a curly vine), among the leaves and flowers of which at the very top there is a large solar disk with the silhouette of a crow (with two paws) and below six more small ones]: Kryukov et al. 1983:257-259; Chekmarev 1998:147-148; Scott 1993:25; Yuan Ke 1987, ch. VI: 139-140 [Huainan Tzu: The time when the sun comes out of Yanggu, bathes in Xianchi Lake (Salt Lake) and moves from the lower branches of the tree to the tops is called "approaching morning"; then the sun reaches the top of the tree, gets into a chariot prepared by his mother, sets off; this is "early dawn"; the time for passing through Crooked Hill (Quya) is "full dawn"; Sihe accompanies son to Beiquan (Sad Spring), where the chariot stops; this is Xinche ("chariot stop"); the son makes the rest of the journey on his own, but S. continues to monitor him]; Yangshin 1984:110 [a detailed translation of the sun's movement from one point to another - along mulberry branches? You can understand that the sun rises on the mulberry branches], 114 [Jo tree... with ten suns at its top, its flowers illuminate the ground below].

Western Siberia. Southern Selkups {the text is unique, confirmation is needed} [the Daru tree (Dari) grows from Mother Earth's home; its roots go to the sixth, fiery tier of the underworld; this fire rises the trunk, so fireballs - suns - grow on the branches; every morning one breaks off, rolls west, falls into the fiery world; the tree changes its bark every year; the old one flies with thin transparent plates, they curl up in a circle, roll on the ground, fall on living trees, form annual rings; the tree trunk permeates the earthly and celestial worlds, the peak rests on the North Star]: Pelich 1998:24.