b33a1. Offended March. .14.-.17.27.28.29.

A person (animal, bird) teases, insults March or another calendar month and is punished as a result.

Kabilas, Corsicans, Sardinians, Sicilians, Italians (Tuscany, Abruzzo), Ladins, Spaniards, Portuguese, Basques, Catalans, Maltese, French (Poitou, Albre, Gascony, Languedoc, Provence), Germans, Irish, Ancient Greece, Serbs, Montenegrins, Macedonians, Bulgarians, Aruanians, Albanians, Greeks, Western and Eastern Ukrainians, Abkhazians, Ossetians, Georgians, Armenians.

North Africa. Kabila: Arezki 2010:143-144 [On the last 30th day of January, the goat laughed at him because he passed without cold or snowfalls; said, "Get a big fart right in the eye that will burst, brother January! The cold is over, the hunger is over, it's almost spring!" To punish the goat, January borrowed an extra day from February, making it rainy and snowy; the goat died from cold and hunger that day; since then, January 31, which is usually snowy, windy and rainy, called "le prêt de la chèvre"].

Southern Europe. Corsicans: Massignon 1984, No. 56 [On March 30, the shepherd believes that all dangers have passed and it has finally become warm; calls Mart the son of a bastard, promises to make cheeses the size of a basket; March asks April to lend him three days; all the sheep died, only the spring, which the shepherd covered with a cheese pot, survived; since then, the weather is usually good on April 1, but the next three days are windy, cold and snow]: 133; Ortoli 1883, No. 1 [=Calvino 1984, No. 198:703-704; a shepherd has as many sheep and sheep as grains of sand in the sea; all winter he begged for months to be favorable; they spared his herds; when March It was over, the shepherd laughed and scolded March: "March, March, you, the storm of herds, I'm no longer afraid of you! Happy to stay, illnesses! March, March, spring is coming, you can't hurt me anymore!" March borrowed three days from his brother in April, brought winds, snowstorms and diseases to the herd; sheep and sheep died on the first day, lambs on the second day, and everything died on the third day]: 3-5 (=Kabakova 1998, No. 168: 183-184); Sardinians ["Finally you are over, the month of January, that threatened to destroy my herd with snow, now I'm not afraid of you, but I'm afraid of February" is a saying that shepherds remember on the last day January; January: "Lend me two days that I'll give back when you're in front of me"; so February has two days less and "limp"]: Golant 2013, no. 1.8.2.: 196, 241; Sicilians [1) Palermo ; Şăineanu 1896:1-45; The old woman, seeing that March was over, spat after him, saying, "Get out! March is a dog!" ; Mart swore revenge, asked April for three days; on April 1, the old woman, seeing that the day was fine, released the sheep from the koshara and drove them to the mountain; a cloud appeared, the old woman and sheep died from heavy rain, hail and snow; March laughing: "E questo è Marzo cane!"] ; 2) Şăineanu 1896:1-45; the old woman wanted to marry a handsome guy; March: If you want to marry me, sleep this night on bricks and get married tomorrow; the old woman went to sleep on bricks in hoping for tomorrow night with a handsome guy; March took April's day and killed an old woman]: Golant 2013, No. 1.8.1.: 240-241; Italians: D'Aronco 1953, No. 1600 (Lucca) [March 31 days because one he borrowed from April to take revenge on the shepherd who mocked him]: 186; Kabakova 2006, No. 120 (Abruzzo) [=Golant 2013, No. 1.8.3:242-243; the old lady ridiculed Mart, saying that her lamb already had He is no longer afraid of horns and cold; Mart replied that if the cold prolonged, the lamb would lose its horns; the old woman thought April would come tomorrow, continued to tease Mart; he asked April to lend him three days, April borrowed six; March took them, sent cold and the lamb died]: 185-186; Kotrelev 1991 [the shepherd praises every month, especially March; on the last day the blizzard begins, the shepherd continues to praise; shortly before midnight, he begins to scold; insulted Mart asked April to give him three days; the shepherd left a goat with a goat and a sheep with a sheep from the whole herd]: 265-267; ladins [the peasant breeds sheep; the hay supply was running out, but February was warm; the farmer went to Mart, asking him to help with the weather - he promised to give the ram for this; when the end of March was 4 days away, the farmer announced Marta, if he won't give him any ram, his days are running out; March took April's 3 days; "Now I'll make you let your sheep in front of the gate!" (? lasse dir die Schafe vor dem Stalltor draufgehen)]: Brunold-Bigler, Widmer 2004, No. 62:323; Basques [once March was especially harsh on shepherds; crooked shepherd Martha: "Take care of you a ram"; insulted Mart decided to take revenge, but it was already noon on the 31st; then Mart asked April to lend him two and a half days and caused a snowstorm; rivers and streams overflowed their banks, carried away a herd of careless shepherd; when he saw that one ram caught on a tree branch, he dragged him towards, saying, "At least I'll save you," but the ram fought back and, with his head pulled out his only eye shepherd; shepherds fear the first days of April, once borrowed to Marta; Satrustegs 1990:34-35]: Golant 2013, No. 1. 11. 2:250; Catalans [after the first warm days in April, there are cold ones called borrowed or old woman's days; the old woman had a lot of sheep; fearing that they might freeze in March, the old woman kept the sheep in the pen, and when March came to an end, she mocked him (" blow my ass because you can't face"); it took 3 days in April, not the first days, but later to catch the old woman by surprise; the old woman took the herd to the pasture, the whole herd died]: Amades 1930:105- 106; Spaniards: Camarena, Chevalier 1997, No. 294 (everywhere, lots of records; also Catalans, Basques, Galicians) [shepherd: you pass and I stay and my whole herd in safe; March to the shepherd: I still have 2 days left and the third loan is from April and I will make you wear a fur coat]: 438-439; Fernan Caballero 1974:110-115 to Golant 1913 (Andalusia) [shepherd Martu: if he will To behave well, he would give him a lamb; Mart promised to be warm, kept his promise; when he was about to leave, he asked the shepherd for a lamb, but the shepherd, believing that Martha had only three days to rule, began mock him, refused to give me anything; March: With three days left and three days my godfather April will lend me, I will kill your sheep! lambs and sheep died from the cold]: 27, 206; Portuguese: Shishlova 1971 (near the border with Extremadura, Idanha a Nova) [shepherds ask Mart to be merciful, they promise a lamb from each; March was warm; on March 29, old people want to carry lambs; young: March is almost over, the cold will not come, there is no need to give anything; March takes one day for April, plus the two remaining ones, cold wind and rain destroyed crops, killed herds]: 196-199; Correia 2018, No. 155 [the shepherd promised February a lamb if he would save everyone else; at the end of February, when he saw that the lambs had grown, he said that nothing will give February; he promised to give him a fun life during the remaining two days and three more that he will take in March]; the Maltese [the shepherd scolds dry January: the grass has withered, he has to keep the herd is in the paddock; furious January took his brother two days in February (less often one day; usually the motive is to explain the different number of days in January and February) and a thunderstorm began to rain so much that the shepherd drowned with the herd]: Mifsud-Chircop 1978, No. 480D: 133-134.

Western Europe. The French: Pokrovskaya 1977 [the last three days of February and the last three days of March are considered unhappy, "Old Woman's days", borrowed days", which are often rainy; in Provence they say how an old woman, believing that the cold was over, made fun of February; then February took her brother March three days, caught up with the cold, the old woman's whole herd of sheep died; she bought it again cows, but history repeated itself]: 31; Kabakova 1998, No. 163 (Poitou) [=Golant 2013, No. 1.10.3.: 246; January was warm, lasted 29 days; on the last day, all the little birds began to mock him, O, Janviou, m'pas rester le crotte au quiou]; January took two days in February, it froze, the birds froze to the branches], 164 (Albre, Gascony) [=Golant 2013, No. 1.10.4.: 246; the thrush began to laugh at February - he passed, but she didn't notice; February took three days in March, it rained cold, the thrushes died; and February is still doing so]: 180, 180-181; Kabakova 1998, No. 167 (Languedoc) [the old woman became to laugh at February - it is over and its cold did not hurt her; February took three days in April, froze the old woman's herd of sheep; at the end of March she laughed at March the same way; it took three days in April , an old woman's herd of cows died]: 182-183; Scots [there is also a version of a March legend in which a bird challenges the month, for which it is severely punished; in Scotland it is a duck, bragging about her twelve ducklings; there's a motive for borrowed days]: Gennep 1947:951-954 {probably} in Golant 2013:13, 64; Irish: http://www.irishcultureandcustoms.com/ACalend/BorrowedDays.html [the cow boasted that it was not afraid of the March cold; then March took three days in April and froze the cow; it is believed that the first three days April is very cold, called Laethanta na Riabhaiche, "loan days"; sometimes they were counted according to the Julian calendar; how March asked for days from April is said in an old ballad; parts of Northern Ireland tell how blackbird, chuckan (Pratincola rubicola), and a gray cow began teasing March when it was over; March took 9 days in April, three for each insulting him; about the same ideas about borrowing days in Scotland]; Plénard 2017 [On March 31, the cow, completely enraged by the cold of March, shouted: go to hell, March, April March is coming; March spent 6 days in April, the cow died; these 6 days were the harshest of the whole year]: 95.

Western Asia. Palestinians [the first three days of March are called "borrowed"; old Bedawi drove her herd along the dry riverbed to the Dead Sea, mocking Shvat (February) for not sending rain; indignant Shvat asked his brother Adar (March) to lend him three days to take revenge on the old woman; it rained for six days, and the mudflow washed the old woman into the Dead Sea with her herd (Hanauer 1907:307f)]: Westermarck 1926:175 (=Hanauer 2009:281).

The Balkans. The main story-forming motif of the Balkan versions of the March legend is the departure of an old shepherdess to the mountains with sheep and/or goats in early spring, dying from the cold and turning her and all her into stone animals. Arumanians [{several texts; unlike Romanian ones, where the motive for loan days is rare, it is common in Arumanians, and the motive for turning into stones from which the source flows is not always found}; the usual option: an old woman goes with her goats to the mountains, calls March a fart, says that she has lived to see April; March takes days from February, freezes the old woman and her herd]: Golant 2013, No. 1.1.10.: 219-223; Albanians: Yully, Sobolev 2003:422 in Golan 2013, No. 1.6 (Mukhurr village, Dibyr region, Peshkopi district, Albanian Central Geg dialect) [Some old woman and old man underestimated the winter, went with a shepherd and with cattle on high-mountain pasture. Old people were deceived by the "new green", the tall grass that appeared ten days before Spring Day. The old woman, coming to the top of the mountain on the first day, said: "I climbed to the top of the mountain and crossed the March border, myself, and I have shepherds and sheep." (Option, an old woman and an old man in the pasture mocked April; March, whose time (i.e. the last day) was over, asked April for two days to borrow: "Oh, April, my brother, give me two days to borrow, because I have a third day myself so that I can do what I know with the old woman!" April gave March two days; snow and northerly winds began, which lasted for three days and from which there was no place to hide. An old woman, an old man, a shepherd, a horse and dogs turned into white boulders that still remain in this place. In the village of Mukhurr, "old women" are called the three cold days of spring, the last day of March and the first two days of April. It is believed that bad weather still happens these days]: 234-235; Pedersen 1898 [the winter was harsh and it got warmer at the end of March, three old women drove the sheep up the mountain; one said that if if Martha would meet him, fart him in his face; another advised her to be silent - March will hear; Mart froze the first old woman, and in the afternoon it got so warm that her corpse was covered with worms; March 30 and 31 and March 1 April is called old women, one of these days it is very cold]: 112; Greeks [{many texts from different parts of Greece, including Greeks from Asia Minor}; common motives: an old woman (sometimes a shepherd) calls names March is stinky, he borrows days from February (or April), snows and frosts; Martha has two wives, one is ugly, and when he turns to her, the weather is bad; the old woman has a copper pot with her]: Golant 2013, No. 1.7.: 235-240; Greeks (Imbros, Turkish. Gokceada) [the lonely old woman Drakena had countless herds of goats: she made so much cheese from goat's milk that when she put it on the shore to load it on the ship, she made a whole mountain; One day March was very cold, a lot of cattle on the island fell and only the old goats were not injured; boasting, she said to March: "March, you came and went, but you couldn't freeze my goats!" angry March took two days in February, cold and frost let in, and all the goats rested for the old woman; she managed to hide under the cauldron where she made cheese and cover a thousand frontal (buttery) and a thousand horned goats; only they were saved; February, since it lent March two days, was lame, and now it has 28 days; when the weather was good, the old woman, angry at what had happened, put on cheeses, who remained on the shore for loading, one on top of the other, climbed upstairs and frightened God; God cursed her, turned her and the cheeses into stone; there was a rock of "old woman cheeses"; and for some time stood on The top is an old woman; and the old goats scattered and ran wild, so that all the wild goats that on Imbros and Samothrace are descended from that old woman's goats; Imbros and Samothrace were the same island at that time]: Olga 1965:303 (translated by O.V. Chokh) to Golan 2013:195; Bulgarians: Golant 2013, No. 1.3.1 (Ruse) [Baba Marta decided that it was warm, went with the goats to the mountain; frost hit, it became petrified, water still flows from under this stone; since then this month has been called March], 1.3.2 (Lovech) [the first three days of March are called borrowed; Baba Marta borrowed them from her brother February (Little Sechko) to freeze a shepherdess who was herding goats and her herd in the mountains; the shepherdess said that Marta would not do anything to her; these three days they predict what the weather would be like will be in March, April and May], 1.3.3. (Pernik) [the old woman kicked the goats out in Stara Planina on March 1, saying that she was a woman and Marta was a woman and would not do anything to her; Marta's brother February (Sechko) asked for a loan of three days; therefore, these days are called borrowed; grandmother, dogs and goats are stiff; the grandmother peed, since then the source has been there], 1.3.4. (Kostendil) [Sechko had fewer days than his sister Martha; the old woman raised sheep and goats, told them not to be afraid of Sechko, promised to spoil his beard; Sechko borrowed three days from Marta, made it cold the old woman and herd were petrified], 1.3.5. (Blagoevgrad and non-localized options) [(about the same as in others - Baba Marta, loan days]: 225-227, 228, 229, 229-232; Trefilova 2012 (Tvyrditsy, Verkhnyaya Thrace) [Baba Marta (hence the name March ) was Marta's girlfriend; she drove sheep to the mountains, she was told that it was too early, she replied that March (the month) was a woman and she was a woman, let's agree; such frost hit the mountains, everything froze and turned into stones. And these stones are there]: 282; Macedonians: Golant 2013, No. 1.4 [Marta borrowed days from Sechko (or April from Mart), froze the woman who drove the herd to the mountains and promised to spoil Sechko's beard]: 232-233; Douma 1893 [storms and cold are common in the first 9 days of March, they are called old woman's days (babele, babite); this was a long time ago and the woman's name was forgotten; at the end of February, after a cold winter, grass appeared for goats; March 2 it became warm and the woman took the goats to graze in the mountains; told them that there was nothing to fear, the terrible February was over, March would not be able to do anything; on March 8, the offended Mart went to February and asked for a loan to him although two days; February was 30 days old; the blizzard began, the old woman and her goats petrified; that's why February is called "sechko" ("short")]: 410-411; Serbs: Afanasiev 2008 [briefly and without reference to the source is the same as in Golan 2013]: 347; Golant 2013, No. 1.5.1 (Valevsky Krai) [1) an old woman was blown by the wind with goats and goats; she said "I will go to herd cattle earlier to spite March"; the storm began, the old woman and cattle were covered with snow; 2) old women gusts of wind are once sun or snow; this is "babini dokovi" in March, and martyr Doka is said to have suffered until noon, and died in the afternoon], 1.5.2. (Serbia, not localized) [the old woman drove the kids to the mountains, told Marta that she was not afraid of him, her goats were five-horned; March took April a few days, caught up with frost and snow, the old woman and goats froze and petrified; on the mountain where this happened, you can now see a large stone (old woman) and small ones around (goats)]: 233-234, 234.

Central Europe. Ukrainians [the legend of Baba Yevdokha and the fairy tale "Months and Seasons" were contaminated in central Ukraine and Cherkasy region; Baba Yevdokha visited February, but refused to accept him in response and instead went to herd goats; offended February brings rain and frost]: Belova et al. 2019:220; Ukrainians (Hutsuls) [in March, Baba Evdokha sent her stepdaughter for raspberries; by the road The Savior and Peter sat, asked the girl, told her to go home without looking back; the basket was full of raspberries; Evdokha herself went to Black Mountain, driving a herd of sheep and goats, taking 12 covers with her; shouted March, which will spoil him in his mouth; freezing rain began, then frost hit, the covers did not help, Evdokha froze; since then, at this time of year, severe cold has been repeated; there is an ice column on Black Mountain, in which Evdokha has turned, a cold spring beats at its foot]: Kindl 2000:116-118 (retelling in Golan 2013:223-224).

Caucasus - Asia Minor. Abkhazians [K. Machavarini. Essays on Abkhazia//Black Sea Bulletin (Batum) 1899, Nov. 12; it was a harsh winter. It's March. There was twice as much snow, but the shepherd cleaned the ground with a shovel from morning to evening and took out food for the sheep. It was the evening of the last day of March. The shepherd, confident that April would send warm days, threw his shovel and scolded March. Hearing these words, March ran to April and asked him for three more days. It snowed so much during these days that the shepherd did not know what to do at first. Then he put the cat in an empty wineskin and hung it on a beam across the attic. Hearing the cat floundering, the sheep looked there and were so busy tumbling the cat for three days that they never reminded the shepherd that they were hungry. Since then, they have been saying: "If it snows in early April, March is to blame, because since the shepherd chose him, he has always asked his younger brother April to borrow 3 or 4 days"]: Khvartsky 1994:172; Ossetians [the devil gave the poor goats for three years, divide the offspring in half; but the shepherd should not slaughter black, gray, hornless, long-horned, white, or variegated kid; shepherd in response: you will come to me neither on Sunday nor Monday (etc.); three years later, hell came on Wednesday night; they began to divide goats, they could not alone; she is a stranger; since then on this night in honor" strangers" slaughter the kid; the hell took the rest of the goats; during the rain, the poor man took off his clothes and sat on them; hell got wet, asks how the shepherd stayed dry; he promises to tell a secret in exchange for goats; gets goats and tells how he sat on his clothes; the shepherd's goats easily swam across the river, and the malik sheep are afraid to go into the water; he tells the shepherd to give four sheep for one goat; the shepherd became rich, stopped honoring God; on the last cold days of March, he started shouting to him: "Marti Burti, my whole herd is intact, my kid's ear is not lost!" March took three days to borrow from February, froze half of the herd; since then, the last days of March have been cold, and February is shorter than the other months; the witch Tarangel promised to destroy the shepherd's herd to the end; she brought a wolf on a rope, said that he was the patron saint of Falwar cattle; the shepherd gave 15 of the best sheep and goats for him; the wolf bit to death the whole herd; since then people have been praying to Falwar to save the cattle]: Byazirov 1972, No. 36:248-251; Georgians (Kartli) [the shepherd boasted: March was over, but could not take a single lamb; March took April three days, caught up with a storm with a snowstorm; the herd could not be taken out of the pen; then the shepherd hung a bag with a cat on a pole; the cat was scratching, all the sheep looked at it and forgot to chew; when Mart disappeared, the shepherd deceived him and brought the herd out]: Virsaladze 1973, No. 180:242; Armenians [days at the end of March - Early April is called Parvi Uhler, "Old Woman's Goats"; one old woman decided that it was warm and, scolding the cold March, took the kids out of the barn; March asked April for a loan for three days, got up the blizzard, the old woman and the goats died; it is believed that until the snowstorm rises at the end of March, spring will not come]: Petrosyan 2011:74.