B122. Infants and birds. 16.28.29.31.

Birds (usually cranes/storks or geese) take children to another world or bring them from there.

Germans (Hessen), Czechs, Ingush (and Chechens?) , Russians (North, Vologda, Ryazan, Kursk), Livonians, Estonians.

Western Europe. The Germans (Hessen) [the stork brings children from sources; there are many such sources, considered to be related to the birth of children, throughout Hesse (No. 117)]: Lyncjer 1854, No. 191:123.

Central Europe. Czechs: Grohmann 2015, No. 436 [a stork steals children and takes them to other homes with someone else's family], 455 [Slavs living in the Czech Republic are brought newborns by a crow, and they fall into the room through the stove pipe (widespread belief)], 747-752 [children are born in the mountains under stones; when it comes time to be born, a crow comes to pick up the baby, takes it away and puts it on the window; children sit in deep into the pond from where the stork brings them; or he brings children from under a granite boulder; a stork or crow throws children through a chimney under which the midwife stands and catches them]: 92, 144.

Caucasus - Asia Minor. Ingush [(reported. Khasiev); in Chechen-Ingushetia, in spring, when cranes arrived, children were taken outside; when cranes flew away for the winter, young children were hidden from them; during the circumcision ritual, they say the formula" cranes are flying," they point to the sky]: Stahl, 1982:201.

Central Europe. Russians: Karnaukhova 1948 (North - Olonetskaya?) [Masha is hard-working, her sister Dasha is lazy; when leaving for the fair, her parents tell them to look after their youngest son Ivanushka; swan geese carry him away on their wings; Dasha runs after him, refuses to eat rye pie by the Stove, a sour apple by the Apple Tree, taste milk, jelly by the Milk River with jelly shores; The hedgehog indicates where Baba Yaga's hut is, Ivanushka plays with golden apples in it; Dasha grabs it, runs, The River, the Apple Tree, the Stove refuse to cover, the swan geese take Ivanushka away; Masha eats a pie, an apple, a jelly; The River, the Apple Tree, the Stove hide her, the swan geese stop the persecution]: 78-83; Kuzmina 2008, No. 55 (Vologodskaya) [(the narrator remembers the fairy tale very poorly); the parents went to the city, the boy Ivan was left with his older sister; he was kidnapped by swan geese; his sister asked the apple tree, the river, tried apple; returned her brother], 56 (Vologodskaya) [the parents went to the city, leaving the boy for her older sister; she realized that his geese were taken away; the girl ran, refused to eat the pie from the stove, slurp jelly by the river, try an apple from an apple tree; Baba-Ega went for berries, the girl took her brother and ran; this time she tried everything, so the apple tree, the river, the stove covered them]: 135, 135-137; Russians (Ryazanskaya) [parents told Alyonushka to watch brother Tereshechka (or Ivanushka - the informant is confused); girlfriends came, A. forgot, swan geese took T.; A. then refuses to eat sour an apple from an apple tree, eat oatmeal from the river, take the bread out of the oven (her parents are getting better); Baba Yaga is trying to put T. into the oven, he spread his hands, asked him to show it, shoved it himself, A. took it away brother; BYA got out, tells the geese to catch up; this time A. fulfills the requests of an apple tree, stove, river, they hide it, geese found her nge, A. brought her brother to her parents]: Samodelova 2013, No. 72:82-84; Russians (Kurskaya) [when leaving, parents tell their daughter to take care of her brother; she has played too much, the swan geese took Ivashechka, her sister rushes to catch up; the stove asks her to eat her pie, the apple tree is her wild apple, the milk river with jelly shores - milk and jelly; each time the girl replies that her father does not eat wheat, garden and cream; they do not show the way; the hedgehog pointed; sister grabbed her brother, swan geese then; I had to taste what they offered, the river, the apple tree, the stove were hidden; my sister and brother ran home, my parents returned]: Afanasiev 1984, No. 113:185-186.

Baltoscandia. Estonians [toonekurg (from Toonela, Underworld, kurg - crane) is a stork (originally probably only a black stork)]; cf. Holmberg 1927 [Finn. Tuonela, "home of Tuoni"; Notewegian Lapps: Duodna, "the dead one", later also "death" and "the life beyond"; probably a Scandinavian loan-word (Swedish dana-arf, "an inheritance falling to the State"]: 54; Shkunaev 1982 [irl. Tuatha De Danann, a founding group of gods; came from the mysterious northern islands, defeating the demons fomors; Anu, cf. -Irish anae, "wealth", "prosperity; Welsh. Don is the mother of gods; in Welsh genealogies Danu-Don becomes Anna; in the Breton tradition, Anna commands the people of the dead, fafon (cf. The Welsh name for the underworld is annon]: 317; the Livs [a stork brings children from Egypt; one day a poor man saw a pig in the stork's beak and asked for it to be given to it]: Loorits 1926, No. 238:74.