B44E. Dialogue between the first ancestors.
.14.21.24.33.34.36.40.-.50.66.74.
First ancestors (usually birds or animals) argue with each other about the length of time in a calendar or daily cycle, or about the desirability of dominating the cold and dark or warm and bright times. See motif B44.
North Africa. Algerian Arabs (Tiaret Plateau): Aceval 2005, No. 126 [The prophet asks animals for their opinion on Ramadan; the jackal wants it to last one morning and consist of eating figs; hare: so much how long it takes to peel the skin on the trunk of a yuyuba; boar: as many (days) as I have bristles and excrement; partridge: a month; the Prophet rewarded the partridge by painting its beak and legs with henna; its meat edible, it inspires poets; forbids eating wild boar and pig meat; the hare is edible but its tail is not; jackals will all be driven away], 127 [God wants to know the animals' opinion about the desired duration Ramadan; some offer an hour, others half a day, a third week or more; hare: a year; sheep: a month; God rewards a sheep: he will give birth to lambs and give wool; punishes the hare: he will jump, forever in trouble, his children are of little use]: 145-146, 147.
Tibet is the Northeast of India. Lhota; rengma; ao; hyamnyungan; rawang.
Malaysia-Indonesia. East Timor (tetum?) ; Western Torajas [1) Oriolus galbula: Live like a rock; Toad: Live like a banana; i.e. old people must die, children must come to their place; 2) timid tomoemboe bird wants people to have stone breath and be reborn; assertive tangkaoemboe wants people to breathe like flowing water and die]: Kruyt 1938, No. 8:435-437.
Turkestan. Kazakhs.
Southern Siberia - Mongolia. Altaians; Kumandins; Shors; Khakas; Tuvans.
Eastern Siberia. Central Yakuts: Kulakovsky 1979, No. 11 (no place of recording, first published in 1923; central?) [Yurung Ayyi Toyon created the world, asked the man if he would like a long winter or a long summer; he gave the Stallion and the Ox the choice; the Ox wished him a long winter because his nose would get wet in summer; The stallion kicked the Ox for this, knocking out all his front teeth; in response, the Ox butted the Stallion by piercing his gallbladder; since then, winter has been longer than summer, cattle have no front teeth, and horses have bile]: 73 ( retelling to Ergis 1974:149); Ergis 1964, No. 37 (Nemyuginsky Nasleg of Khangalassky Ulus, 1934) [God asks a man whether to make winter or summer long; he suggests asking a stallion and a bull; a stallion wants a long summer, his hooves freeze in winter; a bull in winter, his nose gets wet in the heat; God does what wants the Ox; the stallion kicked him, knocking out his upper teeth; the Ox butted, pierced the bile; horses now have no bile, cattle have front teeth]: 107 (resume in Ergis 1967a, No. 69:174; retelling in Sivtsev- Omoloon 1976:27, in Sivtsev, Efremov 1990:18).
The Arctic. Northern Alaska Inupiate (Point Hope); copper; netsilic; igloolik.
Subarctic. Kuchin; inner tlingits; chipewayan; taltan.
NW Coast. Haida; Tsimshian.
The coast is the Plateau. Quarry; shuswap; thompson; Puget Sound; upper chehalis; cowlitz; clackamas; yakima; modoc; ne perse; clickit.
The Midwest. Menominee; Northern Ojibwa (Sandy Lake); Ojibwa; Illini.
Northeast. Montagnier; Iroquois.
Plains. Assiniboine; Comanches.
Southeast USA. Yuchi; screams.
California. Atsugevi; achomavi; yana; kawaisu.
Big Pool. Northern Payutes; Western and Northern Shoshones; Goshiute; Utah (Southern Utah, Uncompagre, White River); Chemewewi.
The Great Southwest. Chiricahua; jicarilla; Western Apaches (San Carlos, White Mountain).
Montagna - Jurua. Ashaninka [Avíveri lived with his nephew Kiri on his shoulders and transformed people as he walked; his sister Sawoni hated him because she knew he had transformed her husband; she made masato from cassava and told her son K. to call A. to drink masato; when A. started drinking, he began to sing and everyone around him shuddered; S. sang what she wanted night and darkness, and A. what day; if he hadn't he sang, the night would prevail; when A. fell asleep, S.'s husband dug a hole under him and A. fell (to the mouth of the river); K. went to look for him; sent Pauhil, who was fast, but he did not find A.; when he reached the the lower reaches of the river, K. blocked it and the water flooded the ground; K. ordered not to be killed, but pierced his head with a pole next to (some) tree; this was done; K. began to move upstream, becoming peach with a palm tree; a lake of blood flowed out of it and all the birds swam in it {it is listed who made which feathers red}]: Zolezzi 2014, No. 16:177-178.
The Southern Cone. Puelche; northern and southern Tehuelches.