B3A. Primary waters, A810.

.11.-.14.17.-.53.55.56.59.61.62.66.67.71.-.74.

Waters are primary. The earth is lowered into the water, appears above the water, grows from a piece of solid substance placed on the surface of water or liquid mud, from an island in the ocean, is exposed when the waters recede, etc.

Pygmies of Gabon, Cuba, Soko, Bushongo, Fang, Yoruba, Igbo, Ewe, Nzema, Fali, Malagasy (Merina), Ancient Egypt, Arabs of Egypt, Berbers of Morocco (Nador), Old Testament (Genesis), Sumer, Akkad, Assyria/Babylonia, Arameans, Palestinians, Yirkalla, Mailu, Koil off New Guinea, Sussure, Urara, Massava, Massikonapuka, Vuatom in the Bismarck Archipelago, Guadalcanal, Malaita, Ulawa, San Cristobal, Owa Raha in the Solomon Islands: Guadalcanal, Malaita, Ulawa, San Cristobal, at sea; they threw into the sea the red, black.mouth on the boat, New-Wah, Santa Cruz, Bellona, ​​Rennell, Tikopia, Nukuria, Epi, Tongoa, Futuna, Aneityum, Efate in the New Hebrides, New Caledonia, Uvea, Maré in Loyalty, Manus, Gazelle Peninsula, New Britain, Medjprat, Samap, Kanaka, Lamotrek, Futuna (Erronan), Fiji, Samoa, Tonga, Niue, Tokelau, Tuvalu, Haapai, Vava'u, Niua, Niuma, Rotuma, Wallis (Uvea), Hawaii, Tuamotu, Tahiti, Maori, Marquesas, Yap, Ulithi, Caroline Islands, Marshall Islands, Gilbert Islands, Faju, Ponape, Kapingamarangi, Tibetans, Lepchas, Rai, Kirati, Garo, Tripuri, Kachari, Meitei, Dimasa, Sherdukpen, Tawang, Gallong, Mikir, Apatani, Miri, Mishmi, Nokte, Kachin, Zeme, Rengma, Ahom, Shans, Karens, Khmers, Mundas, Didayas, Birkhor, Kol, Santals, Bhuya, Baiga, Koyas, Gonds, Konds, Oraons, Agarias, Marias, Ancient India (Rigveda, Puranas), Parayas, Cheros, Tharu, Nepalese, Balahis, Sinhalese, Semangs, Malays, Bataks (Toba, Dairi), Ibans, Kayans, Dayaks (SE Borneo), Dusun, Minahasa, Flores, Tetum, Timor, atauru (?), bicol, Tagalogs, Samad, Visayans, Koreans, Ancient Greece, Bulgarians, Macedonians, Romanians, Hungarians, Slovenes, Gagauz, Poles, Russian written tradition, Russians (Karelian Pomerania, Olonetsk, Vologda, Novgorod, Pskov, Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Kostroma, Kaluga, Ryazan, Smolensk, Vyatka, Kazan, Oryol, Tambov, Penza, Saratov), ​​Ukrainians (Hutsulshchyna, Galicia, Podolia, Chernigov, Kherson, Poltava), Belarusians, Kalmyks, Nogais, Adyghe, Karachays, Ingush, Terek Cossacks, Lezgins, Georgians, Svans, Zoroastrianism, Gilgit (Shina, Burishi), Dards, Saami, Finns, Karelians, Livs, Estonians, Setos, Latvians, Lithuanians, Komi-Zyryans, Komi-Permyaks, Udmurts, Mari, Mordovians (Erzya, Moksha), Chuvash, Kazan Tatars, Bashkirs, Karakalpaks, Yellow Uighurs, Chulym Turks, Altaians, Teleuts, Shors, Khakassians (Kachins), Baikal (Balagansky, Alarsky, Idinsky, Verkholensky) and Transbaikalian(?) Buryats, Khalkha Mongols, Mongols of Inner Mongolia, Mongors, Nenets (Forest, Yamal, Nadym, Yenisei), Mansi (Berezovsky district), southern Mansi, eastern Khanty, Nganasan, Enets, southern and northern Selkups, Kets, all Yakuts, Ilimpiysky Evenks, Western Evenks, Symsky Evenks, Far Eastern Evenks (Orochins), Baikal Evenks, Evenks of the Nerchi-Chita region, Far Eastern Evenks (Chumikan from the Okhotsk coast, Ayan), Evens, Nanai, Ulchi, Negidals, Udege, Nivkhs, Manchus, Orochi, Kojiki, Nihon Shoki, Ryukyu Islands (Miyako, Yaeyama), Ainu, Forest Yukaghirs, Russkoye Ustye, Markovo, Reindeer Koryaks, Chukchi, Itelmens,St. Lawrence Island, Central Yupik, Nunivak, Inupiat (of Northern Alaska?), Mouth of the Mackenzie, Koyukon, Upper Kuskokwim, Koochin, Upper Tanana, Southern Tutchone, Tagish, Interior Tlingit, Kaska, Beaver, Hea, Slevi, Dogrib, Chipewyan, Yellowknife, Eyak, Tlingit, Haida (Massett, Skydegate), Bellacula, Kwakiutl, Quarry, Thompson, Puget Sound, Upper Chehalis, Tututni, Upper Kokwil, Tolowa, Molala, Coos, Chinook, Yakima, Modoc, Menominee, Winnebago, Eastern Cree, Plains Ojibwa, Huron, Oneida, Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Tuscarora, Laurentian Iroquois, Delaware, Sarsee, Blackfeet, Assiniboine, Gros Ventre, Arapaho, Crow, Teton (Brule), Dakota (Sioux, group not specified), Santee, Mandan, Hidatsa, Iowa, Oto, Osage, Cheyenne, Quapaw, Arikara, Pawnee, Wichita, Shawnee, Yuchi, Cherokee, Chitimacha, Tuskegee, Alabama, Koasati, Wiyot, Yurok, Yuki, Pomo, Wintu, Patwin, Achomawi, Atsugewi, Maidu, Mountain and Coast Miwok, Chukchansi Yokuts, Dumna Yokuts, Yokuts, Salinan, Monache, Tubatulabal, Kawaiisu, Northern Paiute, Mono (Owens Valley), Bannock, Eastern Shoshone, Southern Paiute, Chemehuevi, Southern Ute, Hualapai,Yuma, Maricopa, Mohave, Cocopa, Papago, Pima, Navajo, Jicarilla, Western Apache, Lipan, Hopi, Zuñi, Western Queres (Laguna, Acoma), Seri, Warijio, Tarahumara, Huichol, Cora, Mixtec, Lacandon, Chol, Ch'orti', Quiche, Xinca, Eastern Panama (Kuna?), Kogi, Tunebo, Guayabero, Macushí, Aparai, Siona and Secoya, Cofan, Letuama, Huitoto, Bora, Kashibo, Machiguenga, Tacana, Chimane, Guarayu, Sheta, Kaingang, Nivacle, Mataco, Toba, Pilaga, Mbia, Southern Tehuelche.

Bantu-speaking Africa. Pygmies of Gabon (near the Fang) [in the beginning there was water everywhere; a huge turtle swam, partially covered the water with its shell, laid eggs, from which animals, birds, and reptiles emerged; a boat sailed by, two eggs fell into it (or a snake laid them there), from which a man Ntaum and a woman Rae were born]: Trilles 1932: 72; Cuba : Belcher 2005 [Mboom belched up the sun, moon, and stars; the sun evaporated the waters, the earth appeared; then M. belched up various animals and people; then the crocodile itself belched up all the snakes, the goat all the horned animals, the gudgeon all the fish; one man belched up white ants, died, and the ants buried him; the second belched up plants, the third hawks; M. told everyone how to live; Mboom and Ngaan quarreled over a woman; N. went into the water, created harmful crocodiles, iguanas, snakes; M. gave birth to 9 sons of Woot; they, acting separately, arranged the land, led rivers, invented blacksmithing; the woman relieved herself in a lake of palm wine, it dried up, palm trees grew in this place; the pygmy guessed that the wine went into the palm trees; the son of the king of Woot got drunk, lay naked; his sons laughed at him, and his daughter covered him, so he passed the inheritance to his daughter; W. fell ill with leprosy, retired to the forest, but his sister Mweel went with him, became his wife, they gave birth to many children, W. found signs of royalty, recovered, returned; the pygmy told about incest, W. fled, his son too, became the ancestor of the Lele people; when leaving, W. was going to pass on the insignia of royalty ("chicken-basket") to his son; the pygmy told Voota's brother Nyimi Longa about this; in the pre-dawn darkness W. did not notice the substitution, passed on the "chicken-basket" to his brother; upon learning of the substitution, W. burned the village, sent darkness, and his wife cursed the crops and cattle, both went upriver; later NL begged to return the light, fertility was restored; two clans were arguing for supremacy, decided to throw an axe into the water, whose one floated would win; the Byeeng chief ordered a wooden fake to be made, but his wife was the sister of the Bushong chief, she switched the axes; the Bushong won]: 215-218; Knappertt 1997 [in the beginning, one water; Mbombo, the white giant, felt a pain in his stomach, belched up the sun, moon and stars; the sun dried up the waters, they became clouds; then M. belched up the forest, animals, people, tools; Nchienge, the wife of the waters, lived in the east, gave birth to a son Woto and a daughter Labama; V. became the first king of the Bakuba, lived in the west, made the skin of his subjects black so that hunters would be less visible in the forest; put a medicine on their tongues, they spoke the language of the Cuba; took his sister as a wife, ordered that only kings do this; V.'s niece gave birth to the first sheep, sheep were valuable, only for kings; V. learned to make palm wine from monkeys; goats remained with people so that they would protect them from leopards; when V. blew his horn, bananas grew; he could also call crocodiles from the river]: 176-177; bushongo[at first only darkness and water, Bumba burped up the sun, the water dried up, he burped up the moon and the stars, the eagle, the crocodile, the fish, the turtle, lightning, the heron, the bumblebee, the goat; they created the others (the goat – the horned animals, the fish – the rest of the fish, etc.); lightning was sent to the sky, but it still strives for the earth]: Scheub 2000: 26; fang [Mebege and the spider Diboia were between the water and the sky; D. advised to create the earth; M. took a hair from under his arm, added something from his brain, dipped it, took out a pebble, it turned out to be an egg, lowered it into the sea, told D. to bring the egg when it became hot; he did, M. added sperm, from the egg came the god Zame ye Mebege, his sister Nying Mebege, his brother Nlona Mebege, responsible for the evil principle; ZM saw a raffia palm leaf in the sea, transformed it into a cross, which is responsible for the 4 cardinal directions; took a hair from under his arm, his brain, made ants and termites, from their excrement the earth was formed; it grew in the sea, hardened; ZM with his sister and brother came out of the egg, stepped onto the land; ZM erected the cross, it became a raffia palm; then he created people]: Scheub 2000: 147-148; soko [in the beginning the earth is covered with water; the water dried up, plants appeared; in the sky only the Moon, on the earth only the Toad; the Moon said that he wanted to create man and woman; the Toad replied that the Moon belonged to the sky, therefore he, the Toad, should create people on earth; the Moon said that his people would be eternal, but the Toad's people would die and the Toad himself would also die; the Toad created man and woman; The Moon sent its sparks into the Toad and he burned up; cooled its anger in a pond, which then boiled; the people created by the Toad had no intelligence and were to live only a month; the Moon gave them a longer life and more intelligence; washed them, finished them; gave the man the name Bateta, and the woman Hanna; gave them an axe, fire, ceramics, bananas, indicated animals and birds to hunt, and himself returned to the sky; H. gave birth to 242 children; the dog showed B. that the fruits of various cultivated plants lying under the tree were edible]: Stanley 1893: 4-28 (retold in Scheub 2000: 24-25).

West Africa. Yoruba : Belcher 2005 [Obatala descended from the sky on a golden chain to the ocean, poured sand from a shell onto the waters, land was formed; he released a chicken, it began to burrow, created relief; O. came down to the earth, made palm wine, drank, decided not to drink anymore]: 310-311; Frobenius 1913: 283 [(retold in Belcher 2005: 311-313); first the ocean below (Okun, or Olorun), above Olorun; Olorun gave the eldest son the earth and a five-toed hen, sent him to create the earth; on the way he drank; then he sent the younger son on the same task; the hen began to scatter the earth it brought, the waters receded; the elder brother began to fight with the younger, but made peace, both went to the underworld], 283-284 [the same, both brothers turn into stones]; Igbo [Ogbughu (hornbill)'s mother died, he could not find a place to bury her, buried her in his head, now there is a growth on it; flying over the waters, he saw a man and a woman who were copulating in the water; they moved and the earth appeared; the woman Ale merged with the earth, saying that the dead would be buried in the earth; therefore, cultivated plants grow from the earth and people bury in it]: Belcher 2005: 286-287; Nzema [at first there was water everywhere; Nyamele (Sky) created Azele (Earth); her spouse is Nyevile (Sea); according to another version, all three originally existed and were not created by the supreme creator Ekenkema]: Grottanelli 1967: 38; Ewe [at first there was water everywhere; God sprinkled the juice of the local cabbage under the bird's wings, it flew away, the waters parted, land appeared, people came out of it; others descended from the sky in a basket suspended from a rope]: Spieth 1906: 558-559.

Sudan – East Africa. Fali [first two eggs, a turtle’s and a frog’s, from which two lands emerged, fused together; beneath them the pre-existing water]: Lembezat 1961: 171-172; Malagasy (Merina) [at first only the sea, in which lives the monster Itrimobe; one day he stuck his head out, saw the light, found no land, dug holes in the middle and on the five sides of the ocean, the water gathered in them, land appeared; but his eyes grew tired of the light and he died; his spirit wished that his hands would become people, his two legs animals, his entrails reptiles, his spine fish; the right hand became a man, the left a woman, they help each other; the legs became domestic animals, on which people lean as on legs]: Haring 2007, no. 1: 1-2.

North Africa. Ancient Egypt (Heliopolitan version, 5th dynasty) [in the beginning the boundless ocean Nun, he is like an egg; the earth rose from it in the form of a hill; the androgynous Atum created himself, or he is the child of Nun; he created the earth so that there would be a place to stand; he created the gods]: (?); Salonen 1969 [in all versions in the beginning the primordial waters; the Creator (usually named Nun) raises Ta-Tjenen from the bottom of the hill; in Hermopolis the hill is raised by Thoth, he lays an egg on it, the sun hatches from it, soars to the sky; in Heliopolis the lotus opened in the morning, released the sunlight; in the evening it opened again, took the sun for the night]: 118-119; Ancient Egypt (Hermopolitan version) [there are four variants of the Hermopolitan version of creation; 1) the celestial goose Great Cackler laid an egg on the primordial mound among the waters; from it hatched the creator of the world, the bird of light Ra; 2) the same, the egg was laid by the ibis, the embodiment of Thoth; Thoth was self-generated, the Ogdoad of the gods is his offspring; 3) a lotus rose above the waters of the "Sea of ​​Two Knives", the petals opened, Ra was there; 4) inside the lotus was a scarab (symbol of Ra), who became a boy and began to cry; his tears became people]: Ions 1968: 37; Arabs of Egypt [in the beginning there was water everywhere]: El-Shamy 1995: 44; Berbers of Morocco (Nador) [in the beginning there was water; from the presence of God it began to bubble, smoke arose, became the sky, moss was formed, became the earth; when God sent Adam to live on the earth, it began to stagger in irritation and floated; God nailed her to the mountain which is the foundation of all mountains; this is Mount Jbal Kaf near Mecca]: Thay Thay 2001, no. 10: 14.

Western Asia. Old Testament [Now the earth was formless, and void, and darkness was upon the face of the deep; and the Spirit of God moved upon the face of the waters... And God said, Let there be a firmament in the midst of the waters, and let it divide the waters from the waters... And God said, Let the waters under the heaven be gathered together unto one place, and let the dry land appear. And it was so]: Gen., 1, 2, 6, 9 ; Book of Apocrypha 2005 ["Book of Jubilees or Little Genesis"; on the second day He created the firmament between the waters; and the waters were divided that day: half of them went up upward, and half of them sank downward under the firmament that was in the middle]: 17; Sumer , Akkad [a bilingual Sumero-Akkadian spell, entitled by its latest publisher W. Lambert "The Creation of Eridu", is part of a collection describing rituals performed during the restoration of a temple; the spell is known from tablets originating from Assyria (c. 7th century BC) and Babylonia (second half of the 1st millennium BC): "The clean house, the house of the gods, in a clean place (had not yet) been built; the reeds did not grow, the trees were not created; they did not make bricks - the mold for bricks was not created; houses were not built, cities were not erected; cities were not erected, settlements were not created; Nippur was not built, Ekur was not created, Uruk was not built, (the temple) Eanna was not created, Abzu was not created, Eridu was not built; the whole world was a sea, and in the middle of the sea only a weakly flowing(?) source; In those days Eridu (in the Akkadian version, Eridu refers to Babylon) was created, Esagil (the temple of Marduk in Babylon) was built - the temple of Esagil that Lugaldukuga (one of the names of the god Ea; in the Akkadian version of the incantation, Marduk is meant) erected in the middle of the Abzu - Babylon was created, Esagil was built; he created all the Anunnaki gods, and to the pure city, where they lived happily, they gave a glorious name; Marduk (in the Noise version: the god Gilimma; presumably, this refers to the god Enki) tied a raft on the water, created the earth, and poured it on the raft, so that the gods could settle in dwellings pleasing to their hearts; he created people, Aruru (the mother goddess) together with him nurtured (in the Akkadian version: created) the seed of man; he created animals, the creatures of the steppe; He created the Tigris and the Euphrates, showed them their beds (?), called them by good names; he created the reeds (?) and sedge (?), the reeds of the swamp and the thicket, he created the fragrant grasses of the steppe; the whole world was a swamp and a thicket of reeds; the cow, her calf and bull; the sheep, her lamb and ram, gardens and forests, wild sheep and antelopes (?) stood before him; Bel made a mound on the edge of the sea, Ea made dry land in the midst (?) of the sea (and) the reed groves; […] he created; he created [the reeds (?)], he created the trees; […] in (this) place he created; [he made bricks], he created a mold for bricks; [he built a temple]; he erected a city; [he erected a city], he created a village; [he built Nippur], he created (the temple) Ekur, [he built Uruk], he created (the temple) Eanna; [created (temple) Abzu, Eridu] built” (translated by R.M. Nurullin)]: Lambert 2013: 366-375; Babylonia[the creation poem Enuma elish (believed to have been composed in Babylon in the late 12th or 11th century BC; the surviving tablets come from Babylonia and Assyria; the earliest copies come from Assur and date back to around the 9th century BC; most of the tablets from Assyria date back to the 7th century BC and were found in Nineveh; the tablets from Babylonia date mainly to the Achaemenid and Seleucid eras; the origin of most of the Babylonian tablets remains unknown): the two primordial water elements, Tiamat and her husband Apsu, mix their waters and give birth to the first gods (Apsu's appearance is not described in the poem Enuma elish; Tiamat appears simultaneously as a water element and as some kind of animal, possibly a goat); the gods prevent Apsu from sleeping with their noise; he decides to destroy the gods; Tiamat refuses to help him; having learned of Apsu's plans, the god Ea puts him to sleep with a spell and kills him; he subjugates Mummu, the adviser of Apsu (a being who embodies creative forces and has the form of a ram); over the body of his ancestor, Ea creates for himself a dwelling and calls it Apsu; in Apsu is born Marduk, the son of Ea and his wife Damkina; Marduk surpasses all the other gods; he has four ears and four eyes; šaptīšu ina šutābuli Girra ittanpaḫ "When he moved(?) his lips, a fire flared up (lit.: Girra, the name of the god of fire, which is also used to mean 'fire')"; Anu gives Marduk the four winds; playing with them, Marduk upsets Tiamat and does not give peace to the younger gods; they incite Tiamat to avenge Apsu; Tiamat gives birth to eleven serpentine monsters; she places a god named Kingu at the head of her army; Tiamat makes Kingu her husband and gives him the tablet of destinies; neither Ea nor Anu can resist Tiamat; Marduk is ready to fight her if the gods recognize him as king over them; the gods test Marduk's ability to create and destroy: by Marduk's will one of the constellations disappears; then Marduk recreates it by his word; the gods give Marduk weapons; in addition to them, Marduk makes himself a bow and a net; he is accompanied by winds and lightning; Marduk's body is filled with flames; Marduk rides to battle in a chariot harnessed to four storm demons; during the battle, Marduk entangles Tiamat in a net and sends an "evil wind" against her; having swallowed it, Tiamat cannot close her mouth; Marduk shoots an arrow into Tiamat and kills her; Tiamat's army disperses; Marduk captures the gods who were on Tiamat's side and the monsters she spawned; returning to Tiamat's body, he splits her skull with his mace and cuts her veins; at Marduk's command, the north wind brings Tiamat's blood to the elder gods, and they learn of his victory; Marduk cuts Tiamat's body in two, like a drying fish; from one half he makes the sky; Marduk stretches Tiamat's skin and places guards, ordering them "not to let out her water" (apparently, Tiamat's waters remain above the sky and should not leak down); Marduk makes the heavens like Apsu, the dwelling place of the god Eya, and settles the god of the sky Anu there; for Enlil,one of the supreme gods of the Mesopotamian pantheon, Marduk - also in the likeness of Apsu - creates Esharra (earth or lower heaven?); Marduk arranges "stations" for the gods in the sky and "sets" the stars, which are "likenesses" of the gods; he creates the year and divides it into twelve months; three stars associated with each month are appointed; Neberu, Marduk's luminary (presumably the planet Jupiter), ensures that the stars do not stray from their paths; on both sides of Tiamat's chest (lit. "in the ribs") Marduk opens the heavenly gates and fastens the bolts on them; in Tiamat's belly he places the highest part of the sky; Marduk creates the moon and instructs it to measure days and months; he determines the phases of the moon; the end of the story about the creation of the heavenly bodies and the ordering of time (about 25 lines) is practically not preserved; The damaged passage apparently refers to the sun god Shamash and the further organization of the year; Tiamat's mucus (the original Akkadian word has also been translated as "saliva" or "foam") is probably used to create clouds (the lines that describe this are partially damaged); Tiamat's saliva produces rain and fog; Marduk builds mountains on her head and udder; the Tigris and Euphrates rivers originate from Tiamat's eyes (a pun in the original: the lexeme meaning "eye" also means "source"); from Tiamat's tail Marduk twists Durmahha (lit. "great rope", presumably a reference to the mythical rope that connects heaven and earth and holds the universe together); the rest of the text is partially damaged; It may be that it tells of how Tiamat's lower half (the earth) is used as a support for her upper half (the sky) and at the same time serves as a roof for Apsu, the underground water kingdom of the god Eya (thus the world is surrounded by water both above and below); having completed the creation, Marduk removes the net that was entangled around Tiamat's body during the creation (apparently the net held together the parts of the world Marduk was creating, which were not initially firmly connected to each other); Marduk gives the tablet of destinies to the sky god Anu; images of the eleven monsters defeated by Marduk are placed at the gates of Apsu; they are supposed to remind us of Marduk's deeds; the elder gods proclaim Marduk king over all the gods; at Marduk's direction, Eya creates a man from the blood of the executed Kingu, so that he will work in place of the gods; Marduk divides the gods into two groups: some he settles in the sky, others become inhabitants of the underworld; the gods build Babylon and the temple of Esagil for Marduk; Anu turns Marduk's bow into a constellation; the gods throw a feast at which they glorify Marduk and call him by fifty names; Marduk's father gives him the fifty-first name, giving him his own name "Eya" (compiled summary, translation of fragment and commentary by R.M. Nurullin)]: Lambert 2013: 45-134 (brief paraphrase in Afanasyev 1982a: 110) (cf. Kramer 2005 ("Enuma-elish") [after defeating Tiamat, Marduk, with the help of his father Ea, created people from the blood of Kingu, the rebellious god,who was the leader of Tiamat's hostile troops; according to another source (the prologue to the spell for cleansing the Babylonian temple), in the beginning there was nothing, "all countries were one continuous sea"; then the gods were created and Babylon was built; after this Marduk built a structure of reeds on the surface of the waters and, with the help of his mother, the goddess Aruru (the Sumerian Ninmah, aka Nintu, aka Nihursag), created people; after man, Marduk created steppe animals, the Tigris and Euphrates rivers, grass, reeds and reeds, green growth of fields, land, swamps and thickets, a cow and a calf, a sheep and a lamb]: 111-112);Babylonia[1) The Babylonian History, written in Greek by the Babylonian author Berossus (second half of the 4th – first half of the 3rd century BC) and which has come down to us in several fragments; then comes a quote from the Armenian translation of the Chronicle of Eusebius of Caesarea (3rd-4th centuries AD); Eusebius was familiar with the Babylonian History through a chain of intermediaries, primarily through Alexander Polyhistor (late 2nd – 1st century BC): “I will relate what this Berossus writes in the first book of his history, and I will add to what has already been said what Polyhistor included in his work. He sets out one after another, in order, as follows. An unreliable Chaldean history from Alexander Polyhistor’s book dedicated to these Chaldeans. Berossus relates in the first Babylonian book that he was a contemporary of Alexander, the son of Philip, that he wrote the books of many writers, which have been preserved with great care in Babylon for 215 myriads of years. In them is an account of times, and records of stories about heaven and earth, and the sea, and the first creations, and about kings, about their deeds and exploits. <…> There was, he says, a time when darkness and water reigned everywhere. And there were some monsters there, some of which were spontaneously generated and had life-giving forms. They gave birth to people with two wings; and besides, there were others with four wings and two faces, having one body, but two heads - female and male, and a double sex, male and female; and then still other people - with goat's legs and with horns on their heads; and others still - with horse's legs, and still others who are horses in the back, and people in the front, these had the appearance of hippocentaurs. They also begot bulls with human heads, and dogs with four bodies, whose tail stuck out behind like a fish; and horses with dogs' heads; and other monsters with a horse's head, a human body, and a fish's stature; and besides, all sorts of dragon-like monsters; and fishes, and reptiles, and serpents, and a host of wondrous and varied creatures, each having parts of its own. Their images are kept in the temple of Bel, set out one after another. And over them all reigned a woman, whose name was Markaye, who in Chaldean is called Thalatta, and translated into Greek is Thalatta. This is the sea. And while this whole chaotic mass was in turmoil, Bel rushed against it and tore the woman in two: from one half he created the earth, and from the other the sky; and the other living creatures that were within her he destroyed. Allegorically, he says, and figuratively, these legends are told about nature. Namely, that everywhere there was moisture and water, only monsters were inside; and this god cut off his head, and the blood that flowed out of him, the other gods collected, mixed with earth and created people from it; therefore people are reasonable and participate in the wisdom of the gods. And about Bel, who is translated into Greek as "Zeus", and into Armenian - Aramazd, he says that he divided the darkness in the middle, separated heaven and earth from each other and created the world. The monsters could not withstand the power of the light and perished."But Belus, he says, seeing that the earth was deserted and fertile, commanded one of the gods to mix the blood that had spilled from the severed head with the earth and to create people, as well as cattle and other animals that could bear this light. Belus created the stars, the Sun, the Moon, and the five wandering stars [planets]. Berossus tells about this, according to Polyhistor, in the first book ... "; 2) the same fragment of the "Babylonian History" of Berossus, transmitted in the "Selected Chronography" of George Syncellus (VIII-IX centuries AD) based on the "Chronicle" of Eusebius of Caesarea (probably on its Greek original, which is now lost): "There was, he says, a time when everything was darkness and water, and in them monstrous creatures were born, having an unusual appearance. For there appeared two-winged men, and some with four wings and two faces, having one body, but two heads, male and female, and a double shame, male and female. And other men, some with goat's legs and horns, some with horse's legs, some with the hindquarters of a horse, and the forequarters of a man, these had the appearance of hippocentaurs. There were also born bulls with human heads, and dogs with four bodies, with fish tails sticking out from behind, and dog-headed horses, and men, and other creatures having the heads and bodies of horses, and the tails of fish, and other creatures having the forms of various animals. Besides these, fish, and reptiles, and snakes, and many other wonderful creatures, alternately combining in their appearance the features of each other. Their images are exhibited in the temple of Bel. And over them all ruled a woman named "Omorka"; in Chaldean it is "Talatth", and in Greek it is translated as "sea", and numerically it is the moon. When everything was in this state, Bel, having climbed on the woman, tore her in the middle, and made one half of her earth, and the other half - heaven, and the animals that were inside her disappeared. Thus, he says, nature is allegorically described. Everything was moisture and living beings were born in it, and this god cut off his own head, and the other gods mixed the blood that gushed from the head with the earth and created people. Therefore, they are rational and partakers of divine thought. Bel, which in translation means "Zeus", having divided the darkness in the middle, separated the earth and heaven from each other, and created the cosmos. The animals, not bearing the power of light, perished. Belus, seeing that the earth was deserted and fertile, commanded one of the gods to cut off his head, and, mixing the earth with the blood that gushed out, he created men and beasts capable of bearing the air. Belus created the stars, and the sun, and the moon, and the five planets. Thus, according to Alexander Polyhistor, Berossus relates in the first book”: Kuzishchin 2002, fr. 1: 299-300, 306 (English translation of an excerpt from Syncellus’s “Selected Chronography” in Verbrugghe, Wickersham 2001, F1: 45-46);“Berossus tells about this, according to Polyhistor, in the first book…”; 2) the same fragment of Berossus’s “Babylonian History”, transmitted in the “Selected Chronography” of Georgius Syncellus (8th-9th centuries AD) based on the “Chronicle” of Eusebius of Caesarea (probably on its Greek original, which is now lost): “There was, he says, a time when everything was darkness and water, and in them monstrous creatures were born, having an unusual appearance. For two-winged people appeared, and some with four wings and two faces, they had one body, but two heads, male and female, and double shame, male and female. And other people, some with goat’s legs and horns, some with horse’s legs, some with the back of a horse, and the front of a man, these had the appearance of hippocentaurs. There were born bulls with human heads, and dogs with four bodies, with fish tails sticking out behind, and dog-headed horses, and men, and other creatures having the heads and bodies of horses, and the tails of fish, and other creatures having the forms of various animals. Besides these, fish, and reptiles, and snakes, and many other wonderful creatures, alternately combining in their appearance the features of each other. Their images are exhibited in the temple of Bel. And over them all reigned a woman named "Omorka"; in Chaldean it is "Talatth", and in Greek it is translated as "sea", and numerically it is the moon. When everything was in this state, Bel, having climbed upon the woman, tore her in the middle, and made one half of her earth, and the other half heaven, and the animals that were inside her disappeared. Thus, he says, is nature allegorically described. Everything was moisture and living creatures were born in it, and this god cut off his own head, and the other gods mixed the blood that gushed from his head with the earth and created people. Therefore, they are rational and involved in divine thought. Bel, which means “Zeus” in translation, having divided the darkness in the middle, separated the earth and the sky from each other, and created the cosmos. Animals, not bearing the power of light, perished. Bel, seeing that the earth was deserted and fertile, ordered one of the gods to cut off his head, and, having mixed the earth with the gushed blood, created people and animals capable of enduring air. Bel created the stars, and the sun, and the moon, and the five planets. Thus, according to Alexander Polyhistor, Berossus tells in the first book”]: Kuzishchin 2002, fr. 1: 299-300, 306 (English translation of an excerpt from Syncellus's Select Chronography in Verbrugghe, Wickersham 2001, F1: 45-46);“Berossus tells about this, according to Polyhistor, in the first book…”; 2) the same fragment of Berossus’s “Babylonian History”, transmitted in the “Selected Chronography” of Georgius Syncellus (8th-9th centuries AD) based on the “Chronicle” of Eusebius of Caesarea (probably on its Greek original, which is now lost): “There was, he says, a time when everything was darkness and water, and in them monstrous creatures were born, having an unusual appearance. For two-winged people appeared, and some with four wings and two faces, they had one body, but two heads, male and female, and double shame, male and female. And other people, some with goat’s legs and horns, some with horse’s legs, some with the back of a horse, and the front of a man, these had the appearance of hippocentaurs. There were born bulls with human heads, and dogs with four bodies, with fish tails sticking out behind, and dog-headed horses, and men, and other creatures having the heads and bodies of horses, and the tails of fish, and other creatures having the forms of various animals. Besides these, fish, and reptiles, and snakes, and many other wonderful creatures, alternately combining in their appearance the features of each other. Their images are exhibited in the temple of Bel. And over them all reigned a woman named "Omorka"; in Chaldean it is "Talatth", and in Greek it is translated as "sea", and numerically it is the moon. When everything was in this state, Bel, having climbed upon the woman, tore her in the middle, and made one half of her earth, and the other half heaven, and the animals that were inside her disappeared. Thus, he says, is nature allegorically described. Everything was moisture and living creatures were born in it, and this god cut off his own head, and the other gods mixed the blood that gushed from his head with the earth and created people. Therefore, they are rational and involved in divine thought. Bel, which means “Zeus” in translation, having divided the darkness in the middle, separated the earth and the sky from each other, and created the cosmos. Animals, not bearing the power of light, perished. Bel, seeing that the earth was deserted and fertile, ordered one of the gods to cut off his head, and, having mixed the earth with the gushed blood, created people and animals capable of enduring air. Bel created the stars, and the sun, and the moon, and the five planets. Thus, according to Alexander Polyhistor, Berossus tells in the first book”]: Kuzishchin 2002, fr. 1: 299-300, 306 (English translation of an excerpt from Syncellus's Select Chronography in Verbrugghe, Wickersham 2001, F1: 45-46);And other people, some with goat's legs and horns, some with horse's legs, some with the hindquarters of a horse and the forequarters of a man, these had the appearance of hippocentaurs. There were also born bulls with human heads, and dogs with four bodies, with fish tails sticking out behind, and dog-headed horses, and people, and other creatures having the heads and bodies of horses, and the tails of fish, and other creatures having the forms of various animals. Besides these, fish, and reptiles, and snakes, and many other wonderful creatures, alternately combining in their appearance the features of each other. Their images are exhibited in the temple of Bel. And over them all reigned a woman named "Omorka"; in Chaldean it is "Talatth", and in Greek it is translated as "sea", and in numerical expression it is the moon. When everything was in this state, Belus, climbing on the woman, tore her in half, and made one half of her earth, and the other half heaven, and the animals that were inside her disappeared. Thus, he says, nature is told allegorically. Everything was moisture and living beings were born in it, and this god cut off his own head, and the other gods mixed the blood that gushed from the head with the earth and created people. Therefore, they are rational and partakers of divine thought. Belus, which in translation means "Zeus", having divided the darkness in the middle, separated the earth and the sky from each other, and created the cosmos. The animals, who could not bear the power of light, perished. Belus, seeing that the earth was deserted and fertile, ordered one of the gods to cut off his head, and, mixing the earth with the gushed blood, he created people and animals capable of enduring air. Belus created the stars, and the sun, and the moon, and the five planets. Thus, according to Alexander Polyhistor, Berossus tells in the first book”: Kuzishchin 2002, fr. 1: 299-300, 306 (English translation of an excerpt from Syncellus’s “Selected Chronography” in Verbrugghe, Wickersham 2001, F1: 45-46);And other people, some with goat's legs and horns, some with horse's legs, some with the hindquarters of a horse and the forequarters of a man, these had the appearance of hippocentaurs. There were also born bulls with human heads, and dogs with four bodies, with fish tails sticking out behind, and dog-headed horses, and people, and other creatures having the heads and bodies of horses, and the tails of fish, and other creatures having the forms of various animals. Besides these, fish, and reptiles, and snakes, and many other wonderful creatures, alternately combining in their appearance the features of each other. Their images are exhibited in the temple of Bel. And over them all reigned a woman named "Omorka"; in Chaldean it is "Talatth", and in Greek it is translated as "sea", and in numerical expression it is the moon. When everything was in this state, Belus, climbing on the woman, tore her in half, and made one half of her earth, and the other half heaven, and the animals that were inside her disappeared. Thus, he says, nature is told allegorically. Everything was moisture and living beings were born in it, and this god cut off his own head, and the other gods mixed the blood that gushed from the head with the earth and created people. Therefore, they are rational and partakers of divine thought. Belus, which in translation means "Zeus", having divided the darkness in the middle, separated the earth and the sky from each other, and created the cosmos. The animals, who could not bear the power of light, perished. Belus, seeing that the earth was deserted and fertile, ordered one of the gods to cut off his head, and, mixing the earth with the gushed blood, he created people and animals capable of enduring air. Belus created the stars, and the sun, and the moon, and the five planets. Thus, according to Alexander Polyhistor, Berossus tells in the first book”: Kuzishchin 2002, fr. 1: 299-300, 306 (English translation of an excerpt from Syncellus’s “Selected Chronography” in Verbrugghe, Wickersham 2001, F1: 45-46);the other gods mixed the blood that gushed from the head with the earth and created people. Therefore, they are rational and part of the divine thought. Bel, which means "Zeus" in translation, divided the darkness in the middle, separated the earth and the sky from each other, and created the cosmos. The animals, who could not bear the power of light, perished. Bel, seeing that the earth was deserted and fertile, ordered one of the gods to cut off his head, and, mixing the earth with the gushed blood, created people and animals capable of enduring air. Bel created the stars, and the sun, and the moon, and the five planets. So, according to Alexander Polyhistor, Berossus tells in the first book"]: Kuzishchin 2002, fr. 1: 299-300, 306 (English translation of an excerpt from Syncellus's Select Chronography in Verbrugghe, Wickersham 2001, F1: 45-46);the other gods mixed the blood that gushed from the head with the earth and created people. Therefore, they are rational and part of the divine thought. Bel, which means "Zeus" in translation, divided the darkness in the middle, separated the earth and the sky from each other, and created the cosmos. The animals, who could not bear the power of light, perished. Bel, seeing that the earth was deserted and fertile, ordered one of the gods to cut off his head, and, mixing the earth with the gushed blood, created people and animals capable of enduring air. Bel created the stars, and the sun, and the moon, and the five planets. So, according to Alexander Polyhistor, Berossus tells in the first book"]: Kuzishchin 2002, fr. 1: 299-300, 306 (English translation of an excerpt from Syncellus's Select Chronography in Verbrugghe, Wickersham 2001, F1: 45-46);Assyria and/or Babylonia [a work on the history of the Assyrians and Chaldeans (conditionally - "On the Assyrians"), written in Greek by Abydenus (2nd-3rd centuries AD) and which has come down to us in the form of several fragments; an excerpt known from the Armenian translation of the "Chronicle" of Eusebius of Caesarea (3rd-4th centuries AD): "In the beginning, according to him {Abydenus}, there was water everywhere, and this was called the sea. Then Bel lowered [? the waters] and distributed the lands among [the peoples]. He fortified Babylon with walls around the circumference, but after a long time [the walls] weakened. Therefore Nebuchadnezzar restored them, and they stood until the time of the Macedonians, together with their bronze gates" (Fr. 1a)]: Maslov 2020 (German translation in Jacoby 1958, no. 685: 399); Palestinians : Hanauer 1977 [first Allah created the Tablets of Destiny with a record of everything that was and will be; created a giant Pen, ordered it to write; when the tablets were full, A. placed them and the pen in an unknown place; then A. created water and a huge pearl the size of heaven and earth; from the voice of A. it spread over the first waters, they bubbled, then everything became quiet; then A. created his throne, placing it on the waters; created the winged Wind, ordering it to support the waters; a serpent lying in a ring around the Throne; its head is a white pearl, its body is gold, its eyes are sapphires; Then A. commanded the Wind to stir up the sea; from the foam land was formed on the surface of the waters, the spray and steam became clouds; the frozen waves formed mountains; the mountains do not allow the earth to float on the waters, their roots go back to Mount Qaf, which encircles the world and holds its contents; A. turned the surface waters into seven concentric seas, separated by the same number of continents, but connected by straits and bays]: 3-5; Meyouhas 1928 [the beginning is approximately the same as in Hanauer; the purpose of the mountains is to keep everything on land from sliding into the abyss; Allah divided the waters, creating seven seas separated by land; at first the earth rocked on the waters; A. commanded an angel to support it, placing an emerald rock under his feet; A. commanded the River Horse with sparkling eyes to hold the rock on one of his horns; when this Beast gets tired, it throws a rock onto another horn, the earth trembles; this creature is generated by Leviathan floating in the waters; to illuminate the land and sea, A. created the sun, moon and stars]: 7-11; Aramaeans[At first there is only water, Jesus flew over it as a bird; He blew on the water – the sky rose, and the fish rose and became stars; they were afraid to rise during the day, but rose at night; Jesus made the moon a shepherd of the stars; God ordered an angel to bring clay (dust) from the four corners of the world to create Adam; at that time He Himself created Adam and the returning angel did not understand which of the two was God; then Jesus said, Lord, bless, and A. answered: bless you, after that the angel understood; God placed A. on the threshing floor in Jerusalem and A. began to tell different animals what their customs should be; the raven has a hole in its tongue, 6 out of 7 pecked grains fall to the ground]: Prym, Socin 1881, No. 55: 219.

Australia. Yirkalla [at first there was water everywhere, the waves knocked down islands of foam; two sisters came in a boat, called the foam land, it became dry land; with their digging tools they dug wells, from which all the animals and birds came out; the sisters gave them names and showed them where to live; people appeared from somewhere; while the women were sleeping, the men stole their grass bags containing quartz crystals and other sacred objects; they set fire to the grass where the bags lay, so that the women would think that they had burned up; when the women woke up, they heard the sound of a whistle, which the men had set in motion during a ritual; from then on, the power was with the men; the Sun became angry, turned the two sisters and the four men who had stolen the bags into stone pillars; after sunset, the Sun becomes a fish, swims in the underground waters from west to east]: Wells 1965: 67-74.

Melanesia. Susure [in the beginning there was only water, from the water the spirit Tauar arose; he moved the water aside, dry land emerged, the rest remained sea; at first the earth was like a swamp, T. created plants; he drew a man on the earth, blew life into him; the same with the woman; people multiplied, T. sent them out in different directions]: Lehner 1975, no. 1: 741-742; Manus : Meier 1907, no. 2 [a man Nimei and a woman Niwong are swimming in the sea; they decide to create dry land; they grab a floating tree trunk, it turns into land; they create vegetation on the earth; they create two mushrooms; the man made the Moon out of his, the woman the Sun out of hers], 5 [The Moon claimed to be ill, his brother the Sun went off alone to fish; at that time the Moon had intercourse with the Sun's wife; the Sun found them; sailed away with his people, threw sand on the water, the country of Nauna appeared; the Sun now rises from the east, the Moon from the west (otherwise both would rise from the east); the people of the Moon are the stars; the people of the Sun live in Nauna]: 646, 940-941; the Gazelle Peninsula [To Kabinana and To Karvuvu took clods of earth into a boat, scattered them over the sea, and islands were formed]: Meier 1909: 47-49 in Lessa 1961: 278; New Britain [the two sons of Tabui Kor learned that she salted their food with her urine, and hers with real salt; TK in anger rolled away the stone that was covering the salt water, and the water that spilled out formed a sea; they scattered clods of earth over it - islands]: Brown 1910: 354-355, Mackenzie 1930: 150-151 in Lessa 1961: 278; mejprat (NW New Guinea) [a flying fox lived in the cave Fu; its excrement fell into the water, formed a mound, it grew, became earth; its son Sachaf and daughter Satoch married, had two daughters and two sons, they married, left the cave, blocked up the exit; the flying fox rushed after it; those whom it bit more often have lighter skin; in times of disaster, people clean this cave]: Elmberg 1968, no. 52: 208 (comm.), 280-281; samaap : Gehberger 1950: 755-762 [the parents placed their son and daughter in a sack, put them in a boat, and launched them into the sea; they threw red, black and yellow paint into the sea, from which an island was formed (in Lessa 1961: 278-279], 762-765 [the demon took the brother and sister to the sea, threw them overboard; they took sand from floating leaves, threw it into the water, an island was formed (Lessa 1961: 279)]; Santa Cruz [Mosigsig lived in Utupua; threw away the breadfruit, it turned out to be rotten, hollow, M. made himself a boat out of it; despite his mother's prohibition, he sails to where Santa Cruz is now, catches and brings back ever larger and more dangerous fish and shellfish; invites a terrible fish with 8 fins, each like a sail, into the boat, offers it to sit on the knife, then again, it dies; pulls Santa Cruz out of the bottom for the last time; his younger brother was frightened, ran, so the cape at the lagoon is too long]: Coombe 1911: 192-194; Western Melanesia , New Hebrides ,New Caledonia : Lessa 1961 [reported as landed and caught were Mailu, Koil off New Guinea; Urara, Massava, Massikonapuka, Vuatom in the Bismarck Islands: Guadalcanal, Malaita, Ulawa, San Cristobal, Owa Raha in the Solomon Islands: Guadalcanal, Malaita, Ulawa, San Cristobal, in the sea; they threw into the sea the red, black.mouth on the boat, New-wah; Epi, Tongoa, Futuna, Aneityum, "many islands known to the people of Efate", in the New Hebrides; New Caledonia; Ouvea and Mare ( Loyalty Islands )]: 319; Codrington 1881 [the southernmost island of the New Hebrides was reported as landed]: 296; Aneityum : Codrington 1881 [Aneityum was said to have been fished out]: 296; Humphreys 1926 [Inhugaraig went to sea on a nesiaig tree leaf to catch fish; pulled out an island, it was Aneityum, I. placed a man and a woman there]: 112; Kanaka : Leenhardt 1930: 218 in Lessa 1961 [the souls of the dead carried earth on a taro leaf, threw it on the water, New Caledonia was formed]: 278; Leenhardt 1932 [to create the earth, the god threw a taro leaf with earth on it, or a yam cake, on the water]: 448; Fiji [in the beginning only water and sky; the gods lived in Bulotu, where they drank kava under a tree (Tree of Speech); Maui decided to launch a boat, sailed far from Bulotu with his two sons, fished out Fiji, then Tonga, Niue, Haabai, Vava'u and other islands]: Fison 1894: 139-146.

Micronesia – Polynesia. Ulithi (Western Carolines) [two older brothers fished out, and Motilik fished out the island of Fais, their boat ending up in the middle of it]: Lessa 1961, no. 5: 35-37, 301 [in Micronesia, Fais, Galap (Palau?), Ayai, Mili were considered to be fished out], 318 [the motif is known from the Carolines, Marshall Islands, Gilbert Islands], 319 [list of sources]; Palau , Yap , Ulithi , Ngulu , Fayu , Ponape , Kapingamarangi , Marshall Islands [data on their formation from sand, etc., thrown onto the water]: Lessa 1961: 281-286; Lamotrek [at first the world is dark, the sky is close to the water; in the sea, a mother rock that gave birth to three gods; these are Saulal (Ilal, the lord of the sea and fish, lives in the lower world), Sauaur (Souiaur, the lord of the air, is responsible for the breadfruit) and Alúelap, the upper, supreme deity, his wife Limarauarau - the Firmament; according to the version from the island of Elato, the mother goddess grew a coconut palm (or rather a trunk without leaves), she rested against the low sky; she ordered her son and daughter to climb the palm tree, scatter sand from there, and islands arose; a son named Eluelap raised the sky to its current height, expanding the firmament; according to the version from Lamotrek, E.'s daughter Leboupboup (Ligóubub, Legóupup) descended from the sky, scattered sand and stones, islands arose, created plants and animals; cut the tip of the finger on her right hand, from the drops of blood arose a woman Yat and a man Yol, from them humans are descended]: Krämer 1937: 143-146; Tokelau Islands (Fakaofo) [three brothers Maui the First, Maui the Middle, Maui the Last lived on Tonga, they sailed out to fish; Maui the First's hook caught on the root of a coconut palm, he began to pull, pulled out the island of Fakaofo; they sailed on; Maui the Middle's hook caught, he pulled out the island of Nukunono; Maui the Last - the island of Atafu; Earth and Sky lay close to each other, people crawled between them; a man Iikiiki and a woman Talanga gave birth to a boy Ku; he leaned on the sky, began to move it, took a tree, moved the sky like a pole; then at the 12 corners of the earth he called the winds for help; 12 winds raised the sky to its present height]: Burrows 1923: 153; Tuvalu (Funafuti) [a man went out to sea, scattered sand from a basket, and thus the islands were formed; Pai, Vau: two women from the Gilbert Islands scattered sand on the waters]: Williamson 1933(1): 72; Futuna (Erronan, in Vanuatu) [there is a story that the island was fished out]: Lessa 1961: 319; Samoa[Tangaloa saw a stone floating in the ocean below, raised it to the sky, turned it into a woman, she bore him a daughter, Tuli ('plovers'); her father sent her to the earth, Tuli returned, saying that there was only water below; Tangaloa either dropped the stone from the sky onto the waters, or fished it up from the bottom; the stone grew, becoming the earth; to provide shade, Tangaloa dropped a seed, a vine grew; Tuli said that there were no people on earth; her father advised her to pull up the vine; it rotted, maggots appeared, two of them turned into men; one injured himself while fishing, died; Tangaloa made his body female, revived him; from this pair people are descended; Tangaloa gave them taro and other useful things]: Makemson 1941: 59-60 (briefly also in Dixon 1916: 18); Tonga : Permyakov 1970, No. 141 [Tangaloa-Autolongolongo in the form of a seagull flies from the sky to look for land in the sea; notices a white stripe, returns; Tangaloa-Builder brings down an avalanche of porous stones from the sky, the land of Eua appears; TA flies to that stripe again, it turns into a large land, into the foremother-Ata; Tangaloa-Chief gives fruit, from which vegetation grows on the earth; a worm started up in a piece of liana, TA tore it apart with his beak, from the two halves and from the piece stuck to his beak, three people emerged; they are the ancestors of the invisible spirits], 142 [Maui Motua ("the Elder") sent in a boat to catch the islands Maui the Tall, M. Low, M. the Builder, his son, M. Kisikisi ("Little", he is the strongest); they sailed to Samoa, where the god Tonga was catching land, to take a hook from him; MK seduced his wife, she advised him to take the most inconspicuous hook; T. asks to name the caught land in his honor; besides Tonga, they caught Tokelau, Samoa, Haapai, Vava'u, Niua, Niuma]: 363-365, 365-368; Collocott 1924: 275-276 [seaweed and mud floating on the water gathered on the islet of Totai in Bulotu (paradise), separated, a rock was erected from them, four pairs of spouses emerged from it; their children divided the world; Vele-lahi and the Tangaloa brothers took the sky, Hikuleo took Bulotu and all the earth, Hemoana the sea, Lube the land and forests; if Hikuleo came with Bulotu to the earth, he would destroy it; therefore Tangaloa from the sky and Maui from the underworld hold him with a rope], 276-277 [there are five Tangaloa in the sky; they send one of them, T.-atulongolongo, in the form of a snipe, to visit the earth; he finds only the sea, but in one place a shallow is visible; after seven nights he is sent again, the shallows have become closer to the surface; he was told to ask T.-tufunga to throw down chips and shavings from his workshop; from them the earth arose, began to grow; T.-eiki gave a liana seed to plant, vegetation arose; T.-a. ordered to tear off a piece of the root, it rotted, a larva began to live in it; T.-a. tore it in half with his beak; from the two halves and from the piece remaining in the beak the first three people emerged: the elder Rahai, the middle Koau, the younger Momo ("scrap")]; Niue[Niue was a reef which was covered with water at high tide; two men from Tonga, Huanaki and Fao, sailed there, stamped, the island rose above the waters, they stamped again, trees and grasses appeared; from the ti plant they made a man and a woman, they gave birth to people]: Thompson in Williamson 1933(1): 69; Rotuma : Polinsky 1986: #6 [Lu's wife (son of Tangaroa) gave birth to two sons, then had a miscarriage; the premature baby Moea-tikitiki was raised by a wea bird , sent to her parents; Lu goes somewhere secretly; M. watches him; Lu lifts a stone, goes down into a hole in the ground; M. looks into the hole, sees the country of Tonga below, goes down, finds himself in a tree, throws fruit at his father; his father tries to kill him by sending an old man for fire; M. defeats the old man, brings fire; M. came down next time with two brothers and caught the land of Tonga on a hook; Tangaroa got angry and placed the brothers in the sky (three stars of Orion's Belt)]: 55-57; Burrows 1936 [(data from Gordon Macgregor); two winged women emptied baskets of earth, creating the islands of Alofi and Rotuma]: 26; Churchward 1937 [two sisters on the earth, the eldest is Lou; under the earth was the country of Tonga, where the couple had a son, Mafi; he rose to the earth, married Lou; they had sons Moea Motua, Moea Langon, miscarriage for the third time; a woman, Mari-ki-Langi, came down from the sky to steal blood, called a wea (quail) bird to help, it chirped, it began to rain, washed away the blood; MkL and wea took the child to the sky, named Moea Tiktik; MKL sends him to steal food from his real mother; one day warns him that his father has set up an ambush; he catches MK, the couple is happy; MT watches his father, sees him lift a stone and disappear under it; MT climbs down a tree trunk, throws fruit at his father; his father sends him 1) for bananas, a huge kalae bird guards them, MT breaks its wings with a stick, his father is not happy; 2) for fire to his parents; his grandfather throws MT up, he falls on his feet; MT throws his grandfather up, he falls flat; gives him a whole burning log; 3) for kava roots, two huge ants guard them, MT runs until they get tired, brings kava; he returns to earth with his father; he catches fish with his brothers, brings to the surface the country of Tonga together with the house of his grandfather and grandmother; they themselves were carried away by the current; the brothers look for other people, find only Tupu-a-Rosi; he does not know their names; becoming a spider, he begins to descend on Moea Motua's head; the brothers shout, Moea Motua, look who wants to attack you! The same with Moe Langon and Moe Tiktik; TaR orders the birds to cry out the names of his brothers as they approach, and each time he himself disappears from the house; the third time the brothers order the birds to cry out their own names, and they catch TaR; they catch fish, and TaR turns into a big fish, and tears their net; the third time they seize him, kill him, recognize him by his tattoo, and take possession of the country]: 489-496 (trans. Permyakov 1970, no. 95: 207-217); Gardiner in Williamson 1933(1) [having quarreled with the king, the Samoan chief Rahu took his men into a boat and sailed after two birds; where the birds began to sing, they dumped a basket of sand into the sea, and the island of Rotuma was formed; a certain Tokaniua began to put his marks on the coconut palms, laying claim to the island; R. proposed a competition; to count the grains of sand stuck to a wet leaf; T. counted, but R. could not count the waves; in anger, he began to beat the ground with a stick, separating small islands from Rotuma; he began to live on one of them, Hataua, but also ruled Rotuma; (according to Pritchard, Rahu is a god, his wife is Iva, corresponds to Hiva in Central Polynesia)]: 70-71; Wallis Island ( Uvea) [Tangaloa descended from the sky to Uvea, fished out of the sea the adjacent small islands]: Burrows 1937: 161-162; Bellona [a Nerita shell floated out of the water, there was soil on it; the first living creature on the island was the pangati beetle; then the arrowroot grew, the sky rested against it; Tangangoa decided to lift it up, but its growth was not enough; another god pushed away the sky with a priest's staff, propping it up with it]: Monberg 1966: 31; Rennell [Mautikitiki made a boat with his two younger brothers, went fishing in it, hooked something on the bottom, pulled out Rennell Island]: Monberg 1966: 31; Tikopia [two atua named Tafik Metikitik were fishing from a boat; M. sat in the stern and rowed, T. cast the line; pulled out two stones, which gave birth to Tikopia, considered the fruit of their union; now the male stone is in Faea on the leeward side, the female (the "goddess" of vegetable gardens) is under the floor of a dwelling in Paevatmaru]: Rivers 1914: 339; Nukuria [A.I. Davletshin, field observation, February 2013; in the water a mound of white sand, the house of a sea worm, grows upward, rises, becomes dry land; Haraparapa and Kateariki found it; but Roatuu says that these are her islands, she rose up together with the sand; then H. and K. carried away the sweet potato and taro they had brought, leaving only the coconut palm and kanokano (?); R. stayed, began to give birth, gave birth to snakes, birds, fish and all creatures of the sea and land, but not people; K. and H. returned, one ran along the eastern, the other along the western shore of the atoll, created the current configuration of the reef and islands; so the reef on the NE side is straight, because K. saw normally; and on the NE {obviously, an error - southern} curved, because H. was blind; they divide people into clans and create taro fields]: Davletschin 2018: 128-129; Hawaii: Beckwith 1970: 229-330 [Hina finds a man's loincloth on the beach, puts it on herself, and gives birth to Maui; the hens (mud hens) are masters of fire, and hide when M. approaches; he grabs the smallest one, who first says that fire must be made by friction from taro, from ti leaves (M. tries, and there are holes in the leaves of these plants); he points out correctly, M. makes fire, punishes the hen by leaving a red stripe on her head; the sun moves too fast; M. steals one by one the bananas that his blind grandmother is baking; she recognizes him, and agrees to help; sitting in a tree, M. throws a noose around the rays of the rising sun; the sun agrees to move more slowly, especially in summer; together with his brothers, M. fishes out earth from the forest; tells brothers not to look back, one disobeys, forest breaks off, so land mass is broken into islands], 232-233 (Kauai) [2nd version; Maui fishes up land, but ladle from his boat turns into beautiful woman; people shout in amazement at miracle, brothers M. turn around, land is divided into separate islands], 308-309 [Kapuhe'euanui fishes up piece of coral, throws pieces back after sacrificing pig and naming future islands; thus Hawaii, Maui, Oahu appear]; Henry 1928 [bird lays egg on water; top of shell becomes sky, bottom becomes earth, contents become Hawaiian Islands]: 343 (retold in Makemson 1941: 51-52); Tyerman, vol.1: 523 in Williamson 1933(1) [Tangaroa in bird form laid an egg on surface of primeval waters; egg burst, producing sky, earth, etc.]: 19; Tuamotu : Beckwith 1970: 234 [Ataraga sees Huahega bathing, marries her, their son Maui-tikitiki catches the sun in a snare; is recognized by his father; kills Mahuika; fishes out Tahiti and Little Tahiti], 234-235 (Anaa) [Maui-tikitiki is the fifth son of Ataranga and Huahega (daughter of the fire lord Mahuike); achieves recognition from his father, competes with and kills Mahuike, catches the sun in a snare made from hair from the head of his mother Huahega; with the help of his brothers, fishes out of the sea the country of Havaiki]; Maori[Maui, the youngest of five brothers, receives his grandmother's jawbone in the underworld; tells his brothers to send their wives for flax, to weave strong ropes, to make a trap; catches the Sun, which was moving too fast; hits it with his jawbone, the Sun loses its former strength and from then on moves more slowly; people do not know how to make fire; M. puts out the fires to get a new one; goes down to the lower world to the mistress of fire, old Mauika; she gives her fingernail, a flame beats out of it; M. puts it out, says that he accidentally dropped it, receives a second nail; when he comes for the tenth, the old woman throws the nail at him, the flame chases M., he flies in the form of a hawk (since then the hawk has singed feathers on its wings); the gods pour rain on the flame, Mauika threw the remains into the trees, now fire is taken from them by friction; sitting in a boat with his brothers, M. makes the sea endless, pulls new land out of his grandmother's jaw with a hook (the hook caught on the door of the house of Tonganui, the son of the sea god); the brothers began to divide the land, cutting it with adzes; the land began to ferment, thus a mountainous relief appeared]: Reed 1960: 32-41; Marquesas [at first only the ocean, Tiki floats on it in a boat, fishes out land from the sea bottom]: Dixon 1916: 20; Yap [a tree from the mallow family grew with its roots in the sky, with its crown down to the ocean; a woman lived in its branches, gave birth to a son; she did not order him to ascend to the sky; he ascended, disappeared; she found him dead nailed to the beams of the house; she asked the heavenly leader to bring him back to life; he did so, gave sand, earth, seedlings; The woman threw all this into the sea, an island appeared, and she began to live on it with her son]: Walleser 1913: 609-610.

Tibet - Northeast India. Tibetans : Hermanns 1946-1949: 289-290 [is the tortoise of the blue sky, the white airspace genuine or not? Is the tortoise of the yellow earth a supernatural or ordinary birth? When the surface of the boundless ocean extended to the sky, ist dies der Täuschung Grund], 833 [in the beginning the water; 1) The tortoise takes a piece of earth from the bottom, from it grows our world; 2) The bodhisattva Manjushri created a monstrous tortoise, released it into the waters; shot a golden arrow at it; fire blazed, blood flowed, excrement poured out; The tortoise turned over on its back; on its chest shell stands the world]; Tibetans (13th c. manuscript) [by the time of the king the egg was pierced (by the first man), the bird spread the earth outward; the water demon brought the waters of the sea into one place (Seezusammenströmung)]: Hermanns 1946-1949, no. I.1: 276; Lepcha : Hermanns 1954: 30-31 [Rum created the ocean, then the ngo fish; on its back he placed three pairs of deities (Rug-lu and Rug-lom, Mon-li and Röng-gul, Pö-ril and Pö-dong) crosswise and the first pair of humans (Sön-li and Söm-nag-mön-mu); they began to support the earth, which had the shape of a plate; when the fish moved, the earth shook; then Rum created the main mountain and four more mountains, two large rivers], 32 [first one water; the Creator placed an earthen pot on it, it floats, this is the earth]; Stocks 1925, #IV.1 [in the beginning there was only water; Tashey-takbo-thing created two fish, one ordinary and one serpentine; the turtle holds the world and on it T. placed birds and animals; the first man T. made of butter, but he spread out; people made of butter would have been beautiful; then he made man of earth and clay, and the wind breathed life into him; T. made blood from water and poured it into man, he made bones from stone; but man was silent, having no veins or nerves; T. made them from vines; man came to life, but had no woman; T. caught birds in snares, one day a woman fell into the snare; at first a man and a woman could not get married, because there was no matchmaker who would agree on the marriage; then (the supreme god) Rum sent an owl], VI [in the beginning there was water everywhere; the Creator placed a ceramic vessel on it, it floated, became dry land; The Creator planted bamboo, created the Himalayas, bamboo at their foot; created a man Pudung-thing and a woman Nazong-gnyu, from them come people; the king of snakes Paril-bu dammed the rivers, the water flooded the earth, rose to the sky; only two people were saved on the highest peak of the Himalayas; Tashey-thing sent a hero to the earth, he cut the snake into pieces, the waters receded, the Blue Mountains - the petrified pieces of his body; Tt sent two rivers down from the Himalayas, they were led by a snake and a quail; sent a pair of ancestors of the Lepchas, their grandfather and grandmother]: 355-356, 358-359; rai [Paruhong exterminated the demons, created water, then extracted the earth from the water; (but among the Limbu, p.11, the supreme god Niwa-Buma first created the earth and then the water)]: Hermanns 1964: 8; rai or Limbu[Porkimi Yomphami, on behalf of another deity, creates the earth: in the empty ocean he creates several huge fish, places stones on them, which he covers with clay, sand and earth; he plants plants on the created earth; he does not like the flat landscape, he creates ever higher mountains; then he populates the earth with insects and creates flowers for them]: Streltsova 2017: 156; garo [in the beginning there is water everywhere; Tatara Rabuga sent Nostu Nopantu in the form of a woman to create the earth, giving some sand; she sat down on a web woven by a spider, there was no other place; she was unable to glue the grains of sand into a lump; she sent first a large crab, then a small one, both returned without reaching the bottom; a water beetle brought clay from the bottom, NN creates dry land, TR creates the sun, moon and wind, they dry the earth; the earth is female, God gave her clouds for headdress, sago palms, reeds, and roof grass to be her hair; first God created the hulock ape {gibbon?}, then the apes and other animals; of the water creatures he first created the fish, then the frog; he created the rivers and the rain to fill them; he sent a goddess to earth to prepare the place for human habitation; the first man and woman created were Sani and Muni, their grandchildren Noro and Mande became the ancestors of the Garos; at first humans ate wild roots and fruits, then a pair of dwarfs taught them agriculture; they offered God a pumpkin and God rewarded them with rice]: Playfair 1909: 82-84 (=Bertrand 1958: 83); Tripuri : Niyongi 1983 in Mandal 2009: 85 [in the beginning it was dark, God lived on the waters; from the mud on his body he created a wife; they became the parents of Brahma, Vishnu and Maheswara; Brahma created men, they multiplied], 85-86 [in the beginning there was only water and the sky, where the sun, moon and stars were; God took the mud from his body, wrapped it in a banyan leaf and threw it into the water; from this the earth arose; then God created a rat from the earth, and then from the clay a man and a woman and put life into them; children were born to this couple; the man asked God to give them food; he advised him to take seeds from the queen of the Gandharvas in the sky and sow them, and taught him to send a rat to steal the seeds; men took up agriculture]; kachari [in the beginning there was water everywhere; Alow Ilaja tells the crabs to dive to the bottom; they scrape the mud into a heap until a mountain of earth appears above the water; having created the earth, AI creates a man and a woman; he made their bodies before nightfall, went to rest before he could put breath into them; at this time his five brothers found the figures, divided them into parts and hid these parts in different places in the forest; the same thing was repeated the next day; on the third day AI created two dogs, leaving them to guard the figures; when the brothers arrived, the dogs drove them away; this man and woman became the progenitors of mankind]: Soppitt 1885: 32; dimasa[in the beginning there was water everywhere, on the only island the creator Banglaraja with his wife Arikidima; she gave birth to 7 eggs, from 6 of them 6 gods came out, the eldest – Brai Sibrai, the youngest – Mongranraja, aka Hamaiyadao; to find out which of them is older, the brothers throw clods of earth; BS tied a beetle to his; they throw darts, BS tied a snake to his; he was recognized as the eldest; a noise is heard from the seventh egg; H. broke it, evil spirits came out, rushed at it, A. ordered not to touch it, but to live in deserted places and send various diseases to people; the sick will sacrifice ducks and other poultry to them]: Mandal 2009: 77-78; Meitei [in the beginning there was only water; 9 gods and 7 goddesses began to create the earth; the gods took the material from Atiya Shidaba and gave it to the goddesses, who poured it into the water; a hill appeared above the waters; thus they created 64 hills, after the appearance of the next 8 they drank wine; thus the earth was created]: Singh 1985: 169-170; sherdukpen [at first there was water everywhere; Lopong-Rimbuche and his younger brother Chom-Dande threw a lotus from the sky onto the waters, the water became covered with flowers; the brothers ordered the winds to blow from four directions; the eastern one brought white dust, the western yellow, the southern red, the northern black; the dust covered the flowers, mixed, the earth appeared; the brothers began to level the earth, they did it unevenly, valleys and mountains appeared]: Elwin 1958a, no. 14: 19 (=Pandey 1999: 126-127); tawang [winds from four directions collided, a drop was formed, it became the ocean; they collided again, something was formed from the ocean, from it - steam, it covered the ocean, became a four-part firmament; in its center is the earth, also four-part; the inhabitants of the east are white, those of the west - yellow, those of the south - black, those of the north - red; in the center of the earth grew a three-part tree; in the upper part live the gods, the middle is golden, people live here, the roots of the tree are deep in the ocean]: Pandey 1999: 131-132; gallong [in the sky lived an old man Puk and his wife Yuk; the earth was covered with water; a shrimp collected garbage, leaves, grass floating on the water with its antennae, they turned into mountains; a crab dug a hole into which the water flowed, exposing the earth; the Sun and the Moon dried the earth with heat, it hardened; P. told his wife that there was not enough greenery; she in anger exposed her genitals, they flashed like lightning; P. struck a vessel with water with his pipe, rain fell, vegetation appeared on the earth]: Elwin 1958a, no. 6: 14; mikir [the gods Hèmphū and Mukráng erected four pillars at the edges of the future earth, tied them with the hair of their mothers; the wife of the god Bāmon was sent to Hāyóng, the god of the nether world, but he did not give her earth; as she left, she picked up the dung of a worm, hid it in her bosom; the king of the earthworms was sent, he processed this particle, it continued to grow, turned into earth; the blacksmith Kāpráng dried the earth with bellows]: Stack, Lyall 1908: 70-71; Apatani[at first water everywhere; three male and three female deities created the rock, then the earth and everything on it and in the sky]: Fürer-Haimendorf 1961: 133-134; miri [only the Teri-Ramula tree rose above the water; a worm began to gnaw at it, the decay fell onto the water, formed the earth; the tree fell; the bark at the bottom of the trunk became the skin of the world, at the top - the skin of the sky, the trunk petrified, the branches became hills]: Elwin 1958a, no. 8: 15; mishmi [in the beginning only water; the god Techimdum surfaced, looked around, erected a pillar; white ants crawled along it, carrying particles of earth from the bottom, placed them on the water, dry land arose; T. erected another pillar at the four corners of the world, the ants climbed them too, dry land arose; where they put more earth – mountains; a river flowed from the mountain, filled a lake, it overflowed; on the top of the hill a brother and sister were saved; the god Drakob got fire for them by friction, set fire to the forest; the water dried up, but now everything was burning; the brother and sister were saved from the fire behind a wall of banana leaves; they got married, gave birth to people, the wife brought, planted the seeds of all plants]: Elwin 1958a, No. 18: 21-22 (= 1958b: 23-24); nocte [the earth was tiny, surrounded by water; a woman fell from the sky; the water gradually receded; then a man fell from the sky, took the woman as his wife, they have many children; the great Rango-Kotakrang placed the male Sun and the female Moon in the sky; they have many children]: Elwin 1958a, No. 19: 51; earth[the text is called "The Birth of Spirits"; there was no land, a taro leaf was floating on the water; Bangklawong fell from the sky, said that if his feet did not touch the water, then he would be king; one foot ended up on the leaf, and the other fell into the water; he realized that a long time would pass before he became king; he began to ask everyone who could make the land, but only King Worm (CW) answered that he was capable of this; for this he asked that every day a thousand people die for him to eat; B.: but then there will be no people left; CW: but every day a thousand will be born; went down to the bottom, began to make worm casts (what a worm leaves on the sand or soil, like a cast of a worm) until dry land appeared; the crow (masculine, but possibly a raven) leveled it, but when he began to level the hills, he got tired, that is why there are rocky hills and there are plains; Tingwong appeared to B. in a dream and told B. to cut off two fingers of his hand, from one a wife would arise, from the other a sister; the sister did everything so quickly that she returned, bringing water, before B. could be alone with his wife; then B. scattered katsing seeds in the grass and told his sister to collect them all, otherwise he would chop her down with his machete (dao); she completed the task and entered while B. was copulating with his wife; this spectacle excited her so much that she was going to lay an egg; B. told her to go to the upper reaches of the Barak to Tallaurok, taking with her a machete, a banana and a gibbon, and lay eggs there; She laid 8 eggs by the waterfall, left a machete, planted a banana and told the gibbon to guard it; Katsingpeo was the first to hatch, but he got scared and climbed back in; Tsiuperai was the second; then K. came out again, they started arguing about who was the first and main one; 5 more eggs hatched, one remained whole; T. found a banana and a machete, cut down a banana for them, gave each of them a banana, but the gibbon quietly took them for himself; T. hit the gibbon with a machete, smeared his and his brothers' eyes with blood, now they could see; the brothers decided that the last egg was spoiled, threw it into the river; they decided to consider the one who threw a stone across the river the main one; all the stones fell into the water, but T. accidentally threw a bumblebee and it flew to the other bank; then they began to throw grass stalks; T. threw a snake and it crawled far; the brothers flew to their mother in the form of crows; seeing that there were only 7 of them, she decided that they were not her children; but T. called her mother, told her about the eighth egg; the mother explained that the one who hatched from it would be wiser and stronger than the rest; a boa constrictor was born from it; to determine who was the main one of the seven, the mother squirted milk from her breasts; the stream went to K., but turned and got into T.'s mouth, and from him again to K, and then to the others]: http://www.nagajournal.com/category/arts-literature/folktalesstories/ Nagajournal Oct 27, 2013; rengam[at first water everywhere; god sent birds and animals to look for land, none found it; crab dived to the bottom, brought mud on its claws; god placed mud on the surface of the water, everyone began to compact it, but in vain; when a wagtail did this, the earth hardened; the wagtail still wags its tail]: Mills 1937: 267; lalung [Basumati – mother earth, goddess of the earth]: Idrish Ali 1993: 214, 217; kachinas [at first water everywhere; two nats, a man Mutum and a woman Muta, descended from the clouds, took a handful of earth from under the water, placed it on the water]: Macgregor 1887: 69 in Elwin 1958b, no. 27: 137.

Burma - Indochina. Ahom [there was an ocean; Phatuvchung opened his eyes, took the god Khunithivkham from his chest, from one half of it he created a crab, which began to support the island-earth created by P.; from the other half he created the snake Laka, which coiled around the crab; var.: the sky was woven from golden threads by a spider, the earth appeared from its excrement; Phatuvchung lowered thousands of sparkling threads to connect the sky and the earth; the souls of living beings descended to the earth along the threads]: Chesnov 1982f: 354; Shans: Griggs 1902 [at first only water; the female spider spun a web, laid eggs, the water swayed, the lump of web became dry land, a man and a woman emerged from the eggs and gave birth to people; one day the world burned down, then it was flooded with rain, the steam reached the upper world of Möng Hpea, the hsang spirits smelled a pleasant smell; 5 male and 4 female spirits went to find out what was going on; they ate their fill of earth and were unable to rise back up to heaven; they decided to stay on earth; 4 couples got married, and the strongest man Hsin Kyan abandoned his wife in order to then take the daughters of others; since then the daughters are given to the king; the supreme god Sa Kyah tried to kill HK, fought with him, could not overcome him; then he promised to marry the one of HK's 7 daughters who would bring him her father's head; there are 7 daughters, the days of the week are named after them; 6 daughters tried but failed, HC is invulnerable to water, fire, iron, etc.; a bird teaches the youngest to spin 7 threads of web, to make a bow, with which one can cut off HC's head; the daughter brought her father's head, but SK refused to marry her, fearing that now she would kill him too; the sisters are thinking what to do with their father's head: bury it in the ground - the world will catch fire, throw it in the water - the ocean will boil; SK ordered that each one should carry her father's head for a year, then pass it on to the other; during this time she washes blood stains from her clothes; all people are descended from these spirits]: 85-91; Milne 1910 [in the world that existed before ours, at first there was one sun, then a second, a third appeared, there were 7 or 9 of them; men died before women, because they were the mothers of bodhisattvas and saints; a huge fish was the last one to swim; when she burst in the boiling sea, her fat caught fire and everything finally burned up; our world will burn up too; worlds arise and perish; at first our world was covered with water, it rose higher and higher, almost reaching the sky; 9 gods descended, but returned; then 4 gods descended with four spiders; each one spun a ball of web at the four ends of the ocean; the ball in the south became our world; we cannot see the other three, but the souls of the dead are reborn there; in the middle, Mount Meru grew]: 196-197; Chesnov 1982i [the heavenly deities, led by the thunderer Lingaun, ordered the wise Litlong to build a raft and take only a cow on it; after the flood, a fire started on the dried-up land; Linlaun cut open the cow's belly and took refuge there; in the cow's stomach he found two pumpkin seeds and planted them; huge pumpkins were burned through by lightning by Linlaun; from one came the Shans, from the other other peoples, animals, birds, useful plants]: 66; Walk 1933 [ants dive into the primordial ocean, get the earth]: 65, 74; (=Hermanns 1946-1949: 835, with reference to W. Schmidt. VI. 230 ff); Karens[the supreme god created the male being Tha-lu to rule the sky, and the female Tha-lu to rule the earth; the earth was at first the size of a spindle whorl; thanks to the earthworm, it grew; at first the earth was covered with water; God compressed it with iron and silk, the water descended, forming rivers; a spider in the sky could descend to the earth and rise back; God created two suns, a man and a woman; they lived in a closed palace, they were not visible; the pangolin gnawed a hole, losing all its teeth; both suns came out, it became unbearably hot; God allowed man to kill one sun; he struck it with an arrow from a bow and it became the moon]: Mason 1865: 175; Khmer : Marunova 1972 [at first, in place of Cambodia, there was a sea; a sandbank arose from the waves and sea foam; in the evenings, Soma, the daughter of the snake Naga, the master of the waters, came out onto it; she was seen by the king's son, expelled by his father from his country; Naga permitted the marriage; so that the son-in-law could live on dry land, drank the water that covered the country, and named the resulting kingdom Kambuja ; left the Tonle Sap fish lake and the Mekong River]: 6-7; Nevermann 1956 [at first only Mount Saumeru in the sea; the wind tried to topple it, but the dragon Preas Peach Neak, calling his friend Preas Eyn for help, wrapped himself around the mountain and did not let it topple; the wind cut off his head with a sword and threw him into the air; PN made it so that where Siem Peat is now, the island of Kuk Thlok appeared from the sea, with the dragon's head lying on it; the great city of Angkor Thom was later built in this place]: 82-83; Porée-Maspero 1961: 605-606 [at first only water and sky; Krồn Pãli (crocodile) struck the sea eight times with his tail, foam formed, became like flour for cakes; after seven years the earth grew and then continued to grow; at first it was triangular, then quadrangular, then in the form of a turtle; Buddha made Práh Thorni's head in the sky, his right hand in the east, his feet in the north, his left hand in the west; made a man out of the earth, then a woman as his partner; gave the woman three cakes, ordered her to give two to the man, but she ate two herself, gave one to the man; after this they copulated; the woman gave birth to the Sun, Moon, Mars, etc., and then a boy and a girl; their children peopled the earth], 608-609 [first the world was destroyed by fire, then it was flooded with water; two nak (nagas?) collected the foam, the earth was formed], 609 [the world was destroyed by fire; two tevobot from the foam (on the water) created the earth].

South Asia. Hinduism [in the Taittiriya Samhita and in the Taittiriya Brahmana the creator Prajapati in the form of a boar lifts the earth from the waters]: Elwin 1950: 136 (note 1); Puranas [Vishnu swims in a shoreless ocean; he sees a light approaching him, it is Brahma; he claims to be older, for he has generated himself; Vishnu replies that he has already created and destroyed the world many times; a gigantic lingam appears from the water and grows upward; to find its end and beginning, Vishnu in the form of a boar dives, Brahma in the form of a goose flies to the sky, but they cannot find the base and end of the lingam; a niche opens up at the side of the lingam, Shiva comes out, says that he has generated them both]: Zimmer 1946: 128-130; Ancient India (Vishnu Purana) [When the world was a single ocean, the Lord realized that the Earth was in the waters. Having thought about it, Prajapati wanted to lift it // and assumed another body /…/ he appeared in the form of (the boar) Varaha. /…/ the holder of the Earth, serving as his own support, entered the water. /…/ Then the great Varaha /…/ with his tusks lifted the earth from the underworld and stood up /…/ the Holder of the Earth, quickly lifted the earth and placed it in the full-flowing ocean. // The earth, like a huge boat, floated on the surface of this outpouring of waters, without sinking, thanks to its vast body. // Then Bhagavan, the beginningless supreme Purusha leveled the soil (on the surface) of the earth and divided (the earth) into parts with mountains. /…/ Then, having duly divided the earth into seven continents, he created, as it (already) was before, the earth and the rest, and the four worlds. // Thus the god, bearing the form of Brahma /…/ accomplished the creation]: Vishnu Purana I.4.7-10, 26, 45-50 (Ponomareva 1995: 23, 25, 27); Ancient India (Rigveda) [in the beginning a lifeless salt ocean; by the force of heat an embryo appeared in it]: RV 10.129 (Witzel 2006: 290); paraya [in the beginning the earth is covered with water; Bhagwan lives in the sky, with him a rooster and a hen; the hen laid eggs, they fell into the water, broke, the shells turned into dry land]: Prasad 1978: 156-157; chero [in the beginning water, lotus floats; Bhagawan lived in the lower world, rose to the surface on a Tortoise; remained sitting on the lotus, ordered the Tortoise to get earth from the bottom; it placed the earth on its shell, but while it was rising, the water washed everything away; B. sent a Rat, it also failed to bring earth; sent a vulture Garur, it got earth from the sky, brought it in its beak; B. threw the earth in four directions, a land mass with four edges arose (four-sided land mass)]: Elwin 1949: 4, 7; tharu[the world is destroyed by a fiery drought, then by a flood; the lord of heaven and his wife copulate in the form of birds, place a drop of blood on the waters; after 15 months, the ancestor of the Tharu Aklākal Gurubābā appears on a lotus leaf in the form of a pumpkin; the heavenly couple puts life force into his head, eyes, nose, mouth, ears, hands, hair, lower body, he takes on human form; from his nails he creates a Dove, it flies over the waters, does not find land; G. cuts his thigh, a Raini fish comes out of the cut; it disappears, the dove cannot find it, G. orders that doves be caught in snares, fried, eaten; from his nails he creates a Crab to get the "immortal earth" from the lower world; it manages to overcome a fence of thorns Xeremphis spinosa, get the earth; on the way back a demon grabs him by the shell, the Crab loses the earth; G. orders that crabs be caught, baked, eaten; in the same way creates 8 other crabs, with all the same as with the first; creates earthworms; the first three do not overcome the thorny hedge, G. orders them to feed on earth and water; the fourth penetrates the thorns, swallows earth; on the way back the demon chops him into a thousand pieces, but the worm still delivers earth, it gives stability to the world; the first sacred grass to grow on earth is kus (Poa cynusorides), from it comes the first tree perar (Xeremphis uliginosa); G. curses it, let people eat its fruits; creates the tree semar (kapok, Bombax ceiba), addressing it as a woman, orders it to go and find out how far the earth extends; it does not return for so long that G. orders it to hold up the sky and the lower world; the same with the pine, it is gone even longer, G. orders it to live in the mountains, where its resinous vapors will become fragrant on Mount Kailash; G. again cuts his thigh, his daughter Dharmak Diyeri is born; to contain her, he places four holy māini at the edges of the world, he himself retires to the forest as a hermit; D. wants to unite with him, orders the blacksmith to make her a belt, a ring and shoes of iron to overcome the thorny fence; but G. places on the way to him a rope for carrying weights, an oil press, weapons, a bridge of pig bristles; D. overcomes everything, marries G.; after this G. is called Mahādeo]: Krauskopff 1987: 14-16; Nepalese: Heunemann 1980 [Svayambhu Purana, early 15th century, text goes back to the 12th century; the Kathmandu Valley was covered with water; the bodhisattva Vipasvi during the Satya Yuga (golden age) planted a lotus seed, a lotus with a thousand petals appeared; Adi Buddha (the original creator) shone above it, the lake dried up a little; the bodhisattva Manjushri walked around the lake, saw a hill, cut a channel for the waters with a sword]: 5-6; Shrestha 1996 ["Svasthani", in a Sanskrit copy of 1573; the story is constructed as a dialogue between Shiva and Parvati); from the earwax of the sleeping Vishnu, the giants Madhu and Kaitabha appeared; they climbed up from the water along the stem of the lotus; they began to swing the flower in order to throw the sleeping Brahma into the water; he asked the goddess Yogamaya to awaken Vishnu; V. fought with the giants for a long time, took their promise to fulfill his request; it consisted in permission to kill them; they set a condition to kill them where there is no water; he killed them on his knees; their fat spread on the water, hardened; the flesh became mountains, the bones stones; B. created the earth, six heavens, seven underground tiers]: 12-13; Balahi (east of the Bhils) [first water, above it a spirit in the form of a ball, from it came Purush, followed by Ajar and Niran-jan; from the water was born light - the woman Sakti; she wanted P. as a husband; he told her to rub her hands, three bubbles were formed, from them came Admi (Adam, "man"), Bhagwant (Vishnu), Sambhu (Shankar); each refused to become her husband, because he is her son; Sambhu told her to go to Kashi (Benares), there she would find herself a husband; he himself went there as a pilgrim; Sakti divided herself into 99 forms, and Sambhu into 100; the 99 forms embraced the forms of Sambhu, but they were all empty, and Sambhu in the hundredth; Sambhu and Sakti again each became one form; Sakti successively turns into a piece of gold, silver, clay (she will paint her body with it), a stone (Sambhu will sit on it), a stick (she will lean on it), but Sambhu each time recognizes the deception, does not pick up the transformed Sakti; she promises to leave him alone if he gives her a gift; Sambhu places a five-month embryo in her womb; Sakti returns to P., who is angry - he is not going to become her husband! - says that she will die; Sakti gives birth to an embryo, dies; it becomes the boy Haribans, the first balahi; he took as wife the daughter of Julahiya, who worshipped Sambhu; from them the Balakhi]: Fucks 1950: 235-237; Birhor[at first there was water everywhere, a lotus on the water, the great spirit Sing-bonga came to the surface along the core of the stem, ordered the Turtle to bring clay from the bottom; turtle: where shall I leave the house? S: take it with you (it is its shell); the water washed the clay off the turtle's shell; the Crab also could not bring it; the Leech got it by swallowing the clay; S squeezed the clay out of it, threw it in four directions, creating dry land; the earth was damp and uneven, S began to level it, but in places mountains remained; he threw seeds, forests arose; then S created a winged horse, and then molded a figure of a man and left it to dry; the horse came and trampled it, fearing that the man would harness it; then S made a dog and a new figure of a man; when at night the horse came again to trample the man, the dog drove it away with barking; the figure dried up and S. revived it, but the joints did not bend; S. took the life and made a new man with bendable joints]: Roy 1925: 398-402 (retold in Prasad 1989: 3, in Elwin 1939: 308, note 1); stake (Yernga) [in the beginning there was water everywhere, in the sky the Sun and the Moon, they are also Singbonga and Chando, husband and wife; they scraped the dirt from their bodies, S. made a boy, Ch. a girl, threw them into the water; they began to copulate; S. in anger sent a rain of fire, but the children were hidden by the goddess of waters Nagera, and the waters dried up from the fire, the young man and the girl came out onto the shore; S. decided that there was no sin on them, created vegetation on the earth, from the first couple people came]: Elwin 1949, no. 33: 50; Munda: Roy 1912 [in the beginning there is water everywhere; the sun god Sing-bonga sent the Turtle, the Crab, and the Leech to bring clay from the bottom; the Turtle and the Crab could not, the Leech brought it, S. created dry land from it; the Swan laid an egg, from which hatched a boy and a girl – the ancestors of people; SB taught them to make beer; after drinking, they got together; they had three sons, who dispersed throughout the country]: v-vi; Roy 1916: 201-214 in Osada 2010 [the earth is covered with water, there are no stars in the sky; the Old One created water animals; told the Crab to bring earth from under the water; it dived to the bottom, but while rising, the earth was washed away from its claws; the same with the Turtle (the earth was washed away from the surface of the shell; the Earthworm swallows the earth, floats up, burps it into the Old Man's palm; he makes the earth big, creates dry land and everything on it; molds a human figure out of clay; before he could put his soul into it, the Horse came and trampled the figure; the Old Man tried again and this time the Tiger drove the Horse away, not letting it get close to the figure; the Old Man cursed the Horse, people will put iron in its mouth, sit on it, beat it on the rump; rewarded the Tiger by making it strong, everyone will fear it]; van Exem 1982: 24-29 in Osada 2010 [{apparently Mundari, since it coincides with the previous text}; at first only water, Haram first created water creatures; ordered the Crab to bring earth from the bottom; he took the earth in claws, but while he was rising, the water washed it away; H. sent a Turtle, it put some earth on its shell, the water washed it away; sent a Worm; it swallowed some earth, regurgitated it (disgorged) into H.'s hand; he enlarged it, created dry land, animals, plants on it; he molded a figure of a man out of clay; he didn't have time to revive it, when the Horse smashed it; H. tried again, and this time the Tiger drove the Horse away, not letting it get close to the figure; H. cursed the Horse, people will put iron in its mouth, sit on it, beat it on the rump; he rewarded the Tiger, making it strong, everyone will be afraid of it]; Osada 2010 [author's notes; text A: on the Ganges, on the sea we will create land, a field; for this they sent the mother Turtle and the mother Crab; the Turtle put some earth on its shell, the Crab took it with claws, but when they rose, the water washed away the earth; they sent the Worm Mother, the Leech Mother, they drank the earth, they vomited it, they urinated, the earth arose; to decorate the earth they created stone and wood; they made a figure of a man out of clay, they left it to dry in the sun; for beauty they made a winged horse; the winged horse came from the east, it came from the west, they trampled the figure; they made a male dog named Chaura, a female dog Baura, they set them to guard; they drove away the winged horse that came from the east, they drove away the one that came from the west; text B is almost identical]; Santals: Abbi 2015 [in the beginning only darkness; a voice from the darkness: is there anyone? answered another, one of the voices female; then another; Thakur Jiv (TJ), Thakuraiin Gogo, Saru, Baru, Jiva and Jangar were created, all of them were waiting for the light to appear; Thakuraiin Gogo (TG) created Siny Chando and then it became light; but now everyone began to wait for the darkness; TG created Yinda Chando and the darkness returned, darkness and light began to alternate; Siny means 'day' and Yinda means 'light'; in the hands of TJ the others saw a clay vessel; he blew on it, the clay spread out in the water and the universe sank; this ocean is Jalaapuri; TG came to bathe in a place called Kolelavka (in the form of a boat); from the mud washed off her body she molded a human figure and left {two figures?}; The horse came to drink and trampled the figure; TG made a new one, but it turned out to be less perfect; she asked TJ to animate it; the figure came to life, but not in the form of a man, but of a pair of birds, Hans-Haansil (XX); this was because TG had made it in a hurry; XX began to ask TJ to give them shelter and food; he created a tree in the middle of the water and the birds began to live on it; the foam produced by the horse and the hair of TG that had fallen into the water gave birth to Saaraanpuri; TG and TJ came to live there; but some of the foam and hair remained in Jaalaapuri and moss appeared there, a plant and grass grew on it, XX made a nest in the grass; two figures hatched from the two eggs that were laid – the same as those TG had sculpted and the horse had trampled; seeing that the figures were not like them, the parent birds flew away; TJ created a cow and she began to feed everyone with milk; The people created were named Pilchu HaaRam and Pilchu BuRahii; TJ created Marang Buru and he began to look for someone who could bring earth from the bottom; (9 creatures are named, but only in Santali); Radho BovaR reached the bottom, took some clay in his mouth and put it on his back, but the water washed everything away; the same with the rest; only Kacchim Kuwari and Raaymaat Len om brought earth (from the bottom) and the dry land was created; TJ created a bull and sent it to the earth; with its help Marang Buru leveled the earth; the first two people were brought to the earth and they began to live there]; Bodding 1942 [in the beginning there was water; Thakur Jiu created various water creatures (crocodile, crab, shrimp, earthworm, etc.); he molded two human figures from clay; when he was about to put a soul into them, a day-horse came down from above and trampled them; then, taking the material from his chest, T. made two birds Has Hasil, revived them, they flew, but there was no land anywhere, so they returned to T.; he drank some water, spat, foam appeared on the water; T. told the birds to sit on it, they swam on it along the waves, but complained that there was no food anywhere; The crocodile agreed to dive, get some land from the bottom, but on the way back it was washed off him; Shrimp (prawn) - the same; Raghop Boar fish (Buar) - the same (since then it has no scales); Crab - the same; Earthworm asked the Turtle to be ready; he got some land from the bottom, placed it on the Turtle's back; T. harrowed it, mountains arose; foam stuck to the ground; vegetation appeared, two birds laid eggs, from which a boy and a girl were born]:3-5 in Osada 2010; Campbell, ii, p. 16 ff. in Elwin 1949 [in the water lived the fish Sole, the Crab, Prince Earthworm, Prince Lendom; Thakur Jiu ordered them to get some earth from under the water; the fish failed, the Crab swallowed it, it fell out, drowned again; they found Prince Turtle in the water, chained him by the legs; Prince Earthworm brought earth, placed it on the Turtle; after this TJ grew trees and grass on the earth]: 8; Culshow 1949 [water everywhere; Thakur called the kings of the sea, but they could not get the earth from the bottom; the Crab agreed to dive, but on the way to the surface the water sensed the pieces of earth he had grabbed; ditto the Turtle; the Worm asked to put a golden plate on the Turtle's back, promised to swallow the earth at the bottom and empty his stomach onto the plate; he did so, the land turned out to be uneven, T. tried to level it, the sea flooded the lowlands; T. created two geese from the seeds of the sirom grass - a female and a male, Hans and Hansil (Goose and Gander); they laid two eggs in the grass, from the eggs people emerged - pilcu Haram and Pilcu Budhi]: 65-66 in Osada 2010; Shrestha 2019 [in the beginning there was water, above it Thakur and his servant Jahereda; Malinburi lived under water; T. ordered her to make two human figures; she molded them from clay, brought them to the bottom of the sea, put them to dry in the sun; Sinsadom's horse flew in, smashed the figures with the flapping of his wings; M. made new figures, asked T. to revive them; T. sent her for souls, but M. brought not human souls, but bird souls; T. breathed life into them and they flew away to the sky; these are the first swans - Hansa and Hansini; they have nowhere to sit, there is water everywhere; they asked T. to make them a place to live; the fish Solehako, the cancer Katkom and the worm Lenden lived in the water; S. and K. could not raise the earth; L. began to throw grains of earth to the surface, but they sank to the bottom again; T. called the turtle Kachik, told it to lie motionless on the water; L. began to throw earth onto the turtle's shell, an island was formed; T. grew the Kadam tree and the grass Sirom there; Hansa and Hansini made a nest of grass; Hansinir laid two eggs, the beast Raghopabu ate them; T. sent his servant J. to guard the eggs; a boy and a girl hatched from them; the children grew up, T. created a cow and two calves for them; he taught the young man to make a plow and plow the land, he took up agriculture; Maranburu (big mountain) was the guardian of a young man and a girl; taught them how to make an intoxicating drink; they got drunk and came together; M. told them not to worry, let them be husband and wife; they have 7 sons and 7 daughters; they quarreled and began to live in different places; the father took the sons with him, and the mother the daughters; the girls and boys met, began to live in pairs; their parents also made peace and came to live with them; from the 7 brothers and sisters came 7 clans]: 567-570;8; Culshow 1949 [water everywhere; Thakur called the kings of the sea, but they could not get the earth from the bottom; the Crab agreed to dive, but on the way to the surface the water sensed the pieces of earth he had grabbed; the same - Turtle; the Worm asked to put a golden plate on the Turtle's back, promised to swallow the earth at the bottom and empty his stomach onto the plate; he did so, the earth turned out to be uneven, T. tried to level it, the sea flooded the low-lying places; T. created two geese from the seeds of the sirom grass - a female and a male, Hans and Hansil (Goose and Gander); they laid two eggs in the grass, people came out of the eggs - pilcu Haram and Pilcu Budhi]: 65-66 in Osada 2010; Shrestha 2019 [in the beginning there was water, above it Thakur and his servant Jahereda; Malinburi lived under water; T. told her to make two human figures; she molded them out of clay, brought them to the bottom of the sea, and laid them in the sun to dry; Sinsadom's horse flew in and smashed the figures with the flapping of his wings; M. made new figures and asked T. to bring them to life; T. sent her for souls, but M. brought not human souls, but bird souls; T. breathed life into them and they flew away to the sky; these are the first swans - Hansa and Hansini; they have nowhere to sit, there is water everywhere; they asked T. to make them a place to live; the fish Solehako, the cancer Katkom and the worm Lenden lived in the water; S. and K. could not lift the earth; L. began to throw grains of earth to the surface, but they sank to the bottom again; T. called the turtle Kachika and told her to lie motionless on the water; L. began to throw earth onto the turtle's shell, an island was formed; T. grew there the Kadam tree and the Sirom grass; Hansa and Hansini made a nest of grass; Hansinir laid two eggs, the beast Raghopabu ate them; T. sent his servant J. to guard the eggs; from them a boy and a girl hatched; the children grew up, T. created for them a cow and two calves; taught the youth to make a plough and plough the land, he took up agriculture; Maranburu (a big mountain) was the guardian of the youth and the girl; taught them to make an intoxicating drink; they drank and got together; M. told them not to worry, let them be husband and wife; they have 7 sons and 7 daughters; they quarreled and began to live in different places; the father took the sons with him, and the mother the daughters; the girls and boys met, began to live in pairs; their parents also reconciled and came to live with them; from the 7 brothers and sisters came 7 clans]: 567-570;8; Culshow 1949 [water everywhere; Thakur called the kings of the sea, but they could not get the earth from the bottom; the Crab agreed to dive, but on the way to the surface the water sensed the pieces of earth he had grabbed; the same - Turtle; the Worm asked to put a golden plate on the Turtle's back, promised to swallow the earth at the bottom and empty his stomach onto the plate; he did so, the earth turned out to be uneven, T. tried to level it, the sea flooded the low-lying places; T. created two geese from the seeds of the sirom grass - a female and a male, Hans and Hansil (Goose and Gander); they laid two eggs in the grass, people came out of the eggs - pilcu Haram and Pilcu Budhi]: 65-66 in Osada 2010; Shrestha 2019 [in the beginning there was water, above it Thakur and his servant Jahereda; Malinburi lived under water; T. told her to make two human figures; she molded them out of clay, brought them to the bottom of the sea, and laid them in the sun to dry; Sinsadom's horse flew in and smashed the figures with the flapping of his wings; M. made new figures and asked T. to bring them to life; T. sent her for souls, but M. brought not human souls, but bird souls; T. breathed life into them and they flew away to the sky; these are the first swans - Hansa and Hansini; they have nowhere to sit, there is water everywhere; they asked T. to make them a place to live; the fish Solehako, the cancer Katkom and the worm Lenden lived in the water; S. and K. could not lift the earth; L. began to throw grains of earth to the surface, but they sank to the bottom again; T. called the turtle Kachika and told her to lie motionless on the water; L. began to throw earth onto the turtle's shell, an island was formed; T. grew there the Kadam tree and the Sirom grass; Hansa and Hansini made a nest of grass; Hansinir laid two eggs, the beast Raghopabu ate them; T. sent his servant J. to guard the eggs; from them a boy and a girl hatched; the children grew up, T. created for them a cow and two calves; taught the youth to make a plough and plough the land, he took up agriculture; Maranburu (a big mountain) was the guardian of the youth and the girl; taught them to make an intoxicating drink; they drank and got together; M. told them not to worry, let them be husband and wife; they have 7 sons and 7 daughters; they quarreled and began to live in different places; the father took the sons with him, and the mother the daughters; the girls and boys met, began to live in pairs; their parents also reconciled and came to live with them; from the 7 brothers and sisters came 7 clans]: 567-570;told her to make two human figures; she molded them from clay, brought them to the bottom of the sea, put them to dry in the sun; Sinsadom's horse flew in, smashed the figures with the flapping of his wings; M. made new figures, asked T. to revive them; T. sent her for souls, but M. brought not human souls, but bird souls; T. breathed life into them and they flew away to the sky; these are the first swans - Hansa and Hansini; they have nowhere to sit, there is water everywhere; they asked T. to make them a place to live; the fish Solehako, the cancer Katkom and the worm Lenden lived in the water; S. and K. could not raise the earth; L. began to throw grains of earth to the surface, but they sank to the bottom again; T. called the turtle Kachika, told her to lie motionless on the water; L. began to throw earth onto the turtle's shell, an island was formed; T. grew there the Kadam tree and the Sirom grass; Hansa and Hansini made a nest of grass; Hansinir laid two eggs, the beast Raghopabu ate them; T. sent his servant J. to guard the eggs; from them a boy and a girl hatched; the children grew up, T. created for them a cow and two calves; taught the youth to make a plough and plough the land, he took up agriculture; Maranburu (a big mountain) was the guardian of the youth and the girl; taught them to make an intoxicating drink; they drank and got together; M. told them not to worry, let them be husband and wife; they have 7 sons and 7 daughters; they quarreled and began to live in different places; the father took the sons with him, and the mother the daughters; the girls and boys met, began to live in pairs; their parents also reconciled and came to live with them; from the 7 brothers and sisters came 7 clans]: 567-570;told her to make two human figures; she molded them from clay, brought them to the bottom of the sea, put them to dry in the sun; Sinsadom's horse flew in, smashed the figures with the flapping of his wings; M. made new figures, asked T. to revive them; T. sent her for souls, but M. brought not human souls, but bird souls; T. breathed life into them and they flew away to the sky; these are the first swans - Hansa and Hansini; they have nowhere to sit, there is water everywhere; they asked T. to make them a place to live; the fish Solehako, the cancer Katkom and the worm Lenden lived in the water; S. and K. could not raise the earth; L. began to throw grains of earth to the surface, but they sank to the bottom again; T. called the turtle Kachika, told her to lie motionless on the water; L. began to throw earth onto the turtle's shell, an island was formed; T. grew there the Kadam tree and the Sirom grass; Hansa and Hansini made a nest of grass; Hansinir laid two eggs, the beast Raghopabu ate them; T. sent his servant J. to guard the eggs; from them a boy and a girl hatched; the children grew up, T. created for them a cow and two calves; taught the youth to make a plough and plough the land, he took up agriculture; Maranburu (a big mountain) was the guardian of the youth and the girl; taught them to make an intoxicating drink; they drank and got together; M. told them not to worry, let them be husband and wife; they have 7 sons and 7 daughters; they quarreled and began to live in different places; the father took the sons with him, and the mother the daughters; the girls and boys met, began to live in pairs; their parents also reconciled and came to live with them; from the 7 brothers and sisters came 7 clans]: 567-570;567-570;567-570;Bondo : Elwin 1950: 135-136 [the rajah's daughter threw a pumpkin seed; her brother took the core out of the pumpkin; rain came, flooded the earth, the brother and sister saved themselves in the pumpkin; Mahaprabhu sent a boar to the nether world to steal the earth from Kermo; it also carried away from K. the seeds of seven kinds of trees (mango, tamarind, mahua, sago palm, dumal, pipal, banyan); upon emerging, the boar shook off the dirt, drops of dirt fell on the water, became earth; M. took the brother and sister out of the pumpkin, changed their appearance by sending smallpox on them, they did not recognize each other and got married; from them humans were descended], 136-137 [the pregnant Doe hears Squirrel telling her son that there will be a flood; she is afraid of a man at the watering hole; her son from the womb reminds her that there will be a flood anyway; a man hears, asks the Doe to explain what is going on; Mahaprabhu speaks from the womb of the Doe, orders to place the children in a pumpkin; the rain flooded the earth; M. wanted to know if there were any people left; collected dirt from the body, made a Crow, threw a tree trunk into the water so that it could sit; opened a crab, there was no dirt in it, found dirt in the belly of a worm; the pumpkin settled on the ground, a brother and sister came out; M. gave them smallpox, they did not recognize each other, got married; M. gave the girl a remedy that caused her menstruation]; 1954 [the water flooded the earth; Mahaprabhu rubbed his arm, made a crow out of lumps of dirt, it flew over the waters, did not know where to sit, saw a floating basket in which were the brother and sister, returned, told M.; he ordered her to get dirt; she brought M. an earthworm, he got earth {from the bottom?}; M. scattered earth in all directions, dry land arose; he took a brother and sister from a basket, they refused to marry; then he called Thakurani, she sent smallpox on them, the girl became cross-eyed, the youth fell ill with leprosy; when they met, they did not recognize each other and married; from their 12 sons and 12 daughters come people]: 423-424; bhuya [Baski Mata was born on a floating lotus leaf; ordered the world to be created from the blood and bones of Boram Burha's son named Parihar; the gods sent a tiger to kill him; the splashes of blood on the water became earth, the bones - seven rocks, hair - seven trees; from the fact that the gods walked on the still wet earth, mountains were formed; Baski Mata dived, stood on her head, began to support the earth with her feet; when it moves, earthquakes occur]: Elwin 1949, No. 2: 28-29; didai [the earth was covered with water; in the sky Rumrok hung a boar in a web; only on its tail did he find grains of earth; he threw it on the waters, creating dry land; the earth was soft at first; R. crushed the bone of a boar, strengthened the earth with this powder]: Elwin 1954, No. 3: 4; bondo: Elwin 1950: 135-136 [the rajah's daughter threw a pumpkin seed; her brother took the core out of the pumpkin; rain came, flooded the earth, the brother and sister saved themselves in the pumpkin; Mahaprabhu sent a boar to the nether world to steal the earth from Kermo; it also carried away from K. the seeds of seven kinds of trees (mango, tamarind, mahua, sago palm, dumal, pipal, banyan); when the boar emerged, he shook himself off the dirt, drops of dirt fell on the water, became earth; M. took the brother and sister out of the pumpkin, changed their appearance by sending smallpox on them, they did not recognize each other and got married; from them came people; (=Elwin 1949, no. 8: 32-33)], 136-137 [the pregnant Doe hears Squirrel telling her son that there will be a flood; afraid of a man at a watering hole; her son from the womb reminds that there will be a flood anyway; the man hears, asks the Doe to explain what is going on; Mahaprabhu speaks from the womb of the Doe, orders to place the children in a pumpkin; the rain flooded the earth; M. wanted to know if there were any people left; collected dirt from the body, made a Crow, threw a tree trunk on the water so that it could sit; opened a crab, there was no earth there, found earth in the belly of a worm; the pumpkin settled on the ground, brother and sister came out; M. gave them smallpox, they did not recognize each other, got married; M. gave the girl a remedy that caused her menstruation], 141 (tulaguram) [there was one water, in which a boar lived; he raised the earth (from the bottom) with his tusks, scattered it over the water, creating dry land; made the moon and the sun from the stumps of a sago palm, threw them into the sky; the core turned into stars]; 1954 [water flooded the earth; Mahaprabhu rubbed his arm, made a crow out of lumps of mud, it flew over the waters, did not know where to sit, saw a floating basket containing a brother and sister, returned, told M.; he told her to get some earth; she brought M. an earthworm, he got some earth {from the bottom?}; M. scattered earth in all directions, dry land appeared; he got the brother and sister from the basket, they refused to marry; then he called Thakurani, she sent smallpox on them, the girl became cross-eyed, the boy became leprous; when they met, they did not recognize each other and got married; from their 12 sons and 12 daughters come humans]: 423-424; sora : Elwin 1954, No. 13 (Hill Saora) [the earth went under water; in the sky lived Ramma and Bimma, they had a hen and a rooster; the hen laid seven eggs; the eighth fell into the sea, broke, the white spread out, became dry land; the shell turned into rocks], 14 [Raja Ruhel lived in the sky; a man did not give up his place in the bath to his mother, she cursed people, the world sank into water; she decided to create a new earth, rolled the mud from her body, creating a bird, it flew for half a year, sat on the claw of a shrimp; one antenna of the shrimp reached the sky, the other was in the lower world with the king of the crocodiles; the shrimp agreed to steal the earth from him, gave it to the bird; Raja Ruhe and his mother mixed the earth with water, threw it in four directions, dry land arose]: 9, 433; baiga[in the beginning there was only water, a lotus leaf was floating on it, Bhagavan sat on it, rolled mud from his hand, made a crow out of it – his daughter Karicag, sent her to look for land; having lost her strength, she fell on the back of the great Tortoise, Kekramal Chhatri, who was sitting on the waters, with one paw at the bottom of the sea, the other reaching the sky; the Crow calls the Tortoise her elder brother, the Tortoise calls the Crow her younger sister; says that the earth was stolen by the worm Gichnaraja, he is at the bottom of the sea; took the Crow to Logandi Raja; he called 12 brothers Loharsur, 13 brothers Tamesur, 14 brothers Agyasur, they made an iron cage, lowered the Tortoise and the Crow to the bottom in it; the Tortoise was afraid of the Worm, hid behind the Crow; The Worm himself got scared when the Crow promised to beat him, he began to lie that the earth was with Dano, who would burn those who came; the emboldened Turtle grabbed the Worm by the neck, he burped 21 times; each portion of the earth was named in its own way, starting with mother earth and ending with the virgin earth (white, red, good, trembling, rocky, etc.); the Turtle pulled the chain, Logundi Raja pulled out the cage, the Turtle tied the earth to the Crow's neck, she brought it to Bhagavan; he called the virgin, she churned the earth in a vessel made of leaves for 8 days and 9 nights; B. threw the earth onto the waters, it grew, became dry land; at first the earth was wet and slippery; B. called the Wind and Bhimsen; The wind dried up the earth, but when they stood on one edge, the other rose up; Bhimsen walked, created mountains, valleys; Nanga Baigin (wife of Nanga Baigi) drove four nails into the corners, the earth became firm (but the earth itself is round, p.330)]: Elwin 1939: 308-316; koya [the earth sank; Bhima's daughter jumped from the sky into the sea, descended to the nether world; Sesh Nag blew on her, turning her into a boar; the boar rolled in the mud, floated up, shook itself, dry land was formed]: Elwin 1954, no. 5: 426; gonds [Mahadeo floated on a lotus leaf; he rolled a lump of mud on his body, created a crow from it, sent it to look for land; she found the Crab, they found Nal Raja and Nal Rani, called them uncle and aunt, asked for a loan of land; they got them drunk, prepared to run away, take the land; but the Crab woke up, squeezed out the land, gave it to the Crow; she brought M., he placed the land in 7 cups of leaves, told the Spider to entangle the ocean with a web, put the cups on the web, 7 types of land arose: black, red, milky, barren, gravel, virgin, marshy; M. asked Bhimsen to check if the land was firm; his feet began to stick, he lay down, rolled around, mountains arose]: Elwin 1949, No. 16: 38; Gonds(Madhya Pradesh) [God Thakur Dev was floating on a lotus flower on the surface of the water; sent Raven to look for land; after six months he met the tortoise Chakarmal Chatri; she was standing with one foot in the water, her head up to the sky; told Raven that the land had been swallowed by the underwater worm Gichna Raja; Tortoise and Raven came to Logandhi Raja, told about TD's desire to get land; he ordered his twelfth brother Lohasura to make a wicker boat; he made it with the help of one of his younger brothers; Tortoise and Raven dived from it, Tortoise grabbed the worm by the neck, he burped 21 times; first gave Dharti Mai (Mother Earth), then Mahamundi Dharti (Big-headed Earth), Pan Dharti (Sinful Earth), Yellow Earth, Black Earth, and finally Kumari Dharti (Virgin Earth); the Raven took all the earth in its beak, pulled the rope, LR pulled them up; the Raven gave the earth to TD, he rolled it into a ball, placed it on the water, and dry land arose]: Parmar 1960, no. 12: 50-51 (translated in Kudinov, Kudinov 1995: 29-30); gonds [water everywhere, the Supreme Lord was born from a lotus; rubbed his hand, made a Crow from the rubbed-off mud, ordered earth to be brought; the Crow saw a Crab emerging from the water, leaning against the bottom; sat on the Crab's back, the mark remained; because the Supreme Being made his body hard, the Crab agreed to dive, brought an earthworm, which vomited up earth; the Supreme Being scattered it over the sea, and dry land arose; from the abscess on his hand came Mahadeva and Parvati ; from M.'s urine vegetables grew, P. ate them, and gave birth to the Gonds]: S. Hyslop in Zograf 1971: 7; Gonds(Sunabedha plateau, Odisha) [water everywhere; Mahadeva made a crow out of the mud on his body and sent it to fetch earth; it met a crab; with the help of an earthworm it got earth from the nether world; M. divided the earth into 7 parts, put them on 7 lotus leaves and threw them on the waters, creating 7 islands; told Bhima to check how much the earth had hardened; Bhima stepped on it, his foot sank into the mud, the splashes of mud became mountains; M. created 7 herbs, gave 6 to his wife Parvati, and ordered her not to eat the seventh; when he went into the forest to make a wooden plough, P. ate the seventh herb and became pregnant; frightened, she made a tiger out of the mud on her body and sent it to meet M.; he threw pieces of the plough at the tiger, they became (wild) dogs and drove away the tiger; he hid in P.'s house; She seized the dog by the muzzle with her soot-smeared hands, and the muzzle became black; if a tiger treads where a dog has urinated, it becomes blind; that is why a tiger sniffs the ground; learning that P. was pregnant, M. went to Nirakar (the formless one); he said that if P. did not bear children, who would people the earth? P. bore a thousand children; she buried the ugly ones under the trees, and showed the beautiful ones to M.; he made them the progenitors of clans, castes, etc.; the first son became the progenitor of the Gonds; at first they lived on roots and fruits; M. prepared the fields; ordered Janra and Manika to plough them; sent Bhima to get rice from Kuvera; he gave him half the produce; the produce was more, but M. did not understand and (out of anger) set fire to the rice; Brahma, Vishnu, Vasuki and Indra extinguished the fire; the remaining rice, burnt to varying degrees, was given different names depending on its color (20 are listed); M. began to grow rice again; this is how the Gonds got it]: Kumar Mishra 2007: 62-63; Gonds(Chhattisgarh) [at first only water; on it floats a lotus flower, on it Mahadeo; he collected the mud from his body, made a crow and sent it to find land; flying away, it sat on the claw of a huge crab; the crow croaked; crab: at last something to eat; crow: uncle, my father has sent me; crab: nephew – why? crow: to get land to create the world; the crab and the crow went to Singardip, where Nal-raja and Nal-rani owned land; they promised to give it, but fed the guests poisoned food, and they lost consciousness; but when they were about to flee, the crab came to his senses and squeezed the land out of their mouths; gave it to the crow, and the crow brought it to Mahadeo; he put the land in 7 cups made of lotus leaves and ordered the spider to cover the surface of the sea with web; Having placed the cups on the web, M. began to fan them with a lotus leaf; the earth spread from the cups onto the web; thus seven kinds of earth appeared: black, red, milky, barren, gravelly, virgin, marshy; Bhimsen began to test whether the dry land was firm; he stepped on it, but his foot sank; then he began to roll on the ground, creating mountains; M. planted seven herbs, from one of which children can be conceived; to finally secure the earth, M. went to drive pegs into it, told Parvati not to eat the seventh herb; having conceived, she tried to call M., but could not; she collected dirt from her body, made a tiger out of it and sent it to frighten M. into returning; M. threw the clippings of her nails at the tiger; they turned into dogs and drove him away; Bhagavan told M. that if P. had not become pregnant, humans would not have been able to come into existence; P. gave birth to many children, she became ashamed and buried them under different trees, leaving only the beautiful boys; M. asked where the others were; P. brought them back, M. made them the ancestors of different clans]: Kumar Mishra 2007: 63-64; oraons : Elwin 1949, no. 23 [first the ocean, in the water a lotus, on it lived Mahapurub; from his womb were born a boy and a girl; they played, disturbed M., he killed them; their flesh became earth, their bones – stones, their blood – waters, their hair – grass; thus the world was created; from M.'s womb again a boy and a girl were born; they closed their eyes, because they thought it was sinful to look at each other; M. hit them, they opened their eyes, but refused to marry; M. sent them in different directions; [after 12 years they met again, did not recognize each other, got married, M. gave them the whole world]: 42; Koonathan 1999 [on the advice of Old Mother, Dharmes created the Kingfisher, who dove into the ocean, brought the seed of the earth from the lower world; from this D. made the earth; Sit'a advised to make clay figures of people, but D.'s horse trampled them, fearing that a man would harness it; S. advised to make dogs to drive away the horse; soon people populated the earth]: 144 in Osada 2010; cond: Elwin 1954, No. 9 (kuttia) [water everywhere; Chanchenga and Pachenga surfaced, found a rock; asked Nirantalui and Kapantali for land; N. took a handful of her hair, it was thrown in four directions, dry land arose; when a cow, a buffalo and a pig were sacrificed, the earth dried up; the bones of these animals became rocks, the wool - grass], 11 [Buru Pinnu and Pusuruli floated on the waters; found a dead leaf-scorpion, its head the size of a bull's; they scraped off its skin, threw it on the water, dry land arose; the scorpion's back turned into rocks; nails were made from its bones, driven into the four corners of the earth; its flesh was turned to dust; a particle was left, thrown into the water, it became the present scorpion], 13 [Nirantali spat on the water, from the spit white ants emerged, their excrement formed the earth]: 7, 8-9, 431; agarya [Bhagavan placed a lotus leaf on the water, but it withered in the sun; created the world from lac, but it broke; rolling the dirt from his chest, he created a crow, gave it his milk to drink, sent it to look for land; tired, the crow fell on the crab Kakramal Kshattri; he dived, found Nal Raja and Nal Rani sleeping; the crab squeezed NR's throat, forcing him to regurgitate earth, the crow brought it to Bhagavan, he created dry land; so that Mother Earth would not shake, the first Agaria placed 12 iron pillars at the four corners of the world]: Elwin 1949, No. 1: 27-28; Maria (Bison-Horn Maria) [the rain flooded the earth; Gajabhimul placed a brother and sister in a gourd, the gourd stuck to a rock; Mahapurub sent a crow to look for people; a banyan tree grew out of the rock, the crow sat on it, opened the gourd; the children climbed the tree, drank its juice, it ran out, they began to cry; M. sent a crow to calm them down, but it wanted to kill the children to peck at their corpses, returned and lied that everything was fine; the same with the eagle; with the tiger; then he sent a monkey; the hot rock burned its bottom, arms and legs, with the charred hands the monkey smeared its face black; M. sent a boar, ordered to smear himself with clay, which was on the back of a turtle; the boar shook itself, clods and splashes of earth formed dry land; smallpox was sent to the brother and sister, so that they would not recognize each other; after this they married, gave birth to 12 sons and 12 daughters]: Elwin 1949, No. 4: 30-31; Sinhalese [at the end of the kalpa, rain flooded the earth. Saman answers Vishnu that only the king of the asuras Rahu can revive the earth. He asks Vishnu to grow a lotus, goes down its stem to the bottom, brings a handful of earth. Vishnu places it on the water and creates dry land. Surya and Chandra (the sun and the moon) came to illuminate the earth. Surya and Vishnu molded a Brahman, who molded a woman for himself and brought her to life]: Parker 1910, no. 1: 47-49 (=Volkhonsky, Solntseva 1985, no. 1: 28-29).

Malaysia – Indonesia. Semangi : Endicott 1979 (Batek) [a horned turtle-snake came to the surface in the middle of the ocean; a piece of earth or the excrement of a heavenly worm fell from the sky onto its back, and the turtle-snake itself or a ferryman descending from the sky beat the sea foam into a lump; the substance brought from the sky and the sea became the Earth on the back of the turtle-snake]: 33-34; Evans 1937: 159 (Kintak Bong) [1) the earth was brought in powder form from below by a dung beetle; the bear tamped it down with its paws, otherwise it would have filled the entire space up to the sky; another informant later (1935) said that the bear stopped the beetle when the earth had risen halfway up to the sky; 2) (according to Schebesta 1927: 212); in the beginning there is water everywhere; the dung beetle brings a small bag of earth from under the water; the earth grows; there would have been mountains everywhere, but the bear compacted some of the earth, and plains arose]; Schebesta 1931: 220 (Kěnta) [in the beginning there was water everywhere; the thunderer Kaei sat in the sky next to the sun; the dung beetle brought a piece of earth from the water; it began to grow, would have turned into a giant mountain, but the bear compacted and leveled it; K. descended, created man on the earth], 251 (Kěnsiu) [(=1927: 242, paraphrased in Evans 1937: 160); Pedn and his wife Manoid lived in the sky; the Dung Beetle takes earth out of the mud, it dries in the sun, hardens; at the request of M., P. takes two fruits, turns them into a boy Chapong (Hornbill) and a girl Paig (Turtle); from them were born sons and daughters, including Enogn and Kajegn; E. heard a noise in the rock, made a hole with an arrow, water gushed out from there (the origin of waters)]; Malays [the light from the Almighty became water, foam floated above the water, steam thickened, the earth and the sea were formed, each of the seven layers; the earth floated on the water and rocked; to secure it, God girded it with a diamond chain - the Caucasus Mountains; spirits live on them; behind them is a desert covered with gold, emeralds, flowers; all mountains come from the Caucasus Mountains, strengthen the earth; the Caucasus Mountains protect the earth from excessive winds and monsters; beyond them live Yajuj and Majuj (Gog and Magog), when they make a hole in the mountains, the end of the world will come]: Skeat, Blagden 1900: 1-2; Batak(toba) [the supreme god Mula Dyadi lived on the top of the 7 tiers of heaven; created three sons; created a tree on one of the lower tiers, its branches reached the top; created a hen, she hatched three eggs on the tree, from which three girls were born, he gave them as wives to his sons; one had the face of a lizard, the skin of a chameleon, the girl refused, began to spin, dropped the spinning wheel into the lower world; she descended on the unwound thread onto the head of a snake swimming in the sea; put there a handful of earth, brought at her request by the swallow MD; the snake got tired and turned over, the emerging world was flooded with water; MD created eight suns, they dried up the excess water; the maiden thrust a sword into the snake, nailing it tightly to the ground so that it would not turn over anymore; taking new soil, she created the earth anew; MD shot the maiden's groom from a blowpipe; finding himself on the ground, the youth shot at a turtledove, which seized the arrow and flew away; following her, he found a celestial maiden, married her; they gave birth to humans]: Warneck 1909: 30 in Dixon 1916: 160-161 (summary in Hatt 1949: 33); Batak (Dairi) [data on Dairi are based on the publication of Y. Tuut, 1860-1862, Vols. 1-4; the raft was placed on the head of a goat, thus the earth came into being]: Brakel-Papenhuyzen 2016: 389; Batak (Dairi) [the pregnant wife of the supreme god Batara Guru wants meat; B. sent a raven for meat; in the world of the gods the raven found nothing; flew into a cave leading down, first dropping a bamboo stick, found himself over the ocean, found the dropped stick, sat on it; did not find an opening in the sky to return to; B. went to look for the raven, taking with him a handful of earth, seven pieces of wood, a chisel, a goat, and a bumblebee; he made a raft out of the pieces of wood, shouted in eight directions, and lit a fire; the goat and the bumblebee began to support the raft-earth; B. gave this world to the raven so that he could live in it]: Schmidt 1910: 7 in Hatt 1949: 33-34; Dayaks [there was water, on which two bird-like spirits, Ara and Irak , were floating ; they swooped down, picked up from the waters two lumps of solidity, each the size and shape of a hen's egg; from one A. created the sky, from the other I. the earth; it turned out that the edge of the earth protruded beyond the edge of the sky; they compressed the earth, valleys and mountains arose; trees and other plants grew themselves; A. and I. searched for a long time for a tree whose sap would resemble blood; when they found it, they were unable to turn the tree into a man; then they molded a man and a woman from clay - the ancestors of the Dayaks]: Dunn 1906: 16 (retold in Zolotarev 1964: 220; in Hatt 1949: 32; in Jensen 1974: 73-74); Ibans(Dayaks of the Sea): Jensen 1974: 73 [Rajah Gantallah created two birds; they created the sky, the earth, then Batang Lupar (the beginning of the waters, the mother of rivers); the earth turned out to be larger than the sky, they compressed it, mountains were obtained; man was made of wood, then of stone; they could not revive; then of clay, veins of the resin of the kumpang tree (it is red); man came to life], 74-75 [(after Sandin 1962: 5-6); Raja Entala and his wife think to create the world; they rolled the mud from their bodies, from this they made the earth, then the sky, it turned out to be smaller than the earth; they compressed the earth, creating mountains, valleys, rivers; the Rura banana seduced the Iri bird, from them come fish; RE made a figure of a man from the stem of the bangkit banana, the blood is the juice of the kumpang tree; RE's wife dressed the figure in ritual woven clothes; When RE shouted for the third time, the figure came to life; thus came into being Telichu (the ancestor of the Ibans, who took as his wife the daughter of the spirit Sengalang Burong) and Telichai (the ancestor of the demons)]; the Dayaks (Ibans?) [the snake Nagapousai represents the earth; it had a huge head and a tiny body, so it rocked on the waves; Hat-alla sent his servant Praman to find out what N. was complaining about; when he found out what it was, he went down and joined N.'s head to a larger body, and to protect the snake from the sun, he placed earth on top; his son Batou Djompa noticed two eggs on the surface of the snake, went down and broke them, from which came out a man and a woman; they begot 7 sons and 7 daughters, but at first they had no soul; BJ ordered a man named Soupou to bring 14 souls from the snake; when he left, he told his wife not to come out from under the canopy over her bed; but she became hot and went to bathe; as soon as she raised the curtain, a thunderstorm rushed in and revived the children; therefore people are mortal; when he returned, S. became angry and scattered the children in pairs far away; one pair fell into the water and gave birth to the sea god Djata; the rest populated the earth ("fields") and the air]: Backer 1874: 280-281; ​​Dayaks (group not specified; Kayan?) [At first there was only water below; a spider descended from the sky on a web, a piece of coral fell into the web, grew, became earth; a worm and a slug crawled on it, their slime turned into soil, covered the entire earth; a shoot descended from the sky, took root, became a tree, other trees grew under its shade; a crab fell, began to crawl, creating valleys and mountains; rain filled the reservoirs; cultivated plants grew; male and female spirits descended; the male made the handle of a sword, the female - a spindle; the handle fell into the spindle, it gave birth to a human head, then a second; the spirits did not like these children, they returned to the sky; the two heads came together, their children have necks, the children of these children have bodies; the children of the latter Amei Awi and Burung Une had long arms, they reached the sky; They have 9 human children and 4 lunar children, each one being one of the quarters of the moon of the monthly cycle; 8 children climbed the mountain; those remaining at the foot became the ancestors of slaves, those who climbed to the middle became free people, and those who climbed to the very top became rulers; AA built a house of bamboo, the chips turned into dogs, chickens, pigs; BU gave birth to more children; they were mute at first, they began to talk after eating cooked fish, but became the ancestors of the Bajau; AA and BU went to the lower world, are responsible for the growth of plants]: 117-119; Kayan (central Borneo): Furness 1899: [a rock fell from the sky into the primordial ocean; the top remained above water; under the action of rain, silt formed on the surface, worms gnawed away the rock, sand appeared; then a wooden sword handle fell from the sun, which became a tree, and from the moon a liana twined around the tree; the liana became the husband of the tree, they produced two twins, who had no bodies below the waist; yet they produced true men; animals, birds, and fish arose from the twigs and leaves of the tree; from the mud on the surface of the rock came moss and small plants]: 6–13 in Stöhr, Zoetmulder 1965: 38 (more briefly also in Dixon 1916: 158–159, in Hatt 1949: 34–35); Nieuwenhuis 1904(1): 129 in Dixon 1916 [a spider descended from the sky, spun a web; a pebble fell into it, grew to the horizon; a lichen fell on the pebble, a worm on it, its excrement formed the soil; then a small tree fell, grew, then a crab, with its claws cut through valleys and mountains; a liana twined around the tree, they gave birth to a child without arms and legs, he gave birth to a boy and a girl, they gave birth to various gods]: 159; Dayaks (SE Borneo) [in the beginning only the sky and the sea, in it swam a serpent with a golden crown on his head; the sky deity dropped the earth on the serpent's head; an island arose, which became the earth]: Schwanger 1853: 177 in Dixon 1916: 159-160; Dusun[there is a rock in the middle of the water, it opened its mouth, a man and a woman came out of it (these are the main deities of Dusun - Kedharingan and Munsumundok); they began to think how they could walk on the water; in the end they went, came to the house of Bisagit (the spirit of smallpox), he had land, they asked, he gave them land; K. created Dusun, M. created the sky, both created the sun, the moon, the Pleiades ("seven stars"), the Hyades ("versha"); they had a daughter, people were starving, then K. and M. killed the daughter, a coconut grew out of her head (eyes and a mouth are visible on the nut), sugar cane - from the elbow bones, bananas - from the fingers, rice - from the blood; all animals - from body parts; K. asked who could change their skin would be immortal; Dusun did not hear, the snake heard and now dies only if a person kills it; Dusun lost the ability to be reborn; K. began to bathe people in a basket in the river, one man fell out, swam away, from him come the coastal dwellers; K. arranged a religious ceremony in the house; at that time one man was in the forest, when he returned, he could not enter, from him come the monkeys]: Evans 1922: 175-176; minahasa [first a rock in the sea; from the impact of the waves against it a crane arose; from the sweat of the rock Lumimu-ut arose; the crane brought a branch from a secluded island, the "primordial earth"; L. flew there on the crane, brought earth in both palms, threw it to the four cardinal directions, the earth arose to the horizon; L. planted in it the seeds of trees and grasses, laying the foundation of the world; {up to this point in Tauchmann more detailed than in Dixon; henceforth only Dixon}; L. climbed the mountain, conceived from the west wind, gave birth to a boy; he unsuccessfully looked for a wife; then L. handed him a staff the size of her height, told him to find a wife shorter; when they met, the mother and son did not recognize each other, but the staff grew, became taller than the mother; the mother and son got married, gave birth to gods]: Dixon 1916: 157-158 and Tauchmann 1969: 32-33; minahasa (totemboa) [the first human couple has three children, including Limimuut; the parents filled a coconut with soil, placed cultivated plants in it, L., released it into the sea; the coconut got wet, grew, became dry land (the Minahasa p-om); L. exposed herself to the west wind, gave birth to a boy, from them come the Minahasa]: Schwarz 1907(2): 397-398 in Lessa 1961: 276, in Tauchmann 1969: 33; eastern Flores (Sika area): Walk 1949: 92 [Arndt 1933: 22f; a pair of birds settled on the mud at the outer edge of the primordial sea, brought earth from there to the top of Mount Gorang; the earth dried up, 7 valleys and 8 mountains appeared], 93 [Arndt 1933: 67-70l; a brother and sister lived on a rock in the middle of the sea; saw two falcons copulating, came together themselves]; Tetum: Hicks 1984, no. 8 [at first there was water everywhere; God sent two birds in the sky to fly over the water; lumps of clay that stuck to their feet fell into the sea and turned into dry land; a man and a woman fell from the feet of the same birds onto the dry land; demons ate them; God turned the birds into two rocks as punishment for not protecting the people; God threw a man and a dog to the ground; the dog told the man to hide from the demons inside a rock; a vagina opened in the rock, the man climbed into it, the rock closed; God told the demons to leave the man alone and to eat people only when there were many of them; later many people descended from the sky on vines, others arose from tubers and grains]: 42-44; Vroklage 1962 (Wehali): 139-140 [at first there was water everywhere; a tiny island appeared, a banyan tree grew on it, two birds, their children, a brother and sister of high birth, descended from the sky onto the banyan tree; two slaves also appeared; the waters receded, the dry land grew], 140 [the earth was tiny, God sent an old man Hauk and an old woman Arus to it; many birds descended from the sky, but there was no room for them; then a banyan tree fell from the sky, the birds sat on it; the old man and the old woman, by God's command, placed dirt from under their nails on the roots of the banyan tree, the tree became stronger; the earth expanded], 140-141 [in the sky, a hunter shot a bird with an air gun, it fell onto a banyan tree growing on the ground on a tiny island; the hunter went down after it, asked God to expand the earth and give him a woman; people multiplied], 141 [1) first, a tiny island among the waters; by God's will, a man fell from the sky into the sky; he asked to give him a comrade; a two-headed man began to crawl out of a hole in the ground; the first man got scared and dropped a stone on him; then a normal woman came out; this couple asked to make the earth bigger, God dried up part of the sea; created the sun, the moon and three stars - morning, midnight and evening; people and animals began to argue whether it should be constantly light or whether light and darkness should alternate; The crow cried, "Night 7, then day 7", the bird berliku – "Night 1", then day"; people multiplied; 2) first one water, God made a small island; a man and a woman came down from the sky, gave birth to two children], 141-142 [first one water, God sent a boat to dry up part of the sea], 142 (Dafala) [at first the earth and the sky were tiny, were close to each other, between them something round the size of a pigeon's egg; at God's will the sky and the earth parted, from the egg a living creature emerged; God cried out, the creature split into a man and a woman; the man pulled the sky up, the woman the earth down, they parted; a white rooster brought from the sky to these people the seeds of the mangga tree, sandalwood and axes; the woman left, the man married another, sent down from the sky, and a rice bird; she bore him animals, birds, snakes; heavenly woman gave birth to a son and a daughter; they got married and gave birth to the seven ancestors of Dafal], 143-145 [{also about the appearance of the first island and the growth of the earth; apparently, similar texts are everywhere and in large numbers}]; Timor[at first only Mount Mânu-Cóco rose from the sea; on it grew a huge tree, Ficus banjamina; a tuna fish began to eat its fruit, then its leaves and branches, and turned into a pig, and the dung formed the earth, the earth grew larger and larger; God became angry that the pig had destroyed the shady tree, hung it on the trunk, and went to the sky for fire; when he returned he saw that the pig had turned into a woman; she gave birth to Bui and Mau; God gave them fire, a forge, and with the heat they dried up the sea even more]: Pascoal 1967: 44; atauru (?) [below there is only water; the sky god sent his son Ná'I Híric to catch fish; he said that there was nowhere to cook them; God sent him bamboo and everything necessary to dry the earth, and sent scales to weigh the earth; [Three men and three women came down, beat the sea, the sea retreated; got fire by friction, fried fish]: Pascoal 1967: 70.

Taiwan – Philippines. Bicol [the grandchildren of a sky deity have bodies of stone, gold, copper; the stone grandson tries to take over the sky with his brothers; he is killed by lightning, falls into the sea, the earth is formed from his body; the gold brother’s body becomes the Sun, the copper brother’s body becomes the Moon, the sister’s body turns into stars]: Eugenio 1994, no. 21a: 65-66; Tagalog [at first only the sea and the sky, with a hawk (a bird similar to a kite) flying between them; he stirred up the waters so much that the sea began to throw portions of water into the sky, and the sky, for protection, began to throw down islands; then the sky ordered the hawk to sit on one of the islands, build a nest and leave the sea alone; the wind from the sea and the wind from the land entered into marriage, they have a bamboo son; he swam, hit the hawk's feet, the hawk pecked him in anger, a man came out of one knee, a woman from another; the earthquake called all the birds and fishes to decide what to do with these creatures; they decided to marry them; all people came from them; with such an abundance of children, the aging parents did not have a moment's peace; the father took a stick and began to beat them; they ran away; those who found themselves in the rooms of the house became leaders, within the walls - slaves, on the street - free, in the hearth - negroes, in the sea - Europeans]: Cole 1916: 187-188; samal [a ball floated on the waters; at the will of the supreme deity it split; half rose, turned into a seven-layered sky; the other half remained below, turned into a seven-layered earth]: Eugenio 1994, No. 40: 96; visaya [in the beginning there are only sea and sky]: Gaverza 2014: 37.

China – Korea. Koreans [the daughter of the Lord of Heaven dropped a ring; it was not found in heaven, so the strong man went down to the earth to look for it; the earth was a flat swamp; in search of the ring he dug it up, creating mountains, valleys, plains, rivers; having found the ring, the strong man returned it to its owner]: Cho 2001, No. 76: 117.

The Balkans. Ancient Greece [the fabulist Aesop enters a shipyard; the sailors tease the fabulist; the fabulist tells a story: in the beginning there was only chaos and water; Zeus created the earth and ordered it to drink the water in three gulps; with the first gulp mountains appeared, with the second plains; when the Earth takes the third gulp, the oceans will disappear, the sailors will be left idle]: Gasparov 1968, no. 8: 65-66; Bulgarians : Dragomanov 1892 (Bessarabia) [The Devil gets silt from the bottom of the sea; God creates dry land from it, pretends to go to bed; the Devil drags the supposedly sleeping God in different directions (trying to drown him), but the water recedes, the earth grows; God says that he has already blessed the earth with the sign of the cross; the offended Devil leaves; God does not know how to stop the earth from growing; he sends a bee, which sits on the Devil’s shoulder and overhears him saying to himself: all I have to do is make the sign of the cross in all four directions, and tell the earth to stop growing; God does so, telling the bee’s excrement (i.e. honey) to be the sweetest of all]: 257–259 in Johns 2005: 264; Ivanov 1970: 333f in Johns 2005 (NW Bulgaria, Vidin) [The Devil dives, brings up earth from the bottom under his fingernails, and God creates dry land out of it; the Devil, trying to drown the sleeping God, pulls him in all directions, but the earth grows from this, becoming larger than the sky; the animals are summoned to council; the Hedgehog advises to lift the earth up in some places, to compact it in others; valleys and mountains are formed, the earth becomes the size of the sky]: 264; Nady 1989 [(Strausz 1892; 1899); God invites Satan to go down to the bottom to get the earth; before this S. must say, With God and with my help; S. puts his name in front twice, cannot reach the earth; the third time he speaks correctly, brings some earth under his fingernail, God creates dry land out of it; pretends to fall asleep; S. drags him into the water, but the earth grows from this; so in all directions; further about the creation of man]: 117; Kovachev 1914 [1) there is water everywhere; God and the devil were walking in the sky, got tired; the devil suggested to God that he dive, bring solid ground from the bottom, so that they could rest; the devil brought out a piece of earth, it began to increase; the earth that was under the devil's claws, God began to knead with his fingers and it began to grow imperceptibly; so God arranged a place for rest and they sat down; the devil wanted to drown God in order to become the ruler of the world; he began to pull the earth on which God was sitting, the earth became very large, the sky could no longer cover it; then God called all the animals to a council; on the advice of a hedgehog, he took and pulled a little earth to another place, and valleys and mountains were formed; 2) God and the devil were discussing how to make the earth; God told the devil to bring sea foam; God dipped the foam in water, molded a lump, threw it, and it became earth; at first it was the size of a round baking tray, then the size of a threshing floor; God planted a nut in the middle, tied a cradle to it, it began to swing, and fell asleep; the devil decided to throw God into the water and drown him; he went to look for the edge of the earth, but did not find it; God woke up and asked him what he was doing; the devil replied that he was looking for the end of the world; God said that he would never find it]: 49 (translated by K. Ragochev); Petkanov 1982, No. 1 [there was no sky, no earth, only the Sea of ​​​​Tiberias; God was walking on air, saw a duck swimming; this duck was Sataniel, wrapped in sea foam; And the Lord said to Sataniel: “Who are you?” – “I am a god.” – “And what will you call me?” – “You are the God of all gods and the Lord of all rulers”; if S. had not said this to the Lord, he would have removed him from the Sea of ​​Tiberias; the Lord said: “Sataniel, dive into the sea and bring me earth and flint”; S. did this; God took the earth and sand, scattered them over the sea, said: “Let there be land on the sea, thick and wide”; South Slavic apocrypha(~Bogomil Bulgarians) [Before the earth was the Lord of hosts in three cells (komarekh) in the air; he cast off from his heart and gave birth to his beloved son Jesus Christ and from his lips emitted the Spirit in the form of a dove; and said that the sky should be crystal on seventy thousand myriads of iron pillars and there should be lakes and clouds and stars and light and wind; he planted paradise in the east; frost from the face of the Lord, thunder from his voice in a fiery chariot, lightning - a word from his mouth; the sun - from his lower robe, since he ... it to his face; and the Lord said: let there be darkness of pillars in the air. He said, let there be the Sea of ​​​​Tiberias, salt water; and the Lord descended on the Sea of ​​​​Tiberias and saw a gogol floating on it and asked who he was; he says that he is Satan; The Lord told Satan to go down into the sea, get some earth and a stone, the Lord broke it in two, gave half of it to Satan with his left hand, struck the stone with his staff, and the archangels Michael and Gabriel emerged from the sparks and soared upward; Satan created from the stone the countless demonic power of gods; and the Lord said, let there be thirty-three whales on the Sea of ​​Tiberias and land on those whales]: Badalanova Geller 2011: 24; Macedonians : Lafazanovsky 2003: 31 in Rakhno 2016 [in the beginning there was water everywhere; God was above in the sky, and the devil below on the water; the devil saw God, called him his brother, offered to go down; God had nowhere to go down, he asked if there was some land; the devil: there was, but it was deep; God asked the devil to get some land; the devil: how much? God: how much can you get; the devil dived, grabbed sand with both hands, and by the time he came up, only a little bit remained under his fingernails; God created the earth from this sand; but it was not big enough, so he asked the devil to dive again; after the third time, God made the earth as it is now]: 250-251; Tsenev 2004: 12 [at first there was only water, with fish swimming in it; one side of the fish was burnt by the heat of the Sun, separated, sank down, and split in two; from what remained above the Moon arose, and from what sank completely down the earth arose], 20 [at first there was only water; God threw stones and earth into it; where the stones fell, mountains were formed, where there was earth, plains]; Slovenes : Krek 1887: 783 in Johns 2005 [God is sleeping; waking up, he dives into the primordial ocean, brings a grain of sand from the bottom under his fingernail, it falls onto the water, the earth grows]: 264; Trdina 1858: 60–61 in Kropej 2012 [there were only God, the sun and the sea; the sun was scorching, God dived into the sea, a grain of sand got stuck under his fingernail; when God emerged, the grain of sand fell out, remained on the stone, this grain of sand from the bottom of the sea is our world]: 16; Romanians: Beza 1928: 121 [God tells the Devil to dive to the bottom of the sea, to bring earth; the Devil took some clay, but not in the name of God, but in the name of the Devil, the clay was washed out of his hands; the next time he took some in the name of both God and the Devil, brought it; God created dry land out of it, fell asleep; the Devil tried to drown God and pull the earth out from under him, but the earth only grew], 122-123 [Romanians consider it a sin to kill a frog or a turtle; when there was only water, God told the turtle to dive, to bring earth from the bottom; the turtle brought earth in its mouth, God told the waters to recede]; Johns 2005 [God and the Skaraótzki are swimming in boats; God invites S. to bring earth from the bottom for fun; creates dry land out of what he brought; S. pulls God in different directions, trying to drown him, but the earth grows]: 268; Müller 1857, no. 208 (Transylvania) [(retold in Johns 2005: 268); God sends the archangel Gabriel to bring sand from under the waters; finds a few grains of sand under his fingernails, places them on the waters, creating dry land; a hedgehog in the bushes tells God to check if the layer of earth is thick enough; God checks; this is how the earth was created]: 162; Murgoci, Murgoci 1929 [at first there is only water, God and the Devil walk on it; after seven years God sends the Devil to dive to get seeds to make earth; the Devil takes the earth in his own name, washes it out of his hands; when he takes it in the name of God, he brings earth under his fingernails; therefore man belongs to God, and the black under the nails belongs to the Devil, when preparing the dead for burial, the dirt from under the nails must be removed; God took three grains of sand from what the Devil brought, and created a flat earth from them; the Devil tried to drown the sleeping God, but by dragging his body, he only stretched the earth in different directions; it became wider than the sky; God sent a Bee to eavesdrop on the Devil; he says to himself that the earth must be compressed, creating valleys and mountains; seeing the Bee flying away, the Devil hit her with a whip, almost tearing her in two; she was left with black bruises]: 135-137; Bukovina ( Romanians or Ukrainians; there is no information about the language of the informant and the circumstances of the recording) [first water and sky; God found a piece of foam on which the devil was standing, asked who he was; devil: I will not tell you until you take me into business (in dein fahrzeug); God promised, then said that he was the devil; offered to create dry land; God: dive to the bottom for sand, I will make dry land out of it; but take it "in the name of God"; the devil dived, took sand in both hands and said "in my name"; when he emerged, his hands were empty; dived again: "I take it in his name"; brought back a few grains of sand under his fingernails; God threw them onto the water and dry land appeared, large enough to lie on; God lay down and fell asleep, and the devil began to pull him to the east to push him into the water, but the dry land grew; then he pulled him to the west, in other directions; the dry land grew; God ascended to heaven, the devil wanted to follow him, heard the sweet singing in honor of God and asked how he could create as many followers; God: wash your face and hands and sprinkle water behind you; so many devils arose that there was no room in heaven for angels; God ordered St. Elijah to drive them out with a thunderstorm; the thunderstorm lasted 40 days, the devils were washed from heaven to earth; when even the angels began to be washed away, God ordered St. Elijah to stop; but the sparks flying from heaven to earth are still visible]: Waldburg 1853: 178-179; Ukrainians (Galicia, Kosiv district council, 1902) [everywhere only sea; noise in the sea, Herod arose from the noise; dew fell from heaven, from it – God; he knows the thoughts of Herod and men, and Herod knows the thoughts of men only when they speak; Herod offers to create dry land; God tells him to dive and get earth from the bottom in the name of God; he dives twice, but says that it is in his name; while he is rising, the earth slips through his fingers, washed away by water; the third time he says that it is in the name of God, but also his, Herod's; God fell asleep, Herod drags him to the edge of the land to drown; but the land expands as he does so; God created Adam from clay; Herod spat on him; God turned him inside out; since then, disease and weakness have been inside man; God created Eve from Adam's rib; he ordered them not to commit fornication; they sinned and God drove them out; Adam made a hut without windows, began to carry light in handfuls; God cut through the windows; Satan (aka Herod) rebelled, and God ordered the Archangel Michael to throw him and his servants out of heaven; they fell on rocks, forests, water, were broken, many ended up on the ground; God commanded Elijah to strike Satan's army with lightning; then he deprived him of the strength in one arm and leg; therefore, during a thunderstorm, Elijah fires at half strength; at the end of time, he will strike with all his strength and the earth will crumble; Satan descended into hell, sits there chained to a chair; and Elijah, as soon as he sees the devil, strikes him with lightning]: Gnatyuk 1902 (2), No. 382: 217-220; Hungarians[(Bosnyák 1969: 462–464); 1) (a settler of Chángó, Moldova); God sends the Devil to get earth from the bottom; while he is emerging, the water washes the earth from under his fingernails; the third time there is a little left, God creates dry land from it; D. tries to push God into the water; as this happens, the earth grows; then about the creation of man; 2) (Sekler, Bukovina); an angel, whom God later names Adam, brings sand from the bottom of the sea]: Nadi 1989: 117; Zsigmond 2003 [after Bosnyák; 5 records in Moldova and Bukovina, 3 in western Transylvania (Marosszéh); =var. 1 in Nadi; ditto among Romanians and Bulgarians ]: 423; Gagauz [God sent Shaitan to the bottom to get earth, ordered him to read, In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit ; Sh. did not read, returned with nothing; the third time he said, In the name of the Father , brought earth under his nails; God put it on his chest, fell asleep; Sh. grabbed the earth, ran; wherever he ran, earth appeared]: Moshkov 1901: 4.

Central Europe. Poles : Krzyżanowski 1963, no. 2450.1 (central Poland on the Vistula) [the devil sent a duck to dive; it brought earth from the seabed in its crop, but dropped it when it saw a hawk pursuing it], 2450.2 (Łódź Voivodeship) [the devil tries to drown God, who is sleeping on a small island; he drags him to the edge, but the earth expands and turns into a continent]: 173: 173; Russian written tradition (manuscript of the Solovetsky Library; from Paleja, late 16th or early 17th century) [God walked on water, saw a goldeneye; began to question it, it answered that he was the God of gods, from above, and she from below; God ordered her to give from below; the bird dived, brought foam to God like mud, God made earth out of it; he named the bird Sothonael, made him the chief of the heavenly powers; he decides to set up a throne for himself above the stars; God transferred power over the heavenly powers to Michael; M. first abandoned S., but God removed S.'s divinity, M. overthrew him from heaven; he fell, sank into the ground, and part of his powers with him; others fell to the ground, became demons; others remained in the air, pretending to be angels]: Porfiryev 1877: 87-89; Russians (apocrypha) [there was only the boundless Sea of ​​​​Tiberias, in which Sataniel in the form of Gogol and God swim; they conduct a dialogue; - Who are you? - God. - And who am I? - The God of gods. Where are you from? - Ego ex infimis. - And where am I from? - De superis. - Da mihi ex infimis; the bird dives, brings earth…]: Dragomanov in Köngäs 1960: 160; Kuznetsova 1998 [in detail about all versions with appended texts; the legend about the Sea of ​​Tiberias belongs to the circle of northern (i.e. Great Russian) versions]: 29-48; Russian (Arkhangelsk, Olonetsk, Vologda, Novgorod, Pskov, Yaroslavl, Vladimir, Kostroma, Kaluga, Ryazan, Smolensk, Vyatka, Kazan, Oryol, Tambov, Penza, Saratov) [the plot about diving for earth and the creation of land from a small amount of earth brought from the bottom of the ocean]: Kuzmina 1998: 56-67; Russian (Karelian Pomorie) [two ducks were swimming on the water: God and Sataniel; God sent S. to dive to the bottom to get some earth, to say, Lord bless! S. was silent twice, the water washed the earth out of his hands; the third time he said, "So be it!", a little earth remained; God threw earth from S.'s right hand onto the water, the Russian land arose; from the left - the infidel land; gave S. a hammer, told him to hit the stone, saying, "Lord bless!"; hammered thousands of angels; and then began to hammer silently, demons arose; God created heaven, S. - the second; etc.; God - the sixth, S. - the seventh and last; God threw S. and his demons down, they fell for 40 days and nights; some into the sea - sea kings, into rivers - water kings, into lakes - lake kings, into swamps - swamp kings, into forests - wood goblins, onto houses - house spirits, onto courtyards - courtyard spirits, into bathhouses - bathhouse spirits; S. fell into hell and became Satan; the remaining spirits went to confuse people, became devils]: Durov 1924: 53-54; Russian(Olonetskaya) [On the ancient ocean-sea there swam two goldeneyes: one a white goldeneye, and the other a black goldeneye. And with these two goldeneyes swam the Lord Almighty and Satan. By God's command, by the Mother of God's blessing, Satan rose from the bottom of the sea a handful of earth. From that handful the Lord created level places and clear fields, and Satan made impassable chasms, gorges and high mountains. And the Lord struck the stone with a hammer - and created the heavenly forces, Satan struck the stone with a hammer - and created his army. And a great war began between the armies: at first the army of Satan prevailed, but in the end the heavenly forces prevailed. And Archangel Michael cast down the satanic army from heaven, and it fell to the earth in different places: those who fell in the forests became forest spirits, those who fell in the water became water spirits, those who fell in the house became house spirits; others fell into bathhouses and became bathhouse spirits, others in courtyards became courtyard spirits, and others in barns became barn spirits]: Rybnikov 1864: 191-192 (= Krinitskaya 2014: 150); Russians (Vologda) [there were two brothers – a dove and a gogol; they get the earth from the depths of the waters; they create a man from sand, a woman from bone]: Belova 2004, No. 70: 47; Russians (Gorky region, Makaryevo, western author 1965) [Satan answers God that the earth is at the bottom of the sea; dives in the form of a waterfowl, takes earth in his mouth, loses it on the way; brings it the third time; God scattered it across the sea, islands and continents arose; S. hid some of the earth in his cheek, it began to swell; he threw it behind his back, the northern cold lands arose from it]: Morokhin 1998, No. 455: 425; Russians (Saratov Volga region) [God created the sky and waters, rides on a stone on the water, spat, Titan appeared from the abyss; he says that his name is Titaniel, but you can call him simply: Gogol; ready to listen to the command; God commands him to fly to the sky, bring earth; he brought it, but hid a pinch behind his cheek; God scattered the earth across the water, dry land became; to hold it, he created three whales, a stone slab on them, and earth on it; God sees Gogol's swollen cheek, orders him to spit out the earth, and the earth with valleys and mountains arose; out of envy, Gogol dug in his heels, squeezed God's earth, and it also wrinkled; Gogol claims that it is more beautiful this way; a peasant will remember the Lord when he rides uphill, and the jester when he rides downhill; God orders him to bring seeds from paradise, he gave them to God from his right hand, and kept them for himself from his left; useful plants grew from what God sown, and useless, prickly, poisonous ones grew from what Gogol sown]: Zavaritsky 1916, No. 1: 67-69; Russians (Olonets, Vologda, Novgorod, Vladimir, Kostroma, Ryazan, Smolensk, Nizhny Novgorod, Tula, Vyatka, Tambov, Oryol, Penza, Saratov, Kazan) [various local versions of the myth of the creation of the world and man with the participation of God and Satan]: Kuzmina 1998: 68-109; Ukrainians[the southern (Ukrainian) version of the dualistic world-creation: Satan in a non-ornithomorphic form dives for the material for creation, uttering the words, It is not I who take, but God who takes ; God puts S. to sleep, at which time He creates the earth on the waters; the earth increases in size as a result of S.’s attempt to drown the sleeping God – he pushes or carries God from shore to shore, but the edge of the earth “runs away” further and further; God sends an angel to take a valuable object from S.; the messenger encourages S. to dive to the bottom of the sea, at which time he carries away the object (thunder, lightning, heavenly power, vestments, a golden crown, a chariot, a board with a written agreement with S.); the northern (Russian) version does not contain the characteristics of the southern version]: Kuznetsova 1998: 69-70; Ukrainians (Galicia) [seven lists of carols from the early 1840s; Two doves fly down to two oak trees in the middle of the waters; they bring sand from the bottom, from which they create the earth with everything on it, and a blue stone, from which they create the sky and the luminaries; variations: a golden stone, three doves, one (green sycamore), three trees (there is a tree in all versions), two angels bring black earth, make the sun, moon and stars out of it; Paul, Peter and God are on the trees, the first dive unsuccessfully, God dives, brings sand; two brothers (not named), one dives]: Kuznetsova 1998: 110-117; Ukrainians (Hutsuls) [in the beginning there was water everywhere; God walked on the water, Alei (Ilya) slept on the clouds; one place on the waters was covered with foam, God turned it into Aridnyk (Satan); he told him to dive, he brought clay from the bottom under his fingernail, God made the earth out of it; God lay down to rest; A. tried to push him into the water, but as he pulled him to the edge, the land became larger and larger; when God woke up, he threw A. into the water, which became covered with ice; A. broke the ice with his head, and climbed out onto dry land again; after that, God began to call him an enemy, not a friend; Aley woke up, saw the earth, and in fear pushed it, valleys and mountains were formed; to prevent this from happening again, God chained his hand to a rock; with one hand he can only shake the clouds (thunder); only A. had the ability to create, and only God could revive creatures; therefore, all creatures belonged to A., God had to steal them from him; their struggle ended with God throwing A. into prison; while they were fighting, a piece of God's skin was torn from his hand and fell to the ground; from this Adam arose; one day A. broke free from his chain, found A., spat on him, and he became unclean; then God turned A. inside out, the uncleanness remained inside; when A. was sleeping, God placed a willow branch next to him, from which Eve emerged; she ate the fruit of the forbidden tree, became the cause of people's sinfulness; people multiplied; those who sinned became devils - A.'s assistants; the first people were small and long-bearded ("lectoborods"); after them, giants populated the earth; they were evil, God destroyed them with a flood; only Noah and his family were saved; var.: a horn stuck out of the water, two grabbed it and did not drown; since then people have become smaller and smaller, they will again become dwarfs]: Koenig 1936: 369-371; Ukrainians(Podolia, Vinnitsa district) [there was only a bottomless sea; God invited Sataniel to create the world; he commands him to get sand from the bottom in the name of the Lord; S. did not say "in the name of the Lord", the sand was washed away by water; the third time S. said and brought sand; God scattered it, blessed the earth and it grew; S. licked some of the sand from his hand and held it in his mouth; there it also began to grow, S. spat it out, mountains and waste lands appeared; they would still be growing if Peter and Paul had not cursed them; God went to bed, and S. dragged him to the edge of the earth to drown him; but as he dragged him, the earth grew and rested against the edge of the sky]: Dragomanov 1876, No. 1: 89-91; Ukrainians (Podolia) [at first there was only water, and demons in it; God commanded one to get some from the bottom of the earth; he got it out on the third try, but left a little for himself; God blessed it, scattered it, the earth grew; the devil scattered his too, mountains and waste land appeared; the devils tried to climb up the mountains to the sky, God began to strike the rocks with thunder; the devils will sit under the fallen mountains until the earth becomes level again]: Levchenko 1928, No. 1: 1; Ukrainians (Kozeletsky district, Chernigov province) [there was neither land nor sky, there was water everywhere; God was flying over the water; he saw a firebrand without arms and legs; it was Sataniel; God said to him: "Dive into the water and get earth in my name"; S. dived, said: "Get hold of it, earth, in my name"; the earth did not give; S. dived a second time, the situation repeated itself; the third time S. said: "Take hold of the earth, in the name of God"; the earth was given, S. gave it to God; God said that now they would sow; where the earth fell in a mound - there appeared a mountain; where it was flat - flat fields; where the earth sank and did not cover the water - a lake; when they sowed, God crossed the earth and flew to heaven; that is how the earth appeared]: Chubinsky 1878, No. 96: 359-360; Ukrainians(Kherson, Elizavetinsky district) [the devil and God were friends; the devil owned thunder, and God owned the sky; in order to take possession of thunder, God began to walk the earth; the devil had no land of his own, only water, he asks to be taught how to get earth; God tells him to dive, take some earth from the bottom, squeeze it in his hand and scatter whatever remains at least under his nails over the water; the devil left his thunder on the shore on the stones and dived; God to the Archangel Gabriel: quickly grab the thunder, it is on our land, and what is placed on our land is ours; G. hid behind a stone; the devil dived, but surfaced and looks: did anyone take the thunder - did not take it; the same a second time; the devil decided that God had forgotten about the thunder and dived to the bottom; G. grabbed the thunder; seeing that the devil was rising to the surface, God froze the sea; The devil broke through the ice with his head only on the third try; chased after G., already grabbed him by the leg and tore out a piece of flesh - now people have a notch on their feet; God: yes, you hit him with thunder; G. broke the devil's wings with thunder, now devils fly poorly; G. gave the thunder to God; then God came down, the devil had already created the earth; God wet his finger, splashed water behind him, a man appeared; the devil tried too, but his man does not speak or walk, but is covered with hard skin; then he spat on him; God: you turn him inside out; the devil turned him inside out, the drool and snot remained inside, and that skin is only on the tips of the fingers, these are nails; God returned to heaven, and the devil made people; he is envious that he has a lot of people, but they are all on earth, and God has few, but in heaven; the devil decided to take possession of heaven himself, and overthrow God from there; God to the archangel who holds the sky in his hands: shake it; the devils fell, where someone fell, there he remained; now you can’t build a hut everywhere; if you build it in the devil’s place, you’ll work all your life; then God came to the devil again, he was building something, one hut was very big – hell; the devil then had a receipt: after death all people are his; Christ tore up this receipt when he went to hell; God to the devil: show me how to sit in that hell; the devil climbed in, closed the doors; God: In the name of the Father and the Son and the Holy Spirit! the exits were completely closed; but one hand of the devil remained free; he asks the other devils to rescue him, otherwise he will perish; the eldest one approached, and the one sitting in hell threw him against the rock; therefore now the eldest devil is crooked, and the first one still sits, cannot get out; this is where the friendship between God and the devil ended]: Yastrebov 1894, no. 1: 119-121; Ukrainians (Poltava, Kharkov) [story about diving for earth and creating land from a small amount of earth brought from the ocean floor]: Kuzmina 1998: 64, 72; Belarusians (Smolensk) [there is sea everywhere; the Devil is imprisoned in the body of a swan; God promises to free him if he gets earth from the bottom; orders to say, " Lord bless "; the Devil-swan dives, takes sand in his mouth, but does not say what he was told, the sand is washed away; the third time he speaks, brings sand, hides some in his mouth; the earth grows, including in the Devil's mouth, he spits it out, creating swamps]: Dobrovolsky 1891, no. 8: 229-300;Belarusians : Grynblat, Gursky 1983, #4 [The devil saw God sowing earth, hid some in his mouth; God asked what he was eating, the devil swallowed the earth, it began to grow; he began to burp, swamps formed in these places, where devils live], 5 [in the beginning there was water everywhere; God was sailing in a boat, the devil was watching what he was going to do; God sowed the earth, dry land appeared from the forest and everything; the devil swallowed the earth, it began to grow, he burped it up, swamps appeared, places overgrown with willow; a man began to tear bast, the devil asked what he was doing; the man tied him to an oak tree; the devil jerked, dragged the oak tree behind him, leaving a trace on the swamps], 6 [God was in the air, saw a bubble, the one in it answered that he was a god, and whoever asked was a god above the gods; God offered to get some earth; the one in the bubble brought it in his hands, but hid what he had taken in his mouth; God sowed the earth, it began to grow; the same thing happened in the devil's mouth; he burped it up, and swamps and mountains appeared there], 8 [at first there was only water, God was swimming, he saw a bubble, and the devil jumped out of it; God told him to get the earth out of the water; the devil brought it in his lap, God sowed it; the devil hid part of the earth in his cheek, the earth began to grow, he burped it up, and swamps appeared]: 37-38, 38-39, 40, 41; Dragomanov in Köngäs 1960 [in all Belarusian and Ukrainian versions the participants are purely anthropomorphic; in the Great Russian versions Satanail turns into a bird]: 163.

Caucasus - Asia Minor. Kalmyks [the Khan of Tengri and the Khan of Asura looked down - only water; Burkhan Bagshi turned one of his khubilgans into a turtle and lowered it into the water; shot at it - the turtle fell over on its back; the earth was created on its stomach; the Khan of Asura and the Khan of Tengri descended onto it - darkness all around; they began to filter the waters of the ocean - the moon appeared on a silver cart with a white horse harnessed to it; then the golden sun harnessed to three palomino horses; then a vessel with the immortal arshan; the Khan of Asura: I will take it for myself; the Khan of Tengri became sad; his manjak stole it, left the vessel with the arza; the confidants of the Khan of Asura, having drunk it, became drunk; the two-headed Arakha drank the arshan, filled it with his urine and disappeared; Vajrapani set out to search; the Sun pointed the way for the mind with its chin; the Moon pointed with its finger; V. caught up with Arakha, cut him in two; he chained one half to the Moon's chariot, the other to the Sun's chariot; Arakha promised to torment the Moon once every three months, and the Sun once every three years; when Arakha was cut in two, the immortal arshan that poured out of him fell on the juniper and pine, and they became evergreen]: Basangova 2017, no. 1: 33-35; Nogays : Aleinikov 1893 [God created fire and water, the water was under the fire, boiling; the foam that resulted from the boiling formed a layer with an uneven surface; the Lord destroyed the fire, and created the earth from the foam; mountains were formed from the swellings of the foam; the earth rests on the fish that remained under the foam; water is on a stone, and a stone is again on water; what happens next is unknown]: 2; Kapaev 2012 (published: T. Akmanbetov. Syntastyn yyluvy (Warmth of the monument), Makhachkala, 2008; recorded by folklorist Takhir Akmanbetov in 1975 from a resident of the village of Sarysu, Chechen-Ingush ASSR, Amanbaev Ozbek Amanbai uly, born in 1913; informant - storyteller, musician, played old melodies on the horn) [in the beginning only the eternal sky - Tangri, he has a companion Umai, Umai has two birds - Ak-Ku ("white swan") and Kara-Bapiy ("black duck"); Ak-Ku laid an egg, it consisted of water; Kara-Bapiy swam in the water, but she was pulled down, she sometimes dived, sometimes swam; one day she felt silt and sand on the bottom; she began to pull them to the surface and built a nest; she continued to pile silt and sand around the nest, from this her nose became red and long; the nest grew and became dry land; Kara-bapiy knew that she was not allowed to do anything; when she created the earth, fearing punishment, she dived into the lower world; she was restless and persistent, because of which she received the name Erke-khan]: 30, 226; Adyghe[a fox makes friends with a pig; steals a chicken; suggests that the older one eat it; the fox says that she was born when there was almost no dry land; she went out with her cubs to the islands so that the children could play in the grass, catch mice, and otherwise everyone ate fish; the pig cries: she swam with her piglets in a continuous salty ocean; only later did patches of land begin to appear; the fox agrees: let the pig eat the chicken; the fox steals the chicken again: let the one who had the best dream eat it; the fox dreamed that she was a queen and that when fried pheasants were brought, the pig went somewhere; she replies that she decided to eat the chicken, because after fried pheasants the fox would hardly want it; after this the fox and the pig became friends]: Kerashev 1957: 294-296; Karachays [in the ocean of ice lived the Dragon and the Fish; the supreme spirit Tagyr-Kachi ( Tegri in the authors of the early 19th century?) descended, slipped on the ice, fell on both hands; the right one melted the ice, became the bird Adji-Kush , the left one – the bird Biji-Kush ; AK defecated on the surface of the Dragon, from the excrement the earth arose, and from the feathers of the wing – rivers; the excrement of BK was eaten by the Fish, which vomited it up on the surface of the sea, from which the Kara-dzheks and Emegens (teratological creatures, about the Kara-dzheks see motive I51) appeared; the K. were expelled under the ice, and the E. continued to rule the earth until two birds came, born from the egg of Tamlynyk (or Tashchy Katyn ; “Stone Woman”, meaning the turtle Tamlun ); one was black, the other red (these are the birds Hummay and Gummay , also known as Ala-Kaz and Kara-Kaz , or Ala-Kaz and Boz-Kaz , see motif C6 ("diver")): Karaketov 1995: 17; Ingush [the sea whipped up foam, from which land was formed over time; mountains give it stability]: Dakhkilgov 2003: 20; (cf. Tankiev 1997 [at first a desert firmament, a bird descended, covered the entire earth with its body, left excrement, from which water and seed were formed; vegetation arose from the seed]: 13); Lezgins [at first there was water everywhere; when land was formed, some of the gods emerged from the sea, others remained on the seabed or in the waves; therefore, it is customary to distinguish between gods living in the sea and those living on land]: Rizvanov, Rizvanov 1990: 37; Terek Cossacks(Article Karabulakskaya) [when the Lord created the sky and the sea, he "began to plant the earth"; he sent the devil into the sea to bring sand; the devil climbed into the sea, took sand in both handfuls, and hid one handful behind his cheekbone, in order to do the same as the Lord; when he climbed out of the sea, he gave the Lord two handfuls; the Lord began to scatter sand in all directions; wherever a single grain of sand fell, land began to grow from it; the sand in the devil's mouth also began to grow; the devil cried out in pain; he told the Lord that he wanted to hide some sand from him, and the Lord began to force his mouth open; the Lord told the devil to run and spit until he spat out all the sand; the devil did so; where he spat, mountains appeared]: Baranov 1899, No. 9: 192-193; Georgians [Zap. B. Nizharadze 1887; at first there was water everywhere; God jumped out of the rock of the universe, jumped into the water; froze, dropped two tears, they turned into the archangels Michael (on the right hand) and Gabriel (on the left hand of God); God began to drown, M. and G. caught him; the three of them began to blow on the water, exposed the bottom, saw a trace on the sand, it led them under a blue stone, Samaal jumped out from under the stone, began to strangle God, let him go for a promise to make him a sworn brother; God with M. and G. cannot separate the water from the land with a wall; S. advised to repeatedly build and destroy a stone wall, then blow into two calling horns, then God must shout; After this cry the water receded and the dry land was revealed]: Chikovani 1985, no. 153: 324-325 (= Virsaladze 1973, no. 188: 257-258); Svans [in the beginning there was water everywhere, a rock in the middle of the water, and God in the middle of the rock; he came out of it, dried up the water, divided the mixture of water and earth around the rock in two, made heaven out of one part, and earth out of the other; a tear from the right eye became Archangel Michael, from the left – Archangel Gabriel; God and the angels were walking, met a young man, asked where the men were? – They went to look for a quarrel (i.e. to fence off the outermost field with wattle fences, there would be a quarrel with a neighbor). – Where are the women? – The tears went to occupy (i.e. to mourn the neighbor); God liked this smart young man, he took him with him, his name is George; angels tried to lead God away from the stone, but he insisted on coming there, hit the stone with a whip, Satan came out, said that he and God were of the same kind, asked to be given a share; God chose people and animals for himself, and Satan – the soul of man; but the angels said that this was only until the appearance of the Son; {further gospel stories}: Margiani 1890a: 244-252.

Iran - Central Asia. Zoroastrianism [the earth was created by Ohrmazd after the sky and water]: Chunakova 2004: 117; gilgit ( shina , burishi ): Yetmar 1986: 223-224 [the world is covered with water, partly frozen; several yats (giants) live under the rule of their ruler yamlo (demon) Gal Singh; they want to place the earth above the water; the wolf Bojare Shal lived in the place Milgamok ("Old Ice"); Happiness was sent to him, the wolf refused to listen to the one who serves anyone; then Trust; the bird Garai Patan, living in the snows of the mountains, was brought in the same way; Bojare Shal ordered a mouse to be brought; he ordered Gal Singh to stand in the water as a support; Garai Patan sat on him, spread his wings; the mouse made a hole in the ice, took out earth, poured it onto the bird's wings; when the wings covered the water, the mouse carried away all the earth that was under water; approximately the same was recorded by Ghulam Muhammad 1907: 107ff; Francke 1923: 8 et al.], 337 [the myth of diving is only in Gilgit; the creation myths of the Dards Da and Khanu (according to Francke) are different]; the Dards (da) [the earth is carried (emportstiegen) out of the world's oceans and thrown onto the waters (besät)]: Francke 1923: 8 in Hermanns 1946-1949: 839.

Baltoscandia. Eastern {only?} Sami : Aikhenvald et al. 1982 [a duck lays five eggs on a blade of grass in the middle of the ocean, which grows into land; from the eggs arise vegetation, fish and birds, a man and a woman; the first couple has a son and a daughter, who go off to look for spouses and, having walked the whole earth, meet again; from them came the human race]: 168; Charnolusky 1965 [a duck flew over the waters, found a blade of grass Syin; sat down, flew around, the blade of grass grew into land; the duck laid four eggs, from the first trees appeared, from the second birds, from the third apparently animals, from the fourth people (the informant did not say this directly); the people multiplied]: 122; Finns : Harva 1938 (? Eastern Finland) [God sends the Devil to the bottom; Ch. in the form of a black-throated loon dives, brings earth; hides part of it in his mouth; by the will of God the earth begins to grow; Ch. spits out earth, ravines and other bad places are formed]: 101 in Napolskikh 1991: 140; Finns or Karelians (eastern Finland): Mansikka 1909: 171 [God was on a golden pillar in the middle of the sea; he ordered his reflection to rise to him; the devil appeared; God asks how the earth can come into being; - One must dive to the bottom three times ; God orders the devil to dive three times, the third time he hides part of the earth in his mouth; God orders the earth to grow, the hidden part also grows; God agrees to take it out of the devil's mouth, throws it to the north, stones and rocks appear there (=Kongas 1960: 161 citing Mustakallio, MS, no. 72)], 171-172 [a goldeneye was swimming in the sea, Satan offered it to get some earth from the bottom; it brings earth in its beak three times, both began to live on it; God appears, says that part of the earth has been hidden, takes what was hidden from Satan's mouth, throws it to the north, stones and mountains appear]; Karelians : Yevseyev 1981 [(Salminen 1908); A loon flies over the sea, Satan sends it to dive for earth; it dives three times, each time a large part of the earth is washed away; still enough for the loon to be able to live on earth; God says that there is not enough earth, S. hid part in his mouth; God ordered to spit it out, he spat to the north, creating rocks, mountains; S. cut his finger, God spoke a word to the wound]: 311-312; Kulikovsky 1891 (Olonets province) [at first only water and wind; God got tired of their noise, shouted for the waves to turn to stone; the waves became mountains, the spray - stones; later the rain changed the shape of the mountains, filled the seas and lakes]: 196; Mansikka 1909 [Satan and the gogol are swimming in the sea; S. sends the gogol to the bottom; he brings earth three times, S. collects it; God appears, creates the earth's firmament; "concealment of the earth"; God does not give the Devil land, he begs for as much space for himself as is needed to stick a stake in it; mosquitoes and other harmful insects and vermin crawl out of this hole]: 171-172 in Napolskikh 1991: 140; Livs: Loorits 1998(1): 81 [God and the Devil were walking together, God threw something like a nut behind his back, the Devil picked it up, put it in his mouth; it began to grow; God slapped the Devil, he spat it out, it grew, became the earth], 81-82 [God told the Devil to bring dust from space (ilmaruumist); the naked Devil hid some of it in his mouth; God told him to scatter the dust throughout the world, the earth grew; the Devil ran away so that God would not notice what he had hidden in his mouth, the particles fell, and that is how the hills appeared]; Estonians [in Estonian runic songs – the motif of ploughing and sowing the sea, on the site of which the earth appears, is also characteristic of the Ingrian and Karelian (Väinämöinen and Joukahainen dispute over who is older) variants]: Kuusi 1982: 155-161; Setu [at first there was water everywhere; God spat into the water and from his spit a devil emerged; called himself his younger brother; asked God for those who eat lying on their backs; God did not give them, because they were infants]: Säärits 2022: 371; Latvians [(2 versions); God sends Satan to dive to the bottom of the sea to get land; he brings sand or mud from under his fingernails; God places him on the water, land grows]: Puschkaitis 1891-1893 (cited in Dänhardt) in Walk 1993: 68-69; Lithuanians [God sends Satan to get sand from the bottom of the sea; creates land from the obtained sand]: Veselovsky (cited in Dänhardt) in Walk 1933: 68-69; Lithuanians [God created an island and lay down on it to rest; The devil dragged God to the water, but the island began to grow in that direction; by God's command the devil/angel dove into the water to get some land, but did not reach the bottom; he brought out the mud only from under his fingernails; God took the mud from under his fingernails and created the island]: Karbelite 2001: 44.

Volga - Perm. Komi-Zyryans [zap. P.G. Doronin in 1927, knew since childhood); at first there was no land, no sky, just a swamp; two frogs climbed out onto a hummock, a blind one and a sighted one; the sighted one was En , the blind one was the cunning Omel ; having fallen from the hummock, they turned into people; the sighted one broke two teeth, they turned into horns, from a drop of blood all living beings arose, from a drop of blood all living beings arose; and the sighted one; having fallen into the hummocks they turned into people; the sighted one broke two teeth, they became a woman among them; she became O.'s wife, they came together in E., O. beat him; E. tamed pigeons, created the sky, a hole in the center, and released pigeons through it; O. had a crow, the hole was too small for them, O. made another, wider one, the crows flew into the sky, killed the pigeons, only one was saved; returned to E. with mud; O. sent a raven, it took the mud away, E. grabbed the raven by the throat, squeezed, the mud fell down, formed dry land; the water poured out of the beak - the sea; while E. was gone, O. plugged the hole in the sky with the hut in which E. lived; a flame blazed up around the hole; O.'s wife said that it was from her silk mitten, gave a piece of her dress to make another mitten, E. tore off the flame; O. sucked the flame; O. from her silk mitten, gave a piece of her dress to make another mitten, E. fell to the ground with his crows and animals; O.'s wife remained in the sky with E., bore him a daughter Yoma and a son Voipel; O. persuaded her to open the hole in the sky, burst in, threw E. and V. to the ground (they are the ancestors of people), found a mitten, grabbed half of the sun, but ran into a branch, got stuck in a tree; E. cursed him, O. threw away what he had grabbed, this half became a month, O.'s fingerprints remained on it; the branch broke, O. fell, the branch became his tail; E. went down to visit his son, he was making pots; O.'s demons flew in, bragged that they could cloud the sun, or fit into four pots; E. closed the pots, but one broke, E. chased the little demons; the one who fell into the water became a water spirit, into the forest - a wood goblin, his fingers became the devil's fingers; in the ground in a pot O. tries to break free; one day he will come out, he will fight with E.]: Doronin 2004: 392-396 (another translation into Russian is in Novikov 1936: 40); Komi-Zyryans : Sidorov 1924 in Limerov 2016 [En was swimming in a boat, spat on the water, looked back – there was a man like him swimming behind him; they went together; his companion asked him to turn him into a loon in order to get some earth; he snatched a quarter of the earth (from the bottom) and began to rise, but the surface of the sea turned out to be frozen; breaking the ice, the loon shook all the earth out of its mouth; the same a second and a third time; finally the loon spat out three grains of sand, from which En created the earth and the useful creatures living on it, and gave his comrade only a hole from driving in a stake, from which he brought out all the creatures harmful to people]: 15; Plesovsky 1972 (record of 1923 in the village of Prondor, list by P.G. Doronin) [a duck swims, does not know where to lay eggs; four eggs are swallowed by the abyss, the last two are kept under the wing, ducklings hatched from themEn and Omol ; the mother asked them to get the lost eggs from the bottom, break them on her body, she herself flew up, killed herself on the water; E. dived, O. shouted, the water became covered with ice, O. broke the ice with thunder and lightning; E. hit the egg he brought on his mother's body, the body grew, turned into dry land, the sun appeared from the broken egg; brought a second egg, helpers-angels came out of it; O. brought two eggs covered in mud; he threw one up, the moon appeared; from the second he made helpers - evil spirits; E. made useful birds and animals, O. - reptiles; E. molded a man Adam , blew on him, revived him; O. molded a woman, could not revive him, E. revived her; the wife gave birth to 12 daughters, she killed them herself at the instigation of O.; E. cursed her, she turned into death, her daughters into illness; From A. E.'s rib he created Eve ; O. seduced her, therefore the offspring is bad; E. made the first heaven, O. the second above, E. the third, etc., seven in all; E. destroyed the lower six with thunder and lightning, and then O. and his assistants into forests, swamps, and rivers; E. asked the chief of the demons, Antus , if he and his army could climb into three pots; he cast the pots into hell, one broke, and some of the demons remained on earth]: 39-41 (=Sidorov 1924, no. 1-2: 24; =Limerov 2005, no. 2: 17-20); Sidorov 1924 [ En (god) spat in the form of a swan, and from the spit Omol (devil) appeared in the form of a loon, who dives and brings land; En creates dry land; There are seven tiers in the sky, the odd ones were created by E., the even ones by O.; each sky is one of the colors of the rainbow (the same on Vym, noted by G.A. Startsev); O. asks to give him as much earth as he needs to drive in a stake; insects and reptiles come out of the hole] in Plesovsky 1972: 42; Komi-Permyaks : Gribov 1975: 30 in Napolskikh 1991 [ Yen in the form of a duck; Kul ( devil) in the form of a loon; Yen-duck commands, Kul -loon brings earth from the bottom; Yen creates dry land]: 141-142; Klimov 1990 in Kononov 1999, No. 1 [the bird flew over the water, the droppings fell, the earth arose from it; the bear scratched the earth, swamps and mountains were formed], 2 [there was water, the wind brought dust, garbage, the earth was formed, a forest grew], 3 [a bird tore off a feather, threw it on a cloud, it hardened, it became the earth], 4 [ En thundered, a piece fell off the cloud; En poured rain on it, the earth was formed], 5 [ En rode on a horse, it dropped a round piece, the earth was formed]: 432; Udmurts: Kralina 1960, No. 1 (recorded by V.P. Petrov in Grakhov district, village of Vuzh Egra) [water everywhere; Inmar ordered the shaitan to dive, to get earth; he got two handfuls, hid part in his mouth; I. blew the earth onto the water, dry land appeared and grew; the earth in the shaitan's mouth also grew, his mouth burst, mountains, swamps, hummocks appeared; the first people were giants; one put a man in his pocket, brought him to his mother; she said that these people would be smart; and the giants sat by the fire and did not know how to move away, they began to smear their feet with clay; when there were many people on earth, I. left them for the next world]: 39-40; Munkácsi 1887 [water everywhere, Inmar was swimming in a boat, called upon the shaitan, ordered him to dive, to get from the bottom everything he could find; On the way, Cancer tells Sh. that he has been living in the water for 12 years, but has not seen the bottom; Sh. reached the bottom, brought sand in his mouth, despite I.'s prohibition, he hid a little; the earth began to grow; seeing Sh.'s swollen cheeks, I. ordered him to spit out what he had hidden, mountains and ravines were formed]: 49 in Vladykin 1994: 319-320, in Kralina 1960: 288-289, in Perevozchikova 1988: 15; Yakovlev 1914, no. 1 [water everywhere, God is swimming in a stone boat, the Devil is swimming behind him; God orders the Devil to get earth from the bottom; he brings earth in his hands; God orders him to bring more; the Devil brings it twice, hid part in his mouth; God ordered the earth to grow, to cover the water; The devil had to spit out the earth, the clods became mountains]: 387-388; Mari : Anonymous 1858 [Keremet was Yuma's younger brother; Yu. wanted to create dry land, ordered K., who was floating on the waters in the form of a drake, to get earth from under the water; K., although he carried out the order, gave only part of the earth to Yu., and kept the rest in his mouth; when Yu. blew on the brought earth and ordered it to cover the waters, K. spat out the retained earth; where he spat, mountains appeared]: 210; Vasiliev 1907 [ Keremet in the form of a drake swam on the water; Yumaordered him to get earth from the bottom; he brought it, hid some in his mouth; Yu. blew on the earth, spread it over the water, creating flat land; K. began to spit out what he had hidden, creating mountains]: 50; Vereshchagin 1996 [(according to V. Bekhterev 1880); Keremet was swimming in the form of a drake, Yumo ordered him to get earth from the bottom; K. brought earth, but hid some in his mouth; Yu. covered the waters with earth, and K. spat out what he had hidden, creating mountains and bare rocks; Yu. struck the stone with a hammer, the sparks turned into angels (shukchis); the sparks from K.'s blows turned into evil spirits; Yu. left the black dog to guard the man's body, went away for the soul; K. sent cold, bribed the dog with warm wool, spat on the man's body, making it sinful]: 134; Kaliyev 2003 [A duck flew from its nesting place, “Ludo pyzhash” (lit. “duck nest” – Pleiades), to the bosom of the primary ocean. Having laid two eggs, it incubated them under its wings. From these eggs two drake brothers were born – Yumo and Yin. Then they dived under the water in turn and took earth from the bottom of the ocean. From the earth that Yumo took out, a flat surface was formed. Yin choked and spat out saliva along with the earth. Thus mountains, lakes and swamps appeared on the earth]: 17-18 (cited in Yuzieva 2016: 106; the same text is cited by Limerov 2016: 22 with reference to Kaliyev 2004: 108); Erzya [ Chama-paz (the supreme deity) sees Shaitan swimming in the form of a duck; commands, Shaitan-duck dives, brings earth; Ch. creates the earth's firmament; "concealment of the earth"]: Melnikov 1981: 53 in Napolskikh 1991: 140-141; Moksha : Oral poetic creativity of the Mordvin people 1983 [God in the form of a duck dives and brings earth from the bottom, spits it out - dry land grows; the Devil, having spied, repeats the actions of the god, creates mountains]: 188 in Napolskikh 1991: 141; Veselovsky 1889 [ Vardya-shkai (the supreme deity) swims in a boat, meets Shaitan in the form of Gogol; V. commands, Shaitan-gogol dives twice unsuccessfully, the third time brings land in the name of God; "concealing the land"]: 12-13 in Napolskikh 1991: 141; Mordvins (Buguruslansky u., s. Vechkamovo) [Chama-paz was floating on a stone in the sea; he spat out of annoyance that he had no comrade; the spit turned into a mound, Ch. broke it with a rod, Shaitan came out of there, offered to be a brother; Ch. sent him to get sand from the bottom; he dives twice, but takes the sand not in the name of Ch., but for himself, the sand leaves his hands; the third time he pronounced the name of Ch., emerged, gave the sand, hid some in his mouth; Ch. threw the sand into the water, the earth began to grow; the sand in Sh.'s mouth also began to grow, he spat it out, mounds and mountains appeared; Ch. told Shaitan that he was evil and could not be his brother, sent him to the bottom of the sea in the underworld]: Melnikov 1981: 45-46; Mordvins[Shaitan tried to spoil every creation of Chama-paz (=Shkay), and he turned each spoilage into good; Sh. created clouds - Ch. filled them with rain; Sh. created waves on the rivers, and Ch. - boats; Sh. in the form of a duck swam on the sea; Ch. told him to dive and bring from the bottom of the earth; Sh. hid part of it in his mouth; spat out the earth, creating inconveniences - Ch. filled the mountains with metals and gems, let water for mills through ravines; Sh. felled Ch.'s trees - created arable lands there; Ch. molded a man from clay and went for the soul, leaving a dog as a guard; Sh. brought frost and gave the dog a warm fur coat; the dog let him pass; Sh. spat on the man, that is why he is sick, breathed his evil breath into him; Ch. returned, turned the man inside out, but the diseases remained inside; Ch. breathed his breath into man, therefore man is both evil and good; Ch. drove out Sh. and put reason into man to distinguish good from evil; Sh. began to create evil spirits and diseases - these are also evil spirits; ]: Melnikov 1981: 53-54; Mordvins [ Cham-paz (the sun god) spits, the spit turns into a stone, he breaks it, it turns into Shaitan; Ch. orders to dive, to get earth from the bottom; Sh. hid part in his mouth, spat it out, mountains appeared; Ch. made a blue sky, Sh. - clouds, Ch. ordered them to bring rain; Ch. made useful animals, Sh. - predators, snakes, spiders, mosquitoes; Ch. made a man under the protection of a dog, Sh. blew cold on it, it was naked, hid in the hay; Sh. spat on the man, giving him diseases, vices; Ch. gave man reason, Sh. sent him to the lower world]: Sedova 1982: 13-15; Chuvash : Egorov 1995 [ Tur ă makes the land smooth, it grows; Shuittanspits out the silt hidden in his mouth, creates mountains, ravines, or causes a storm in the ocean before the earth has had time to harden; to make Sh. spit out the silt, T. hits him, evil spirits emerge from the splashes of blood; T. begs for land, agrees to a patch of ground to lean on with his staff, makes a hole in the ground, falls into the lower world; diseases and reptiles come out of the hole; T. drives them back; Sh. clumsily imitates T.; T. makes apples, a cow, a sheep, Sh. - potatoes, a goat, a pig; predatory and harmful animals, reptiles, fish (throwing pebbles into the water); T. made a man, went for a soul, left a hairless dog to guard; Sh. brought on the cold, promised the dog a fur coat, spat on the man; T. turned a man inside out, ordered a dog to eat bones, and endure beatings]: 117-118; Odyukov 1973 (zap. Yu. Savin, 1952, Institute for Teacher Training, Kanash) [two loons (young and old) got the earth from the bottom of the sea, carried it out in their beaks and placed it on the water; from that time the earth was formed (translated from Chuvash by A.K. Salmin)]: 59; Rekeev 1896 [there was water and sky; God was swimming in a boat, sent angels to dive, they did not get any dirt from the bottom; God reluctantly agreed to the devil's offer to dive; he carried the dirt out in his mouth, spitting it out to God on his palm, God scattered this earth in all directions; particles of earth began to increase; God sees that the devil's upper lip is puffed up, hits him, his lip splits, earth falls out and blood starts to flow; where the blood splashes land, new devils are born]: 1-2; Stanyal 2004, No. 20 [initially the sea has no boundaries; all living things lived in the water; they decided to live on land too; no one knew how to create the earth; a little bird volunteered; having descended to the bottom three times, she brought out earth with her beak; the earth began to grow], 22 [only two doves lived on the water, they flew over the water; one day they dived, picked up earth in their beaks; three whales swam out, asked to put the soil on their backs; since then the earth has been supported by three whales, the earth is surrounded by the element of water], 24 [one day a duck landed on the endless sea, dived, brought sea silt to the surface; from this silt she created the earth]: 29, 29, 30; Tatars : Татар халик ижаты 1987 (oral translation by Bakirov, July 2005) [1) in the most ancient times there was nothing in the world except water, and the whole world was water; people had not yet appeared, only fish and birds were born; and then one day one of the birds, a duck, dived very deep into the water, to the very bottom, and emerged with a lump of silt in its beak; it began to grow; thus the earth was formed]: 232; http://www.alabuga.ru/City/History/TatarMyths/earth.htm [The Almighty, with his power, created a lake and ordered the duck, Dive into this lake and collect the silt that is at the bottom ; then the Almighty again ordered, Spit out what is inside you and scatter it; the duck did so (manuscript of 1843, written by Sharifulla from Kazan, son of Zharmukhammat; found in 1980 in Mamadysh district)]; Napolskikh 1993 [in children's songs, proverbs and riddles of the Kazan Tatars and Chuvash it is mentioned that the earth was brought by a duck]: 29; Bashkirs : Aminev 2005 [written by the author from his mother, the Burzyan clan, in the Bashkir Trans-Urals; at first there is water, a duck descends, gets silt from the bottom, makes a nest of down on it, lays two eggs, and begins to incubate; two drake brothers are born from the eggs, they are cramped, one pushes the other out of this world, the other goes under water, becomes an azhdaha]: 31; Barag 1987, No. 1 [there is water everywhere, two ducks are swimming; in order to lay eggs, they began to get mud from under the water; one holds it under her wing, the other brings more and more pieces; on this mud, the duck made a nest, hatched ducklings, they hatched new ones, the linked nests formed an island; other islands appeared, merged into the land; since then, there have been pebbles and mud in the duck's crop]: 30-31 (reprinted in Napolskikh 1993: 29-30).

Turkestan. Karakalpaks [In ancient times there was no land, instead everything was covered by empty water. The bird Suimyryk (a mythical bird) began to get mud from under the water with its beak (1) to make a nest for itself. All kinds of dust, grass, and seaweed gathered on this mud in the nest, and formed a large land. From this the earth was born. 1) "уйык" in the Karakalpak-Russian dictionary of Baskakov of 1958 (30,000 words) is translated: 1) swamp, marshy place, quagmire; 2) mud; (translated by Islam Saparbayev with clarifications and commentary by Ruslan Doutaliev)]: Aimbetov 2014b: 25; Yellow Uighurs [at first only water and sky; Śākyamuni called the Black Dragon from the sky, put a piece of black silk on his back, and ordered him to bring gold; put white silk on the back of the White Elephant, ordered him white soil; threw soil and gold into the sea, the earth arose; at first it was small; Sh. went to the sky for advice to the god Layangjia; he answered that when four pillars were erected at the four corners of the sky, the God of Fire would create fire, and women would give birth to children, the earth would grow; when Sh. returned, the ocean had already greatly diminished, mountains and rivers had appeared, and people appeared on the earth]: Stuart, Jhang 1996: 13.

Southern Siberia - Mongolia. Siberian Tatars : Urazaleev 2005: 4 (village of Taichi, Tevriz district, Omsk region) [two ducks were swimming, one decided to create the earth from silt (var.: from clay); the second dived, brought silt in its beak; the first began to scatter it on the surface of the water, the earth appeared; the second, having come out on land, began to scatter pebbles, mountains appeared], 4-5 (village of Karagai, Vagai district, Tyumen region) [heavenly horses were swimming, where they touched the bottom with their hooves, silt floated up, the earth was formed from it], 5 (village of Atachka, Tarsky district, Omsk region) [the supreme god Tenri sent his bird Swan (Ak Kosh) to get the earth from the bottom of the sea; When the earth was formed, he settled the spirits-Shaitans (var. Ishey or Yeshey) on it; they did not obey, he drove them out into the forests; then he created the first people from clay; the swan became a sacred bird]; Chulym Turks [water everywhere, a loon swims; God: what do you eat? - Earth. - Where is it? - Under water. - Get it, I will thank you. The loon brought earth three times, it turned out to be a flat cake, God lay down on it; the devil grabbed him by the leg and threw him into the water; God is on dry land, a lot of earth was formed; the devil grabbed the sleeping God by the legs, pulled him into the water, and the earth expands; he dragged until it became dry all around; the devil asked for half the earth; God refused; well, at least stick a stake in it; God allowed, the devil stuck the stake in and took it out, mosquitoes and midges came from there; God plugged the hole; he made a dog; he made a man; he went for the soul, ordered the dog to guard the man; the devil asked to let him through: I will feed him and shower him with black wool; the dog let him through; the devil pierced his navel and spat there; God ordered the dog to serve man; since then people have had diseases]: Lukina 2004, No. 5.1: 97-98; Altaians : Radlov 1989 [ Tengere Kaira Kan and the man hovered over the water like geese; the man flew higher than T., lost the ability to fly, fell; T. rescued him, ordered him to dive, get some earth; the man stuck some of it in his mouth; the earth began to plop, T. ordered him to spit it out, marshy hummocks formed on the earth; T. cursed him, named him Erlik ; E. took possession of T.'s people; created evil spirits, settled them in his heaven; T. smashed him with a spear, the fragments formed mountains; Erlik was driven deep underground by T.]: 357-358; Khokholkov 1997 [water everywhere, Kudai sent fish to look for land, only Pike brought land from the bottom; K. made it lighter than other fish; K. fell asleep, his brother Erlik grabbed a handful of land and ran; the land continued to be created; where E. jumped, a mountain appeared, where he stepped - a hollow, the land became uneven; K. agreed to give E. land the size of the end of his crutch; E. fell into this hole, all the reptiles and insects came out of it]: 21-22; chelkantsy (shalgans on the Lebed River; self-name ku-k i zhi, swan people) [in the beginning there was water; God sent a swan, he dived and got earth from the bottom]: Dyrenkova 1929: 123; Teleuts [(founded by missionary Vas. Postnikov in the village of Myuta, the population of which was formed mainly from Bachat Teleut settlers - see Potanin 1883: 130, note 2; Funk 2004: 9); there was only water; Ulgen went down to create the earth; Erlik volunteered to dive, brought earth from the bottom in his mouth; U. made the earth, it was all turf; a little earth remained between E.'s teeth; he spat it out, a hummocky marshy place was formed; U. began to scold him; he begged to give him as much earth as the end of his stick took up; he fell into the place he begged for; The swallow brought turf in its beak; U. scattered it; made the forest and everything that is on the earth; created the body of man from earth, bones from stones; a dog without hair; went to look for a soul for the man, left the dog as a guard; E. appeared, promised to give the dog wool and a soul to the man; the dog ate E.'s excrement, grew fur; E. put a pipe in the man's rear end, blew, thereby reviving him; U. came, thought whether to exterminate people; the Frog persuaded to leave them as they are]: Potanin 1883, No. 46a: 218-220; Shors ("Kuznetsk aliens") [at first only water; God often spits in one place, the saliva forms a heap, the devil Aina crawls out of it , calls him a friend; God tells him to dive to get earth, to say, Help, Lord! A. does not speak, the earth is washed off his hands twice, but at the bottom he eats it; the third time he brought the earth, God dried it, scattered it, creating dry land; the earth in A.'s stomach began to grow; God cut, cleaned, cured A., went to bed; A. tried to turn the earth over, but only stretched it; begged to give a piece of earth at least the size of a crutch; fell down, and from the hole came reptiles and insects, thorny plants, mountains and swamps appeared; God strengthened the earth on three whales (ker-palyk); when they change places, earthquakes occur]: Shtygashev 1894: 1-7; Khakass: Katanov 1963 (Kachins) [in the beginning there was a duck; having made another a comrade, she sent her to the bottom of the river for sand; she brings it three times and gives it to the first; the third time she kept some of the sand in her mouth, this part became stones; the first duck scattered the sand, pounded it for nine days, the earth grew; the mountains grew after the messenger duck spat the stones out of her mouth; because of this, the first duck refuses to give her land; agrees to give land the size of a cane; the messenger pierces a hole in the ground, goes into it; the remaining one sends a swallow for the soul of a man, ordering the dog to watch and bark at Erlik Khan; E. created winter, gave the dog a fur coat, spat on the man; God poured out his soul on the man, made him a wife from a rib; ordered to eat red currants at sunrise, but not at sunset; the wife ate; a woman with a child and a mare with a foal are feeding on grass, the woman has climbed over seven hills, the mare over one; God decided that if people were to eat grass, they would eat it all; see motive D13]: 154-156 (reprinted in Troyakov 1995: 6-7); Radlov 1907: 523-524; Sagalaev 1992: 39 in Butanaev 2003 [water is everywhere; Akh-Khudai decided to create the earth; his younger brother Irlik Khan: there is “living clay” under the water; having become a pike or a duck, he reached the bottom, took grains of sand in his mouth and brought them to AH, but hid some in his mouth; AH caught three perches (ala puӻa) and made them swim on the surface of the water; scattered grains of sand on their backs, from which smooth land grew; I. spat out the hidden grains of sand from his mouth and mountains and chasms appeared; "Let them call your name on a level place, and when they meet mountains and gorges, they will remember me with curses"; when fish wag their tails, earthquakes occur; (further about the creation of the liver of a cow, B48A, and man, H41)]: 109-110; Buryats (from Baikal?) [ Ehe Burkhan wandered in the darkness ; she made a wild duck, it dived into the water, brought dirt in its beak; EB molded mother earth Ulgen , created plants and animals on it; from the Sun she gave birth to a daughter - the kind Manzan Gurme , from her then came the western deities; from the Moon she gave birth to the evil Mayas Khara (or Khara Manzan ), from her came the eastern deities; on the side of the sunset EB created the feminine, on the side of the sunrise - the masculine principle; they met, united, the first man Pahang and the first woman Tuya were born ]: Zhukovskaya 1980: 95-96 (source cited by Sharakshinova 1959: 40-47); Balagan Buryats (recorded by Khangalov, also in Khangalov 1960: 7-10): Gomboev 1890, No. 1a [there was one water; Burkhan Sombol (so named because he became himself) sees the angata bird ( arkalik), swimming with 12 children; sends her to the bottom to get earth; angata brings black earth on her nose, red clay in her paws; S. first scatters red clay on the water, then black earth; land, grass and trees appear on it; S. blesses the angata bird, You will have many children, swim well on the water and dive (retold in Zolotarev 1964)], 1b [Burkhan Sombol walks on water, wants to create earth; sees the angir bird (turpan, red duck) swimming on the water; sends it to the bottom to get earth; angir dives, but Khashi-zagahan ( scissor fish ) tells her to return, since even she did not see the bottom, threatens to cut her in half; S. sends angir again, tells her to say om mani budima khan ; angir brings earth, S. creates dry land from it, grass and trees grow on it (retelling in Khangalov 1890: 7-10)], 1v [there is only water everywhere; Shibegeni-burkhan , Madari-burkhan and Esege-burkhan saw an angata bird, it was swimming with 12 children; they told it to dive, get black clay, red clay, sand; it dived, got it; they scattered black earth on the water, red clay and sand on the water, created the earth, grass and trees grew on it; after that they created man; a body from red clay, bones from stone, blood from water; they made a man and a woman, went to bed; whose candle will burn in the morning, in whose pot a flower will grow, he will revive people and will patronize them; Shibegeni-burkhan woke up, saw a candle burning in front of Madari-burkhan , a flower in his pot; he replaced it, lay down again, was declared the winner; M.: now the people you revived will also steal and quarrel ; after this M. and E. ascended to heaven, and Sh. remained on earth, revived the two people he had made; the burkhans made them covered with wool, and the dog naked; Shibegeni-burkhan ascended to heaven, left the dog to guard; Shitkhyr came , the dog began to bark, he tempted it by giving it wool and food, spat on the people, left; Shibegeni-burkhan returned, cursed the dog, ordering it to gnaw bones, eat excrement; scraped the wool off the people, leaving it on their heads, for the people held their hands on their heads, therefore it was not spat on], 1g [the burkhan created the earth flat; Shitkhyr stood next to him, hiding some land under his heel; when Burkhan finished creating, Sh. took what was hidden, scattered it, and mountains and valleys were formed; he explained to Burkhan that when people would go down the mountain, they would call, Ai, Burkhan; and when they would rise, they would remember, Shitkhyr's high mountain; thus, they would both be remembered constantly]: 65-66, 66-67, 67-69 (creation of land on p. 67), 69; Buryats(probably from the Baikal region; the place of recording is not indicated, from the materials of T.K. Alekseeva, collected "in the homeland of Dorji Banzarov"; her records made in the Baikal region in the Ongoy-Kutanka ulus are stored in the funds of the IMBT SB RAS; see Dampilova 2017: 62, 64) [there were a higher and a lower zambi, on the lower one were four happinesses; from them were formed the sea, the golden willow, the human form, the flame of fire; at the very base of the golden willow appeared the Mother-Deity; she created her son Budar , on the branches of the willow - a friend for him the Bird of Prey, from the depths of the sea - the fish Kita, and on its back - the earth]: Kozin 1946: 173-176; Buryats (Idinsky, Kakha River, Osinsky district of the Irkutsk region) there were two planes, the upper and the lower, the upper is larger than the lower; on the bottom there were four happinesses (evils); from one the sea was formed, from the second - a golden willow, from the third - a human form, from the fourth - the light of fire; from the human form Ehe burkhan (Mother Goddess) was formed; under the golden willow she created a son named Budarga , from the bark of the willow - a friend for him, the bird Ankhata shubuun ; in the sea she created the fish Abarga zaga h an , from the light of fire she created the sun; from the sea foam came the demon Arkhang-Shotkhor ; he did not get the earth.; the bird ASH brought a handful of clay from the bottom of the sea in its claws, EB on the back of AZ made earth out of it; at night the demon ASH began to pull the sleeping people into the water, but only stretched the earth, which became large; offered to squeeze the earth, so mountains appeared; began to ask for a share for himself; they agreed to give him enough to put up a cane; insects, snakes, worms, etc. crawled out of the hole; EB created the feminine principle Ehen Altan tekto at sunset , and the masculine principle Esegen Mungöte Bakhana in the east ; they looked for each other from east to west – they could not meet; EMB went from west to east, they met; they gave birth to a woman Tuya , a man Pakhant ; EB gave birth to 9 sons, 1 daughter; 5 went to the west, from them 55 western Tengris, 4 to the east – 40 eastern; sister Segeng Sebdek Tengri remained in the middle; Budarga called P. with his family to the sky; Tuya looked back on the way, remained between heaven and earth; she is the sublunary, sunflower queen; P. married his daughter Sesen in the sky , they have 9 sons, 9 daughters; see further motive J25]: Khadakhne 1926: 32-33; Buryats : Sharakshinova 1980: 21 (ulus Tangut Nukutsky district Irkutsk region) [the earth was created by San Bozhe ; from jewels he created the Golden womb of the mother ( Ehein altan hebeeli ) and the Golden loins of the father ( Eseghein altan bahana ); from the womb comes radiance, from the radiance the Mother creates the sun, the moon and the bird Shunguta shubuun; she takes a handful of earth from the bottom of the sea, from which San Bozhe created the earth over the course of 5000 years], 24 [ Eseghe Malan tengriy, Oy Harkhan and the devil Arkhan shukher decided to create the earth; Arkhan went to the outer sea, dived to the bottom, took out a mouthful of earth; from it they created the earth; it was smooth and even; A. began to ask for his share (a hectare, half a hectare, a quarter, etc.); just to put a cane up, - they did not give it; in the end EM and OH gave earth the size of a small twig; A. stuck the twig into the ground, reptiles, insects and worms crawled out of the hole; EM plugged the hole with a burning log; A. created ninety little devils on the earth in the summer, in the winter he had another ninety born on the ice; they brought disasters; children of the gods - nine sons and nine daughters, marksmen, - shot down one hundred and eighty sons of A.], 25 (Transbaikal?) [1) (according to Zhamtsarano, ed.) the world was created by a thousand heavenly burkhans; in search of land the Swan flew through the air, and the Raven was under water; they saw the Golden Turtle, which held the earth in its paws; they reported to Khukhudei Mergen , he shot at the Turtle, it overturned, a firmament was formed, on which the earth with vegetation was created; a thousand heavenly burkhans basked on the earth - Ulgen and in the sky - Under ; Arkhan shukher began to ask for a piece of land for himself the size of a thin twig; he stuck the twig into the ground, mosquitoes, flies, midges and other harmful insects began to crawl out of the hole; 2) the earth was created by God on the four paws of the Golden Turtle, which lies on its back and supports our earth], 27 [(Potanin archive; most likely, from the Baikal region) The King of Heaven swam on the surface of the ocean; in order to create solid land, it was necessary to dive into the water, turning into a water bird; Erlik Khan turned into a loon, dived and brought out a handful of earth from the bottom of the sea; the Creator turned it into a continent, which was then covered with vegetation and inhabited by animals; E. demanded the right to participate in the governance of the earth; a quarrel arose between the two creators, which ended, according to some versions, in a duel or a fight; both made an agreement according to which all living creatures should belong to the King of Heaven, and the dead - to E.; according to another version, the struggle between the King of Heaven and E. continues to this day; E. has a power equal to the power of the King of Heaven, stands at the head of the kingdom of the dead], 40 [(Verkholen); Esege Malan Tengri together with mother Ege Yuren created the earth from dust particles obtained from the bottom of the ocean, and scattered the rest across the ocean; mixed with water, the dust particles turned into tiny living creatures; some got stuck in coastal pebbles, grew up, became people]; Transbaikal Buryats(Aginsky, Nerchinsk district, Razmakhninskaya station) [previously there was only water and only a frog looked into it; God turned the frog belly up and built the universe on it; on each paw he created a separate type ( dvipa ); on one of the paws he placed Zampu-type (Dzhambu-dvipa); on the navel of the frog he erected Mount Sumbur-agula; on the top of this mountain is the North Star, Altan-gatasun {lit. 'golden stake'}]: Gomboev 1890: 140; Pribaikalsky Buryats : Zhamtsarano 2011 (Olkhon, 1903) [“There were a thousand heavenly burkhans, or “Ogtorgoyn mingan burkhan”, who created the world, including the swan, the raven (hun, khiree), Khukhudoy Mergen (Blue Shooter) and Altai Mylykhey (Golden Turtle). Khun Khiree was flying over the water and saw: Altan Mylykhey was holding the earth in his paws. He told Khukhudoy about this. He shot at the turtle. It turned around, and a firmament with beautiful vegetation was formed. And so 1000 heavenly burkhans basked on the earth of Ulugun. Arkhan Shutkhur or Chert Arkhan, who coexisted with the burkhan at the same time, asked for land for himself, but the gods refused him. Finally, he began to ask for one willow. They gave it to him. And from this vine he created an innumerable multitude of mosquitoes, flies, gnats and other harmful insects of various types yuhu yuhunoy (and in Khori – zhuhu zhuhunoy )»]: 58;; Mongols : Potanin 1883, No. 46b [(recorded by missionary Vas. Postnikov from a Khalkha); there is water everywhere, Ochurmany lived in the sky; decided to make earth, looked for a comrade, found Chagan-Shukuty ; both went down to the water; the Frog, having noticed them, dived; O. sent ChSh to find her in the water; he got the Frog, placed her belly up on the water; O. sat on her, ordered ChSh to dive, get earth; he brought an armful of liquid earth from the bottom, said O., If it were not for me, you would not get the earth ; the earth immediately fell out of his hands, fell into the water; O. told him to dive again, take the earth and carry it on his behalf; O. poured the brought earth on the Frog, the earth began to grow, both sat down on it, fell asleep; Shulmus grabbed them to throw them into the water, but the earth grew faster than he ran to its edge; he threw them; O. and ChSh made a man, went to look for a soul, left the dog as a guard; promised to find wool for the dog; the Devil gave it wool, fed it, lit the yarn, blew smoke into the man's nose, reviving him; O. and ChSh put a cup of water; on whose side it grows in the cup, he will rule the earth; Sh. asked for earth for himself too, received as much as under the end of his stick; stuck it in the ground, worms, snakes, and reptiles crawled out; a flower grew on O.'s side, but he dozed off and ChSh put it on his edge; O. said that now both people and animals would steal and quarrel; went to heaven; he is a real god, and Ulgen– this was invented by the kams (shamans)], 54 [at first fire, water and wind were mixed, there was no earth; Burkhyn-bakshi (one of the stars of the Big Dipper) separated the elements and began to sprinkle dust over the water; the earth was formed, trees and grass grew on it; then he created man]: 220-223, 268; Mongols (Khalkha): Bennigsen 1912 [the earth was created by Burkhan Shagji-Tubi ; he threw a pinch of earth brought by him from the sky into the ocean; the pinch grew, formed the earth; grass and animals appeared on it; Sh. brought man to it; people gradually degenerate; they will live for seven years, the height of an elbow, horses will be the size of a hare; then 3 suns will appear, they will burn everything, mountains will remain; lead rain will level them, sand will remain; the wind will sweep it away; then the two whales and the frog on which the earth stands will be freed; Maidari will create a new earth, placing it on the same whales and frog]: 13-14; Potanin 1919, No. 26 [there was one water; two fish came together and formed a ring; grains of sand began to accumulate in it and Mount Sumbur-ola grew; we live on four tubi outside the fence formed by the fish]: 49; Mongols (Inner Mongolia) [the earth settled on the water, the Galbarragcha sandalwood tree grew from the navel of the earth, the Galandava bird (name from Sanskrit, but the specific source is unknown) nested on its branches, a poisonous boa constrictor sucked its three eggs, Gesar Bogdo shot at its outstretched body, and ate the snake's flour-like meat]: Neklyudov, Riftin 1979: 105-123; Mongols (Inner Mongolia?): Nassen-Bayer, Stuart 1992: 327-328 [Buddha Shakyamuni flies over the ocean, sees a golden frog swimming from north to south, shoots, the arrow hits the frog from the east, turning it to the north; fire bursts out of the frog's mouth, water gushed out of its rear; B. threw golden sand on it, the earth arose; the arrow shaft protruding from the east became a forest, the arrowhead protruding from the west became a metal deposit; the north became associated with fire, the south with water; therefore the earth consists of five elements: fire, wood, metal, water, sand; when a frog moves its paws or head, earthquakes occur], 328-329 [the condensed gas formed an ocean, dust and sand rose to the surface, forming the earth; light and darkness separated, light became the sky, darkness became the earth; 44 tengri appeared in the east, 55 in the west, north and south, the Big Dipper was made a banner; there are 99 tengri in the sky in total; the earth floated and swayed; the tengri created man, sent him to the earth to plant vegetation; the earth became stable]: 220-223; the Mongols[there was water and air, in the sky Buddha Ochirvani; he decided to create the earth, found an assistant Tsagan Shukhert White Umbrella; ordered him to turn a turtle floating on the water over on its belly, dive, bring earth from the bottom, think about him (O.), he himself sat on the turtle; TsSh grabbed the earth, but felt as if something was in the way; he thought that O. should take the earth; immediately his hand was filled with earth, TsSh floated up; he poured earth on the turtle's belly, earth appeared instead of the turtle; both celestials fell asleep; Shulmas approached the edge of the island to drown them, but as he ran to the edge, the earth expanded; O. and TsSh sculpted people, O. ordered TsSh to make a guard, he sculpted a dog, O. and TsSh went for intelligence for a man and wool for a dog; the Devil gave the dog wool, said that its owner - a man - would feed it; lit a thread in front of a man's nose, he came to life from the smoke; O. and TsSh argued about which of them should rule over living beings; they decided who would grow a flower in a cup of water first; O. did, but TsSh placed it in his cup; O. said that now people would deceive each other, flew away to the sky]: Skorodumova 2003: 35-37; Mongors [at first only water, God cannot find a piece of land; saw a swimming golden frog; snatched a handful of earth from the air, put it on its back; the frog went under water, the earth was washed away; when the frog surfaced again, God shot, the arrow pierced it, the frog turned over on its back, pressed the earth to its stomach with its paws; this is how land and the five elements were formed: metal, wood, water, fire, earth; since God shot from the east, a tree (the shaft of the arrow) was on that side; the frog had its head to the south, it spewed flames from its mouth, therefore the south is fire; the metal tip was in the west – that’s where the metals are; the frog wet itself, therefore the north is water]: Stuart, Limusishiden 1994: 41.

Western Siberia. Forest Nenets [at first there was water everywhere; Num sent swans and geese to look for land; they returned and said there was no land anywhere; sent a loon to dive; she returned on the sixth day and said there was something at the bottom, but she did not have enough strength; a bird, the lyuri , dived and emerged on the seventh day with earth and a blade of grass in its beak; she made a nest for herself; the wind drove it from one bank to the other; N. ordered the lyuri to dive again, it returned after seven days; N. compressed the earth, making it large enough to build a dwelling; an old man came and asked to be let in, N. reluctantly agreed; in the morning they saw that the old man was washing his face at the edge of the earth, and in fact was trying to destroy the earth; N. drove him away; made the earth even larger; allowed various peoples, animals, trees, rivers, etc. to appear; the old man returned and began to ask for at least enough land to stick a stick into; N. agreed, the old man went into the hole and said that he had deceived N. and would now steal people from him]: Lehtisalo 1998: 8-9; forest Nenets [(from the notes of G.D. Verbov); there was no sky or earth; the red sky began to grow, like blood; in the middle of it, someone sitting looked down; there was water below; the sitting man: my name is God, we must create the earth; he took a piece of earth from somewhere and threw it down; it fell and became big; after that, God decided to create a population on the earth; animals, fish and people appeared, the population of the earth increased; God: it is not good, they must die; God created diseases; now the earth has become better: its population cannot grow much and cannot die out completely either]: Barmich 2014: 616-618; Tundra Nenets : Verbov 1937 (Nadym) [God took a piece of earth, threw it down onto the water, the earth grew; so that people would die, God created diseases]: 19; Labanauskas 1995 [a red-throated loon and a dog were swimming on the water; the loon dived and brought back blades of grass; the dog asked it to make earth; the loon grew dry earth from many blades of grass; see motif H40]: 13-14; Lehtisalo 1998 (Obdorsk/Salekhard) [ Num suggests that Nga prepare the earth; he took some sand from the water, but the sand slipped through his fingers; Num took the sand, placed the cake on the water; he ordered Nga to bring a whale to establish the earth on it; but the earth continued to move; then he ordered a stone to be brought, the earth stopped; this stone is the Urals]: 9; Lar 2001 (Yamal): 188-205 [ Num and Nga are the sons of the old woman Pukhutsa ; Nga asks for food, P. says that first let Num make the land; orders to build a tent, where she will live underground with the old man Vesoko ( Iri-Vesoko); Num tells Loon to dive, she brings sand from the bottom first, then silt, the third time grass; Num molds the earth, throws it on the water; at first it is unstable; Num puts it on the whale, the earth trembles again; throws a stone of copper, iron and transparent stone behind the earth; the earth hardens; Num makes red earth for his mother, puts up a tent; Nga wants the earth for himself, the brothers fight for a long time; they make peace; Num rolls a ball, throws it, the sun appears; Nga gets the moon; Num molds a naked man, he wants to eat; Nga makes hairy people, they fight, Num advises to send them underground; the brothers fight, Num has to agree that they both breathe life into the man; it was warm, the man and the dog walked naked; Nga gave the dog a warm skin, for this she let him through to the man, Nga spat on him, sent diseases; man began to hunt, to dress in dog skin; Num ordered the dog to eat feces, to be a servant; taught man to be a shaman; went to heaven, gave Nga the underworld], 283-284 [Num made the first man in heaven; there is water below, he decided to create earth for man, turned him into a loon, ordered him to dive; the first time the loon brought sand in its beak, the second time silt, the third time - a piece of earth; Num molded the earth, threw it on the water, forgot to return the loon to human form; it cries, always throws one egg into the water for the master of the water; cries for this child]; Yenisei Nenets [water everywhere; the Ermine asks the Loon what to do; she dives, after seven weeks she brought out a pebble and a grain of earth in her mouth; the Ermine told her to sleep, not to look; when she woke up, there was earth around, mountains on it, spirits of the earth and sky; the Master of the sky; what to do? Master of the Earth: I will create man; molded a man and a woman from clay; Master of the Sky blew a soul into the images; HZ: How will people live without fire? He got iron from the earth, HN got flint from the sky, they struck fire; HN created domestic and wild reindeer]: Popov 1944: 85 (reprinted in Khomich 1976: 16-17); Taimyr Nenets [a loon and a dog were swimming in the water; the loon dived, on the third day brought a blade of grass from the bottom; at the request of the Dog, she continued to dive, assembled an island, it grew; a man in iron gloves and buckrams molded a man and a woman, went for souls, ordering the Dog to guard the creation; a man with a black face came, brought the dolls to life, left; the first man returned, said that now people will get sick; people populated the earth, began to build a stepped house; a man in iron gloves and bakary hit with his gloves, people were scattered, they started speaking in different languages]: Nenjag 1997: 21-23; Mansi : Dunin-Gorkavich 1911 [in the beginning water; God commands the bird lula(gagare) to get the earth, it did not get it; the small lula emerged after three days, blood with liquid earth in its beak; the earth began to grow, trees appeared; God created man ("pyris") and woman ("ekva"); in order to find out how big the earth was, pyris sent a raven, which was white; while the cauldron was boiling, the raven flew around the earth and returned; the next day pyris sent a raven again, it returned only in the evening; he sent it the next day, the raven returned only on the third day and black, because he saw carrion and began to peck at it; since then the raven feeds on carrion; because lula got the earth, the Voguls do not beat it, do not eat it; pyris himself went to look for the edge of the earth, but got tired and returned; he made a horse out of wood, but he did not like it; then he forged 7 wings for the horse - the horse flew in circles; forged the eighth wing, flew for a long time, did not find the edge of the earth; returning to the yurt, Pyris noticed that the fire on the chuval was barely smoldering; he extinguished it with his foot; Ekva, who was sitting in the yurt, managed to become an old woman, began to scream: why did you extinguish the fire of my husband, whom I am waiting for; Pyris hit her on the floor of the yurt, she became young; people came from Pyris and Ekva, divided into clans and tribes]: 41-43; Kazakova 1960 (Berezovsky district [a husband and wife lived on a patch of tundra among the water; a loon dived, brought a piece of earth, attached it to the land near the house; the second time she brought a larger piece; the earth increased; from diving, the feathers on the top of the loon's head fluffed up; the couple had a son , Taryg-pes-pygris (Crane Thigh); he brought himself seven wives: Etpos-ne (Woman-month), Por -ne (Woman-witch), Mos-ne ( Kind woman), Khotal-ne (Woman-sun), Vit-kosyai-ne (Woman - mistress of water), Vor-kosyai-ne (Woman - mistress of the forest), Syp-kosyai-ne (Woman - mistress of the mountain); then he began to live with one [Mos-ne ]: 47-48; Lukina 1990, No. 105 (northern Mansi) [an old woman and an old man live on a tundra hill, there is water all around; an iron loon dives from the sky, on the third try it brings earth in its beak; when it inhaled it, its throat burst (there is now a reddish spot in that place); the iron grebe dives in the same way (called the second loon), the top of its head bursts (there are reddish feathers there); the earth grows; the old woman and the old man send a white raven to find out if it is big; on the third try it pecks a dead man, comes back black; the old man tells him to feed on carrion; (then the old woman gives birth to Taryg-pesh-nimalya-sov, aka Mir-susne-hum , "a man observing the world"; see motive A4; he visits distant worlds, gets wives; the old man – Torum , his wife – Kaltas )], 106 [the same beginning], 107 (southern Mansi) [Bright-boy (SM), son of the Bright Husband-Father ( Num-Torum) leaves the sky for the middle world; there is water everywhere; blew his nose, created a tundra hill from snot; the devil swims up, tries to tear the hill apart, SM takes two loons with iron beaks out of his pocket, they kill the devil; sends them to dive for earth; the first emerges after seven months to seven years, the second after seven years, shakes herself off, rocky earth appears; its inhabitants are mortal; SM blows her nose, a worm-snake appears, turns into a man; Ruff meets a woman ; they ask each other what each of them came from; he - from the snot of the Light husband-father, she - from the black earth; she lies down, pulls him towards her, he has genitals under his arm; she tears them off and puts them back, the man and E. copulate; E. tells him to eat two berries from the three-leaf tree, a leathery shell comes off him; they give birth to a whole family of girls and boys]: 258-259, 272-273, 291-293; Rombandeeva 1991 [a husband and wife lived on a patch of peat in the middle of the water; they had a loon and another waterfowl - a luly ; they ask L. to get some earth from the bottom, she brings a lump in her beak; it grows; a white raven flies to see if the earth is big; eats a corpse, turns black; at first the earth was smooth, then it rumbled for seven days, mountains appeared]: 14; Chernetsov 1935 [(a composite version from separate excerpts heard by the author); a great and a little loon dive to get some earth from the bottom; at first unsuccessfully; when they dived together, they got it; from the strain, blood began to flow, now the great loon has a red chest, and the little loon has a red nape]: 23-24; Eastern Khanty : Kulemzin 2000 [luli was translated by the informant as "sandpiper", but the dictionary contains the translation "small lake loon"; according to one version of the origin of the earth, it was raised to the surface during the flood by luli - the red-necked grebe]: 163; Kulemzin, Lukina 1978, No. 9 (r. Yugan; = Lukina 1990, No. 2: 63) [the Khanty do not kill the luli-sandpiper, because it got earth from the bottom on the third try; Kon-iki-pakh sent it to dive ]: 17; Shatilov 1931 (r. Vakh) [there is water everywhere, the loon flew over it, Torum swam on the water ; told the Loon to dive, she brought mud in her beak; T. created from it the earth with mountains, rivers, vegetation, animals]: 100; Nganasans : Dolgikh 1976, No. 4 [The Duck asks the Loon to dive, to find land; she emerges on the third day dead; the Duck brings grass, moss after seven days; says that she raised the earth up], 5 [The Duck and the Loon agreed that the Duck would get the earth, and the Loon would release diseases with her nose, piercing the sick ( Dëybu-nguopricks with the nose of a loon when healing); The duck dived, brought black earth; The duck brought moss from nine Syrads, put it on the water]: 50, 51; Popov 1984 [(zap. Popov in 1938, reprinted in Voskoboinikov, Menovshchikov 1951: 109-112); the water reached the sky, a loon lay on it; a voice asked her to dive for earth; she was scared, did not dive; The stone loon dived, surfaced on the fourth day with blades of grass, lichen in her mouth; The loon was punished, ordered to build a nest on the water, to lay only two eggs; The stone loon nests in a dry place, has many chicks; people began to appear from the earth; Nguo created the sun, thunder with rain, the moon, so that women could calculate the time of birth]: 41-42; Simchenko 1996(1) [at first there was water; the Nguo decided to make land; they sent Loon to dive; she reached the bottom on her second try and brought grass; the earth covered the water; seven children appeared from somewhere – the ancestors of different peoples]: 13; 1996(2) [at first there was water, a stone in the middle; on it two dyamada ("those having a throat") argued about who would get the land; a bird flew in, a long nose, a red chest (a snipe?); the dyamada did not dive to the bottom, the bird brought grass, moss, and land from the bottom; the Sun came, the bird flew away, the Sun left, in five days the earth was covered with ice; the bird returned and said that now all dyamada would have five fingers; that is why it was cold for five days; Mother Sun melted the ice; the bird flies, throws grass, roots; Mother Earth became alive; worms crawled out of it, grew fur like bears; then the fur fell off, they became like people, gave birth to children, struck fire out of flint; they were females, looking like deer]: 14-17; Enets [in the beginning there was water, Nga flew over it ; he told the loon to dive; the loon dived for a long time, brought some earth in its beak; N. made dry land out of it]: Prokofieva 1953: 204; southern Selkups [recorded by I.N. Gemuyev, 1980, the informant practiced shamanism in his youth; “The earth was sinking at first. God sent the loon, he got nothing. Gogol ( porya ) got sand. This is our earth. God sent a snake, then a bird, a hazel grouse. And before that – a hoofed loon. And the hazel grouse scared the hoofed loon. The kopylukha started to peck at it, that's why the hazel grouse has only a little white meat, the rest is black. And he let people go ahead of everyone else. People were fighting, he let a snake go so that it would drive them away. He let dogs go, like he let a naked man go. She's freezing - the devil came. - What happened? I freeze. The devil gave her a skin. Now we're sick - we're coughing. God sent - made a man out of clay, sits like a man. And the devil spat - spat. That's what we're rooting for]: Baulo, Tuchkova 2017: 11; Northern Selkups Selkup mythology. Tomsk.: Pelikh 1998: 67-68 (Lower Baikha) [shaman Mongaascended to the sky on a cloud, married Pumyl-neel, the daughter of Pari-num; began to transport his earthly family to the sky; while dragging a sled through a hole in the sky, he dropped his little son; managed to call upon the power of the earth, which held the boy in the air; he hung there for a long time with his arms outstretched; a dark light came from the ground below, and a white glow from the sky; the boy's back turned black and his belly white, his arms turned into wings, he became a loon; Pari-num ordered the loon to dive into the sea and get land, promising to return to human form; the loon could not do this, and remained a bird], 68 [the shaman Monga went to live in the sky; his little son Lyuchaku turned into a loon, began to live with his father in the sky; Num asked whether he wanted to be a man or a bird; L. answered that he wanted to be a man; Num ordered Moche-bo (=Luchak) to get the sunken earth from the bottom of the sea, promising to restore his human form in return; Moche-bo found the earth, but was unable to lift it to the surface; then Num sent a duck; it also could not lift the earth, but guessed to break off a piece and bring it to the surface; a large earth grew from the piece; Moche-bo remained a bird, from him come the loons; the loon still remembers that it used to be a human; it tries to talk to people, but they do not understand it]; Stepanova 2006 [(p. Ratta, west. Stepanova); Num said to the loon: "If you fly high and dive deep, and your beak is so long, get the earth from the bottom," - and sent it under the water for earth; The loon ( mo ) dived under the water, brought a lump of earth, surfaced, flew up, threw a lump of earth from its beak (wanted to say something up, and the earth fell out); from this lump the earth was formed, and people began to live on this earth]; Kets : Alekseenko 1976 [there was only water; Es' dived, grabbed earth (mud) in his mouth, put it in his cheeks; surfaced, blew - earth was obtained; The devil is spinning, doing nothing; E. dived again, grabbed mud in his cheeks, blew - a deciduous, cedar forest grew; E. collected what was crawling, dug a hole, lowered them there, dug a post so that they would not crawl out; Ch. sees a post, decided to pull it out - everything crawling scattered along the ground]: 72; Nikolaeva 2006 [in the beginning there was water, a duck was swimming, it dived, brought some earth in its beak, carried earth, the pieces came together, bushes and trees grew, the sun appeared; then there was no more water, lakes and rivers remained]: 55.

Eastern Siberia. Northwestern Yakuts [all storytellers are unanimous in the opinion that previously there was no land; then a loon flying over the water dove, pulled out several grains of earth in its beak; from them it created the earth; the most common story is that the loon was sent by Aiyy-toyon (the White Lord - the supreme deity) to get earth; after several unsuccessful attempts, the loon brought him a spool of sand or silt in its beak, from which he created the earth; one of the stories about the creation of the earth involves Aiyy-toyon (AT), his antipode Allaraa-ogonnyor (lower old man; AO) and Elijah the prophet, and in some versions Christ and Khara Suor (black raven); Usually these variants describe a dispute between AT and AO , the latter refusing to take part in the creation, and only after all good forces have been used, AT forces his older brother, the evil but less powerful AO , to get a handful of earth; according to these reports, AO dived into the water in the form of a loon and delivered some earth to AT in his beak]: Gurvich 1977: 191-192; Western Yakuts : Gurvich 1977 (Vilyuy districts and Ugulatsky nasleg of Olenek district) [ Allaraa-ogon'or dived into the water for earth, but got only a few grains that got stuck under his nails; having emerged, he fell and lost consciousness; at this time Aiyy-toyon stole these grains of earth from him; When Allaraa-ogonyor , having come to, dived into the water again, Aiyy-toyon created earth from them; having risen again from the water with earth clutched in his hand, Allaraa-ogonyor , having made sure that he had been beaten, in annoyance threw his handful of earth onto the already created earth; from this the mountains were formed]: 192; Tretyakov 1871 (Turukhan region) [the Mother of God created the white-nosed loon and the long-nosed merganser (i.e. duck), sent them to the bottom for earth; the merganser emerged first and gave them the earth it had brought; then the loon, who, although she had earth in her beak, said that she had not reached the bottom; the Mother of God cursed the loon, saying that she had given her a "holy name" and had hoped for her, but she had not lived up to her hopes; doomed the loon to live on the water and eat rubbish; the merganser was granted agility; then the Mother of God made two men and a woman out of the sand]: 421 (cited in Napolskikh 1991: 151 with reference to Tretyakov 1871: 207); central (?) Yakuts(location of recording unknown) [The world consisted of water. God claimed that the devil would not be able to get land from the bottom of the sea. He decided to go down to the bottom to defeat God in an argument. Three years later, he emerged, but saw that the land he had taken from the bottom in both fists had been washed away by the water. God noticed that a grain of land remained under one of the devil's claws and "stole" it unnoticed, and then began to mock the devil for not fulfilling his promise. When the devil dived again, God created land from the stolen grain "the size of a bed" and fell asleep on it. Having emerged from the water and seen God's trick, the devil let out a terrible cry, from which the land he had taken from the bottom of the sea in his mouth scattered in all directions. It formed mountains, unevenness and other places unsuitable for man. Then the devil sent a horde of his servants, and all together they began to pull with their iron claws the land on which God lay, with the aim of sinking it. Instead, the land stretched and formed the present earth. God began to create animals and plants. The devil, imitating him, also began to create the same. God created everything useful to man, and the devil created everything harmful or useless. When God created everything on earth and man, the devil created fish and began to blaspheme God's creation by saying that they cannot live and dwell in the water element. God justified this blasphemy by saying that fish cannot live in the air element. Understanding that people and animals cannot live without water, God blessed the water and fish, so it became possible for man to eat fish]: Kulakovsky A.E. 1979: 14-15; North-Eastern Yakuts (Verkhoyansk) [ Christ sends Satan to the bottom, S. dives unsuccessfully twice, the sand clutched in his hand is washed away by water; the third time, turning into a swallow, he brings earth in his beak; H. creates dry land; S. hid some of the earth in his mouth; H. hit him on the neck, the silt spilled out, mountains were formed]: Seroshevsky 1896: 653; Western Evenks (Podkamenno-Tungus, Baikitsky district, Chavida River, west. 1923) [Amaka made water and sent birds on it; to rush - earth was needed; he ordered the loon to get sand from the bottom to make earth out of it; the loon got it, but did not give it to A., she herself wanted to make earth; A. ordered Gogol to dive, he brought grains of sand to A., he made earth; He tore the paws from the loon's belly and stuck them to its tail so that it could not live on land]: Osharov 1936b, No. 11: 279-280; Western Evenks (Kirensky) [in the upper world there lived two brothers; the elder one told the duck to dive to the bottom of Lake Baikal and get sand; the younger one put a leaf on the sea and earth on it; the wind crumpled the leaf into folds, and mountains were formed]: Pinegina, Konenkin 1952: 49; Sym Evenks [in the beginning there was water and two brothers; the younger one, Eksheri, forced the loon to dive and get earth from the bottom; the loon was unable to do this, for which E. broke its legs (that is why all loons walk poorly); E.sent Gogol, he dove and grabbed some earth from the bottom with his beak; for this Eksheri kissed him on the head (that is why all gogols have white spots on their heads since then); E. put a piece of earth on the surface of the water; the earth began to grow, but was still so small that Eksheri could not even rest on it; the elder brother was angry with E .; when he was sleeping, he began to pull the earth out from under him, but the earth only stretched and became very big]: Vasilevich 1936: 4; 1959: 173; Baikal Evenks (northern Transbaikalia, 1951) [water all around; in the upper world, two brothers are discussing how to make earth; the elder had a duck; the younger let it go to get sand from the bottom of Lake Baikal; the duck brought sand, the younger put a leaf on the water and earth {sand} on top; the wind blew, the leaf crumpled, mountains arose; The younger brother made a dog and a man, covered the whole man with armor - he will be strong; put the man in one barn, the dog in another; went to make rivers, told the dog not to give the keys to the older brother; he came, promised the dog a warm, colorful skin; she opened the barn; the older brother tore off the armor from the man, leaving only the nails on his fingers; the younger brother returned, punished the dog, depriving it of the ability to speak]: Pinegina 2019: 70-71; Far Eastern Evenks (Chumikan from the Okhotsk coast) [ the Seveki (as the younger brother is called) sent Avasy (his older brother) down to earth; ordered earth to be brought for the creation of the (middle) earth { dunne ). Avasy went down, grabbed the earth { tukala ) with his claws. Returning, he poured it out in front of the Seveki . He created (our) earth (dunne) from what was poured out. Seveki built a box and told all the avasy to climb into the box. The avasy said they could climb in. Seveki closed them and left a dog as a guard]: Vasilevich 1959: 173; Evenks of the Nerchi-Chita region [the creator's assistant was a frog; it carried the earth in its paws to the surface of the water, but the creator's evil brother (according to later versions, a heavenly shaman) shot it; it turned over and from then on began to support our earth in the water with its paws (MAE inventory #1879); shamans hung its image on their costume as a symbol of the earth; the legend about the fire was borrowed from the southern neighbors: the land expanded, burned for a long time, rivers and lakes appeared on the burnt areas (Ilimpiysky, Ayansky, Transbaikal Evenks)]: Vasilevich 1969: 214-215; Evenks of the Nerchi-Chita region (horsemen) [In the beginning there was one water. And there were Buga and Buninka (two brothers). Buga sent fire to the water, which partially destroyed it. Then the land was formed. Bugacreated light and separated it from darkness. Then he came down to earth and met Buninka , who began to claim the role of the creator of the earth. A fight ensued between them. Buninka spoiled the gusli, Buga's 12-string musical instrument . The angry Buga proposed a competition: they needed to grow a pine tree from the bottom of a lake. Anyone who couldn't do it had to admit defeat. By Buga's order , the pine tree immediately grew from the bottom of the lake and rose above the water. Buninka's pine tree couldn't stand and fell. But Buninka didn't want to admit defeat. And then, as punishment, Buga made his skull iron. It was hard for Buninka to carry a head of iron on his shoulders, and he asked to free him from this torment. In return, Buga demanded that they not interfere with him when he was making man. To make man, Buga took iron from the east, fire from the south, water from the west, and earth from the north. These elements he transformed respectively into heart, warmth, blood, flesh and bones. Thus Buga created man and woman. When people began to multiply, Buninka demanded half for himself. Then Buga promised him vicious people after their death, and he took for himself those who lived virtuously on earth]: Spassky 1822: 54-55 (= Davydov et al. 2016: 15); Far Eastern Evenks (Upper Aldan, west of the shamaness M.P. Kulbertinova) [Robbeck et al., MS; at first only water and sky; winged ones flew and sat on the crests of waves; then a creature without a head appeared; the headless ones had eyes on the chest, a mouth and hands just below the eyes, they put food into their mouths with their hands; there were many headless ones, where they lived, no one knows; apparently, they lived on pile flooring or on rocks; they said to each other: we decided to dig rivers; the water began to recede, land appeared; they made big rivers, seas; the rivers carried away stones with their currents; headless: let it be called "stones", when there will be many people, they will give names to everything they have made; the earth dried up, vegetation appeared; headless: now real people will begin to appear, they will begin to come from somewhere, they must be born from something; the headless lived anyway like people: when it snowed, they made skis for themselves, they knew everything about everything; somehow huge shiny winged ants flew to that land; headless: real people will appear from them, those with heads will appear, they will begin to hunt like us; there were a lot of ants, very tall - in the middle, thin at the waist; later they turned into huge people; headless: you need to be wary of these big-headed ones; and those with heads were also afraid of the headless ones]: Dyakonova 2014: 67-68; Far Eastern Evenks (Orochens): Mazin 1984: 19-20 [there was water and sky, a snake and a frog lived in the water; the sun, moon, star Cholbon (Venus), enekan buga shone in the sky; the snake was old, tired and freezing in the water; asked the frog to get some earth, to fix it on the water, so that the snake could rest and bask in the sun; the frog dived, got some earth; when she began to fix it, the earth began to sink; at that time a snake swam up, the frog was afraid that the snake would scold her for her helplessness, turned over, began to support the earth with her paws; and so it has remained to the present time; when the earth appeared, then enekan buga settled the mammoth seli there; the snake did not like this, she began to drive the mammoth out of the earth; they fought until they fell through the ground; after that they made peace, became guardian spirits in the lower world; the heaps of earth that they heaped up during the fight turned into mountains, the depressions into rivers and lakes], 20-21 [in the beginning there was water; [ there lived two brothers, the good Seveki at the top, and the evil Khargi at the bottom; S.'s assistants were the goldeneye and the loon; the loon dived, got the earth; gradually the earth grew and took on its modern appearance]; Evens : Lindenau 1983 [Seuki hovered over the water, first made sand out of the water, then earth]: 54; History and Culture of the Evens 1997 [the cosmogonic myth recorded by Robbek and Dutkin can be considered common to the Evens: it is characteristic of the Evens of Kamchatka , Yakutia, and the Magadan Region]: 112; Evens: Robbek 2005: 206 [at first there was water everywhere; Khavki: can you find some clay? goose: no, we'll die of the cold; duck: no, we'll die in the water; the loon dived, brought back a piece, H. told him to hold it in his beak for now, but Arinka stole it; H. began to sing, the clay slipped out of A.'s mouth; from H.'s singing the earth opened up {in the sense of expanding}, streams and mountains appeared], 209-210 [there was a fire on the earth, then it was flooded; the reindeer and people who had gathered on a high mountain also drowned when the mountain went under water; Mikola asked the loon to dive, she brought back some clay in her beak; the clay slipped out of her beak, the devil stole it, M. spat at him, the devil fell underground; M. began to sing: a river, a lake, a mountain appeared; M.: let there be no mosquitoes; devil: let the mosquitoes remain, so that people do not become proud and so that there are fewer of them], 212-213 [people lived in heaven; a girl's parents died, she hired herself out to a rich man, he decided to marry her off to an old man, but she wanted to marry a young man; for this she was banished: they put her on her eight-legged deer, sent her to earth; when she got hungry, the deer gave her his horn, she sucked, and was satisfied; there was a sea below, the deer began to fall down, ordered to rip out his fur, throw it down, the fur turned into logs, the girl made a raft out of them; she wove nets from the deer's under-neck fur, caught fish, that's how they fed themselves; the deer ordered to kill him, spread the skin on the water - there will be land, the fur - forests, put the head in the middle, the bones, broken, at the edges; do not kill the lice - they will become deer; put the heart to the left of you, the lungs to the right; the deer's last breath became the wind]; Robbeck, Dutkin 1978: 157 [1) a girl, expelled from heaven, descends to the surface of the sea on an eight-legged deer; on the deer's advice, she scattered tufts of wool on the water, they turned into logs, she made a raft; at the deer's request, she killed him, butchered him as he ordered; the skin turned into earth, the skull and bones into mountains, the wool into forests, lice into wild deer; the crunch of breaking bones became thunder, the dying sigh - the wind; the heart turned into a hero, the lungs into a boy and a girl; 2) a shaman asks to get a lump of clay from the bottom; the Goose cannot, the Loon gets it, the shaman creates dry land; in another version, the role of the demiurge is played by the Duck; 3) people sailed on a raft, caught fish, ducks; [they caught a loon, she promised to get earth from the bottom; the raven makes her drop a lump into the sea three times; the sky shaman helped; 4) the loon gets a barely visible speck of dust from the bottom, puts it on the guy's palm; he does not understand how to make earth out of it; God put the speck of dust on his left palm, it became the size of a squirrel's stomach; on the edge of the raft - the size of a deer's hoof; the size of an elk's stomach; it grew into an island].

Amur - Sakhalin. Nanai : Beldy, Bulgakova 2012, No. 1 [there was only water; an eagle was flying, nothing to sit on; he saw a piece of land, sat down; the owner of this land was an old man; the eagle asks to give him land; the old man: take as much as you want; the eagle took some land with its claws, scooped it up in its beak; when it was returning, it dropped the earth, and that is how the earth appeared, since then there was more and more of it]: 9; Laufer 1899 [there lived three people: Shanvai , Shankoa , Shanka ; there were three divers and three swans; the three people sent three divers and three swans to dive to get earth, stones and sand; the birds were under water for seven days; when they emerged, they carried in their beaks the earth, stones and sand they had brought from the bottom; where they flew, earth, mountains and plains arose; they marked out the river beds; when they flew to the sea, the Amur began to flow; three people made a man Kado and a woman Djulcha , a maiden Mamilzhi ; the people multiplied; there were three suns, too hot; K. went to the east, hid in a hole, shot the first and third suns, shooting at the second, he missed; M. made drawings on the stones while the stones were soft from the heat; decided that there were too many people, died to show them the way to the afterlife; chipmunk, tumna (?), snake sleep in winter, do not die; the rest are mortal]: 749-750 in Okladnikov 1968: 163-164; Sem 1986: 31-32 [at first there was water; the current began to drive foam, it turned into earth, the earth grew], 32 [in the beginning there was water; the hadon bird flew, saw that the myamildi bird was sitting below; took the earth from the bottom, flew up, dropped it, from the earth that fell on the water land was formed]; Sem, Sem 2020, No. 15 [the land is small, there is one person on it; he shouted; he saw seven people, they jumped into the water; he found a saddle and a whip; he hit the edge of the bank with the whip; the edge disappeared, and new land appeared behind the water; he began to hit with the whip; the strip of land at his feet disappeared, and a large piece appeared to the side; the land began to displace the water, there are different countries on the earth; the man met a woman, people came from them]: 102-104; ulchi [(source?); there was no land; the loon dived for 6 days, on the seventh day she got a piece of solid ground from the bottom, it grew, became land]: Podmaskin 2013: 59; Negidals [in the village of In, a common Siberian version of the cosmogonic myth about a loon that got a grain of sand from the bottom of the sea, which grew and turned into earth was recorded]: Tsintsius, oral communication in T.Sem 1990: 92; Udege : Lebedeva et al. 1998, No. 58 [an old man tells a girl and her younger brother to go to the Singmu(a water monster similar to a snake or a crocodile, swallows people); the wind begins, they sit on the back of the singmu, then hide in its mouth; when they emerge, they are on an island surrounded by the sea; the sister proposes marriage; the old man tells them to push the upper and lower millstones down the mountain in different directions; if they unite, they can get married; the brother's millstone landed on the sister's millstone; they have many children; a bird flew over the water, saw an old woman standing on one leg on a small island; the bird sat down, the old woman drove it away; the bird grabbed land in its paws, flew, threw it, lands were formed; the descendants of the brother and sister populated them]: 323-327; Podmaskin 1991, No. 1 [an evil old woman lived on a tiny island in the middle of the sea; a heavenly duck landed there, lived there for seven years; on the eighth, the old woman drove it away; when taking off, the duck grabbed the earth in its paws and began to scatter it in the ocean; this is how small and large islands arose]: 118; Orochi [the earth was just cooling down, covered with water; a family of eagles and a family of ravens fly over it; they find a rock, become like people, the eagles give birth to a son, the ravens - a daughter; the sea recedes, the earth grows; the water covering the earth was agitated, therefore the mountains are like waves]: Avrorin, Lebedeva 1966, No. 48: 194-195 (= Medvedev 1992: 368-370); Nivkh [at first only water; the teal (var.: broad-billed mallard) swims, wants to lay eggs, plucks its feathers and down, makes a nest; the ducklings grow up, do the same; the nests join together to form an island, trees grow on it, it turns into a large land; when the larch resin touched the ground, the Nivkh appeared; Nivkh from larch, therefore red; Uilta from fir, white-leaved; Ainu from spruce]: Sangi 1989: 295 (=Medvedev 1992: 78); Manchus: Chen, Wang 1989 [The sky has 17 levels, the earth has 9 levels; the seventeen-level sky and nine-level earth are controlled by the heavenly spirit Abukaenduli; there was no earth, only water and sky; A. created a man and a woman in his own image, put them in a stone jar, put the jar in the water, and the jar began to float in it; the man and woman got married, gave birth to many people, generation after generation, and the jar also grew; when there were too many people in the jar, A. built another place for the people to live; he created a large earth out of clay, placed it on the surface of the water, and ordered three fish to support it; he also sent a heavenly spirit to bring food to the fish every few days; sometimes the small heavenly spirit was lazy and brought food at the wrong time; the fish, hungry, twitched their bodies, and the earth also swayed, these were earthquakes; people were becoming more and more numerous, they could no longer fit on the earth; then A. cut down the largest and thickest tree in the sky, put it at the edge of the earth, and from then on humanity began to develop along the branches of this tree; that is why different nations appeared in the world]: 13–14; Wei et al. 2001, no. 4.5 [when the sky was just separating from the earth, a flood occurred; the youngest daughter of the god Arbuka, Gege Baiyun (Gege – "highly respected princess") stole two boxes, hid sand in them to engulf the flood; A. in anger ordered the god of snow to freeze her and everything in general; GB turned into a silver birch in the forest near Changbaishan, where since then there is a lot of snow and strong winds]: 196.

Japan. Ainu : Batchelor 1894, no. 3a [in the beginning, water is mixed with earth, this liquid mud floats in a boundless sea; God sent a wagtail from heaven, it beat the mud with its legs, tail, and wings until dry land was formed]: 27-28; Etter 1949 [in the beginning, there is only water, then an island grows]: 21; Kojiki 1994, ch. 3 [ Izanagi no Mikoto and Izanami no Mikoto , having stepped onto the Heavenly Floating Bridge, immersed the precious spear and, turning it, splash-splash, kneaded the sea water, and when they pulled it out, the water dripping from the tip of the spear condensed and became an island. This is Onogorojima , the Island that Congealed by Itself; (then descended to the island, gave birth to many creatures and objects)]: 40; Nihon Shoki 1997(1), scroll 1, 1-4 [at first Heaven-Earth were not separated; then the pure-light emanated-stretched out and became Heaven, and the heavy-dark was held-stuck and became Earth; eight generations of gods arose in turn; Izanaki-no-mikoto and Izanami-no-mikoto, standing on the Heavenly Floating Bridge, began to think that there was no country there, at the bottom; they felt the ocean with a spear, the drops that fell from the spear formed islands]: 115-117; Ryukyu Islands : Matsumoto 1928 [historical work Chûzanseikan, 1650; The Lord of Heaven told the god Amamiko that there was only water below and that a place for the gods to live should be created; he descended and saw that the waves of the Eastern Sea were joining the waves of the Western Sea; he returned to heaven and sent down earth, stones, grass, and trees, creating numerous islands; at A.'s request, the Lord of Heaven sent a man and a woman down to earth; they learned to copulate by observing other living beings; the female goddess gave birth to three boys and two girls; the eldest son became the first king, the middle son became the first local elder, and the youngest became the first peasant; the eldest daughter became the first princess-priestess, and the youngest daughter became the first priestess; having ascended to heaven for the third time, A. brought back the seeds of five grains and held a festival of heaven, earth, and gods; later the gods disappeared and disasters befell the country]: 114-115; Maruyama 2009: 32 ( Miyako Islands) [by order of the Heavenly Lord, Koinutsu descended to the tiny island of Miyako, piled up stones (making the island larger in size); took the heavenly goddess Koitama as his wife; they gave birth to the god Sotatsu and the goddess Kagyoku; from the earth appeared the god Mokusu (tree) and the goddess Sousou (grass), all of whom became the ancestors of the inhabitants of MiyakoOkinawaa show his footprints; rakon; ], (Yaeyama Islands) [the sun god Kanashi told Aman to create an island, gave him clay and stones; he threw them into the sea from a heavenly bridge, churned the water with a spear, and Ishigaki Island arose; a hermit crab (aman in the local dialect) appeared, but there were no people; the sun god sent the seeds of people, from which a man and a woman were born; the sun god told them to go around the pond from two opposite sides, they met and came together, they had three boys and two girls], 34 (Taketomi Island near the main island of Yaeyama) [the divine brothers Shinshimi and Masoba descended from the sky; Sh. found a rock, piled up stones and clay around it, creating Taketomi Island; M. created Mount Ishigaki, stayed to live on it; together the brothers created the large island of Ishigaki, then divided it into 8 parts].

NE Asia. Forest Yukaghirs (Nelemnoye village, Verkhnekolymsky district) [two brothers, Christ and Satan , were sailing in boats; Christ sent S. to the bottom for earth and ordered him: "When you take earth, say: forgive me, Christ! " S. turned into a loon, dived, took earth, but forgot to say the right words; that is why the earth kept spilling out between his fingers; then Christ and S. began to clean the earth out from under S.'s long nails; a mountain of earth was formed; Christ blew, the mountain crumbled, land and mountains appeared; S. dived under the water and did not appear again]: Nikolaeva et al. 1989(1): 13; Russkoye Ustye [during the flood, Christ tells Chirk to dive to get earth; he swam for three years, surfaced, brought out earth on his nose, where a trace of it remained; Christ made dry land out of it]: Azbelev, Meshchersky 1986, No. 71: 213; Markovo : Dyachkov 1992 (the author is originally a Chuvan) ["according to the legends of pagan foreigners" two spirits, a good one and an evil one, flew over the water; the good one tells the evil one to turn into a merganser, to bring earth from the bottom; after three days the evil one emerges, gives earth, keeps a grain in his mouth, so that later, having learned how to make earth, he can make his own; the good one makes the earth grow, the part in the mouth also grows, the evil one spits it out, creating mountains]: 231; Hakkarainen 2000 [the loon dived, got earth from the bottom, the earth grew]; reindeer Koryaks (the text was recorded in Palana, but the narrator M.T. Yetneut was not born there, but into a family of Koryak reindeer herders (according to some sources in 1928, according to others - in 1929), who lived in the upper reaches of the Achaivayam) [First there was Yga. They had close people - Chyny (Kutkinyaku's father) and Tonga (this is Kutkinyaku's mother). And so they gave birth. Ygyn-father, Yga-mother. And so Yga gave birth, Anotykinav gave birth to a queen, Anoitykinav gave birth to the sun king, then Anotykinav Vulhy (night) gave birth. At Chyny, Tonga gave birth to Kutkinyaku, this is the boy Kutkinyaku. Then she gave birth to Mitchgyne-queen. This is his Kutkinyaku's sister. And after that, when their children grew up, they decided to get married. This is how they got married. Ingin's daughter Mitta married Kutkhinyaku. And Mitchgyne (Kutkhinyaku's sister) married the sun. And so they gave birth. Mitchgyne gave birth to the stars and the moon. And father Sun, by order, put his children to look down, to watch what was happening down there, everything's origin down there, what and what, they see everything, write it down there, mark it. Here. And Kutkhinyaku is their deputy, Ygyn's chief and the chief of the Sun, this is like a deputy. The chief Ygyn, and he has assistants of the Sun and the chief of the Sun, this is like a deputy. The chief Ygyn, and his assistants are the Sun and Kutkhinyaku. And so Kutkhinyaku Mitty gave birth to Ememkuta, then Dinnyanav gave birth, then Kichimanav gave birth, then Chanyaenav gave birth, then Klyukanev gave birth, then Yvyan gave birth - the very last one was a boy, such a glorious son grew up in Kutkhinyaku. Here. Then they live and live and live. Then Kutkhinyaku goes down.And below there was only one sea, not a sea, but liquid and damp. And from under the bottom grew a huge-huge forest. And so Kutkhinyaku decided to make animals, insects and birds of all sorts, both small and large. And so they had nowhere to live. This was a primeval forest, a huge forest. While they began to live in the trees, in the forest, they had nowhere to live. In the forest they lived and lived and lived. Then the Sun-king and his wife were fooling around. They laughed, fooled around, and accidentally the Sun-king dropped his wife Mitchgyne (this is fire) down to the bottom of the liquid. And the husband wanted to lift his wife-fire, but she refused: "I don't need to rise, I feel good here, at the very bottom: the bottom will later become land, they will grow things on it." And so she remained at the bottom of the sea (this liquid). And they lived and lived. And the sun said to his wife: "Let me lift you up, otherwise I'll be here and there alone, I'm bored." - "No, I don't want to. And you take your sister, Vulhy (night), Vulhy will be your assistant." And the husband, the Sun-king, agreed. And then Kutkhinyaku says to Mitty (this is the sun's sister): "Mitty, oh, I'm tired of living in the forest. We need to make a restructuring." Mitty says: "Where is your advisor, the Sun-king? Go and see him. And he will tell you how you should live on." And Kutkhinyaku went to the sun and began to ask the Sun-king: "Why did you come? Why did you come?" - "Well, I came to consult about how we should live on. I'm already tired of living in the forest. How should we live?" The Sun-king says to him: " And you gather your own. Whoever is brave among them, let him go to the bottom of the sea. There is land there, let him bring it, whoever can go there . " When Kutkhinyaku returned, all the animals, birds, insects gathered and began to consult on how to live on. Kutkhinyaku said: "Whoever is brave, let him go to the bottom of the liquid sea." They were silent, silent, no one answered. And the crow said: "Who else would go to the bottom there? There is a whale, let him go. He is big." And so everyone agreed and correctly. The whale stood in the middle and tried to dive down there to the bottom of the earth. And no way. Just circles. He is big, he could not go down there. He wanted to dive and did not dive. Therefore, since then, he has had a hole at the top, through which he releases air. And so. And he could not dive at all: "Oh, I'm tired, tired, I can't, I'm tired." And he sat down and breathed, and breathed, the tired one breathes. Everyone is silent, silent all around. Well, what can you do? They are silent. And the tired whale rests, rests, breathes, eyes closed. And suddenly the loon (loon. – E.B. ) gives a voice: “Let me go get some earth, some moss.”And then everyone started laughing. Falling backwards laughing. Laughing (That's what made the laughter come). And then she stood there in the middle, small, and they looked at her and then they started laughing and laughing. And they looked where she was sitting, only bubbles were showing, she had already left. Bubbles-bubbles were coming out on the fly. And then they were silent again, silent, waiting for her to come, where she had disappeared to, where she was small. And they waited for a long, long time. Then they saw in the middle, where she had disappeared from, she appeared again from that place. Breathing and breathing, her eyes were closed, and there was nothing on her beak, empty. And they started laughing and laughing again. And the fox was peeing herself with laughter. She turned the fresh sea into a salty one from peeing. And then again, ga-ga, while they were all laughing around, she disappeared again. And they looked again - she was gone. Where, where had she gone? And they were silent, silent. They waited and waited and waited for her to appear. Then he appears, holding moss in his beak. And he breathes so tiredly, his eyes are red, his legs have become like sticks, like sticks. And his legs are still like sticks. He gave all this moss to Kutkhinyaku and ordered all the animals, birds and insects: “Come on,” he says, “let’s get to work. We need to restructure our housing.” Ga-ga left Kutkhinyaku alone: ​​“Don’t do anything, you’re tired, take a rest.” And they started doing all this]: Batyanova 1995: 219-222; Chukchi [Big Raven Kurkil and his wife live on a tiny patch of land in the void; the wife turns into a human, gives birth to twin sons; they laugh at their father, who remained a raven; K. decides to create the earth; he flies to the horizon, the sky rubs against the earth; there, anthropomorphic creatures emerged from the dust from the friction; One of them tells K. to create dry land; he defecates in the sky, his excrement falls, turns into islands and continents; K. urinates, and upon reaching the ground, his urine becomes fresh, turns into rivers; he defecates again, mountains appear; trees grow on the ground; K. chips them into pieces, throws them into the water; pine chips turn into walruses, oak chips into seals; chips from dwarf cedar - into polar bears, from stone birch - into whales, from other species - into fish, crabs, and other sea creatures; chips that fall to the ground - into land animals; at first there are only men, the Spider gives birth to four daughters; K.'s companion marries one, but they sleep separately; K. teaches them how to copulate]: Bogoras 1904 in Norman 1990: 65-72; Chukchi[Tirkermin became pregnant without a husband; her father beat her, her daughter fell from a star; our planet had only water; T. made foam with her feet, stopped on the foam and gave birth to a raven, then a wolf, then a boy; she began to think what to feed him; The raven flew to see if there was land; he flew in one direction, a day passed, then in another, he flew to four parts of the world, there was no land anywhere; during these days the boy grew up, found some sprout, gave it to the raven in his beak, told him to cut it, burn it, mix it with foam, put it away; they began to make continents with this; they got up in the morning, there was already land; the boy made continents, the raven brought seaweed, the woman asked the sun to light them, the father lit them; at night the mother cried from the clouds; The raven made a female raven, a she-wolf, a woman from toy branches; they came to life; he flew away with the crow, the wolf left with the she-wolf, the boy stayed with his wife (Atyrakhtyna Maria, b. 1953, Chukotsky Autonomous Okrug, Chukotsky District, Lorino village, April 2001)]: Vukvukoy 2006; Itelmens ["Kutkhu created the earth from his son called Symskalin , whom his wife Ilkhum gave birth to while walking with him on the sea; or K. and his sister Khutlyzhich brought the earth down from the sky and established it on the sea"; (Orlova 1975: 129: symt – earth)]: Krasheninnikov 1994(1): 71.

Arctic. St. Lawrence Island [having created Russia and America, the Creator decided that before sunset he could do something small; he took a handful of sand from the bottom, squeezed the water out of it (that is why the island is called "pressed, squeezed out"), put it in front of him, put pebbles on this hillock so that they would be people, and ordered them to engage in sea hunting]: Bogoras in Krupnik, Krutak 2002, No. 3: 201; Central Yup'ik : Curtis 1930 (Nunivak) [two brothers on a strand on an ice-flow; the younger one cries, which is heard by a female Spirit of the Universe; she relieves herself with one foot on one kayak, the other on the other, her excrement becomes Nunivak Island; the younger brother becomes a woman; the islanders are descended from this couple]: 74 in Cumming 1954: 52-53; Fienup-Riordan 1983, no. 2 [the husband's name is Crow; his wife escapes on an ice-flow; the husband follows her in a kayak, taking some earth with her, and throws the earth into the sea; the ice floe stops, the earth on the surface grows, becoming a large island]: 373; Inupiat (Northern Alaska?): Ostermann 1952: 184 [people crowd on an island; Raven harpoons a huge sea monster, land emerges from it; it is chopped into pieces, thrown into the sea; they turn into islands, then merge into the mainland], 224-225; Spencer 1959 [ Tulungishirak (Raven) lives with his parents on a tiny island; a bubble hangs in the house; T. asks for it to play with, breaks it, it becomes light; the father wants it to be night too, does not let him break it completely; T. swims in a kayak, sees land; it rises above the water, then dives; he harpoons it; the land becomes land, grows]: 384-385; the mouth of the Mackenzie [a man in the sky realizes that he exists, turns into a Raven; he molds a creature from clay, throws it into the abyss, it is an evil spirit tornak ; appears Sparrow; Raven flies with him down into the abyss, ends up on the ground; creates people from clay, creates animals, plants; it is dark; Raven sends Sparrow, who brings light and dark pieces of mica; Raven breaks off a piece of the light, light appears; dark – night; the island is small, something huge is floating in the sea; Raven harpoons this mass, people divide it into pieces, throw it into the sea, the pieces turn into islands, merge into the continent]: Ostermann 1942: 61-65.

Subarctic. Koyukon : Jetté 1908-1909 [girl rejects suitors; young man comes to her with his four nephews; makes her fall into the ground; man and woman give him their baby girl; mother of dead girl causes flood; only young man and girl are saved; he throws harpoon into wave, it turns into mountain, into new land; girl grows up immediately; new people come from them; young man - Raven]: 312-313; Attla 1983 [huge animals enter sea, land is flooded; people-animals save themselves on raft; Raven and Seagull fly in different directions, do not find land; many dive, but only Muskrat gets clay from the bottom, Beaver helps to put it on the raft; when enough earth was piled up, land appeared again; vegetation appeared; Raven cut out riverbeds so that the water flowed in both directions at the same time; then he decided that it would be too easy for people to have rivers flow only downstream; he made a man out of stone; he decided that such a man would live forever and would not be smart enough (his mind would not be right); then he made a man out of clay; this man could think, was able to reproduce his own kind; he made a woman; at first people died and were reborn, but Raven decided that people should live only once; he was going to marry, others tried to take the woman from him; then Raven brought rotten willow, sprayed the dust, it turned into mosquitoes (so that they would bite their rivals); after this the animal-men became animals]: 129-137; Nelson 1983: 34 [(after Jetté 1908: 312-313, but this is clearly a different version); Raven asked the girl, she refused, he drowned her; her mother sent two brown bears, they made a wave on the lake; Raven made a path of still water before him, swam along it; threw a harpoon at the crest of the wave, it became land with forests; threw it at the big wave, it became Mount McKinley]; Rooth 1971 [water covers everything; Muskrat, Otter, Ducks dive, cannot reach land; Beaver brings sand]: 182, 205; Smelcer 1992 [Great Raven tells Raven to build a ship; rain covers the land; Raven sends out Gulls to scout, they return, finding no land; tells Muskrat to dive; he heaps up clay from the bottom, land appears again]: 124; Upper Kuskokwim [as Koyukon in Smelcer]: Smelcer 1992: 124; kuchin : McKennan 1965: 90 [people crowd on an island; land floats in the ocean, occasionally appearing on the horizon; Raven throws a harpoon at it; a continent appears], 103-104 [brother of Jateaquointturns into a Wolf; drives an elk into the lake; a large fish (she is the mother of both brothers) swallows him; at night the fish play with the skins of the Wolf and the elk; D. sharpens the Kingfisher's beak; he, in gratitude, tells him about the fate of his brother; D. hides in a hollow log on the shore; the fish come out to play, fall asleep; he kills them, two are saved; it begins to rain, a flood; D. floats on a raft; sends a Raven and another bird, both return without finding dry land; ties a rope to a Beaver, asks him to dive; he emerges dead; the same with the other two Beavers; Muskrat dives several times; the last time D. pulls her out dead, finds land on her paws; creates dry land; revives the Muskrat; sends the Wolf and the Fox to scout the land; the Wolf does not return, the Fox reports that the land is large]; tanaina ('inner tinne, NE of the konyags') [a huge bird flies over the ocean; the flapping of its wings produces thunder, lightning flashes from its eyes; it touches the water, and the earth rises]: Bancroft 1875: 105; khan (Eagle): Schmitter 1910 [(=1985: 31); during a flood, a family takes birds and animals on a raft; a man ties a beaver with a rope, sends him to the bottom; he does not dive, drowns; a muskrat floats up dead, a man scrapes clay from its paws, dries it into dust, scatters it; dry land appears]: 21; upper tanana [A raven marries a swan; flies with her south across the sea; he gets tired, the swans leave him; he sits on a rock in the middle of the sea; he seizes the child of a big fish; he promises to return it if the fish gets him stones from the bottom; makes an island out of them; orders moss to be brought, returns the baby to the fish; the moss grows, Alaska is formed]: McKennan 1959: 190; Southern Tutchone [water has covered the land; Raven clings to a star in the sky with her beak; sees a fire on the surface of the sea below; Sea Woman (var.: she is a female Sea Lion) sits by the fire on a piece of dry land with the baby in her arms; Raven takes it away; agrees to return it after Woman brings a clod of earth; she dives in and out of the water three times, fearing that Raven has carried off the baby; the fourth time she brings back some dry land; Raven sends her again, she brings more; Raven returns the baby, spreads out what she brought, creates dry land, it grows]: McClelland 1987: 253-254; Tagish [Raven throws sand on water, it does not sink, but turns into dry land]: McClelland 2007, #34e: 206; Tagish , Inland Tlingit [Raven lands on piece of log floating in ocean; kidnaps Sea Lion's baby; returns after Lion brings him sand; scatters sand, creating dry land]: Cruickshank 1992: 44; Kaska: Honigmann 1949 [during the flood, Jesus sends a Rat (Muskrat?) to get some earth from the bottom; it sinks; a small Duck gets some, the earth grows; Jesus sends a Wolf to find out how big it is; the Wolf does not return, the earth is big]: 214; Teit 1917a, no. 2 [the earth is covered by water; the birds and animals decide to dive; the Beaver, Muskrat, and others do not reach the bottom; the Diver returns after six days; the others find clay under his nails; they create dry land on the surface of the waters; the earth grows]: 441-442; beaver : Goddard 1916 [the earth is covered by water; the birds dive, only a small jackal manages to bring mud from the bottom under her claws; dry land arises from it]: 256-257; Ridington 1981 [ He Who Sits in Heaven places a cross on the water, commands various animals to dive for earth; Muskrat brings some earth under his nails; He Who Sits in Heaven places earth in the centre of the cross, commands it to grow]: 354; 1988 [beginning as in 1981; the Creator sends a dog to find out if the earth is big; it returns with a human bone in its teeth; for this the Creator turns it into a wolf; the wolf leaves and does not return]: 117-121; 1999 [everything is covered with water; God floats on a cross, commands animals to dive; Muskrat brings up mud from the bottom, God creates dry land; sends a Dog to find out if it is big; Dog brings a human bone; God sends a Wolf, it does not return]; hea [ Kunyan warns his sister-wife that there will be a flood; builds a raft; people do not believe, they drown; K. tells the animals to dive; the Muskrat does not dive to the bottom, the Beaver brings mud on its paw; K. creates dry land out of it; sends the Fox to run in circles, the earth grows; the Bittern drinks all the water; the Plover pierces its belly; the water pours out, forming lakes and rivers]: Petitot 1886, No. 13: 146-149; dogrib , slevi [ Chapevi drives away his two sons; it begins to rain, the sea floods the land; Ch. makes a raft, tells the animals to dive to the bottom; the Otter, the Beaver, the Duck Harelda glacialis do not dive to the bottom; the Muskrat brings earth on its paws; T. creates dry land; places the Raven on it, then the Fox; erects a supporting pillar]: Petitot 1886, no. 3: 316-319; Dogrib [no details; Thunderbird retrieves earth from the sea floor]: Dahnhardt 1907: 85; Chipewyan: Birket-Smith 1930: 83 [water gradually covers land, animal-men save themselves on floating island; Loon, Black Plother, Teal and other divers return without reaching bottom; Pintail brings earth on its paws; dives again, other birds dive after it, bring more earth; earth grows], 87 [Bear steals summer, animal-men bring warmth back; snow melts, water covers land; everyone gathers on high cliff; Pintail dives, brings lump of clay, earth grows]; Lowie 1912: 187 [cold, no animals; people reach place where cloud hangs from sky; in it are sacks with different animals, with warmth; people throw sack of warmth from sky, it bursts, earth is covered with water (probably from melted snow); people send birds from the sky to dive for earth; only the Pintail brings earth from the bottom in its beak and on its feet; it is sent to dive again; thus the earth grows], 195 [rain floods the earth; Wisákechak makes a boat, asks the Duck to dive; she brings mud on her feet several times, V. creates dry land; see motif M28]; yellowknife [animal people climb to the sky to get warmth; a squirrel from the top of a spruce gnaws a hole in the sky, light illuminates the earth; a bear keeps wineskins with rain, snow, fair weather, storm, warmth on an island; a deer swims to the island, carries away the warmth, descends on a rope to the earth; a mouse gnaws a hole in a wineskin to make moccasins for his children; warmth spreads, melted snow floods the earth; a grandfather is saved in a boat; first the Eagle, then the Dove fly in search of land; they return; the next time they bring a spruce branch; the Muskrat and Otter cannot dive to the bottom; the Duck brings mud from the bottom; from it they make new land]: Petitot 1886, No. 5: 373-378.

NW Coast. Eyak [Raven flies over the waters; a tree top emerges from the waters; he collects driftwood and debris around it and makes earth out of it; it grows; Raven makes mountains appear, then all kinds of living creatures; seagulls come, he turns them into various birds; a man came, Raven and man lived together, then they separated]: Birket-Smith, de Laguna 1938: 257-258 (=Johnson 1988: 11-12; trans. in Romanova 1997, no. 1: 25-26 taking into account a similar version in Krauss 1970); Tlingit [Raven flies over the waters; Fish promises to become his wife if he makes earth; Seal, Frog agree to bring sand from the bottom if he gives fur to Seal, will make Frog Keeper of the treasures of the earth ; Seal dives, gets sand-filled frog skin from Frog; Raven flies as high as he can where the wind is strong, scatters sand, wind carries it around the world, grains of sand fall on water, islands grow out of them; Fish dries his hair for the first time, becomes Raven's wife, they are the progenitors of the Raven race]: Smelcer 1992: 7-8; Haida (Masset) [at first only water; Raven (Yale) makes dust appear, this is land, it grows; he divides it into the Queen Charlotte Islands and the mainland]: Swanton 1908a: 293; Haida (Skydegate) [only one flat rock is visible in the sea; Raven flies to the sky, puts on the skin of the chief's daughter's newborn son; goes about at night taking out people's eyes; eats them; thrown down; The great crested grebe emerges, invites him into his underwater home; the old man gives him two pebbles; tells him to bite off a piece of the motley one, spit on the black one, put it on the water; from the black grow the Queen Charlotte Islands, the motley spots are trees]: Swanton 1905: 110-112; Haida : Boas 1916: 575 [No. 112: Raven flies with the Geese; they throw him, he sprinkles sand, making Rose Spit], 630 [Raven lives in the clouds, the world is covered by water; Raven beats the water with his wings, the spray turns into stones on which he rests; the stones grow, turning into the Queen Charlotte Islands]; bellacula [(a review of parallels to the flood myth among the Indians of the Great Lakes region); "I found a scene of the Muskrat bringing mud from the bottom among the Molala, Chinook and Bellacula"]: Boas 1940: 440; Kwakiutl: Boas 1895, No. XVIII.1.6-7 (Neveti group, Tlatlasicoala subgroup) [Mink wishes for a boat with women to capsize; dives, sealing their genitals with resin; Raccoon asks who can cure the women; Mink volunteers to do so; removes the resin by copulating with each of the women; they all become pregnant; he swims away in a boat with the one who has given birth to his son; pretends that his nose-plug has fallen into the water, dives; Mink's wife sees that he is not looking for the nose-plug, but is eating seals (Seehunde), swims away; he asks that his bow and arrows be thrown to him; shoots into the sky, makes a chain of arrows; comes to his father the Sun; he asks him to carry the solar disk (this is a pendant for the nose) in his place; tells him not to stray from the path above and below, otherwise the earth will freeze or burn; The mink descends, the sea boils, the forests burn; the Sun threw it to the earth, turning it into a mink]: 172-173 (=2002: 381-382); 1910, No. 18 [ Omeal (the raven) sends the Loon, the seal, and the duck Khobe to get soil and leaves from the bottom; the former emerge without reaching them, the Duck brings soil and leaves, Omeal drags her into the boat; since then there has been soil and leaves; O. painted Kamenushka, Gogol, and other birds; he was in a hurry, so he only managed to rub the Raven with charcoal and the Seagull with clay; the flood began; those who dived became seabirds; those whom the water did not reach became land birds]: 223-225 (translated in Romanova 1997, No. 55.2: 209).

Coast - Plateau. Quarry : Harmon in Bancroft 1875 [at first everything is covered with water; Muskrat swims in search of food; dives, gets clay from the bottom, spits it on the surface of the water; gradually an island and land are formed]: 96; Jenness 1934, #8 [sealer tells new wife not to look if she hears dogs gnawing; woman looks; sees first wife as Wolverine; she bites her in half; husband burns Wolverine by pushing her into an earthen oven, revives new wife; one day brings a white seal, asks wife to wash the carcass; she goes into the water, sea creatures carry her away; husband dives, brings stones to small fish, under which fish live, makes blind geese see; Satsang chops down a tree to make driftwood for a kidnapped woman; husband tells a wedge to split; fixes it; for this S. pours water on the fire; husband carries off his wife; S. prevents the pursuers from leaving the house, Geese and Fish put obstacles in their way; the sea floods the land up to the sky; husband kills his wife with an axe, throws her into the water; the water begins to subside; first Muskrat, then Beaver dive, both repeatedly bring portions of clay from the bottom; man makes new earth out of them]: 141-143; Thompson (Nicola Valley) [Ancient lives in the sky; creates the world by throwing a ball on the waters]: Boas 1916, No. 3: 617; Puget Sound [brothers are angry that their father-in-law (a bird that sings before the rain) does not wash his face; he washed it, it rained, the flood began; Muskrat dives, brings some earth from the bottom on his skin, makes earth]: Ballard 1929: 50 [Muskrat swims on a pole], 51 [birds, Beaver, Otter are saved together with Muskrat on a raft, do not dive to the bottom]; upper Chehalis [three versions; the Thrush girl is forced to wash her face; because of this it begins to rain, a flood; people are saved on the mountain; animals dive, only Muskrat reaches the bottom, brings earth; sprinkles on the water, dry land grows]: Adamson 1934: 1-3; tututni(Joshua) [at first only water and sky; the Giver and his companion are in a steam room standing on the waters; a white object floats up, two trees grow on it; it grows, turns into earth; it sways, hardens after the Creator and his companion fumigate it with tobacco; now there are only two trees on earth - sequoia (red-wood) in the south and ash in the north; days and nights began to alternate, grass grew, leaves on the trees; the Creator molds five lumps of clay, turns them into stone, throws them into the water; hears a distant blow, the water is deep; the next stone - the bottom is closer, another one - the earth is almost at the surface of the waters; breakers ran up, after the sixth the water receded; the Creator notices someone's footprints in the sand; five times he again floods the earth and frees it from water, but footprints appear each time; this means that disorder and evil (trouble) cannot be avoided in the world; The Creator made two clay figurines and gave them to his companion; after four days a male and female dog appeared, they had many puppies; the Creator made two more figurines, they became a snake and a serpent, they had many little snakes; the Creator put the snakes in a basket, crushed them, and threw them into the sea; but two crawled out, and all snakes come from them; the Creator ordered these two large snakes to wrap themselves around the earth like a belt, so that it would not fall apart; the Creator threw five bad dogs into a ditch, and from them came water monsters (or perhaps seals, sea mammals); the Creator's companion smokes all night; a woman appears, the Creator orders his companion to take her as his wife, to beget people; the companion lies with her, she does not see him, and gives birth to a son; he grows up, and people come from him (his wife is not mentioned)]: Farrand 1915, no. 16: 224-226; upper coquil [in the beginning only water; a house descended from the sky, with two people in it; they placed five layers of earth on the water one after the other; the first ones sank to the bottom, when they placed the fifth, earth with vegetation appeared; they saw the tracks of a dog and a wild cat; one of them created a woman, gave her to the other as a wife; he became invisible, so the woman went to look for him, forgetting about the baby; he almost died, the husband appeared, reproached her; their descendants populated the earth; they had dogs; the Indians had dog's eyes, and the white people had cat's eyes]: Jacobs 2007: 218-221; tolova [in the beginning water and darkness; the Creator created the world (=earth) with his thought, the world sailed from the south; in the center was the First Redwood, on it were the tracks of all the animals ('prehumans'); Coyote was dug out of the ground, he grew quickly, destroyed the monsters]: Drucker 1937: 268; kus[there is only the sea; two young men are wandering, decide to create dry land; they successively throw five disks of soot into the water, the earth appears; at first it is unstable; they put down a mat torn in half, then two halves of a basket; they stick eagle feathers into the ground, they turn into trees; they create animals; they see tracks, find a man, he answers that he is a shaman; they kill him, splash his blood, future generations will see him {as a spirit?}; one of them becomes pregnant for no reason, the child cannot come out; they invite a man from the north, he sails in a boat, takes out the child, it is a girl, all people come from her; there were no waves, the young men create them; they shoot into the sky, making a chain of arrows, rise to the upper world]: Frachtenberg 1913, no. 1: 5-14; Molala [(review of parallels to the flood myth among the Indians of the Great Lakes region); "I found the story of the Muskrat bringing up mud from the bottom among the Molala, Chinook, and Bellacula"]: Boas 1940: 440; Modoc [at first only Lake Tule exists; Kumokuma dives five times, brings up a handful of mud from the bottom, creates dry land; moves part of the land west and north - these are mountains; makes furrows with his fingers - river valleys; creates all forms of life; remains in a cave under the lake]: Marriott, Rachlin 1968: 28-29; Yakima [the land is covered with water; the Great Chief Above descended to shallow water, piled up mountains; one day Mother Earth became angry with the people, collapsed the mountains into the Big River (Columbia)]: Clark 1953: 142-143; .

Midwest. Winnebago : Radin 1909, no. 4 [Ma-ona, the creator, cries in empty space; his tears form the primordial ocean; with his mind he created the earth, it rocks; he created the four Winds, placing them at the four cardinal points as four mighty men; he threw four serpents with their heads to the east, they pierced the earth, it stopped rocking; he created four Thunderbirds, they struck the earth with their clubs, creating hills and valleys; he created four brothers, gave them tobacco, sent them to the earth]: 307-310; 1932: 56; Smith 1997: 18-22 [The Creator came to his senses, began to cry, his tears formed the sea; with his mind he created light, the earth, it rocked on the waves; he grew grass, created stones, placed the four Winds at the cardinal points, but the rocking continued; then he pierced the earth with four serpents with their heads to the east, the earth stood still; made four Thunderbirds out of clay in his own image; made four brothers, giving them tobacco, The thunders brought them down to earth; with blows of clubs they created hills and valleys], 149 [Ma-ona, the creator, saw that the earth he had created was smooth, men were sliding off it; he began to cry, his tears formed seas, rivers, washed out valleys, mountains arose; under their weight the earth shifted, men stopped sliding]; Menominee [there was only water; God sends down an old woman from heaven, places a little earth under her in the center of the sea; she makes the dry land large]: Skinner, Satterlee 1915, no. II1: 305; Eastern Cree [the world is covered with water, animals dive to get earth from the bottom; Muskrat brings clay on his tail, but not enough and the clay sinks; Otter fails, Beaver brings enough to form an island; he grows]: Swindlehurst 1905, no. 1: 139; Plains Ojibwa : Simms 1906: 337 [water everywhere; Weese-ke-jak sees geese; they reply that there is land somewhere to the south; W. asks them to bring some land with them; makes a large land out of it; creates all living things on it], 340 [Weese-ke-jak causes a flood, saves two animals each in a large boat; tells them to dive for land; Otter swims away; Muskrat brings land, but immediately dives back; W. just grabs its tail, which becomes long and naked; Beaver dives, brings land, is rewarded with a beautiful skin and strong teeth].

Northeast. See motif B1; for a complete list of sources for 25 Huron and Iroquois versions of the myth, see Fenton 1962. Huron [1) in the sky Aataensic sees a bear, followed by a dog chasing him, fall into a hole; falls into the water after him, the water dries up; var.: A.'s sick husband dreams that he must cut down a certain tree from which people got their food; A. begins to chop, the tree immediately falls through, A. falls in after him; below in the sea the Turtle exposes his back; sends the Beaver, who brings it from the bottom of the earth, it grows; A. was pregnant, gave birth to a daughter, who soon gave birth to twins Tawiscaron and Iouskeha; they began to fight; T. hit his brother with a rose hip, and I. with an elk horn, killed him, flints arose from his blood; A. is the Moon, I. is the Sun; 2) (p.43); at first there is water everywhere, only a tiny island; a man asks a Fox to dive, she is afraid, he throws her into the water; asks a “small animal like a marten” (Muskrat, Mink?) to dive; the sea turns out to be shallow, Muskrat hits the bottom with its muzzle, brings land, a man creates dry land]: Brébeuf in Greer 2002: 42-44; Hurons[woman falls from the sky into the primeval ocean; animals and birds dive to get earth from the bottom; Toad brings mud in his mouth; earth grows]: Barbeau 1960, #1 [sister lives in the sky with her brothers; picks all the ears of their corn at once; for this they throw her down through a hole in the sky; first the Geese, then the Turtle support the woman; she sprinkles mud on the Turtle, creating the earth; finds two twins, good and evil]: 4; Connelley 1899 [the daughter of the sky chief falls ill; her father orders to dig up a huge tree to collect medicine from its roots; the tree and the woman fall into the abyss; two Geese (Swans?) catch her; the Little Turtle sprinkles earth along the edge of the Big Turtle's shell; when it moves, earthquakes occur; the woman comes to her grandmother; she has twins - Fire and Flint]: 120-123; Hale 1888 [husband throws pregnant wife to the ground; Loons catch her in the air, put her on Turtle's back; she tells the animals to dive; Beaver, Muskrat, Diver cannot reach the bottom, some float up dead; when Toad floats up, Turtle finds some clay in her mouth, gives it to the woman, she puts the clay on Turtle's shell, the earth grows, Turtle has supported the earth ever since; twins in the womb of the woman argue about how to be born; good Tijuskeha (Ioskeha of French sources; "kind", "savior") is born normally, evil Tawiskarong ("flint") comes out of the side of the mother, killing her; she is buried; from her head grew a pumpkin, from her breasts corn, from her arms and legs beans and other cultivated plants; the evil one makes snakes, predators, huge mosquitoes, a huge toad that drank all the water on earth; the good one makes harmless and useful animals; a partridge flies to Tawiskarong in search of water; Tijuskeha goes after her, rips open the Toad's belly, the water pours out; he reduces the evil creatures in size; the good one says that he can only be killed with a sack of corn, beans; the evil one - that he can only be killed with a deer horn; the evil one strikes first, but the good one comes back to life, kills the evil one with a horn; he goes to the west, becomes the master of the dead; the good one wanted the rivers to flow in both directions, the evil one demanded that only in one]: 180-183; Oneida : James Dean (1770-ies?) in Elm, Antone 2000: 157-162 [in a land in the sky, a man asks for a tree with flowers of light to be dug up, pushes his pregnant wife into a hole, explains that she has been unfaithful; water below; only the Turtle can support the earth; a Mink dives, comes up dead with earth on his feet and face; a Loon places earth on the Turtle, the earth grows; a woman gives birth to a daughter; animal-men propose to her; the mother agrees to the Turtle's proposal; the husband places two flint-tipped and bark-tipped arrows crosswise on his wife's belly; two boys quarrel in the womb; the younger Tan -lon -ghi -au -wan -goon (hereinafter T., kind) wants to go out normally, senior Than -wisk -a -law (hereinafter Th.) - through the side of the mother; as a result, she dies; the grandmother kills her grandchildren, throws them into the sea; they return; the grandmother divides her daughter's corpse in half, throws it up; the top turns into the sun, the bottom into the moon; Th. has his father's flint, he kills game with it; the grandmother loves him; the old man gives T. corn; says that he must kill his evil brother, whose body is made of flint, otherwise people will not be able to live on earth; T. pretends to be afraid of beech and reed branches; Th. replies that he is afraid of flints and deer antlers; defeated, runs away, creating ravines and mountains, turns into the Rocky Mountains; the evil grandmother tries to destroy people with a flood, snow; brings upon them all the evils from which men now suffer], Frederick Waugh (zap. 1912-1917) in Elm, Antone 2000: 164-168 [a brother and sister live in the sky; the sister becomes pregnant, people believe it is from her brother; he orders that a tree with luminous flowers be uprooted, and the sister be pushed into the hole; there is water below; the Turtle agrees to support the earth; the Mink dives, and emerges dead with earth on its paws and muzzle; the Loon places earth on the Turtle, and the earth grows; the woman gives birth to a daughter; the stranger marries her; he places two arrows, one with a blunt end and one with a sharp end, crosswise on her belly; he disappears; two boys quarrel in the womb; Talohiavago wants to come out normally, Davisgal - through the side of the mother; as a result, she dies; the grandmother kills her grandchildren, throws them into the lake; in the morning they return; [they are racing to her; T. would have won, but his grandmother does not love him and lets D. grab her; their mother would have risen from the grave in ten days, but D. smashes her head with an axe; the old man gives E. corn, T. exchanges flint with his brother for it; T. sees D. pick up a stone and kill a bear coming out of the ground; T. releases the game and scatters it over the ground; D. answers that he is most afraid of tree buds; he says that he is afraid of deer antlers; T. makes the river flow in two directions, D. spoils creation; the brothers fight until only bones remain; T. promises to return at the end of time]; Seneca: Converse 1908 in Turner 1978 [in the sky, the Great Chief uproots a tree, sends a pregnant woman down; birds catch her, preventing her from falling into the sea; a Beaver dives to get earth from the bottom, disappears; a Duck emerges dead; a Muskrat brings clay on its paw; the clay is placed on a Turtle, the earth grows; when the Turtle moves, earthquakes occur; a woman gives birth to twins; an evil one comes out under her arm; she dies giving birth to a good one]: 36-38; Cornplanter 1938, #1-2 [in the sky, the Chief thinks that his wife is pregnant by a Blue Puma or a Fire Dragon (=Meteor); uproots the Tree of Light, throws his wife into the resulting hole, throws after her characters, who turn into cultivated plants and animals on earth; birds catch the falling woman; all dive to get earth from the bottom; Muskrat brings earth in his mouth; Turtle exposes his back; woman scatters earth around, earth grows; woman gives birth to a daughter; stranger hangs two arrows over girl, one of them with a flint tip; girl gives birth to twins; one of them kills mother, coming out into the light through armpit]: 19-26; Curtin, Hewitt 1918, No. 74 [in heaven woman receives instructions in a dream to dig up a tree with flowers of light; people dig it up, it falls into the abyss; chief orders woman to be thrown after; Loon orders Ospreys to catch her; rejects Horned Serpent's offer to take care of woman; Turtle is chosen for this role; animals and birds dive to get earth, float up dead; Hell-diver brings some earth; it is placed on Turtle, Beavers and Ducks make the earth large; woman gives birth to a daughter; she becomes pregnant by a man who turns out to be a Turtle; gives birth to twins; one comes out of her armpit, killing her; his head is a flint]: 409-415; Hewitt 1903 [sky chief suspects his wife of infidelity, pushes her into the abyss with her little daughter; she falls on a Turtle; sprinkles earth she holds in her hands on his shell, the earth grows; her daughter is pregnant by the Wind; gives birth to twins; the younger, Warty, comes out through the mother's navel, killing her; the eldest comes to his father, the Wind; who offers him to run around the world with his two other sons; after this he gives him a bag with all the animals; the grandmother secretly eats corn, which she hides among her things; the grandson spies, finds an ear, makes porridge; he brings a beaver from the hunt; the grandmother sprinkles blood between his legs, says that now he is menstruating; he splashes blood on his grandmother's feet; says that menstruation will not be in men, but in women; grandson: let the menstruation last as many days as there are spots on the fawn's skin; grandmother: as many as there are stripes on the chipmunk's back (four); he agrees]: 221-254; Onondaga[as Seneca; Chief's wife becomes pregnant by his breath before she can have sex with him; Ducks catch falling woman; many cannot get earth from bottom; Muskrat floats up dead with earth in mouth; only Turtle, not Otter, can bear weight of earth; earth grows]: Hewitt 1903: 141-182; 1928 [Beaver finds clay in Muskrat's mouth; cannot bear weight of earth; Fox, Raccoon come to marry Sky Woman's daughter, rejected]: 470-486; Mohawk : Hewitt 1903 [as Onondaga in Hewitt 1903; man hangs arrowhead over woman's bed; she then gives birth to Flint and Mapleshoot; woman's mother makes moon out of daughter's head, sun out of daughter's body; Frog lies that sedges and grass (cattails) will kill him; Flint says that yellow flints and deer rolls are fatal to him; brothers fight; Flint is killed, turns into a mountain range]: 255-339; Rustige 1988 [in a world in the sky, a man dies for the first time; a girl whose father is unknown goes to his remains; she is followed, heard calling the dead man father; he tells her to go to the chief at the edge of the world; the chief likes the way she cooks porridge, takes her as his wife, sends her home for a while; as a result, corn falls from above; the woman becomes pregnant, the chief falls ill; he orders the tree to be uprooted, asks his wife to look down, pushes her off, himself immediately recovers; the ducks catch her as she falls, put her on the back of a turtle; the woman asks the animals to dive; The Beaver and the Otter float up dead, The Muskrat brings mud under his claw; while the woman sleeps, the earth appears from it; The woman gives birth to a daughter; At night a man comes, leaves an arrow near the girl; She conceives twins; Good brother Sprout is born normally, Evil Flint comes out of the mother's side, killing her; He proves to the grandmother that it was Sprout who killed her daughter, she throws Sprout into the willow thicket; Flint and the grandmother hide the animals; Sprout finds and opens the door in the rock; The monsters have remained in the rock to this day; Flint and the grandmother hide the sun in a tree on an island; The Beaver, Spider, Rabbit, Hawk do not go to take the chatterbox Otter with them; They get the sun, Rabbit runs away with it, the shine has whitened the fur on his belly; The chatterbox Otter is hit with an oar, his jaw has become short; The sun is thrown into the sky; Flint and Sprout fight, creating unevenness of the landscape; Flint is cast down to the nether world, creates evil spirits; Sprout cuts off Grandmother's head, makes the moon out of it]: 3-18; Tuscarora[a woman in the upper world is ready to give birth to twins; at this time she falls down; sea monsters get some earth from the bottom, put it on a turtle; when the woman lands on it, the land begins to grow; the good son Enigorio (E.) is born normally, the evil Enigonhahetgea (EH) - through the side of the mother, killing her; E. turns the mother's head into the sun, her body into the moon; creates plants, animals; molded two figures, put a soul into them, people came to life; EH created mountains and waterfalls, harmful reptiles; molded two figures, but monkeys turned out of them; E. lies that he can be killed with a reed; EH answers that he can be killed with a deer horn; brothers fight, E. kills EH, he falls into the ground, becomes an evil spirit]: Cusick, Royster 2006: 5-8 (=Leland 1968: 24-25, =Leland 1884, =Beauchamp 1922: 8-11);; Laurentian Iroquois [a woman descended from the sky and hung in the air, because there was nowhere to descend; the inhabitants of the sea began to consult who could support her; a turtle volunteered to do this and offered his back; the mud on the water thickened around and formed America; a spirit descended to her sleeping and fertilized her; two sons came out of her side; they did not agree with each other in anything; one grew up to be the best hunter; one was evil, the other good; the good one ascended to the sky and from time to time thunders over the head of his unfortunate brother; the spirit after some time descended to the woman again; after this she gave birth to a daughter, from whom the people who inhabit America descend]: Hennipin 1903: 451-452; Delawares : Bierhorst 1995, no. 2 [(see below Dorson 1959; collected 1679; there was only water; the Turtle lifted his back, the earth dried out; a tree grew in the middle of it; the first man came out of its roots; the first woman – from the top of the head when it bent down to the ground], 30 [there was a sun-like object in the sky, it was called a corn stalk; there was a woman with a child, she fell ill; she thought to be cured by tearing up the stalk; everything was plunged into darkness; people threw her together with the child into the hole formed where the stalk grew; Hawks caught her, placed her on the back of the Turtle; the Loon dived, brought earth from the bottom], 44 [a husband in the sky is jealous of his wife for the Comet; throws her into a hole in the place of the uprooted heavenly tree; falling, the woman grabs a bush blackberries, Comet gives her corn seeds, a pot, a beaver bone, a mortar and pestle; Pike offers to be her support, but the Manitou only laugh at him; Turtle becomes the support; the woman gives birth to a daughter; she gets pregnant from the wind, gives birth to twins, these are Flint and Moskim("hare", "rabbit"); Flint comes out through the mother's navel, killing her; the grandmother buries her daughter with her head to the west, marking the path that the souls of the dead must take], 77 [the earth rests on a huge Turtle; when there was only water everywhere, the Muskrat began to create the earth, placing it on the Turtle's back; then the Beavers added earth], 187 [zap. 1977; the turtle is the "mother of the earth", for in the beginning she brought up the mud from the bottom, from which the Creator made the earth]: 28-29, 34-35, 38, 46, 71-72; Dorson 1959 [Dutchman Jasper Danckaerts asked an 80-year-old Indian on Long Island where his people came from; he drew a circle on the ground with charcoal with four legs, a head and a tail; explained that at first there was only water; the turtle slowly floated up, the water receded, dry land was formed; then the Indian stuck a straw into the circle; in the middle of the earth grew a tree, from its top – a man; the tree bent its top to the ground, put out a second root, and from there grew a woman; from them people come]: 19.

Plains. Sarsi: Curtis 1976(18) [The Old Man gives the Muskrat a piece of earth, asks him to run around it until it grows; but it does not grow; then he tells him to dive; the fourth time the Muskrat brings clay from the bottom; the Old Man rolls it into a lump, tells the Plover to run around it, the earth grows; the Old Man creates earth inhabitants; he makes the Crow out of coal, since other materials have run out by that time; the last one he makes is sarsi, turning into them pellets of skin scales]: 180-182; Dzana-gu 1921, no. 3 [the flood flooded the world, the Old Man gathered birds and animals on a raft; he sent the birds to dive, only a small marsh bird with red rims around its eyes reached the bottom when it dived for the fourth time; floated up dead, but the Old Man found grains of earth under the claws, revived the bird; told the plover (Charadrius vociferus) to run in circles around a grain of earth, it began to grow; The Old Man told the plover to run all its life, and then its descendants ran; the earth grew, animals and people went off the raft onto dry land], 4 [a man has a wife and two sons; he combs his wife's hair, paints her face, but every time she goes for brushwood and returns, her hair is tangled, the paint is smudged, her clothes are dirty; he watches, sees how she approaches a rotten tree, knocks, says that she has arrived, snakes crawl out, wrap themselves around her body; the husband tells his sons about this, tells them to run, goes to the tree, calls the snakes with the same signal, kills them with a stick, throws the bodies into the ravine, one escapes, but has lost its tail; the wife finds only one snake, returns, the husband cuts off its head, it falls into the tipi, the body - outside, the husband runs away in the opposite direction than the sons; they ran to the river, asked the water monster to take them across; he offered them to eat his parasites; they are frogs; the brothers clicked the seeds from which they made necklaces, the monster is pleased, lay down like a bridge, the brothers crossed to the other bank; the mother's head set off in pursuit, bit the frog, spat in disgust, the monster offered her to cross the river, threw it into the water, the head drowned; the brothers saw a raft, put a board from there, offered to take food, the eldest stepped on, they threw him on the fruit, sailed away; he shouted to the youngest not to go anywhere, to wait for him; he returned, but his brother had turned into a wolf; they hunted together; the wolf rushed after a deer into the river, something pulled him under the water; the Old Man brought his elder brother to the river, where there were fish by the shore; they began to shoot at them, wounded the chief; the Frog-shaman comes, saying that she was called to treat the wounded chief of the fish; the Old Man killed him, dressed up as him, went down to the fish, found the wolf's skin, revived him, he returned to the shore; the Old Man told everyone to close their eyes while he would treat the chief, killed everyone, returned to the shore; other fish caused a flood; the Old Man on the raft tells the animals to dive; only the Muskrat dived, surfaced dead; the Old Man got grains of earth from under his claws and teeth, revived the Muskrat; so she dived four times; the Old Man suggested that the animals run around a lump of earth, only the Wolf and the Otter agreed; the earth grew, they returned, having grown old, the Old Man rejuvenated them; so three times, after the fourth they did not return, the earth is great]: 5,6-8; Simms 1904 [two youths from the upper world descend to the people; two daughters of a chieftain fall in love with them; the people go to have the sisters marry behind two bright stars; the youths are killed; as punishment the Creator sends a flood; an old man escapes on a raft, with animals and birds with him; he sends the animals to dive; Muskrat is the last to surface, the old man scrapes a little mud from its paws, blows, and creates dry land; he sends Plover to find out how big the earth is; he returns old and tired; the earth is big]: 180-182; Simms 1904 [two youths from the upper world descend to the people; two daughters of a chieftain fall in love with them; the people go to have the sisters marry behind two bright stars; the youths are killed; as punishment the Creator sends a flood; an old man escapes on a raft, with animals and birds with him; he sends the animals to dive; the last to emerge is Muskrat, the old man scrapes a little mud from her paws, blows, creates dry land; he sends Plover to find out if the land is big; he returns old and tired; the land is big]: 180-182;Blackfoot : Fraser 1990 [chief's daughter sleeps outside with two friends, wants Morning Star as her husband; in the morning a handsome man comes to her, takes her to the sky; she gives birth to a child, is happy; her husband tells her not to dig up a large root vegetable; she disobeys the order, sees her home camp through a hole in the sky, cries; her husband tells her to make a rope, sends her back; she comes to her parents, but her son turns into a mushroom-smoke; people cut him up; she asks Morning Star for revenge; he tells her and her parents to make a raft, sends rain, flooding the land; her father tells Beaver, Duck, other animals and birds to dive to the bottom; no one returns; Muskrat brings earth on his paw; land reappears]: 32-35; Linderman 1995 [rain floods the land, animals ask Napi ("Old Man") to help, he makes a raft, tells them to dive for land; Loon, Otter, Beaver, Goose, and Goose do not reach the bottom; Muskrat surfaces dead, N. revives her, she says she saw land; gets some land on the second try, brings more on the third try; N. creates dry land, tells Wolf to check if it is big; he returns after six months, N. says the land is small, continues to expand it; Wolf does not return a second time, the land is big; N. sculpts from clay, revives the first pair of Chippewa Indians]: 16-21; Maclean 1893 (blood) [during the flood, the Old Man sends out four animals one after another; Fish, Frog, and Lizard do not return; Turtle brings clay in his mouth; Old Man puts clay on water, makes earth out of it]: 165; Wissler, Duvall 1908, #1 [woman, who became the wife of a star, gave birth to a child, who is a mushroom (fungus); it was torn apart, for this the heavenly inhabitants sent a flood; during the flood the Old Man with the animals sits on a high mountain; Otter, Beaver, Muskrat, Duck (?) are successively sent to bring earth from the bottom, float up dead, but the Old Man finds some clay on the Duck's paws; he throws it on the water, dry land appears; the heavenly inhabitants send rain, everything grows on the earth]: 19; Assiniboine [at first there is only water]: Clark 1966 [Muskrat gets earth from the bottom]: 297; Dusenberry 1962 [Inktomi created everything in four stages; The blue, black, white, and speckled rocks symbolize these stages of creation; separated the spirits of the day from the spirits of the night; created a man and a woman from clay, then animals; people began to kill each other, I. chose one, taught him to make a raft; after 4 days the water flooded the land; I. chose seven waterfowl, ordered them to bring clay from the bottom, they floated up dead, got nothing; I. sent a muskrat, a mink, a beaver, a small otter (fisher); they also floated up dead, but under their claws were grains of clay; from them I. created dry land; made a woman for the man and 6 more pairs of men and women; these are the ancestors of the seven Dakota council fires {by Dakota is meant also the Assiniboine}]: 71-73; Lowie 1909a, No. 1 [The Creator sails in a boat; Muskrat meets him, in his paws is silt; the Creator scatters it on the water, makes the earth]: 100-101; Gros Ventre: Cooper 1975, #3 [The creator of the earth alone knows there will be a flood; made a raft, put a pipe on it; landed on a mountain, told Mud Hen (=Hell Diver), Turtle, Beaver, Muskrat to dive for earth; they all surfaced dead, but Mud Hen and Turtle had some earth on their paws; the creator threw pinches in different directions, dry land appeared; molded a man, from his rib created a woman]: 435-436; Kroeber 1907b, #1 [water all around; someone, perhaps Nishant, sent Duck, Otter, Beaver, Turtle to dive for earth; Earth was brought only by Turtle; this personage scattered it, creating dry land; created mountains, squeezing the earth out of his hand little by little, made rivers, vegetation], 2 [Nishant destroyed the first world with fire, the second with a flood; placed his pipe on three sticks, the pipe and he himself float on buffalo cakes; stamped his foot, shouted, water gushed out of the ground, it began to rain, everything was flooded, the buffalo cakes floated up; The crow remained flying; N. allows her to sit on the pipe; takes animals and birds from the pipe, tells them to dive; first the Great Loon, then the Little Loon do not reach the bottom; The turtle dives; in the folds of its skin and on its paws N. finds a little clay; throws it on the water, dry land appears; N. sings, the earth grows, he sculpts people and animals, revived by shouting three times; named the world Turtle, because the Turtle got the earth; rainbow is a sign that the earth will no longer be covered with water; after this world there will be another]: 59, 59-61; Arapaho: Dorsey 1903 [flood, man walks on water, thinks how to preserve his pipe; creates seven poplars, birds sit on them, reptiles swim up; Ducks, Kingfisher, Crane and other birds do not reach the bottom; Creator turns into Red-headed Duck; he and Turtle both bring clay from the bottom; Creator puts it on his pipe, earth grows; Turtle represents earth; Creator places black, yellow, red, green colors at four cardinal directions (not named); each color and direction is associated with one of the four Old Men; throws the core of a poplar into the water, it floats up - let this be the life of people; Nihansan throws a pebble, it sinks - let people die]: 191-204; Dorsey, Kroeber 1903, No. 1 [water everywhere; Grandfather saw Father - a pipe on four sticks-supports; Father called waterfowl; they dive one by one, drown, only Duck brings clay on her paws; Father puts clay on the pipe, but there is not enough earth; Turtle volunteers to dive, brings earth on four paws; Father dries the earth, creates dry land, rivers; where more fell, there are mountains; Father creates the Sun and the Moon as the embodiment of man and woman; sculpts man and woman], 2 [a man, his wife and son are floating on a wooden pipe; the son wants earth; father gathers waterfowl, Duck, as the best diver, is sent to the bottom; Duck brings a little earth on her paws, father creates dry land, but the earth is too small; father sends Turtle, it brings clay on its shell, the man creates dry land, waving his pipe, creates rivers], 3 [there was a pipe on four supports, a man on it; he calls the waterfowl, asks them to dive, they all emerge dead, Duck last; then Turtle volunteers to dive, brings earth on his shell; the man dries it on a pipe, scattering it, creates dry land; the earth has the shape of a turtle; the man molds a man and a woman from clay; note: one informant identified the creator with Nihansan (lit. Spider, trickster)], 6 [a splinter of stone falls into the womb of a woman; she gives birth to a boy named Rock; during the flood he orders Crow, Magpie, Jay and other animal-men to make a raft of dried mushrooms; the mushrooms get wet, the raft begins to sink; Rock orders White-nosed Duck to get earth; she does not dive to the bottom; turns one of his moccasins made of turtle shells into Turtle; The turtle brings clay, a rib, a reed from the bottom; The rock creates dry land by waving its rib in four directions; turns the reed into corn; creates the sky; after this Nihansan began to live in the sky, became our father; he who had turtle moccasins threw a buffalo cake into the water, it floated - let this be the life of man; N. threw a stone, it sank - let people die, otherwise there will be too many of them]: 1-2, 3-4, 4-6, 14-17; Crow: Lowie 1918: 14 [everything is covered with water; Old Man Coyote (=Sun) tells the ducks to dive; three kinds of ducks fail to reach the bottom, Dive brings clay on its feet; Old Man makes earth, mountains, trees], 16 [before the flood Old Man Coyote makes a boat; tells two ducks to dive; one fails to reach the bottom three times; the other brings clay in its beak on the fourth try; he makes earth with mountains and rivers], 17 [everything is covered with water; Old Man Coyote tells the ducks to dive; they bring clay from the bottom four times, he makes earth], 17-18 [everything is covered with water; four ducks decide to dive; one brings clay in its nostrils, they make earth; Old Man Coyote helps them make mountains, rivers]; 1960: 195 [everything is covered with water; Old Man Coyote sends Swallow to the bottom, then Crow, then Wolf; they bring no earth; sends Duck; from the clay she brings he makes dry land; he molds a man and a woman from the clay], 198-200 [it is raining, the land is flooded; Old Man Coyote calls two ducks - a white and a black one, asks which of them dives better - they answer that they dive the same way; the white duck dives twice, did not see the bottom; the black duck brings earth in her paws; the earth is scattered, dry land appears; Old Man Coyote asks Clever Woman to make rivers for the ducks; she draws their beds with a cane], 205-209 [there is only water in the world; Old Man Coyote asks two red-eyed Ducks to dive; one dives, the other stays with Coyote, measures time - has the one who dived suffocated? The first Duck brings a rootlet, it is no good; dives again, brings earth on her feet; Coyote blew on it - dry land grew; at the request of the Ducks, Coyote makes rivers; molds people and ducks from clay - first men and males, then women and hens]; Simms 1903, No. 1 [everything is covered with water; the Old Man asks four ducks which of them is braver; one dives, brings earth in her beak; the Old Man blows in all directions, the earth is formed with mountains and rivers; makes a man and a woman, gives them culture]: 281-282; Santee : Skinner 1920: 273-278 (Wahpeton) [the world is covered with water; Wakan Tanka(Great Spirit) descends in the form of a rainbow, throws two of his ribs, falling into the water, they turn into two horned four-legged water monsters; from the right thigh - a male, from the left - a female; VT teaches them to lead the Medicine Ritual; the monsters tell the Loon, another bird (Diver?), Beaver and Muskrat to dive; three float up dead, VT revives them; Muskrat brings mud on his paws, the monsters throw it to the west, land appears there, all the animals swim there; various groups of animals enter the dwelling; each appears with its own medicine chants, thus the Wahpeton society arises; later the animals appear to people in dreams, teaching songs and rituals; the monsters descend to the lower world; medicine herbs appear from their wool (retold in DeMallie, Parks 2001: 1065)]; Wallis 1923 [first only water; the Great Power created the earth, then man and woman, animals; a downpour passed, the earth bubbled, dried in the sun, rocks appeared; piling stones (one on top of another), the Great Power created mountains; soon a flood occurred, the descending water made valleys]: 36-37; Teton (Brule) [The Creator splits the earth, water pours from above and below, everything is drowned; he himself floats on his sacred pipe; Crow flies, says that she has nowhere to sit; from the bag for storing the pipe the Creator takes out all the animals and birds; sends Loon, then Otter, Beaver, they do not dive; Turtle brings earth from the bottom under his shell and on his paws; the Creator places it on the water, creates dry land; Crow sits down to rest; now there is no water; The Creator weeps for the earth and its inhabitants, his tears turn into seas and other bodies of water; the Creator molds people from clay; says that he destroyed the first world with fire, the second with a flood; he calls this one the Continent of the Turtle; after that there will be a fourth world]: Erdoes, Ortiz 1984: 496-499; Dakota (Sioux, group not specified; identified with Dakota in Thompson 2000, no. 92: 299) [recorded from members of a secret society; Bubble and Monster are twins, sons of Turtle; Monster's body was made of stone, he killed his mother at birth; Bubble looked everywhere for him to kill; Turtle brought earth from under the waters of the flood in her mouth, a water bird brought a blade of grass; this was placed on Turtle, the earth grew; in some stories, Muskrat or Coyote replace Turtle; only the initiated know that the Turtle is the earth and we live on its shell]: Meeker 1901: 161-163; Santee [first only water; the Great Powers created the earth, then man and woman, animals; from the thunderstorm rain bubbles of mud appeared on the water, the sun dried them, turning them into rocks; the Powers piled them up, creating mountains; the waters that receded after the flood made valleys]: Wallis 1923: 36-37; Mandan[in the beginning of time, Lone Man tells the Ducks to dive; they bring back dirt from the bottom; he scatters it on the water, dirt appears]: Beckwith 1938: 1-2 [in the beginning of time, Creator and Lone Man walk on the water, tell Duck to dive; she brings back sand in her beak, dirt appears; Creator takes land south of Missouri, Lone Man takes land north]; Bowers 1950: 347-348 [Lone Man walks on water, sees Flower, there is blood in it; Flower says that O-C is her son; O-C tells two Ducks to dive four times, they bring back four pieces of dirt from the bottom; he scatters it, dry land appears with trees; O-C takes his pipe, comes to First Man (this is Coyote); they argue which of them is older; OC thrusts his spear into the ground, symbolizing two ducks that got the earth, and PC lies down next to him; OC comes to this place four times; the last time - many years later, the spear almost fell, only bones of PC; but PC was reborn, proving that he is older; they go together to arrange the land; since OC's pipe was in two halves, in the middle of the land is Missouri; OC created the land to the north of the river, PC - to the south; OC's land is flat, and PC created unevenness to easily sneak up on the bison; created bison; OC's cattle are domestic, PC's bison are wild], 361-364 [A Lonely Man walks on water, sees a flower, decides that he was born from it; someone says, I am your father ; OC meets the First Creator; both ask Diver to get silt from under the water; OC gives half of the land brought by Mudhen to First Creator, himself creates the east, male, flat side, livestock, PS creates the west, female, broken side, buffalo; they argue about who is older; they decide that the one who lies dead the longest; OC puts up a stick for himself, PS lies down as a coyote; when, after a few years, OC thinks with pity about the long-dead PS and takes out the stick, Coyote is resurrected, proving his seniority]; Mandan , Hidatsa [Lone Man (Coyote) walks on the waters, meets First Creator; both ask Mudhen what he eats; I dive for mud to the bottom ; he brings back silt four times; P.S. makes the land south of the Missouri, O.C. - to the north; they argue about whose land is better and who is older]: Beckwith 1938: 7-9]; Hidatsa [water covers everything; First Creator tells Diver to get sand from the bottom; makes the earth, creates Lone Man, they argue]: Beckwith 1938: 15; Arikara[two Ducks are swimming on a large lake; Wolf comes from the SW, Lucky Man (LM) from the north; Wolf proposes a contest to see who can stand the rain the longest; hangs his skin on a stick, LM - different feathers; Wolf loses, proposes to LM to be his co-creator; tells Duck to get mud from the bottom, she dives, brings it, Wolf scatters it, land appears, this is the plain north of the Missouri, on it are buffalo; LM also asks Duck to bring mud from the bottom; she brings more, he throws what he brought to the south, hilly country appears south of the Missouri; LM says that it will be more comfortable for people and buffalo to live among the hills; the Missouri flowed as a boundary between the two lands]: Dorsey 1904d, #11; Pawnee skidi [see motif B5A; Morning Star receives a pebble from Evening Star, throws it into the waters; after a long time, the earth comes into being from the pebble; the four gods of the cardinal directions struck (the surface of the sea?) with their hands, the earth rose up at the sides of the waters]: Chamberlain 1982: 25-26; Ioway [West. Rev. William Hamilton; Ictc ñ'ke floats in a boat; sends a Muskrat to the bottom, which brings back some clay in its paws; the bird flies away and returns with a branch; I. strips its leaves, mixes them with clay, throws it all onto the waters, creating dry land]: Dorsey 1892: 300 (mentioned in Boas 1940: 439); Osage (Wajaje phratry) [people lived in the sky (sometimes these are the stars); the Sun told them that he had begotten them; the Moon said that she had begotten them from the Sun; that they must come down to the earth; but there was only water below, the people were hanging in the air; they asked the Elk for help, he fell into the water, began to sink; they called the winds, they began to blow, the waters receded; at first there were only stones, then soil appeared; the Elk joyfully began to roll on it; his hairs stuck to the soil turned into beans, corn, potatoes, wild tubers, trees and grasses; the people meet members of other Osage divisions, decide to live with them]: Fletcher, LaFlésh 1911: 62-64 in DeMallie, Park 2001: 1066 and in Erdoes, Ortiz 1984: 119; oto [four brothers are in the water, looking for land; three do not find it, the youngest finds it; they begin to live on land, create the Elk and other animals]: Whitman 1938: 175-176; Omaha [in the beginning all beings in Wakonda consciousness; descended as spirits, water appeared below; earth burst forth from it in flames]: ?; Cheyenne : Grinnell 1907-1908 [in the beginning of time the Creator asks waterfowl to dive; swans, geese, ducks do not reach the bottom; a small duck brings mud in its beak; the Creator throws it on the water, land appears]: 170; Marriott, Rachlin 1968 [ Maheocreates the sky, salt water, light, waterfowl; tells them to dive and bring up dry land from the bottom; Goose, Duck, Loon do not dive; Coot brings mud from the bottom in her beak, puts it in M.'s hand; he makes a lump, creates dry land; M. looks for whose back to establish dry land; snails, crustaceans, fish are not suitable for this; only Granny Turtle can support this weight; she is Mother Earth, she gives birth to plants; from her right and left ribs M. creates man and woman (retold in Cooper 1996: 222)]: 22-26; Arkansas (probably Quapaw ) [the world is covered with water; a god in white clothes brings sacks of tobacco, leads people out from under the ground; the world is dark; Beaver dives to the bottom, brings earth; white Eagle brings green branch; (no continuation)]: Charencey 1884: 284 in Dähnhardt 1909: 88; Wichita [earth not separated from water at first, floats on water in darkness; Kinnekasus creates earth, then first man and woman]: Dorsey 1904a, no. 1: 25.

Southeastern U.S.A. Shawnee : Trowbridge 1939 [after the flood, the Great Spirit tells Little Shrimp to dive; she brings up some clay from the bottom; Great Spirit makes land]: 60; Voegelin 1936 [1) Eastern Shawnee: Our Grandmother's grandson pierces Big Man's belly with a knife; water comes out and floods the land; grandson and Grandmother escape to a tree; Grandmother sends Little Shrimp, who brings up mud from the bottom; Grandmother makes new land; sends Vulture to fly and dry the land with the flapping of his wings; 2) Shawnee Absinthe: ditto, but grandson disobeys Grandmother's order not to go west; pierces Monster Fish's belly; Grandmother and grandson escape to a boat]: 9-10; Cherokee : Duncan 1998 [grandfather and grandson sit on tiny island; grandson has nowhere to play; grandfather sends various animals to dive to the bottom; the turtle emerges dead with earth on its paws; grandfather dries the earth, throws it on the water, the earth grows; the vulture dries it with the flapping of its wings, creating valleys and mountains]: 40-43; Mooney 1900, no. 1 [at first there is water everywhere, animals crowd into the upper world of Gălûñ'lătĭ; The diving beetle Dăyuni'sĭ (grandson of the Beaver) goes out to explore; swimming, does not find land, then dives, brings clay, it grows, turns into dry land; the animals send various birds to find out if the land is dry; they ask the Great Vulture (the ancestor of the present ones) to dry the land; he hovers over the land, it is still soft; having reached the land of the Cherokees, he began to flap his wings from fatigue; where he touched the ground with them, valleys appeared, where he raised his wings - mountains; the animals were afraid that the whole world would become mountainous, they called the Vulture away, but the land of the Cherokees remained mountainous]: 239; chitimacha : Swanton 1907 [during the flood, the Dove (var.: Cardinal) brings a grain of earth; placed on the water, it grows, turns into dry land]: 286; 1911: 356 [in the beginning of time the Creator tells the Shrimp to dive, he brings up some earth from the bottom, it grows], 358 [(=Swanton 1907), during the flood two people are saved in a clay vessel; the Woodpecker clings to the sky, the end of his tail remains in the muddy water, changes its color; when the water begins to subside, he is sent out to look for land, returns without finding it; the Dove brings a grain of sand; it is placed on the water, dry land grows out of it]; 1917 (=Swanton 1907): 358; Tuskegee [water everywhere; some birds want there to be dry land too; Chief Eagle sends out Dove, it returns without finding land; the Shrimp dives, after four days brings up mud from the bottom in his claws; Eagle makes an island; then several, they merge into dry land]: Swanton 1924-1925: 487 in Edmonds, Clark 1989: 284; Yuchi: Gatschet 1893 [Loon dives, misses bottom; necklace on its neck pressed into skin, still visible; Beaver surfaces dead; Shrimp brings clay from bottom in its claws; Creator sprinkles it on water, makes land; Vulture flies over still soft land, flapping its wings; mountains appear]: 279-280; Speck 1909, no. 1 [water everywhere; flying and swimming creatures send Shrimp to get earth from bottom; on fourth day Shrimp surfaces; land becomes big; Vulture is sent to make it level; it gets tired, flapping its wings convulsively, creating mountains]: 103-104; Swanton 1929, no. 90 [Langoscinachte dives, makes hill on bottom, top of which appears above water; The Vulture dries up the land and spreads it out]: 84; Alabama , Koasati [at first there is water everywhere; birds and animals float on a raft; Chief Horned Owl suggests diving; Beaver does not dive; Frog returns, frightened by Garfish; Crayfish reaches the bottom (Garfish decided that it is not worth catching); rakes clay with its tail, making a column of it that rises above the water; the land grows; Vulture flies over it; when he raises his wings, mountains appear, when he lowers them, valleys, when he soars, plains]: Martin 1977: 2-3.

California. Wiyot : Curtis 1976(13) [at first only water; the "old man upstairs" created dry land, then vegetation, people; they were bad, quarreled, he washed them away with a tidal wave; Shatash (Condor) and his sister had woven a basket beforehand, floated in it on the waves; when the waters receded, Shatash went to look for food, returned, asked if his sister was at home; she answered that she was, but did not add, "brother"; next time he addressed her as "wife"; she laughed, they gave birth to new people]: 190-191; Kroeber 1906a, no. 7 [at first only water; Gudatrigakwitl ("old man upstairs") takes dust, blows it, it turns into dry land; creates a man named Chkekowik; then creates a wife for him; moose, then other animals, birds and fish for their food; when he shakes his head, snow falls from his hair, there is a blizzard on the ground; when he sneezes, he makes people young, their clothes of suede new; chews deer sinews, spits them out, a white deer appears; a rich man can see such a deer in the sky]: 97-98; yuki (huchnom) [water is everywhere, a feather floats, Taikomol appears from it; he asks Gopher to get earth; he digs, but the earth is too soft, and sinks back into the water; T. creates Mole, who works for a long time, sets up dry land {gopher was a poor helper; the land he brought up was too soft, and sank back into water; mole made the land stand up (apparently, both are digging a hole and the resulting land is a heap of soil thrown out of the hole)}; T. creates mountains, vegetation on it, makes people, these are birds and animals; they misbehave, T. decides to destroy them with a flood; at this time everyone has gathered in the house for a dance; T. hits the Raccoon with a charred stick, since then he has black spots on his head and circles on his tail; one Rabbit fought with another, tore his lip; the Vulture wants to be a big man, T. does not allow it, he rubs his head until it bleeds (now it is red); the Jackdaw (blackbird} wants to be an Eagle, rubs her shoulder until it bleeds, now she has red wings; after the flood T. returns the animals and birds to their present form; makes huchnom and yuki from shrub oak, therefore they are short and ugly); makes kato from good oak, they are taller; wailaki - from cedar, pomo na Little Lake from pine]: Foster 1944: 232-233; yuki [foam on the water; Taiko-mol ("Lonely") comes out of it ; four times he lays a rope from south to north, but the water swallows it up; then he places “stone hooks” at the four corners of the world, pulls them tight so that they intersect in the middle of the world, creates dry land; he covers its edges with whale skin so that the sea does not wash it away; creates mountains, rivers, birds; takes sticks of mountain mahogany, turns them into people (thickened at the end into men, smooth ones into women, small ones into children); Coyote helped him, placed the sun and moon in the sky]: Curtis 1976(14): 169-170; helped[rain floods the land; Falcon saves himself on the mountain top, Coyote and others drown; Falcon sends waterfowl to dive; they bring mud, reeds, silt; Falcon makes the mountain higher from this; no fire; two Ducks dive, bring fire in plugged reeds from their flooded homes; bring acorns and cakes, others catch fish; water recedes]: Barrett 1933, no. 23.1: 127-128; vintu [at first water; waterfowl do not dive to the bottom; Turtle dives, having tied a rope to his body; having brought up earth, he pulls the rope, she is pulled to the surface; she is unconscious, but a little mud remains on her ears and under her claws; an island is made from her; from the island the earth grows]: DuBois, Demetracopoulou 1931, no. 4: 287; Patwin [Falcon, Old Man Coyote, Turtle watch the flood from the sky; Turtle dives with a rope tied to his leg; emerges; Falcon scrapes dirt from under his nails; places him on the water; the earth dries up]: Kroeber 1932a, no. 1: 304-305; Achomawi : Angulo 1928 [water everywhere; Fox sings in the sky, meets Coyote; creates a handful of earth with his mind; throws it down; tells Coyote not to look, then opens his eyes; the earth is small; the third time it is already large; both stretch it with their paws, create mountains, rivers, animals; live together in a communal house]: 583-584; Curtis 1976(13) [Silver Fox sails in a boat, then Coyote appears; both emerge from the mist; Fox combs Coyote's head, makes a ball of skin scales, throws it into the water; the earth grows, Fox makes everything that is on it; makes people of different tribes from sticks of the service-berry bush; takes two bones from each, makes a woman out of them (K: the Achomawi hardly had the opportunity to borrow this motif from Europeans); Fox and Coyote's sons die; Fox resurrects them, Coyote orders them to die forever; Fox kills Coyote, he comes to life; Coyote's daughter forces her kinsman (cousin) Apon to live with her; at night he runs away to the men's house (sweat lodge); she demands that he be handed over; sets fire to the house; Fox orders Mouse to shoot a straw into the sky; straw turns into ladder, Fox and Coyote climb into heaven]: 206-210; Dixon 1908, no. 1 [clouds turn into Silver Fox and Coyote; they float in a boat; while Coyote sleeps, Fox combs dirt out of his fur, kneads it in his hands, makes earth; creates plants, rocks, animal-people]: 159; Merriam 1992 [water, darkness everywhere; Apponahah (Silkworm) sees a patch of foam in the east, tells it to swim to him, stands on it; notices that he has nails on his fingers; the foam hardens and thickens on his feet; he tears it off with his toenails, it crumbles, turns into a triangular island; A. turns the corners to the east, west, south; the earth grows]: 1-3 (further on p.4-8 A. finds a boy, it is Annikadel ; he finds him three times in three corners of the earth, not realizing that the boy is still the same; Annikadelsays that he is really an adult, that without him Apponahah would not have made the earth; that there are also Coyote, Silver Fox, and Frog (Alleum); she will become the mother of men); atsugewi : Dixon 1908, no. 11 [Silver Fox and Coyote live in the upper world; Fox comes down through a hole, makes an island in the sea; allows Coyote to come down; kicks the earth, it grows in all directions; creates plants, animal-men]: 170 (reprinted in Judson 1997: 21-23); Garth 1953 [the first world was destroyed by a flood, the second by a fire, when Coyote tried to kill his rival Silver Fox; after this Coyote and Fox descended by rope into the ocean, Fox created the earth from scraps of skin (or from a piece of turf), stretched it out in all directions, created trees, animals, then people; the Sun and the Moon are two brothers whom Fox ordered to climb into the sky and light the world, one by day, the other by night; Fox wanted to make two months and two suns, but Coyote said it would be too hot; the sun and moon are designated by one word]: 195; Maidu : Curtis 1976(14) [Sky Chief (SC) sends Turtle to the bottom; the second time he brings earth under his claws; SC places it on the water, the dry land grows; Speaker-through-the-Nose (ST) eats a piece of salmon placed by SC in the river; the river dries up; calls not two deer or badgers, but many at once, cannot get even one; NV calls salmon from a hollow tree, fills a basket; warns not to eat the first fish; GN eats, calls fish from the next tree, frogs and snakes pour out; NV places two sticks nearby, by morning they turn into a man and a woman; the woman tickles him, he does not laugh; GN brings ten sticks, NV takes eight of them; the remaining two become two beauties; they tickle GN, he laughs, they become old women; NV creates a rejuvenating lake; Kuksu bathes in it, becomes young and beautiful; GN says that people must die and arrange memorial ceremonies; NV sends a rattlesnake, GN's bitten son dies; GN regrets that death was made irreversible; NV goes inside the mountain, meets the first deceased - GN's son; sends GN himself back, for he is alive]: 173-176; Dixon 1902, no. 2 [Turtle and Creator float on raft; Turtle dives, brings up clay; Creator kneads it, places it on stern; clay grows into land]: 39-40; Mountain Miwok : Barrett 1919, no. 1 [Frog suggests to Coyote that he make land; Coyote seeks best diver; Duck and Water Snake do not dive deep; Frog brings two handfuls of sand; Coyote scatters sand, land appears]: 4-5; Kroeber 1907a, no. 7 (Pohonichi Miwok) [before man came, water everywhere; Coyote tells Duck to dive; she brings earth from bottom in her beak; he sends her to fetch seeds; mixes them with earth and water; the mixture swells, turns into earth]: 202; Coast Miwok: Kelly 1978, #2 [water everywhere; Coyote came from the west (where the world of the dead is now); shook his reed cape to the south, east, north, west, the water dried up, the earth arose; Chicken hawk followed Coyote like a feather; Coyote addresses him, naming various relatives, he says that he is Coyote's grandson; Hawk gave birth to a boy from his navel; Frog, Coyote's wife, came out of the water; became a doe; Hawk asked Coyote for an arrow, he gave him a bow and arrows; wounded him with a doe, chased him, met Frog; she gave birth to a boy; this is Coyote's son, but he is Obsidian (Obsidian young fellow), since in fact he was born from Hawk's arrow]: 28-29; Merriam 1993 [the world is covered with water except for Sonoma Mountain north of San Francisco; Coyote arrives on a long raft of sticks and reeds; throws it into the water with the long side in a north-south line; land appears; the center of the raft was on the mountain; Frog sits next to him, jumping into the water whenever he tries to grab her; when the water recedes, she does not have time to jump to the water; she is Coyote's wife; when the land dries up, Coyote plants bushes and trees; Falcon wants there to be people; Coyote throws his feathers into the air, they fly across the country, turning into people]: 203-205; chukchansi yokuts [water covered the whole earth; Coyote asks Drake to get sand from the bottom; he comes up with grains of sand under his fingernails; Coyote makes a ball of sand, puts a seed on top, and land grows from the ball]: Rogers, Gayton 1944, #1:192; dumna yokuts [Chicken Hawk was the son of God; God created four ducks, they began to dive; they answered Hawk that they were trying to get land; only the smallest brought sand; the water washed the sand from her hands, but Hawk found grains of sand under her fingernails; God told Hawk to go west, throwing grains of sand; the water retreated to the west (where the ocean is now)]: Gayton, Newman 1940, #20:28; yokuts: Gayton, Newman 1940, #7 [water everywhere, only Eagle and Puma survived on an island; they tied ropes to the legs of three ducks, told them to get earth from the bottom, they floated up dead; then they tied a rope to the leg of a turtle; it brought earth under its claws, Dove collected grains, gave them to Eagle; he made dry land out of it; Crested Jay, Blue Jay, Coyote ran along the land, planting trees; Eagle sent Wolf far to the north; when the world grows old and sick, he must howl and the world is reborn], 8 [at first there is only water in the world; Eagle successively sends ducks of five kinds to dive, starting with the smallest; pulls them out by a rope, none reached the bottom; then he sent Turtle, she found grains of sand under her nails; The Eagle pounded them in a tobacco mortar, threw them in all directions, in 12 days the earth arose; The Eagle told the Dove to gather the animals; The Bear did not want to go; he came, having lost a running competition with the Dove; the chief told the animals to disperse to the areas where they now live], 39 (Wobonuch, Centrall Hills) [the world is covered with water; Tobacco flies through the air from east to west, splashes into the water; next time the chief Falcon and Crow place a net under the surface of the water, catch Tobacco; in the same way they catch a mortar, pestle; The Falcon pounded tobacco; placing the net in the air, catches Night (turns the net to the north, west, south; Night came from the east, singing, Close your eyes!); The Falcon rolled the Night into a ball, the Sun rose, it became light; he smeared the Raven with Night, he became black, before that he was like the Falcon; wild ducks complain that there is nowhere to sit down to rest; The Falcon called the animals, told the Ducks to dive; they returned, reported that there was land, trees, etc. under the water; the Duck's wife dived to get sand; The Falcon and the Raven stretched a net on the water so that it would not tremble (it is not clear whether it was water or a net), fumigated it with tobacco; The Duck emerged, having lost consciousness, bringing sand under her nails; The Falcon brought her to her senses, fumigating her with tobacco; told everyone to disperse, returning in 6 days; put sand and dirt on his knee, land began to grow from the place where the Duck dived; in another 6 days it grew, the waters flowed away; to observe the growth of the world, the Falcon flew north by the east route, the Raven by the west; then they flew south, by the water they saw a Negro's hut, a dog; these people lived on the ground, did not fly; the Falcon taught them to make porridge from acorns; the messenger (of the Falcon?) named those who would become shamans and fly away (together with the Falcon and the Raven?): Coyote, Puma, Wild Cat, Fox, Bear, Weasel; also Owl and Skunk; Condor and Eagle; all of them became animals; Coyote and Dog remained on the ground], 40 [The Wolf warns his younger brother Coyote not to touch a skin bag of earth and water; the bag was hanging on the wall, Coyote pierced it with a stick, the water flooded the world, Coyote drowned; The Wolf made a raft, a net, caught the tobacco falling from above with it, chewed it, revived Coyote, ordered Duck to be brought, Duck to dive; she surfaced, saying that she had reached the bottom; The Wolf ordered mud to be brought, promising to revive Duck if she lost consciousness; The Wolf found grains of earth under Duck's nails, revived Duck, threw earth around himself, a small dry land appeared; He sent Coyote to find out if the earth was large; Coyote returned, saying that it was small; having told Coyote to close his eyes, he scattered earth again; having returned, Coyote reported that the earth was large; He sent Coyote to fetch Elk, then Mountain Ram; He told them where to live, first he ordered them to make mountains in the west (Elk went north, Ram to the south, then they met); The Wolf sent Coyote to give names to all the elements of the landscape; called the Eagle, and he himself went off to rule the land of the dead; see further motive motive H34 (Eagle and Coyote argue about the fate of people)]: 20, 20, 38-39, 39-40; Salinan: Mason 1912 [after the flood, the ducks dive, do not reach the bottom; the Eagle places a weight on the Kingfisher's back; he emerges dead; the Eagle finds mud under his claws; makes earth out of it; revives the Kingfisher]: 190; 1918: 82 [the sea boiled, overflowed its banks, flooded the world with boiling water; all the animals gathered on Mount Santa Lucia; the Eagle-chief asks the Duck to dive; on the second try he reached the bottom, emerged dead, but the Eagle got mud from under his nails; rolled four balls, threw them in four directions, the waters receded; in the future the catastrophe will be repeated], 105 [The Old Woman of the Sea wants to kill the Eagle, brings the sea in a basket, pours it out, the flood covers the earth, Mount Santa Lucia remains; The Eagle takes the Puma's whiskers, makes a rope, throws a lasso over the basket, the old woman dies, the water stops rising; the Dove brings clay, the Eagle makes new earth out of it; turns three alder sticks into a woman and two men; they are lifeless; he revives them in the steam room]; Yokuts : Kroeber 1907a, no. 11 (northern, Gashowu group) [at first water everywhere; Beaver, Otter, Duck, Duck Potikh, do not dive to the bottom; little Duck grabs sand from the bottom, rises, loses it, a little remains under the nails; gives sand to Falcon, he mixes it with tobacco, gives half to Raven; both fly to the north, then parallel to the south, sprinkle pinches of sand; land appears below; Raven flies, creating the Coast Range, and Falcon - the Central; Raven's mountains are at first higher, Falcon changes their places], 15 (Truhohi) [only the mountain rises above the water; Coyote suggests to the chief Eagle to get earth; both ask Magpie's advice, she answers that earth can be got below; all the Ducks dive, float up dead; under the nails, in the ears, in the mouth of the Diver they find a little earth; mix with seeds, make earth; Eagle sends Wolf, he runs around the earth, reports that it is still soft; Coyote runs on the ground ahead of time, gorges and mountains appear; Eagle sends Raven and Falcon, they report that the earth has hardened; the animal-men disperse in different directions, turn into people; Eagle flies to the sky, Coyote follows him], 25 (Wükchamni, central foothills) [only a small island in the middle of the waters; a turtle swims up to Eagle and Coyote, they tell it to dive; they find some earth under its claw, put it on the water, the earth grows; they make six human pairs, send them in different directions; the people have nothing to eat, they eat earth, they have already eaten some; Eagle and Coyote send a dove, it brings a grain; the earth is covered with plants; there is still water under the earth], 37 [a tree grows from the waters up to the sky; the Eagle-chief, Wolf, Coyote, Falcon, Puma, Hawk, Condor sit in the nest; Eagle tells Ducks to dive; both surface dead, Eagle finds some earth under the nails of one; mixes it with seeds, puts it on the water, earth grows; Eagle tells Wolf to cry, earth disappears; makes earth anew; Wolf cries, earth only shakes; they catch the Tobacco creature, kill a deer, with tobacco turn the deer into a woman]: 204-205, 209-211, 218-219, 229-231; Potts 1892: 73-74 in Edmonds, Clark 1989 [Eagle and Raven sit on a stump sticking out of the water; feed Duck fish; in return she brings earth from the bottom; they pile the earth in two heaps; the water subsides, dry land appears; Eagle's part is larger than Raven's part]: 133-136; monache [Falcon and Crow float on a log; Falcon tells the birds to dive to get earth; Duck and Coot do not dive to the bottom; Great Crested Grebe surfaces dead; Falcon and Crow revive her; find grains of sand under her knees, scatter them, and earth appears from them]: Gifford 1923, no. 2: 305-306; tübatulabal [rain causes a flood; animal-people gather on a mountain; Coyote looks for a diver; Dive brings back some earth, then more; places it among the waters]: Voegelin 1935, no. 12: 209-211; kawaiisu [1) water everywhere; animals and birds live in the sky; Coyote sends them in turn to get earth from the bottom; he himself dives only halfway, almost drowns; small black waterfowl Stream(Coot?) brings dirt under her fingernails; the earth grows; animals come down to live on it; Blue Jay plants plants, still plants pinyon pines and oaks; 2) the rain floods the earth; some ancestors escape to the mountain; the stream dives to the bottom, brings dirt under her fingernails; the dirt is placed on a winnowing tray, it grows; the earth lies on the tray; it is level; the squirrel makes ravines, heaps up mountains; Blue Jay plants plants]: Zigmond 1980, No. 1: 27-28.

Great Basin. Northern Paiute : Kelley 1938, no. 38 [at first only an island in the water; an old man lived on it; a star took pity on the people, gave them game animals; the sun promised that the people would come to him]: 437-438; Mooney 1896 [at first water everywhere; the first to appear above the water was Mount Grant; a fire on the summit, the water splashing over it, a sage-hen (Centrocercus urophasianus) made a nest there, drove away the water with the flapping of her wings; the feathers on her chest were scorched, remained black; a rabbit ("he is like a god") later helped to get fire from the mountain; Our Father came from the south, followed by Our Mother; they had two sons and two daughters, the children married, the couples quarreled, some became the ancestors of the Walker Lake Paiutes, others the Bannock; Our Father and Our Mother have gone to heaven]: 1050-1051; Steward 1936, #1 (Owens-Vely) [during the flood, Hawk and his uncle Crane (?) take refuge on a mountain; they sing and rattle; earth falls from Hawk's rattle], 2 [during the flood, Wolf and Coyote are in a boat; Wolf puts a handful of earth on the water; Coyote runs around, asking for more earth; Wolf grants his request], 3 (Owens-Vely) [Duck sprinkles earth on the water; the earth grows; Duck ties it with reeds so that it does not fall apart]: 364; mono(Owens Valley) [water everywhere; the elder brother Topi (Wolf) and the younger Isháa (Coyote) are floating in a boat; they sprinkle sand on the waters, the earth appears; I. asks T. to sprinkle more, he sprinkles, the earth grows; T. goes, creates everything that is on earth; I. runs races to the hot springs of Coso, each time throwing the loser into the fire; Bekas kept the fire going; it became dark, it began to rain; I. paid the shamans Duck and Owl, they began to sing, it began to get light; T. kept the animals in a pen; sent I. to bring one; he stuck his penis in them, they sniffed it, gained their sense of smell, broke the fence, ran away; T. hung arrows on the sunbeams penetrating the house, but I. could not; the women lived in Towóva, their husbands went hunting; I. and T. with their people came to them; in the evening they all lay down with the women; I. was to lie with the youngest of the sisters, but an old woman came to him; he rejected her; she went out and turned into a young woman; I. rushed to catch up with her; the old mother of the girls said that she did not know where her daughter had run off to; I. stuck his penis in her ear; when he had finished, the old woman ran away to the mountains, called her sons; they attacked T.'s people; everyone died, T. was left alone with all the women; every night he lay with two, but did not touch them; killed deer, the mother of the girls brought them; hid the youngest daughter; T. found her, but since she was hidden from him, he cut off her head; the old woman pursues him, he hides in the house of Húnupi (roadrunner bird); the old woman tells him to throw her what he is preparing for H.; H. throws a hot stone, she swallows it, runs away (died); T. feared that H. would take the younger girl for himself, so he turned him into a worm hidden inside a cocoon; told his sister not to look into the cocoon; the girl lay naked on the floor, H. spat into her vulva; she opened the cocoon, H. became a man; she addresses him, naming all categories of relatives; finally, a husband ; they lie down together, she gives birth to a son; T. and his people turned into animals; H.'s wife into an edible plant, he himself into a Roadrunner]: Curtis 1976(15): 123-128; bannock [Our Father with his wife and son walk over the land, fire behind them; Our Father tells them not to look back, the wife looks back, turns to stone; Our Father and his son merge into one character; a flood covers the land; Our Father floats on the foam of the sea, calls the animals to council; Beaver replies that he will not reach the bottom, offers his younger brother Muskrat; he dives, comes up dead, Our Father revives him, finds clay under his fingernails; rolls it into a ball, spreads it out on the water; creates plants and animals; made the earth turn sometimes to the shady side, sometimes to the sunny side, winter and summer alternate]: Clark 1966: 172-174; Eastern Shoshoni [during the flood, the top of the mountain remains above water; Our Father sends birds; Raven eats corpses, returns exuding a stench; God turns him black, tells him to eat only carrion from now on; Chickadee brings some clay; Our Father makes earth out of it]: Saint Clair 1909b, no. 10: 272-273 (reprinted in Köngäs 1960: 152-153);chemehuevi [1)=1976: 148-149; Ocean Woman, Puma, Wolf, Coyote float in a basket boat on boundless waters; LW peels off her skin, rolls it into a ball, throws it on the water; the earth appears; LW lies on it on her back, arms outstretched, head to the west, strains and stretches; sends Wolf and Coyote to find out if the earth is big; after several returns, Coyote reports that it is big enough; 2) Sea Woman falls from the sky in the form of a worm; creates the earth by crumbling it onto the water and stretching it, as in the first version; peels off skin scales, rolls them into a ball, makes Coyote; he runs around the earth to find out if it is big; then LW creates Wolf and Puma; because Wolf is clever and Coyote is foolish, it is decided that Wolf will be the eldest brother]: Laird 1974a: 20; Southern Paiute (Moapa) [at first water everywhere; an old woman lives with her son and daughter on a small dry patch in the middle of the sea; scattered earth on the water like seeds, sent her daughter to find out if the land was big enough; the daughter said it was not yet; this was repeated many times until the daughter declared the land big enough; the daughter found and brought back the only male; the mother-in-law told him to insert a deer vertebra into his wife's vagina; with it he broke her vaginal teeth, and from then on he could copulate; the wife gave birth to children in a sack, the mother-in-law told him to go with it, not to untie it on the way; the man opened it, the tribes dispersed, only a few Paiute remained at the bottom]: Lowie 1924, no. 1: 157-158; Southern Ute [Sünā'wavi notices mud on water, makes earth out of it in six days; molds man, makes woman out of his rib (biblical influence, further on expulsion from paradise)]: Lowie 1924, no. 1: 1.

Great Southwest. Navajo : Klah 1960 [island in fourth (=our) world from bottom]: 5-6; O'Bryan 1956 [floating island in nether world; four deities drive water away]: 2; Jicarilla [at first only water everywhere; Hactzin spirits make Mother Earth as a woman facing upward; Father Sun as a man facing downward; Earth and Sky say to each other: How shall we create people? Make Moon to watch over plants and fruits]: Opler 1938, no. 1: 1; Western Apache (Wout Mountain) [four set the earth, it was blown away, it is weak like an old woman; they pulled it to the four sides, the pulled out piece became like a leg; on each side they put a reed with metal thorns (reeds and thorns of the colors associated with the directions E, S, W, N); but the earth is still soft and mixed with water; Black Old Man East Wind blew, the earth hardened]: Goodwin 1994, No. 1: 1; Lipan [people live in darkness underground, the earth is covered with water; Wind goes out to explore, the earth is covered with water, he rolls up the water like a blanket; Raven, Beaver are sent out to explore; one eats dead fish, another builds dams, do not return; Badger returns; four people are sent to create rivers, mountains; animals, birds, trees and the people are the last to come out on the earth; the trees remain where they now grow; Lipan are the last to come out after the Tonkawa]: Opler 1940, No. 1: 13-15; HopiCushing 1923, #1-8 [the cavern of the lower world is overcrowded, each person's waste soils the others; two twins grow to the ceiling, make a hole; grow reeds, and the people climb up to the second world, then to the third; here the twins get fire, light torches, build houses; here the women abandon their children, mix up their husbands, occupy the kivas; the men carry their babies there for them to feed; then the men climb out to the fourth world; here too it is dark, also wet; the people make a shield of deer skin, decorate it with turquoise, send it to the east, it becomes the sun; the cloak becomes the moon; Coyote opens a vessel, stars fly out, burn his face; Vulture drives away the water with his wings, mountains appear; the twins make canals, the water flows down them]: 163-166; Voth 1905, no. 1 [at first only water and two female characters named Hurúing Wuhti in the east and in the west; they made the waters subside; the Sun pointed out to these women that the earth was uninhabited; the women met, created a wren and sent it out to look for living creatures; it found none; then the women made many different birds and they flew away in all directions; then the eastern woman (hereinafter AW) molded a man and a woman out of clay, brought them to life; the spider woman also made two people, but they were the ancestors of the Spaniards; made donkeys for them as well; made many such people; one woman was constantly quarrelling with one man, which is why the Hopi now quarrel; AW also made people; the people of the west and the people of the east quarrelled, AW decided to go to sea; AW also went away]: 1-5; Wallis 1936, no. 1 [a mound among the waters]: 8; Zuñi : Cushing 1896 [the creator Awonawilona revealed himself as the sun, flooded space with light, mist descended to form the ocean; gathering the flesh {mud?} from his body, A. fertilized the waters, from which arose the four-layered Mother Earth and the all-covering Father Sky; lying on the waters, they gave birth to earthly life; then Earth pushed Sky away from her; holding a water-filled bowl with terraced rim on its four sides, she spat into it, stirred it with her finger, foam gathered on the terraced rims; these are the clouds that, under the cold breath of Sky, will pour down as rain; Sky in response placed there seven grains of corn; (cited in Thompson 2000: 17-19)]: 379-381; Muller 1968 [water everywhere; Coyote emerges from the cloud, Silver Fox from the mist; they create a boat; Fox combs the hair from the sleeping Coyote, places it on the water, stretches it, weighs it down with stones; when Coyote awakens, the earth is ready]: 223-224; Western Keres (Lagoon): Boas 1928a: 9 [first water everywhere, then the earth rose; the waters subsided, Nautsit ^y 'i (Our Mother) and Itctsit ^y'i (Thought-Woman)], 221-222 [in the beginning Thought-Woman lived on an island in the lower world, there was water all around; she looked like a man; when people came out onto the land, it was dark, only the water was slightly glowing; Thought-Woman ordered the sun to rise in the north, west, south, finally in the east; people came out, dispersed across the land], 222-223 (Lagoon) [Our Mother lived among the waters in the lower world; she went to the middle of the south, there Thought-Woman asked who would create; Our Mother called two spiders, they went to the middle of the north, west, south, east, returned to Our Mother, who was sitting on a tiny island among the waters; she had a long fish tail, Old Woman-Fire cut it off; Our Mother was in the white world among the white waters; above was the red world, then the blue, then the yellow; Our Mother rose through the four worlds, in our world she created man; men climbed up the notched prayer sticks made of fir], 224 [at first Nautsit ^y 'i (Our Mother) and Itctsit ^y 'i (Thought Woman) were inside a ball floating on the waters, then the waters receded, Our Mother and Thought Woman made four men out of clay, brought them to life by covering them with a buffalo hide and then removing it]; Mohave : Bourke 1889 [the valley was under water; the Woodpecker lived on the mountain for ten days; the water soaked his tail, now it has spots; it was dark, the whole earth was covered with water; Mustam-ho carried the Mohave Indians in his arms until the waters receded; the animals were like men; M. reached the mouth of the Colorado, the waters receded into the ocean]: 179; Kroeber 1972, no. 9 [during the flood, people huddle on an island; Matambo steps in four directions, the land becomes larger]: 9; yuma : Densmore 1932a [details unclear: father sun calls earth out of water ]: 5; Harrington 1908 [progenitor stirs water in darkness with index finger; island appears in primordial ocean]: 328, 332; seri : Relatos Guarijíos 1995 [at first only sky and sea; sea animals unsuccessfully try to get earth from bottom; turtle (caguama) dives down, grabs handful of sand, emerges a month later, almost all sand washed away by water, but a few grains remain; land appears]: 61; (chapter on seri in Entre dos Vientos. Mexico, 1990?) [pelican dives to bottom, brings mud, from which earth appears]; maricopa [water floods the world; Cucumat and Isasipas (hereinafter also Sipas ) sink to the bottom; I. surfaces first, answers K. that he kept his eyes open; K. goes blind from the salt water; both float on a log, the water gradually recedes, but there is a swamp all around; one of them digs a hole, gets sand, scatters it, the earth dries; I. rolls his hair into a ball, places it in the eastern sky, making the sun; from a fingernail - the moon; places it in different directions, it slides off; when to the west, it remains in the sky; throwing sand into the sky, he creates stars; I. and K. make people out of clay, K.'s people have webbed fingers, he says that it is more convenient to take water to drink; I. says that it is more convenient for people to make a palm like a cup; I. and K. argue whose creations are better; K. falls into a rage, breaks what he has created, throws the fragments into the sea, from which ducks, beavers and other creatures with webbed feet emerge; as he fell, I. pulled the sky with him; left a hole in the ground, from which blood flowed (i.e. diseases); I. covered the hole with his foot, but left a small stream so that the people would not become too numerous; now they sometimes get sick; I. gives the tribes their customs; Rabbit offended Snake, I. gave Snake poisonous teeth, it bit Rabbit, he died; for this the people decided to kill I.; Frog drank water from the pond where I. was bathing, he fell ill, died; Coyote was sent to the sun for fire for the funeral pyre, the fire was lit in his absence; looking back, Coyote ran back, jumped over those standing around, carried off and ate I.'s heart; I. waits for people to talk; the Mission Indians of southern California were the first to talk, then the Maricopa, then others; the Chemehuevi at night, so their speech is unintelligible; the Europeans last; they were crybabies; in an attempt to appease them, the Creator made them richer than the Indians]: Spier 1933: 345-352; Cocopah[Sipa and Komat under water as in a mother's womb; K. pushes S. first to the surface, therefore S. became the older of the two; different kinds of ants poured earth, thus dry land appeared; K. asks how S. rose; S.: eyes must be opened; K. opened them while still in the water, went blind; the brothers sent flying ants to dig up earth, dry land was formed; they began to make people, blind K. did it better; when he moved away, S. replaced his people with his own; the next time he replaced his fox with his fox of a different kind; both times K. guessed; S. wanted to place eyes on his toes, K. - better on his head; S. made a bow and arrows, shot upward, the arrow fell, slightly hitting K.; S. made the sun, but it turned out to be pale; K. made a bright one, sent it across the sky from east to west, S.'s sun became the moon; S. again replaced people; K. in a rage broke the sky, made a hole in the earth, went down, releasing smoke, lightning and everything that kills people, including diseases, from the hole; Coyote pestered his little sister Snake; S. gave her poison, Coyote died; S. died, vomiting four colors, from which - edible wild plants (comidas silvestres); Coyote was sent to the sun, at which time S.'s body was cremated; before the body burned, chants came out of it]: Olmos Aguilera 2005: 75-79ых: Olmos Aguilera 2005: 75-79; papago : Kroeber 1912 [ Elder Brother is born from the friction of darkness on water; creates earthworms from sea foam; the worms collect more foam, the earth arises from it]: 96; Olmos Aguilera 2005 [at first only darkness and water, in them a child was born, felt seaweed, made termites from it, they gathered more seaweed, the earth was formed; Sky connected with Earth three times, Big Brother, Coyote, Vulture were born; SB created people from chips]: 155-156; Pima [in the darkness Djivut Maka (Shaman of the Earth) picked up a lump of clay from the bottom, threw it up, stood on it, began to sing, the lump grew, covered most of the waters, what remained is the current ocean; the earth swayed, DM ordered a spider to weave a web around its edges, the earth became established; created two Pimas and two Apaches, they began to speak different languages, he resettled the Apaches, now they are enemies; DM's son Siöhö picked up a baby he liked in a village and left it under a bush; when he returned to the place, water was gushing out from there and a flood began; a woodpecker grabbed the sky with its beak and its tail got wet; people fled to the mountains and turned into stones; Woodpecker, Coyote, DM and S. began to make new people out of clay; Coyote made one-legged people, DM threw them into the sea; DM's people could do everything, S. sent diseases out of envy; people asked the Vulture to kill him; he made the water in the pond where S. was bathing boil, S. died; the Vulture said that he would be reborn in four years; four years later S. came to his father, who began to reproach him for his attitude towards people; S. went underground, promising to send a new flood; it will come yet]: Olmos Aguilera 2005: 187-190; Walapai: Kroeber 1935: 245-246 [in the middle of the primordial ocean a mountain rises; then the water around dries up; Matavilla cuts the reeds, turns the reeds into people, each reed a special tribe], 247 [at first the earth is covered with water; (the waters recede); Coyote cuts the reeds, turns the reeds into people of different tribes].

NW Mexico. Varigio : Gentry 1963 [ Tata Dios takes a handful of sand from the bottom of the ocean, scatters it on the water; sends a Dove to find out if the land has hardened; on returning the fourth time, it says it has]: 133; Relatos Guarijíos 1995 [there was no land, only sea; the god and goddess came down, created the land and everything edible in nature]: 17; Tarahumara [God is in the sky, water is below; God created the land by churning the water (moviendo el agua) when it was hot; the foam floated up, hardened, and became land; others think the earth is a disk on four pillars like a henhouse; God sent two doves; they returned with leaves of the chimali plant and said the land was good for life; After this, God and his brother Atanasio descended to the earth to engage in the creation {of what is on it}: Mondragón et al. 1995: 15-16; Huichol [the earth emerges from the reed bed of the gods on the surface of the ocean=underworld]: Preuss 1932: 452; Kora [the earth goddess creates the rain gods, places them on the water of a lake (sea?); they are dissatisfied, she sends them to heaven, having twisted a rope from her hair for this purpose; they are again dissatisfied; she asks them to look for earth on their bodies; they roll a ball of mud, give it to the goddess; she places the ball on two arrows placed crosswise, tied with her hair and a snake; she orders the rain gods to dance on the earth; the earth expands from this]: Preuss 1912: 57-61.

Mesoamerica. Mixtec [at first only mud floats on the water; the Deer god and goddess lifted a rock into the sea; on top they placed a copper axe that supports the sky; their sons ask for the earth to be made larger; after the flood the Creator (re)makes the earth and the sky]: Fray Francisco de Burgoa 1674 in Krickeberg 1928, no. 24: 201-202 (text recorded in the monastery of Cuilapa by Gregorio García; lengthy quotation in Dahlgren de Jordan 1966: 259-260); Lacandones [in the beginning was K'akoch; created the earth, the waters, the sun, the moon, tuberose (essential oil, Polianthes L., Amaryllidaceae); from the tuberose flowers were born Sukunkyum ("Our Father's elder brother", master of the lower world), Ah Kyantho, Hach Akyum ("Our Father"); the brothers told Our Father that his home was Palenque; he scattered sand over the swamp, the earth hardened, stones appeared]: Boremanse 1986: 25; chol [Ch'ujtat brought the earth out of his heart like an orange on a branch; at first it was like the wind, the wind became a cloud, the cloud water, the water mud, the mud earth; at the four corners of the earth he placed three people Chuntewinikes in each to support it; these people feed only on the smell of flowers and fruits; after this Ch. cut the umbilical cord that connected his heart with the earth; the earth became covered with vegetation; Ch. created the first people, smaller in size than the Chuntewinikes, but larger than the present ones, very intelligent; needing nothing, they forgot the creator; Ch. destroyed them with a flood, sent the Vulture to find out if anyone was left, ordered him not to touch anything, but he began to eat the corpses; Ch. punished him by ordering him to feed on carrion; sent the Turtle Dove, she saw that there was blood everywhere, but some were saved on rafts; having stained her feet with blood, she returned to Ch.; he turned the saved people into monkeys; the foam of the flood turned into stones that were not there before]: Gebhardt Domínguez 2001: 49-51; devils [an angel wanted to cause an earthquake and began to shake the four pillars supporting the earth, but as a result it fell under the water; God became angry and ordered the angel to fix everything; the angels began to sprinkle earth into the water, but from this the earth sank even deeper; God became completely angry; finally, the angel San Reimundo took some earth and threw it on the water; the land immediately spread out, covered the water, and hardened]: Fought 1972: 357–380 (summary in Hull 2016: 6); K'iche' [in the beginning only waters and sky; Tepeu and Cucumatz (Great Mother and Great Father) were in the endless waters; decided that the waters should recede; created the earth; at first it was like dust, then mountains grew]: Popol Vuh 1959, part 1, ch 1: 10–11; Xinca [there is a notion of the primacy of water; then fish appear in the water; then the winds blew and the earth appeared]: López Ramírez 2007: 93, 98–99.

Honduras - Panama. Eastern Panama ( kuna ?) [the parrot and the partridge bring earth from the land of the father-sun (earth - from the excrement of one of these birds?); they are still reluctant to come down from the trees, fearing drowning (in the waters of the flood?)]: Casimir de Brizuela 1972: 60.

Northern Andes. Kogi [at first only water; mother goddess drinks half the sea, land is exposed]: Reichel-Dolmatoff 1985(2): 20; Tunebo [there is a primordial ocean; Bistoa commands to bring red, yellow, white, black earth (the motive for the growth of the earth is unclear)]: Márquez, 1980: 633, 646-651.

Llanos. Guayabero [at first there is water everywhere; Vamek sets fire to wax, it spreads over the water, earth is formed; V. makes plants and animals; Laman is lazy; V. sends him to fetch water; he sees the reflection of two women sitting on a branch; they spat, he brings them home; they like V., they go to him; V. plays ball with his wives; L. brings a parrot-snake, it takes the form of a ball; V. is bitten on the back of the head; three days later he comes back to life; his grandmother is displeased, she refused to warm water to rinse his mouth; V. goes to heaven, his grandmother follows him there; L. goes underground with the Oinu spirits ]: Schindler 1977a: 221-222.

Guiana. Makushi : Amodio 1989, no. 5 [at first only Paaba flew in the sky in the form of a bird; sat on a plant protruding above the water; dipped his big toe into the mud, rolled a lump of stuck mud, played with it, threw it into the water; rivers were formed, through which the water flowed; dry land appeared]: 104; Farabee 1924 [the elder brother Entcekerang, the younger - Anikě; turn the first bad people into stones; notice the remains of various fruits on Agouti's teeth; send Squirrel to follow; she finds a tree with all the cultivated plants on its branches; the brothers cut it down; A. tells the trunk to be hard on the side where E. cuts; the tree falls, the brothers gather the fruits on a mat; the water from the trunk floods the world, A. tells the sun to go out; brothers climb two Maurutia flexuosa palms, throw seeds into the water; from them a new earth emerges; A. commands the sun to shine again]; Brandao de Amorim in Goeje 1943, no. d29 [the skin of the deity slid off him, forming the earth]: 117; aparai [world fire; animals escaped to the mountain tops; one man remained, got married; the world was flooded; new earth fell from the sky, from it a new world grew]: Rauschert 1967, no. 9: 185.

Western Amazonia. Siona , Secoya : Cipolletti 1988, no. 5 [water floods the world (details and causes of the flood are not given); God notices bubbles on the water, concludes that there is someone in the water; it is the Little Armadillo; God forgives him for diving, he brings back some silt from the bottom on his back; God makes new land from this silt; he steps on it, the land grows]: 57-58; Vickers 1989 [Lutayo and Rebao are the wives of Muhu, they made chicha; Baina quarreled with M., cut him in half, birds emerged from his blood; L. overturned the vessels with boiling chicha, chicha flooded the world; B. told L. that he was water, pushed her deeper, pulled her out by the hair; the Armadillo dived, brought back some earth, laid it at B.'s feet; B. stepped on the spot, the earth arose again]: 158; kofan : Calífano, Gonzalo 1995, no. 2 [there was only a small amount of earth; Chiga (the Sun) placed a worm to eat it; from its excrement the earth arose - a large island, then it became even larger], 3 [as in (2)], 4 [Ch. brought a lump of earth; then trees grew, birds appeared]: 69-70; (cf. napo [the earth is among the waters, the firmament is immersed in the waters]: Mercier 1979: 63).

NW Amazonia. Letuama [the world arose from a handful of earth from the nether world which the four Ayas brothers (they are cuñados or brothers of the Moon) placed on the water that flooded the world]: Palma 1984: 51; uitoto [the earth arose from the primordial waters; its first inhabitants are monkeys and anteaters; the deity punishes them by populating the earth with jaguars, snakes, etc.; this first generation is destroyed by a fiery catastrophe; Bunaima (the great anaconda) mated with Na fuey (the first woman, associated with the moon), who gave birth to a boy; on the fourth day he turned into a tree, on its branches sweet and bitter cassava, corn, peanuts and other cultivated plants; the mother gathered these fruits, other people ate the earth; people found a tree, cut it down; water flowed from the trunk, forming rivers; from the branches formed edible plants, mainly cassava; var.: Bunaima – Master of the Forest, Thunder, he himself cuts down a tree with an axe to give people fruits and water]: Girard 1958: 74-76; bora [at first there is water everywhere; anaconda man appeared, he took a woman Matchutahemegua from the water, then Mekheretchieieko – Morning Star, he took Navene as his wife; Anaconda lived on a piece of land; he is eternal, lives under water; he created the Sun, he later rose into the sky, his wife is the daughter of the Heron, his children are pineapple, peach palm, etc.]: Wavrin 1937: 637.

Montagna – Jurua. Kashibo [the creator god Bari comes into our world; there is only water in it; he throws earth onto the waters, creating red, yellow, white layers of earth; these layers are his sons; he asks Earthquake to run; he runs, the earth cracks; B. strengthens the earth with reinforcement from logs; Earthquake runs again; reports that the earth is strong]: Frank et al. 1990, No. 1: 44; Machiguenga [Irioshi (aka Tasurinchi, Taso'rintsi) lives in the sky, created everything good; Kenti'vakori resides underground in a dark, stinking world surrounded by his disgusting creations; created everything bad; at first there is water everywhere; I. offers to create the earth; K. hesitates; I. throws his staff onto the water, the water becomes covered with an even crust; K. also throws something, but creates unusable, infertile areas of land (sand, clay, rocks); I. creates useful animals, useful plants, Machiguenga people; K. - harmful animals, demons, foreigners; if the earth were level, it would be cut by numerous canals, along which one could easily swim to any place; but now the rivers flow down to where, at the edge of the earth, all the water falls into the abyss; if I. were the only creator, people would not die and would not suffer from hard work; children would be born without sex and without pain, like I.'s creatures in the sky (in particular, the star people)]: Baer 1984: 237-241.

Bolivia - Guaporé. Tacana [owner of fire and earth - toad (or frog?) bururu (Leptodactylus pentadactylus labirinthicus Spix )]: Hissink, Hahn 1961, No. 5 [(San Buenaventura); during the flood, two Edutzi (Edutzi - ancestor; the name of one means hot wild pepper) in the form of parrots carried a boy and a girl, cultivated plants to the top of a tree; animals were also saved there; after the flood, the earth was with mother earth, the bururu toad; she did not give earth, both edutzi-parrots carried off some earth under their fingernails; they made earth from this, flew several times for a new portion; fire is also with mother earth, the bururu toad; they asked to bake an ear of corn, a spark was preserved in it, they lit a fire; The toad tried in vain to pour urine on him; having done what was necessary for the children, the Educi flew away to their world; var. 1 (Tumupasa); the earth was small, slightly larger than the old toad Bururu, who sat on it alone; it kept fire in its mouth; two Educi (youths from another world) asked for earth, it did not give it; they asked to bake them an ear of corn, stole a handful of earth each, scattered it over the sandy spit, which was then the earth; thus twice, the earth grew; with the spark preserved in the ear, they lit a dry tree; var. 2 (Tumupasa); during the flood, Bururu and Jujupueva (Steisshüner Art) covered themselves with earth, became masters of the earth; two men escaped the flood on a royal palm tree; they saw the earth, hid it under their nails, from this they created a new one; var. 3 (Tumupasa); two men were saved from the flood on top of the royal palm tree; below, Bururu survived the flood, keeping the fire in her mouth; the men stole the cob with a spark, Bururu was unable to drown it with urine; a brother and sister were saved from the flood on top of the royal palm tree; after the flood, they saw smoke; they asked Bururu to bake bananas, stole fire; today's people are from this couple], 6 [during the flood, a boy and a girl were saved on the royal palm tree; they marked on the trunk how the water recedes, the rings are still visible; after the flood, the earth at first looked like a sandbank, then more and more; two arara brought an ear of corn; the next day, corn grew from the grains; the boy and girl asked the old toad woman Bururu to bake the cobs; she kept the spark in her mouth during the flood; she baked; the next day, the arara brought a banana sprout (ditto); then cassava; the boy reached out to steal sweet potatoes from Bururu's pot, the pot's neck grabbed his hand; the old woman got angry, but freed him, gave him the tubers; a spark remained in the dry ears that Bururu was baking, the children blew on the fire, Bururu was unable to douse it with urine]: 42-43, 43-45; Chimane : Daillant 1995 [ Dohiti , Micha are brothers; their sister Dobose invites them to heaven to give the third brother Tsun a drink'a (the sun) to keep it at its zenith and prevent people from sleeping; it doesn't work; D. and M. throw down a balsa raft, it grows, forms the earth; they cry, a vine grows from their tears; D. climbs down, M.'s vine breaks, he falls, breaks; D. glues him together, but puts his head to his bottom; D. and M. come to the Frog Women; D. took one, M. raped them all at night, in the morning they urinate blood; M. digs a tunnel to the east to the edge of the world, now the dead are coming to him there; D. pretended to be dead, covering himself with worms; the Frogs threw him into the river; he turned them into frogs, the worms into fish; goes to look for M.; along the way he turns people into animals - spider monkeys, howler monkeys, capuchins; asks the parrots for feathers, they give them on condition that he will not imitate their voices; D. breaks the ban, the parrots take the feathers, he falls into a tree, it becomes tall; the Caterpillar lowers him down, placing him on its back; when the ground is close, he makes her fall, she breaks her back; gets to the place where the sky beats against the ground; having inserted a log, he slips into the world of Misha ; steals one of his wives, she is pregnant; on the way he meets people who are going to kill the one who kidnapped M.'s wife; D. turns them into reeds for arrows, bamboo, palms for making bows and arrowheads; they go up the Maniqui River; the wife gives birth, D. turns her and the child into salt; wants to found a village in the center of the world, sends birds to reconnoitre; they return, report that the center is further away in the mountains; D. founded a village in the Andes (var. La Paz); left a footprint on the stone, a sign that the salt is here]: 163-164; Hissink, Hahn 1989, No. 1 [ Dohitt created the earth as a raft on the water; brought to see Kiri (the moon) - the wife of his brother, whose name is Micha; made a liana out of snot, went down to the ground; K. climbed, the liana broke, she fell; the next day returned to the sky; D. sent Hummingbird and another bird to scout out where the edge of the earth was; that bird returned quickly, Hummingbird searched for a long time; D. marked the center of the earth with the imprint of his foot, but Hummingbird said that the center was in the mountains; then D. made a salt rock here, and a village - in the mountains (var.: La Paz); where D. walked, the Beni River was formed; he turned - the Inigua River; he got scared by the cry of an eagle, wet himself, a lake was formed; walking on the earth, he turned evil people into animals; he created Chimane from stone, the inhabitants of San Borja and others he carved from balsa; since then people began to speak different languages; D. and M. come to women living without men; they lock them in the house; M. digs a tunnel to the edge of the world; D. dies, the women throw his worm-eaten corpse into the river; he comes to life, turns them into frogs, their house into a rock; D. received feathers from birds, flew; the feathers fell out, he fell into a tree; A caterpillar let him down; D. almost catches up with his brother; chops down a tree, not noticing that M. is sitting on it; M. falls, breaking his neck; D. puts his head to his bottom; D. took the elder of his brother's two wives, she is pregnant; on the Rio Pachene turned them into salt; asks the people in the tree what they are eating; they are eating fruit, they answer that their eggs; D. hit himself on the balls with a stone, died; came to life, turned those people into monkeys; goes on, turned other people into spider monkeys; in the same way he created jaguars, agoutis, wild pigs, birds, fish; the jaguars ate almost all the people; D. turned jaguars into armadillos, peccaries, anteaters, but one escaped, from him the current ones; monstrous man-eating animals (huge duck, fish, snake, monkey, dog) turned into stone]: 60-63; guarayu [according to the Franciscan José Cardús, 1886; in the beginning the water; the worm mbir, also known as Mbirachucha, walked on high swamp water; created people and the earth; after that Zaguaguayu ("crown of yellow feathers") appeared, said that he, Z., had to appear earlier than M.; began to make different versions of the figure of a person, all were no good, he broke them; finally, he created Alaangui ("the man with the fallen-off nose"), who had such a long drooping nose that he broke it off; the fourth personage, who was at the beginning of time, Candir; they say that A., M. and K. created the world, although the Guarayu themselves consider Z. to be their ancestor; the Guarayu are descended from A., the Brazilians from M., the Negroes from K.; Z. withdrew to where there is no sky or sun]: Grubb 1924: 185-187.

SE Brazil. Sheta [rain floods the earth; man asks birds to get more; sapakura (ibis) and sarakura birds bring some clay or soil in their beaks, throw it on the water; the earth dries up; where the earth fell, mountains appeared; before the flood the earth was smooth; ducks showed the man a lake where girls were bathing; he seized one of them, took him as his wife; sheta – their floods]: Borba 1904 in Koch-Grünberg 1921, no. 78: 212-213; kaingang [water flooded the earth, leaving Mount Krinjijinbe; the people of the kaingang, kayurukre and kame groups swam, holding smoldering brands in their teeth to keep the fire going; kayurukre and kame drowned, penetrated into the mountain, began to live there; The Kaingang climbed the mountain, some climbed the trees on the mountain; the Saracura birds (Aramides saracura) began to sing, brought baskets of earth, poured it on the water, ducks came to their aid; a plain appeared; those who climbed the trees became monkeys; they began to pour earth from the east, that is why the rivers flow west into the Parana; the Kayurucré and the Kame came to the surface from different sides of the mountain; the Kame injured their feet, they swelled up, now their feet are big, and the Kayurucré have small ones; the Kayurucré shaman molded jaguars from coal and ashes; when he made tapirs, only ashes remained; he told them to eat meat; the tapirs' ears were small, the tapirs asked again, the shaman was already molding another animal, he told them to eat leaves and grass; by the morning the shaman did not have time to finish the anteater, that is why it has no teeth; Kayurukre made good animals, including bees, and Kame made bad ones, so that they could fight those created by Kayurukre: puma, poisonous snakes, wasps; having learned that jaguars devour people, Kayurukre and Kame threw a log across the river; when the jaguars stepped onto the bridge, Kame pushed the log away; he got scared and let some of it escape; Kayurukre, Kame and Kaingang established rules for exchanging marriage partners]: Borba 1904: 57f in Koch-Grünberg 1921, no. 77: 209-212 (Russian translation by Siebert 1972: 134-137; French retelling by Ploetz, Metraux 1930: 212-213).

Chaco. Nivacle [the earth arose from red and brown algae, began to grow, at first saturated with water, only clay; a stone fell, mountains were formed from it; the earth continued to grow, dried up, cracked, rivers flowed from the cracks; only in the sky was there a forest; a Dove brought from the sky, scattered branches, then seeds; after the rain they sprouted, the earth changed color from white to red; insects appeared in the forest, turned into animals; the first to live on earth were the Stork and his wife, the bird Chaja; their son and daughter got married, gave birth to people]: Wilbert, Simoneau 1987b, no. 40: 111; mataco [god throws some earth on the surface of the waters]: Calífano 1974: 35; toba-pilaga [at first only water; Lapichí (the constellation responsible for the ripening of wild fruits) stirred, ground, and made solid land out of it; created the Paraguay River by carrying a stick on his shoulder – the water followed him; threw a bottle tree into the river, it turned into the (mythical) water creature Lek, swallowing people; met Nowaikalachigí and shot a big fish, the water rose; L. noticed N.'s wool, took it in his hands, ground it, it turned into mosquitoes; there is another world under the earth, there are also people there and a sky – three skies; a fire burns, because of this the earth is like burnt brick; L. watches this fire; there are no trees there, and the houses are made of iron]: Wilbert, Simoneau 1989a, no. 78: 113-114.

Southern Brazil. Mbia [Nhandé Ru Pa-pá tenondé (the first in the world) sat in the darkness; two winds blew, it became a little light, N. saw that there was water all around; the winds blew and dried up the earth; N. got up, made a stick, worked for six days, creating the world; decided to make a forest; created a tree, all the branches of which were trees of different kinds; they bore fruit, N. planted them, all the trees that there are grew; there was also a second ancestor, Nhandé Chy tenondé; he has three sons - Tupã in the west, Karaí Ru Eté in the east and Jakairá-Mirim at the zenith; Nhandé Ru Pa-pá tenondé and Nhandé Chy tenondé live in the fifth, highest heaven; T. taught agriculture, gave seeds; [They used to bear fruit in three days, but now they bear fruit in three months]: Baldus 1952: 483.

Southern Cone. Southern Tehuelche : Wilbert, Simoneau 1984a, no. 22 [at first only water; Elal shoots arrows that break through river beds, water flows down], 23 [at first only water, E. threw a stone, where it fell, the water dried up], 24 [at first only water, E. dried up the earth], 62 [at first only water; at first there were other people who lived before us (i.e. sea lions, birds, etc.); this world of ours was created by Elal]: 36, 37, 37, 105.