B49. The animals did not understand the instructions.
.14.21.-.24.26.29.32.35.37.47.57.65.71.
Animals of a certain species (Toraj has a human) do not hear or understand instructions or questions about their future, or are confused when asking a deity. Thus, they acquire their current characteristics and habits.
North Africa. Morocco [The bee should have asked God to let the people it bite die, but asked it to die by itself after biting a person]: El-Shamy 1980:277; Algerian Arabs (Tiaret Plateau) [God asks everyone how they would like to defend themselves; the bee wants to say, "The one who is bitten by me will die," says, "If bitten by me, I will die"; nothing can be changed, because God only fulfills the first request]: Aceval 2005, No. 125:144.
Tibet is the Northeast of India. Tibetans (Sichuan) [animals share the dish with reason; the hare adjusts so that man eats everything and he gets the leftovers, the Hare; in response, the Tiger says that he will be born every year nine cubs; a frightened Hare jumps out from under the bush, the Tiger forgets what he must repeat, asks the Hare; he: "One cub every nine years"; it remains so]: Potanin 1914, No. 6: 433-434.
Burma - Indochina. Karen [the older sister tells her younger sister that they can't do the field work, they need a husband; the werewolf tiger hears this, comes in the form of a human being, weeds quickly; younger sister understands the deception, the eldest agrees to go with the Tiger; the Tiger leaves the girl in the hut; a man warns her of deception, she runs away, hides in the chicken coop, the peasant brings her back to her sister; Tiger appears, the younger sister says that they are preparing natam treats and the wedding is coming soon; all tigers come to the party, people give them poisoned moonshine; one tigress has survived, repeating "A year, to my son!" ; scared of the chicken, asked the old woman what she was saying, the old woman did not hear well, replied "Twelve years old for her son"; so there are few tigers]: Zapadova 1977:120-123; (cf. Thais [at first, the creator told tigers to give birth to seven cubs seven times a year; seeing that this was dangerous for other animals, he changed the order: one cub every seven years]: Coyaud 2009, No. 7:77).
South Asia. Hill Saora [Sima Rani told the ox to tell people not to work with hoes, but as a plow, harnessing two women; let them work twice and eat once; a partridge flew up in the way of the ox, he was afraid to forget what he had been told and told people to go out to work once on a hot day, twice on a cool day, once on a rainy day, and always eat three times a day; SR was angry and told the ox to carry the plow himself]: Elwin 1956, No. 13:614; condas [first the cows talked and plowed in public; Nirantali told the quail to tell the cows to eat rice and legumes, and people to eat grass; that confused, said the opposite; the cows came to complain; N. gave them the fruit of madness, the cows were speechless; people gave good fruit, they were able to speak, eat rice and legumes]: Elwin 1954, No. 5:339-340; gondas [Mahaprabhu sent a jackal to tell people to swim twice a day, eat once a day; partridges flew up noisily on the way in front of the jackal, he fell down, forgot everything; told the village chief that You should swim once a day, eat three times; people were happy, the jackal said the same thing everywhere]: Elwin 1954, No. 10:161.
Malaysia-Indonesia. Western Toraja [the divine spouses Mpolihoe and Melini ask the old woman seven times if she wants to be reborn when she is old; she can't hear well, asking each time, What? Then she is asked seven times if she wants to die for good; the old woman hears hard again, answers, Yes; now people are mortal]: Kruyt 1938, No. 8:435.
China - Korea. The fox [the hare called the tiger to dig a wild yam; the tiger dug up a lot, but the hare almost nothing; told the tiger that the yam should be washed in the stream, looking at the sky and trampling the tubers with its feet; the tiger yam swam to the hare; he said that the yam ate the acorn, offered to burn it and look with his eyes wide open; the acorn burst into the tiger's eyes; the hare went to the supreme god Vusa for advice, who ordered him to wash his eyes with tree juice; the hare to the tiger: with pepper and salt; the tiger went by himself, V. said that the hare was deceiving him; from now on, the tigers will give birth to 9 cubs a year and eat hares; the hare suddenly asked the tiger what V. had told him; he mistakenly answered that tigers would give birth to one cub at 9 years old and eat their young]: Dessaint, Ngwâma 1994:293-296.
Caucasus - Asia Minor. Megrela [The hare asks the newborn cub if he wants to breastfeed for a year or three days and three nights; the hare thinks that three days and three nights are more, chooses the latter]: Kobalia 1903:118 (=Virsaladze 1973, No. 94:147).
Volga - Perm. The Bashkirs [animals chose man as a gait; everyone asks what to eat; Rais replies to the Wolf that his food is tuiyn (red clay); the wolf hears muiyn (neck) since then rushes at animals, grabbing their necks]: Nadrshina 2001, No. 58:210.
Western Siberia. The Northern Khanty [the dog and the bear lived in the sky, Noomi lowered them to the ground; told the dog that it was going to eat with the man; she did not hear, N. said that it would eat the same that man, but not with him]: Gondatti 1888:55 in Moshinskaya, Lukina 1982:47; Mansi [by Gondatti; God wanted to give the Dog a bow and arrow to better help the hunter; in response Bear demanded that the fifth finger fight off the dogs; God decided not to give anything to both, but allowing the Dog to eat with the person; she did not hear, asked again twice, he told her to eat the same thing man but not together (scum)]: Munkácsi 1908:255.
Amur - Sakhalin. Negidals [Buga created a man and a woman, went to get a breath for them, left the Dog to guard; Amban said that B.'s breath would make people immortal, they would have no place to live; gave The dog had a fur coat, for which she missed it, he put mortal breath into people; B. deprived the Dog of the ability to understand speech, told him to eat crap; B. asked who wanted to have how many children; Hare: three or four, Dog: five or six; the woman was shy, asked only one thing; B. told the animals to beware of people; Wild hazel grouse did not hear because of the sound of the water in the stream; B. told him to remain in the dark; Wild boar said he was not afraid of a bipedal; the man jumped on him, dragged him by the ear, the Pig recognized his strength]: Khasanova, Pevnov 2003, No. 1:51-53.
(Wed. Mesoamerica Mixtecs (European?) [coyotes got together and wrote a law on paper to eat humans; the mouse gnawed the paper so coyotes don't eat humans, they hate mice]: Dyk 1959:63-64).
Southern Venezuela. Makiritar [the inhabitants of the earth ate the earth; the monkey Kúshu found out that a giant cassava bush was growing in the sky; got there, made the bush small, hid it under his fingernails; the owner of cassava Suamo followed, peeled off K.'s skin; sister K. restored it to its former appearance; K., with cassava under his fingernails, went down to the ground, gave Kamáso cassava to plant it; only a rickety plant grew; the same in second place; in third place it grew well; the Daríche bird brought water from the sky, watered cassava; Eréñahádi took the seed to plant {cassava does not reproduce by seeds}, but the seed did not sprout; Uanádi's mother (cultural hero), on the advice of the sorcerer Wádi, planted a seed in Maráhuaca, where it grew into a giant tree with fruits of all kinds on branches; they fell and killed animal people, in including Wade's son was killed; all animals and birds, under the direction of Seménia, collected fruits from the ground; Tapir and Jaguar collected only for themselves, hid them; S. sent them to bring water in the basket, cut down the tree; falling, it formed three mountain ranges; S. ordered the bird Darice to spill the water brought from the sky, it formed rivers; Tapir and Jaguar ran to the fallen tree, but the rivers blocked their way; the waters became the master of the waters a huge snake; when Jaguar got there he said "Now we'll eat humans"; Tapir heard "We'll eat leaves now"; so the jaguar became a predator, a herbivorous tapir]: Civrieux 1960:185-188 (=1959:117).
The Central Andes. Uarochiri (dep. Lima) [Mazama simplicicornis reindeer dance and sing, How are we going to eat humans? The little deer says by mistake, How will people eat us? Deer are running away, people have been eating them ever since]: Salomon, Urioste 1991, ch 5:59.
SE Brazil. Kaingang [water flooded the ground, Mount Krinjijinbe remained; people from the Kaingang, Kayurukre and Kame groups swam, holding smoldering smut in their teeth to keep the fire; kayyurukre and kame drowned and penetrated inside the mountain, they began to live there; the kaingang climbed the mountain, some on the trees on the mountain; the Sarakura birds began to sing, brought baskets of soil, poured them on the water, and came to their aid ducks; a plain arose; those who climbed trees became monkeys; they began to pour the ground from the east, so the rivers flow westward to Parana; kayyurukre and kame climbed to the surface from different sides of the mountain; kame their legs were injured, they were swollen, now their legs were big and kaiyurukre's legs were small; the shaman Kaiyurukre made jaguars out of coal and ash; when he made tapirs, there was only ash left; told them to eat meat; tapir ears they were small, the tapirs were asked again, the shaman was already sculpting another animal, telling them to eat leaves and grass; by morning the shaman did not have time to finish the anteater, so he had no teeth; Kaiyurukre made good ones animals, including bees, and Kame are bad so that they could defeat Kaiyurukre's created: cougars, venomous snakes, wasps; after learning that jaguars were eating humans, Kaiyurukre and Kame threw a log across the river; when The jaguars stepped onto the bridge, the Kame pushed the log; got scared, let the parts go; Kayyurukre, Kame and Kaingang set rules for exchanging marriage partners]: Borba 1904:57f in Koch-Grünberg 1921, No. 77:209-212 (German retelling in Teschauer 1914:33; Russian per. Siebert 1972:134-137; French retelling by Ploetz, Metraux 1930:212-213).