B27. Variants of metamorphosis.

.40.42.43.45.-.50.56.59.61.63.65.-.68.72.73.

Characters think about which object or creature are best for them to become, and when they make a choice, they experience metamorphosis.

Northern Alaska Inupiate [into frogs], caribou [thunder and lightning], netsilic [thunder and lightning; sun and moon], igloolik [thunder], Baffin's Land [lightning], polar [thunder and lightning], quakiutl [river], snookually [wishlist cut off], delawares [seven stars - Pleiades], blacklegs [seven stars - Ursa Major], assiniboine [seven stars - probably Pleiades], crowe [seven stars - Major] Bear], Comanche [seven stars], natchez [seven stars - Pleiades], chirokee [man refuses to transform], mountain mivok [thunder], valapai [Pleiades], mojave [meteor; osperer], guajibo [macoco bird], taulipan [various constellations; Moon; wild dogs], kalinha [Orion], cofan [Pleiades], napo [dolphin], canelo [dye plants], shuar [dye plants], aguaruna [dye plants], achuar [frog], Munduruku [Milky Way], Central Andes (mountains of southern Peru?) [Pleiades], machigenga [wasp], cachinahua [Month], kuniba [Month], characterambet [thunder and heavenly spirits], takana [frog], surui [thunder and lightning], nambiquara [Magellanic Clouds], chamacoco [jaguars], guarani [owl].

The Arctic. Northern Alaska Inupiate (Noatagmiut) [girl and little brother think what to become; girl names different animals; rejects everyone because they will be killed and eaten; when she calls a frog that gives a voice; they turn into frogs]: Lucier 1958, No. 8:94; caribou [brother and sister steal caribou skin and flint; fear punishment; reject becoming caribou, wolves, foxes and other animals, because humans can kill them; turn into thunder and lightning; one rattles with dry skin, the other carves sparks with flint]: Rasmussen 1930b:80; netsilicone: Rasmussen 1931:232-236 [ Aninga is blind; his mother Agthulg-Rarnan aims his arrow, lies that he missed the bear; eats meat herself; his sister Aleka feeds him secretly; he asks to be taken to the sea; two Loons in His eyes lick his human appearance, making them keen; he harpoons a walrus, tying a tench to his mother, a walrus drags her into the sea; brother and sister leave; the mother's spirit in the form of a strip of fire, a moving belt blocks the road; they jump over these obstacles; the sister goes to ask for water from spirits with claws in their arms; they want to kill her, her brother kills them, heals her sister; they come to people without anuses; for they suck meat; brother gets married, sister gets married; those women do not have vaginas, pregnant women have their stomachs ripped open; sister gives birth normally; her mother-in-law pierces her vagina with a meat fork, dies; the sister smears the black face of an unknown lover, identifies her brother in the morning; they decide to turn into something; the sister suggests, the brother rejects options (wolves: their teeth are too sharp; bears: clubfoot; musk oxen: sharp horns; seals: sharp claws; etc.; in the sun and month); they light moss torches, run, rise into the air; sister extinguishes brother's torch, so the month is cold], 277-379 [brother and the sister is poor orphans; they find flint and a piece of caribou skin on the heap of garbage; the sister suggests what they would become, brother rejects options; caribou: we are cared for; seals: we will be torn; so rejected all animals decide to become Thunder and Lightning; sister makes lightning with flint, brother thunder, drumming on the skin]; igloolik (hall. Fox) [two girls don't go to bed for a long time; their father scolds them, they run away from the village; the youngest offers to turn into bears, caribou, walruses; the eldest does not agree; they turn into thunder; now always full, easy to kill Caribou with lightning]: Rasmussen 1930a: 261-263; Baffin's Land [two sisters Kvitu and Kadlu play noisily in the evening; parents tell them to go away; Kv. offers play caribou, whales, agdlaq, polar bears, belugas; sister replies every time that people will catch them; girls decide to become lightning; rain is their urine]: Boas 1901b, No. 11:175; polar Eskimos [two var.: a girl and her younger brother play noisily; stepfather sends them away to play; they find flint and a piece of caribou skin; the boy wants to come back, the girl reminds him of his stepfather's words; boy offers to become a seal, walrus, beluga whale, bear, caribou, musk ox, hare, fox, lahtak; cannot do it; offers to become thunder; girl turns into lightning, boy into thunder; they pee , going up to the sky, it causes a downpour; their mother calls her son to suck milk, but it's too late]: Holtved 1951, No. 5:40-50.

NW Coast. Quakiutl (Nimkisch): Anonymous 1923 [God asks a person what he would like to be; he does not want to be a big tree, a rock, a mountain (a piece falls off, it will run over someone); it turns into the river to benefit people (the origin of the Nimkisk River on Vancouver Island)]: 296; Boas 1895, No. XV.1 [after the flood, people turn into animals and stones; a sea monster in the form of a huge halibut brings to the shore of a person; he competes with another person in the ability to turn another into various objects; then thinks about what to turn into; rejects a stone (will split), a tree (will fall and will rot), becomes a river]: 134-135 (=2002:305-910; Wallace, Whitaker 1981 [the person answers the Transducer that he would like to be useful to people; rejects the offer to become a cedar, a boulder, gladly made by the Nimpkish River, it now has a lot of fish]: 30-31.

The coast is the Plateau. Snookually [Mink roasts salmon, goes to bed; the hero eats salmon; Mink scolds him, asks him to be turned into a doll (girls will play with him); stone (they will sit on it); into a tree (the same); to the beach (same); the hero got angry, turned it into a hole]: Haeberlin 1924, No. 8:382-383.

Northeast. Delaware: Bierhorst 1995, No. 80 [seven boys are able to take off and fall into the ground; the eighth cannot; his grandfather takes him to the island, throws him there; the Horned Serpent transports him him, when he promises to see if storm clouds appear; the boy does not fulfill his promise, the Thunders hit the Serpent as the boy jumps ashore; he becomes a friend of the Thunder; others seven boys turn into red stones; a man thoughtlessly stains them; they turn into pine trees; too many people come to rest in their shade; then the boy goes up to the sky turn into Pleiades], 102 [seven "pure" young men turn first into pebbles, then into pines and cedars, then into Pleiades], 134 [same; seven turn into stones, cedars, Pleiades]: 47, 53, 62; Hitakonanu'laxk 1994 [seven wise men are tired of paying attention to their personas; they decided to become stones, but they still come to them; pine trees are the same; they have become seven stars (the Bunched Up Stars), Pleiades]: 86- 87 (=Miller 1997:55).

Plains. Seven brothers are wondering what to become; various objects are rejected as fragile; they become seven stars in Ursa Major. Blacklegs: Josselin de Jong 1914 (piegan) [collecting firewood, a woman comes back late; her husband watches, sees her knock on a tree, a snake crawls out, they copulate; he calls a snake With the same signal, she cuts her throat; the next day, the wife returns crying; her husband cuts her throat; her seven younger brothers see that she has only one head left; the eldest turns into a beetle, sees how she draws on suede, says where her brothers' scalps will be; brothers send her to bring meat, run away; throw her porcupine needles, scraper, paint; she rushes to pick them up; brothers think what they will turn into; they reject turning into stones (women will break for scrapers), wood (people will burn), water (drink), deer (kill), birds (children will shoot), grass (set fire); they rise into the sky, blowing on a feather, they turn into seven stars]: 43-37; Knox 1923 [every time the wife collects firewood, comes back late; her husband watches her, sees her knock on a tree, and a rattlesnake comes out of there turns into a handsome man, copulates; he calls a snake with the same signal, cuts off her head; the wife finds a corpse, cries; her husband cuts off her head; her seven brothers find an empty dugout; hear a voice outside sisters; she says she is killed, does not tell me to look at her; the younger one spies, sees her head fly over the skin she is scratching; brothers hunt, send the youngest in the form of a beetle to watch his sister; he sees her trying on her skin places where she will attach her brothers' scalps; they send her sister to buy meat, run, taking her paint, scraper, porcupine needles, awl; they throw them, she loses time picking them up; they think what to turn into; water - people will drink; trees - cut down; grass - burn; stones - heat up for the steam room, women will make scrapers; animals - kill and eat; birds - the same; younger offers to become stars; they blow on the pen, rise to the sky as a Major Dipper]: 401-403; assiniboine [seven young men wonder what to become; earth (they dig it), rocks (crumbling), trees (thrown by the storm), water ( dries up), night (followed by day), light (followed by night) rejected by a wise red-haired brother; only heaven and stars are immortal; brothers rise to heaven on a web, turn into seven stars (Monroe, Williamson 1987:76-78: probably to the Pleiades); the web is given to the Spider forever]: Lowie 1909a, #21:177; Crowe: Lowie 1918:126 [seven brothers are wondering what to become; mountains (sometimes burn) stones (splitting), water (ice? - melts) rejected; they turn into Seven Stars; the boy is a separate star nearby], 205-211 [playing, the younger sister asks the older sister to become a bear; she replies that she will become real, the youngest insists; the eldest turns, devours people; tells the youngest to get the rabbit; her six brothers give it to her; show how to convince the Bear that she killed him herself; the bear pursues her younger sister; She sticks awls everywhere, they pierce the Bear, she takes time to get them out; the brothers tell her sister to throw a porcupine behind the needles, the Bear spends time picking them up; they give buffaloes manifold {buffalo droppings?} , then a piece of bison's stomach; sister throws it behind her, manifolds turn into flat rocks, stomach into holes; older sister climbs over rocks, gets stuck in the last hole; brothers ask that they should all turn into; the sister offers what the smoking pipe points to - the Big Dipper; they are now seven stars of the Big Dipper, the sister is accompanied by a dog]: 211 [seven brothers wondering what to turn into; the earth (settles, caves in), trees (they are being cut down), stones (splitting), mountains (also settling), stars (falling) are rejected; they turn into the Big Dipper; my sister had dog {obviously it's Alcor}]; McCleary 1997:65-69 [Yellow Greaves climbed into the hole to bait eagles; a rock rolled down and closed the exit; JN asked the mouse for help, she took him down the hole in another world; there the old man White Owl gave a single arrow and ordered the monstrous moose to be killed; JN did not eat the soup served - there was a human hand in it; the bullfinch advised to contact the moles; the mole dug underground passage under the moose to where his heart is; JN pierced the moose with an arrow and ran; the elk plowed the ground with a horn, rushed after him, but fell dead; the tip of the horn was brought to the old man; he asked for Red-haired head; bullfinch advises to contact an ant woman; JN exchanged bodies with her, brought a louse with her; Red-haired and her mother live on the island; the ant gave a corn pemmican for the dog, that transported her to the island; while the dog was swimming, JN put pemmican in her mouth; Red-haired's mother suspects deception, but her son lay down with the imaginary ant woman at night; she avoided copulation, and when The red-haired man fell asleep, cut off his head and put a louse in her place; she answered Red-haired's mother, and when her voice weakened, his mother came in, saw her son killed, and rushed in pursuit; JN managed to swim to ant; the stalker came, her forehead was like a spear, she began to hammer a typical rock, inside which there was an ant with JN, but the ant immediately repaired the damage with its saliva; they opened the door slightly , the stalker stuck her head, they slammed the door shut, cutting off their heads; they swapped their bodies back, but not their armpits, so women's armpits are more muscular than men's; the ant advises asking an old man for bringing his head to his head; JN received the power of an owl and a deer; on the way back, JN meets three women who turn into an otter, a deer and an elk, run away; the fourth remains a woman, the wife of JN; she has seven brothers; JN and his wife came to the youngest; when the others came, they teased their son-in-law, throwing their limbs over; JN called an owl, who began to torment the deer, the brothers were in pain, they left JN alone; the younger brother gave his son-in-law a bear, and since then the wife's relatives have been giving gifts to her husband; everyone has begun to think what to become; - Trees? - They're dying. - Rocks? - They crumble from time to time. - Water? - It dries up. To the stars {Ursa Major}! The younger brother took his tame cougar, this is an asterisk near the handle of the bucket {Alcor}], 69-71 [seven brothers and younger sister live together; the older brothers disappear one by one; the youngest comes to the young man, he reports that his brothers are kept by an old woman, her strength is in her digging stick; the owner of the next house gives the young man yellow, black, blue, red arrows; the young man shoots them, rushes after them; a good old woman gives a pemmican, explains what to do; by the river, a young man feeds a pemmican to a dog that takes it to the other side; he picks up the brothers, they feed the dog again, cross, arrive with the last arrow home; an old stalker puts a digging stick across the river; when it comes to the middle, the brothers turn it over, she falls into the water; the brothers wonder what to turn into so that the old woman does not caught up; each time the sister says that her mother uses the item; trees (for firewood), water (to soak the skins), stones (to make skin scrapers); they decide to become what the ends of the pipes indicate ; - But the stars are falling! - We will join hands and not fall; they turn into the Big Dipper; the asterisk at the handle of the bucket is a sister and a puppy]; the Comanche [father wants to drive away four sons and daughter; the eldest thinks what to turn into; they turn into seven stars]: Saint Clair 1909b, No. 18:282.

Southeast USA. Natchez [seven men fast, decide to transform themselves; reject turning into pine trees, stones (white people will cut them down and break them); turn into a constellation (probably Pleiades)]: Swanton 1929, No. 14:242; the teal [the lazy person consistently refuses to become an ant, tree, rock, fish, ox, bear, bird, as existence in this capacity is difficult or dangerous; decides to stay human]: Kilpatrick, Kilpatrick 1966, No. 1:440-441.

California. Southern mountain mivok [a stone giant kills people, two brothers remain orphans; wonder what to become; the younger one tells us to collect feathers, they put them on the body, turn them into birds; the elder refuses to become a waterfowl; then they turn into Thunders; in the summer they fly through a hole in the sky to the other side of the sky; in winter they return, produce rain and thunderstorm]: Merriam 1993:173-178.

Big Pool. Walapai [Coyote rapes his eldest daughter; his wife and six daughters decide to change; they don't want to be pillars of the house, rocks, birds and animals (hunters kill animals, poles can be broken, stones used for the hearth); turn into Pleiades]: Kroeber 1935:264-266.

The Great Southwest. Mojave: Kroeber 1948, No. 1 [at the end of the story, the hero turns five women into the Pleiades and they rise to heaven; his brother into a waterfowl (probably a snipe), an old man into an owl; himself decides to become a meteor and fly into the sea; changes his mind - flies south; changes his mind - to the east bank of the river; he became a stone there]: 18-19; 1972, No. 9 [the hero thinks how to die; lies his head west, to the north, to the east, to the south, he tries to sink into the ground; he does not like it all; he stretches out his arms, overgrows feathers, and on the fourth attempt he takes off to become a fishing band]: 13-14.

Llanos. Guajibo (sicuani and/or cuiva) [the spirit of a murdered husband comes home; fails to catch up with his wives and child; decides to become a macoco bird]: Folclor 1974:212

Guiana. Taulipan [rejected transformations into various animals and birds because they serve as food]: Koch-Grünberg 1923 [people wonder what they will become after the flood; turn into stars: Chameleon, Dolphin, Turtle, Crab]: 279; Koch-Grünberg 1924, No. 14 [The month wants to steal the child's soul; the boy's father exposes and beats the sorcerer, tells him to go; The month thinks where; aguti - eat, tapira - they eat, all animals and birds - too; I decided to go to heaven with my daughters, the bird fixed a vine in the sky for this purpose; the Month illuminates the path of the dead, i.e. the Milky Way; the house of the dead - at the end of it in the west; above ten more in our sky, the Month sent his daughters there], 18 [father and children reject becoming different birds and animals, because people will kill and eat them; decides to turn into wild dogs]: 53- 54, 59; caliña: Magaña 1983, No. 5 [the man tells his wife he would like to sleep in the rain; it's a joke, but his wife's brothers tie him to a tree for the night; he takes his wife to the forest, asks for help to weave meat basket, roasts his wife alive in this basket, gives meat to her mother; she finds her daughter's jewelry under the meat; brothers chase her husband, cut off his leg and leave him in the boat; he thinks about what to turn; does not want to be a tree (cut down), fish (caught), animals (killed and eaten), etc.; decides to become the constellation of Epietembo], 6 [as in (5); rejects turning into water (drink), wild boar (killed and eaten), tree (cut down and burned); turns into constellation E.]: 26-28, 28-29; Penar in Magaña, Jara 1982 [man to wife: It's raining, I'll sleep well; wife tells brothers that He wants to sleep in the rain; they tie him up in a hammock, leave him in a hammock for the night; while hunting, he tied his wife in a basket, grilled him alive; fed her mother-in-law meat; brothers catch up with him, cut off his leg; he rejects opportunities to become various constellations, becomes Orion]: 119.

Western Amazon. If not otherwise: two sisters turn into coloring plants (black genipa and red uruku); turning into mountains, plains, large trees are rejected, as these objects can interfere to people. Kofan: Borman, Criollo 1990, No. 8 [the woman has two boys, their younger sister and a baby boy; her husband is an underground trickster; while her mother is in the garden, the children started drumming calebass and a cup for mate in the house by a hole in the ground; from there something green appeared - the Trickster's penis; the children did not recognize their father, mistook him for a snake, cut off the penis; said: let this be a sign that people are mortal; The severed part crawled into the forest; the mother heard her husband's moans, ran home, started drumming, no one crawled out; she beat the children, drove them away, did not let them into the house; they began to think what to become; stones - people will make hearth stands; sand - they will dig holes for the supports of the house; earth - will walk on us; trees - will cut down to build houses; rivers - will float us in boats; cedars - they will make dowels out of us; in the evening they came to the pebble tree on the river, raised their heads, saw the stars, decided to become stars; told their sister to hide the cotton rope, broke the reeds, tied the rope to reeds, they began to throw them into the sky, but did not ask; in the morning the younger brother asked the elder to give him; he gave only a crooked reed; it pierced the sky, the rope went down, became a ladder; the children climbed to heaven, they liked it; they went back down to pick up the pet parrot; the mother said she would climb with them; they agreed, but told the parrot to cut the rope when the mother climbed high; the mother climbed taking a couch, firewood, hearth stones, ash; the parrot cut off the rope, the children told their mother to become a laughing falcon (gavilan, Herpetotheres cachinnans); when they saw the children, the mother cried; falcon feathers turned white due to awakening ash; the children became the Pleiades (when they are not visible, the rivers are flooded)]: 107-123; Calífano, González 1995, No. 38 [the woman has three small children; her husband is an underground worm; she hits her tambourine, sits on the ground, from there her penis rises; her daughter does the same, tells her brothers; the youngest cuts off his penis; he screams that the children killed him; the children reject turning into stone ( they will put them in the hearth), earth (trampled), wood (cut down and burn), sand; decide to become stars; the youngest manages to throw a crooked stick into the sky; from there the stairs fall; they go up to the upper world, he is them I like it, they come back to pick up their parrot; the mother climbs after them, taking ash-stained stones for the hearth; the children tell the parrot to cut the rope; the mother falls and turns into a nightjar (? ; apparently in a laughing falcon, see Borman, Criollo 1990), still screams plaintively]: 87-89; canelo [like a shuar; two sisters turn into coloring plants - an uruku shrub and a genipu tree]: Whitten 1985:11; napo [shaman got lost, the Eagle invited him to his place, three months later the shaman returned home; his children said that his mother had a different husband; in the form of an eagle, the shaman took out the eyes of his wife and her new husband at night; the husband decided not will become a tree because she will die, so she will not become a snake, she will become a dolphin; the wife also became a dolphin; the shaman took the children to the forest to become eagles]: Ortíz de Villalba 1989, No. 22:49-50; Aguaruna : Akutz Nugkai et al. 1977 (1): 70-73; Chumap Lucía, García-Rendueles I979, No. 39:463; Guallart 1958:97-98; Shuar: Barrueco 1988 [sisters Ipiaku and Sua are going to marry Nayapi; he tells them that there will be a parrot's tail at the fork in the path to his house, and Ikiachimi's tail on the path to his brother; the tsuna replaces signs, sisters come to him; he brings crab; his body exudes a fetid liquid (like plants with that name); at night, sisters get the same smell; return to H; he drives them away, sends animal people and birds to kill them; sisters they think about what to turn into; reject hill, water, tree, etc. (People will say what kind of hill it is, what a nasty tree, etc.); I. turns into an achiota (a bush with seeds that give red paint), S. into the genipa (a tree with fruits that give black paint); pursuers climb on them, paint them with red and black paint, turn into animals and birds]: 33-36; Pelizzaro 1993: 132; Rueda 1987, No. 22, 22a: 121, 126-127; achuar: Mowitz 1978:63-67 [The father left the boy in the woods, he made a ladder, climbed a tree, began to think who to become; decides not to become fish, two types of birds, because his father can kill him; turns into a frog], 83.

Central Amazon. Munduruku [friends suggest that Nung-nung become a star, he refuses; agrees to become a strip in the sky; lies down in a hammock, rises to the sky, turns into the Milky Way; when it can be seen in the sky, fleas and lice particularly bite]: Murphy 1958, No. 19:88.

The Central Andes. Mountains (southern Peru?) [during a drought, parents have nothing to feed their children; they let them eat pieces of their flesh cut off their arms and legs; leave their children in a cave; children go out, find their parents' disfigured bodies; they wonder what turn; they do not want to become a pile of stones (the hunter scatters it, using it for a sling), water in the river (people will drink and use it for irrigation), dust on the path (travelers scatter it); decide to climb to the sky become Pleiades]: Benvenutto Murrieta 1935:360-262 in Angeles Caballero 1990:97-99.

Montagna - Jurua. Machigenga [wife dies; husband eats a corpse, turns into an ogre; eats nieces, whom his sister gives him as his wife; nephews find out the truth; he thinks of turning into a demon tapir, a demon- wild boar, into various types of wasps; turns into a wasp]: Baer 1984, No. 20:480; Kashinahua: Ans 1975 [Yobuënawaboshka comes to his parallel cousin Buëran Tsai at night; she smears his face with a genipa; J. goes hunting in the morning, but her sister guesses who slept with her; J. and a relative Bótopa go to kill dwarfs, who kill him; hang his live head on a rope, arrange a party; B. depicts a ghost, smeared with a glowing mass received from fireflies, carries her head; she asks for a drink, water spills through; her head does not lag behind B.; people hide behind a fence in the village; mother, sisters name objects that the head can turn into (tree, house, river, earth, sun, night, sky); he decides to become a month that does not exist yet; asks for threads, he is thrown six colorful balls, he throws them into the sky, a colorful road appears; warns that he will be in the sky in three days; I must say, "This is Y."; if they say "Month," the parrot will pierce his genitals with its tail girls; you can't point your finger at the rainbow and say "Rainbow", otherwise people will die; a young girl says, "It's a month," she starts her period; when the rainbow first appears, someone then he points his finger at her and says "Rainbow", people have been dying since; spots on the month are still visible]: 113-121; Capistrano d'Abreu in Koch-Grünberg 1921, No. 85 [Rutanaua invited Marinaua to his place, on the way back in the forest, he cut off his head; his relatives found a live head, carried it in a basket, it gnaws through the baskets, falls out; they left it, it follows, easily swims across the river; people they climb a tree, their heads ask them to throw fruit, they throw it away, run away while the head is looking for fruit; they hide in the house; the head asks him to let it in, then decides to turn into something; does not want to vegetables, bananas, yams, sweet potatoes will be eaten; vegetable garden - fruits will grow on it, eat it; land - trample; water - drink; fish - eat; timbo - eat fish with it; snake, scorpion - I will bite you, and you will kill me; tree - burn, cook; vampire bat - bite, kill; sun - warm you; rain - fill rivers, you will eat fish, grass will grow, animals will eat it; cold - the heat of the sun will die; night - you will be able to sleep; in the morning you will wake up; let the blood become a rainbow (the "road of enemies"), your eyes become stars, your head for a month, then on the full moon your women will lose blood; M. climbed the rainbow into the sky; I threw my eyes, they crumbled with many stars; asked for two balls of threads, the heavenly vultures picked them up, made them the basis for a month; the women began to menstruate, everyone went out to watch to the moon]: 95 [rat in the bat]: 232-240, 238-239, 262-264; kuniba [someone comes to the girl at night; she smears his face with a genip, recognizes his brother in the morning; enemies (?) they cut off his head; his brother picks it up, his head asks him to eat and drink; his brother runs, his head chases him, he locks himself in the house; his head thinks what to become; rejects turning into water, stones and etc.; turns into a Month, rises into the sky, unfolding a ball of thread; taking revenge on his sister, sends menstruation to women]: Baldus 1946:108-109; character [see J16 motif; jaguars kill a woman, her son Marinke kills almost all Jaguars, but one saves himself and there are many jaguars again; people are afraid, wondering what to do; To turn into a tree? - They'll cut it down; Hide under the ground? - Will they trample; Hide in the rocks or the river? - They will find it; the boy offers to go to heaven; everyone is happy and in a hurry tramples on him, he turns into tobacco; the sky falls lower, M. and people climb there; M. throws an ax to his grandmother, but falls into her, she turns into curasso, sings before the storm; M. - Thunder, wielding his club in the sky; those in the sky are kurudneri spirits descending to people during rituals]: Gray 1996:118-128.

Bolivia - Guaporé. Takana [two versions, one from Tumupas; a young man avoids girls, falls in love with a cassava mistress; during the day he wraps a worm in a leaf, hides it in a mosquito net, copulates at night; the boy's mother finds a leaf, throws into the fire; the pregnant Mistress bursts, the old woman snatches the boy out of the fire; if he were full-term, he would become a worm below the waist; the grandmother loves him, the father does not, leaves him in the forest; he thinks which animal to turn; rejects big birds or animals (hunters will kill), small ones (big ones will eat), becomes a tree frog]: Hissink, Hahn 1961, No. 168:300; surui [tree spirit Moradei smears the loser hunter with tree sap, making him lucky; tells him to bring his wife in the morning; spirits smear her, copulate with her; husband and wife bring many dead monkeys to the village; wife breaks the ban on talking about what happened, and when the husband falls asleep, he puts his foot on the coals and it burns off; he eats all the meat he brings (it's just fried); thinks what to turn into to frighten humans; 1) into a bird foreshadowing war; 2) into another similar bird; 3) into an arrowhead; 4) becomes lightning and thunder]: Mindlin 1995, No. 3:10-13.

Southern Amazon. Nambikwara [the young man's mother goes to another village for cassava; he sleeps outside, wants two stars as his wife; they go down to the village, take him to heaven; the star brothers call him to play ball; they kill when they hit the knee or head with a ball, they eat them; they have always done this to their sons-in-law; sisters turn fruits into wild pigs; brothers go hunting them, disappear; sisters tell other women get ready to cook meat; each accidentally dies (cuts herself with an ax, falls into fire, water, gets bitten by a dog, etc.); their children kill each other while playing; the Milky Way is a sign (trace?) dead children and women; sisters think about the best way to commit suicide; decide not to drown, jump into a deep hole, or be bitten by a snake; jump into a fire from a tree; smoke from their burnt bodies turns into 1) The Small and Large Magellanic Clouds; 2) the younger sister into the Small Cloud; the eldest into the Big Cloud (the part of her body that is more burned) and the Coal Sack (the part that is weaker burnt)]: Pereira 1983, No. 90:116-117.

Chaco. Chamacoko [young man sees his mother's vagina when his mother covers the roof of the hut with mats; cries, refuses all food, says he wants something else every time; she copulates with him; father finds them; calls his youngest son to catch eels; digs a deep hole, puts an eel in it; sends his son for his older brother; asks him to get an eel, pushes him into a hole, falls asleep with clay; birds gather they give the youngest boy, who only cries, snail meat and water from the shell; he is speechless; birds pull bones out of the grave, fold them, only the big toe of one leg is missing; the Chaja bird ( this is a shaman) revives the boy; to do this, wasps take clay out of his ears and nostrils, and the black stork lets him swallow the fish; birds invite him to be one of them; every time the boy rejects this option says that his father will catch and kill this bird; the same is to become a wolf; he and his younger brother agree to become jaguars; to do this, they wrap their feet in cotton wool, put vessels and baskets on their heads; in the form of jaguars younger brother kills father, older brother kills mother; father's brother found blood; people don't know which animals killed their spouses; they send dogs, but jaguars tore them apart; jaguars have killed humans and dogs ever since]: Wilbert, Simoneau 1987a, No. 62:190-193

Southern Brazil. Guarani (or rather, the ethnicity is not specified) [the parrot turns the hunter, if he wishes, into a jaguar, fox, snake, wasp, European; each next creature turns out to be smarter or stronger; (according to Muller 1934:452; the bird consistently chooses transformations into ice, sun, cloud, wind, house, mouse, owl)]: Goeje 1943:106.