Yu.E. Berezkin, E.N. Duvakin

Thematic classification and distribution of folklore and mythological motifs by area

Analytical catalogue

Introduction
Bibliography
Ethnicities and habitats

B32. Women turn into fish.. 62.63.64.68.70.

As a result of conflict with husbands, women turn into fish.

Baniva, Munduruku, Tenetekhara, Rickbacza, Suya, Kayapo.

NW Amazon. Baniva (kamandene) [anaconda's mistress runs away from her snake son, throws herself into the water, turns into Phractocephalus hemilpterus Von Ihering]: Brüzzi 1994:223.

Central Amazon. Munduruku [Karusakaibo's son is killed by wild pigs; his father hears his voice, sees two trees; carves a doll, but she has only ears from a person - orehla de pau wood mushrooms; K. makes a new doll, she turns into a handsome boy; he hides him at home from women under the supervision of an old woman; one woman penetrates a boy, copulates with him; his penis remains tight; the same repeats the next day; K. turns his son into Aniokaiche's tapir; he runs away to the forest, copulates with all women; one person sees it; men send women to the garden, send women to the garden, send them comrade, putting pumpkin breasts on him; A. comes out, killed with arrows; a little boy tells his mother that the women's lover has been eaten; she runs to call A., only the Battleship comes out to copulate with her; while men hunt, women paint, jump into the river, turn into fish; three old women turn into caimans and crabs; young children become birds; the man left in the village becomes Jacques's bird; men they catch new wives from the river; see motive F7]: Kruse 1952, No. 8:992-994; Murphy 1958, No. 2:73-76.

Eastern Amazon. Tenetehara [the girl takes the tapir as a lover; calls him by knocking on a tree; her brother spied; father and brothers call the tapir with the same signal, kill him with arrows, fry him, bring him to the village; the girl finds out that she ate her lover's fried penis; pushes her brothers and father into the river, jumps herself, they all turn into fish; (var.: throwing herself into the river, she and her children turn into Ywan water spirits)]: Wagley, Galvão 1949, No. 23:148-149.

Southern Amazon. Rickbacz [people eat tapir crap, wood mushrooms, cassava, don't know onions and arrows; a woman finds a seed, it turns into a bird's egg; she puts it in all the folds and depressions of her body; when he clamps in the palm of his hand (var.: under the knee, in the fold of the abdomen), a boy is born from an egg; while the mother was not at home, another woman massaged his penis, got along with him; the penis grew; the mother carried her son into the forest, he turned into Tapir; his mother made his legs and ass invulnerable by burning fire and stuffing leaves; but he can be killed in the armpit; Tapir copulates with all women, starting with the one who came when he was a boy; men suspect, send birds to find out; while women in the field, making their first bows, going to the river, imitating the voices of women, shot Tapir who appeared; the husband of the one who came to the child, hung Tapir's severed penis over her hammock; women turned their children into birds, animals; one blew on a leaf, water poured, formed a river; Cayman brought first ugly ones, then beautiful; warned that the wind would blow in the middle of the river, they should not spit; the ugly ones held back, one beautiful spat, he drowned them; their voices and laughter could be heard from the river; some turned into fish, in stone, in birds; sweet potatoes and corn grow at the bottom; the Sloth told the men about what happened; they began to copulate with him, he ordered them to catch women better; the men caught the Carp first, but missed it; then Acara fish, she turned into a woman, she made new people; if Carp would be more beautiful; women carried fire across the river; see D4A motif]: Pereira 1973, No. 12:46-47 (=1994, No. 1:17-34).

Eastern Brazil. Suya [Yamurekuman tells her husband to do all the women's work; he gives her fried vulture instead of good meat; she turns into fish, takes the rest of the women with him through underground passage; in another world, yamurekuman looks like women; we are in the guise of fish, we are taught today's women their ritual songs]: Frikel 1990:38-39; kayapo: Wilbert 1978, No. 112 [Metraux 1960: 25-27; returning from the field, women at home copulated with Bira's tapir; did not care about husbands and children; one hunter accidentally saw this, told others; the men surrounded B.'s hut, killed his arrows; the children were given meat by bakers, for their mothers the meat of killed B.; the women threw themselves into the water, turned into fish; one fell on a man making an arrow while dancing; an arrow pierced her from behind, she became a stingray; a woman with a pestle became an electric eel; Takakö caught fish with a fishing rod, she became a woman, cooked food for him and her brother O'oimbre; he did not believe that T. was cooking porridge; became as an ant, found his sister, bit her; she screamed; went to catch the woman too, pulled out the fish, but did not grab it, but put his dick in her mouth; the fish jumped back; T. set fire to the area where O. was, but he hid under snaggy and alive], 113 [Lukesh 1968:89-93; men learn that handsome Bira is the lover of all married women in the village; when they hunt, they turn B. into a tapir, kill, fry, give a piece to each woman; when they learn that they ate, women jump into the river, turn into different types of fish; more about catching a woman ~ (122)], 123 [Metraux 1960:23-25; near the village there is a river, along it with buriti palm trees; woman collected fruits, met with a tapir; the little son followed her, saw her with a tapir, threw a fruit bone at him; the son's mother beat her, threw her into the thorny bush, rubbed her wounds with coal; the son told his father; the men hunted, killed this tapir as well, the boy identified him on the trail of a fetal bone that had fallen into his head; the husband put a tapir's cock in his wife's vagina at night, she died; burying a woman, her friends saw a dick fall out; the woman's brother killed her husband at night with a club, the body was thrown into the river], 124 [Lukesh 1968:94-96; the woman went to the savannah to copulate with Tapir; her son followed, launched into the tapir with a fetus, he kicked the woman; she scratched her son with a sedge; he told his father; the men killed this Tapir along with others; the husband injected the woman with a severed tapir member at night, she died; when from her vagina blood flowed, relatives guessed that her husband was a murderer; he was caught up, strangled with an arrow like a garrot]: 276-278, 279-284, 304-305, 306-308; Wilbert, Simoneau 1984a, No. 155 [], 157 [similar to Wilbert 1978, No. 112]: 452-458.