Yu.E. Berezkin, E.N. Duvakin

Thematic classification and distribution of folklore and mythological motifs by area

Analytical catalogue

Introduction
Bibliography
Ethnicities and habitats

A32. The figure on the lunar disk, A751.

.11.-.13.15.-.50.52.53.55.57.-.59.65.66.68.69.72.

On the lunar disk, you can see a figure or print of a creature or object. In statistical calculations, this motif also includes A32A - A32J motifs (a rabbit, a frog, a predatory beast, a person, a tree, etc. are visible on the moon).

West Africa. Tenda [woman has been pregnant for several years; complains that there is no one to harvest fruits for her; Tyara answers from the womb, comes out, immediately becomes a big boy; his grandmother does not tell him to go to hers village, where a bird takes people away; he attaches a bag of ash to it from behind, follows the trail; everyone hides, T. cuts off the bird's head, puts it in a bag; the chief says he killed the bird, but he cannot show his head (the heads of a rooster, goat, ram, cow do not fit); the leader sends T. to a granary (he has the shape of a deep vessel in the ground), pours molten bullets and hot oil on top; T. puts a pumpkin vessel; sends sorrel to search; T. calls sorrel, hears an answer, refuses to go (sorrel cannot answer, it is a trap); T. tells the Sun not to shine so that the oil does not melt; the moon does not grow up so that the hyena does not eat it by the goat; they refuse, T. hides them in a bag, it's a long night; T. tells everyone to hide, releases the Sun; Guinea fowl sticks out its head, now it is burned; The Turtle and the Snail didn't hide, now their bodies are hard, dry; when the sun went down, T. released the moon; the Monkey grabbed her; the moon shows the Monkey grabbing the moon to look at it]: Ferry 1983, #49:286 -295.

Sudan - East Africa. Lure [The month came to visit the Bat; he served him food on a luxurious carved tray; the Month asked for a tray, but the Bat replied that he would give him anything but this; but the Month took the tray and it is now visible on the lunar disk; bats have been hanging backwards to the moon ever since]: Knappert 1997:212.

Australia. Vaduman [He lived in a cave in the west for a month; he has 3 dogs and a kangaroo; when he died, his spirit became a month; dogs and kangaroos are moon spots]: Waterman 1987, No. 53:24.

Melanesia. Buin (Fr. Bougainville) [the moon shows the moon-man village: sleeping huts, work house, chief's house]: Thurnwald 1910:134.

Tibet is the Northeast of India. Lucy [a huge ficus (Bung) grows on the moon, the branches of which are visible in the silhouette of the spots; in the middle of the tree there is a monkey without a head; whoever sees it will die before the deadline]: Parry 1932:493.

Burma - Indochina. The Viets [three brothers caught frogs; they hear them say that animals will soon gather to judge a man; the brothers let the frogs go, the elder goes to a meeting with the old frog, hides in a hollow; animals accuse each other of being guilty to man; only frogs man destroys innocently; the frog promises that there will be a flood; animals run away; the frog tells brothers make a raft; water floods the fire, brothers want to fry crab, swim to the Sun's house; the eldest fell in love with the daughter of the Sun, baked the crab to black; now visible in the sun with a black crab in his hands; raft descended on bare rocks; an older brother threw a tree trunk with two termites and two earthworms from the sky; termites and worms turn wood into soil, brothers plant rice; younger brother studies magic, meets an old woman, turns him into a beauty; the middle brother fell in love with the bride, took her younger brother on his magic horse; contrary to the warning, he galloped him, which caused the earth to catch fire, mountains and the sea formed, a horse and riders jumped to the moon, can now be seen there; a pumpkin has grown in the fire, brought one fruit; the ancestors of peoples came out of it; their skin is darker or lighter, depending on who smeared more with charcoal; some of their hair caught fire, became curly; taoi, vankieu, ede, sedang, banar, viet came out; the younger brother became the Spirit of the Earth, told everyone where to live and what to do (vietu - better lands), ascended to heaven]: Vietnamese tales 1992:174-182.

South Asia. Marathi (Bombay) [the moon god took a deer out of compassion, it can be seen on the moon]: Enthoven 1924:50; Marathi (Ratnagiri County) [spots on the moon - tamarind, or the reflection of a deer drawn into the chariot of the moon god; or a pipal tree (Ficus religiosa) with a cow or two deer tied to its roots]: Enthoven 1924:51; (cf. Marathi (Thana County, SV outskirts of Bombay) [the stalked deer asked the Month to hide it, and when refused, hit him with his hoof, now spots on the moon]: Enthoven 1924:51); Jains (Bombay) [in The lower part of the moon god's chariot is an image of a deer visible in moon spots]: Enthoven 1924:50; Punjabi [spots on the moon - the spindle of the prophet's daughter]: Ullah 1959:166.

Caucasus - Asia Minor. Kalmyks: Basayev 2004, No. 9 [Dolan Burkhi (Big Dipper), Sar Mechin (Monkey - Pleiades), Alti Gasi (Polyarnaya) and other Stars lived on earth, with them the Sun and Moon, they were still children; they took the arshan from the sea, Araha ran up, put his finger, licked it, became immortal; the Moon indicated where to shoot, the arrows cut Arakha in half; the bottom went into the ground, the top swallows the moon once a year, the Sun three times a year years; Stars rose to heaven; gods chained Araha to an iron cart on the moon (dark spots)]: 41-43; Dušan 1976 [people did not die, did not care about anything, grew up until the age of 15 and remained at that age; they wanted to try old age; God fulfilled their wish, people began to live hundreds and thousands of years; wanted to die; began to die and be reborn young; the gods decided to make people immortal again, prepared the drink of immortality, left; it was drunk by the evil spirit of Araha, urinated in this place, ran away; the god of war left by the guard chased A.; the moon pointed to A. with his hand, the Sun with a nod of his head; the god of war threw a sword at A., cut it in half; the lower part disappeared into the ground, evil spirits and reptiles came out of it; the god of war chained the upper part to a cart on the moon (dark spots); A. promised to starve the moon three times a year, The sun is every three days {probably every three years}; A. does not have a back half, the swallowed stars come out of it]: 77-78; Chechens [Sun and Month are brothers, the mother of the Sun is Aza, the mother of the Month is Kinch; their evil sister Mauge ate all relatives in the sky, chases the Sun and the Month, causing eclipses; during an eclipse, you can see something like a black thread on the moon - a merry-go-round gun; a black spot in the middle The moons are the horse carried by the moon; when the horse's mouth expands, the summer is short, when it decreases, it is long and rainy]: Dalgat 1972:257; 2004:163-164; Ingush [Can be the sister of the sun and moons, chasing them across the sky to eat; during an eclipse, you can see something like a black thread on the moon - a guard's gun protecting the moon from Mauge; in the center of the moon there is a dark spot, it's a horse; if its the mouth is widened, the summer is short; if the mouth decreases, the summer is long and rainy]: Dalgat 1893:120 in Tankiev 1997:39.

Baltoscandia. Lithuanians [a team of bulls is visible on the moon]: Kerbelite 2001:112.

Volga - Perm. Bashkirs [Trout asks the Old Man how to escape from Pike - Move to a mountain river; Capercaillie to escape from the Berkut - Live not in the mountains, but in the forest; two Roe Deer run away from the Wolf ; The old man ties them with his backs - When one runs, let the other rest; the running Roe Deer jumped to the moon, the Wolf behind her; they always run there; the beast in front (double Roe Deer) has eight legs; (zap. 1963; fragment of the West at the end of the 19th century. Lossievsky)]: Barag 1987, No. 3:32-33; Nadrshina 1985, No. 2:9-10.

Turkestan. Yellow Uighurs [there is a monkey on the moon; there is also mangys; there is also a monkey in the sun]: Malov 1967, No. 50:35.

The coast is the Plateau. Cus [the hero makes himself a dog by filling the animal's skin with flint; dogs rise into the air when fighting; the flintlock dog wins]: Jacobs 1940, No. 25 [the ogre dog kills four by one brothers; the fifth makes a flint dog (taking the skin of a seal); fighting, the dogs rise into the air; the paw falls, then the giblets of an ordinary dog; the flint descends; the young man tells him to take the defeated into his mouth, go to the moon; he is visible on the moon, holding another dog's paw in his teeth], 3 [otter skin; both dogs can be seen on the moon]: 175-181, 241; Saint Clair 1909a, No. 12 [two people met; one has a dog (fisher-dog ), the other has a dog made of gravel cat skin; dogs began to fight, began to rise into the air, ended up on the moon; the gravel dog ate another's feet, only he (the dog who looks like a man) is visible on moon]: 40; upper coquill [Puma and Grizzly enemies; Grizzly killed Puma, but Puma's grandmother found a drop of blood, he has revived; five grizzlies take turns coming to Puma, offering to go down from under the roof; The cougar has prepared five bags of sharp flints; each time he asks the Grizzly to close his eyes, open his mouth to step there (the Grizzly hopes to swallow it), instead pours out flints, the Grizzly dies; the last one is a shaman, sees with his eyes closed; the Grizzly and the Puma fight, climb the mountain, then the moon; the moon shows a grizzly and a puma fighting]: Jacobs 2007:193-200.

Plains. The Comanches [see motif J44; Owl stalks young children; they ask Bison for help; he throws an owl on the moon; he is now visible there]: Barnard: 88-93 in Archer 2000:143-148; Saint Clair 1909b, No. 275-276.

The Great Southwest. Hicarilla [Son of the Month kills a dangerous flying fish; raises its heart with four arrows, throws it at the moon; her silhouette is visible on the disc]: Mooney 1898a: 209.

Mesoamerica Micah [see motive A23; people are going to choose the Sun, tell the young man that it is weak; it turns into the Sun, tells the old man to dig a well; at first it hangs low above the ground, it's hot, only the old man has water well; tells sister to run to the old man's house for the forgotten huarache; during this time he rose high; sister became the moon; spots - her brother's huarache]: Miller 1956, No. 3, 4:79-85, 86-97; jacaltecs [two the chiefs try unsuccessfully to hit the deer on the face of the moon with an arrow; the fool (simpleton) asks for permission to shoot, cuts off the leg of the deer with an arrow; it falls into the sea that was then boiling; the chiefs ask Vulture to reach his leg, he is scalded; the chiefs make him new eyes from the seeds of the miche tree, but he remains bald; the fool easily pulls out the deer's leg; everyone eats meat, he gets only bones; he grinds them, all animals emerge from the piston; then see motifs G3, G16, H18]: Montejo, Campbell 1993:100-101.

The Central Andes. North coast of Peru (images on mochica vessels) [monster with jaguar/fox features]: Disselhoff 1951, fig.4 [mochica I-III; relief on a vessel with a black surface; jaguar-like monster with stepped ridges on his head and tail ("requai beast"), bent over a naked man lying on his back with an erected fall; a conical cap on the man's head; an eight-pointed star nearby; the scene is placed inside a half-sickle, probably representing the moon; the shape of a vessel with a highlighted throat is unusual for a mocha; the exact origin is unknown, possibly found in one of the valleys north of Chicama]; Kutscher 1954, fig.44-48 [and other publications]; Misminai (dep. Cusco) [woman riding a horse (formerly probably a woman with a male llama); holding a newborn daughter in her arms]: Urton 1981:81.

Montagna. Ashaninka [Aroši and his brother Taanilireá left machetes on the plot, who cut down the forest themselves; the hummingbird stole A.'s silver necklace; to replace it, A. went up by the Month to take from a piece of it; Month swallowed it; A.'s legs in the womb of the Month are still visible (moon spots)]: Weiss 1975:268-269.

Bolivia - Guaporé. Yurakare [see motive J16; a pregnant woman goes to the Jaguars; they tell them to take out their poisonous ants and eat them; the mother of the Jaguars gives her pumpkin seeds to pretend to eat; The chief Jaguar, who has a second pair of eyes on the back of his head, notices the deception, kills the woman; the Jaguar mother finds the boy Tiree in the womb, hides her in a pot; he considers her his mother; hunts for a rodent Pakoy, she tells him the truth; T. kills all the Jaguars except the four-eyed; he asks the trees, the Sun, the Stars, the Moon to cover him; the moon covers, his silhouette is visible on the lunar disk]: Orbigny 1844:210- 212; chiriguano [a blue Yawa-Rowi jaguar (plomizo) devours the moon; it can be seen in the silhouette of moonspots]: Metraux 1932:158.

Chaco. Kaduveo [caduveo stole a horse, didn't know what to do with it; Ninigo (son of Go-noeno-hodi) bred a genipa, drew a rider on the moon; the image was not very similar, but Caduveo understood and now they have lots of horses]: Frič in Ribeiro 1950:34; (cf. toba [spots on the Month - a young man on horseback with an ax in his hand; (this is a common motive in the Old World; ideas about the Month and the Sun riding cannot be pre-European)].