B55. Leaf-fish.. 19.20.24.53.58.61.62.65.68.70.
Fish grow on tree branches or tree leaves turn into fish.
Marind-anim, (orokaiwa), Palau, dayaki (kayan), eastern Panama, kuna, warrau, sekoya, napo, yagua, baniwa, letuama, piro, paresi, apinaye.
Melanesia. Marind-anim: Wirtz, Neverman 1981, No. 42 [a huge Gangut tree is moving towards the river; people cut it down; the crown has fallen into the sea, the branches have become sea fish; the roots are river; the big root is a shark] 10 [a huge tree is moving towards the river; people cut it down; fruits that fall into the sea become sea fish, and those that fall into the river become river fish]: 102-104, 210-211; (cf. Orokaiva [Buda woman and her husband Menina live on the Waria River; next to their house is a tall Bendoro tree; every morning a woman sweeps away fallen leaves; wants as many people as leaves ; many people appeared in the morning; B. distributed them among tribes, gave them appropriate cultural objects, and sent them to live where their descendants live now]: Williams 193-156).
Micronesia-Polynesia. Palau [a woman found an egg on a breadtree; it was the birth of a sunny boy; he wonders why his mother only feeds him tarot; he swam, dived under the island where he grew up his mother's breadtree; he drilled the trunk and branch, the waves began to throw fish inside; the fish came and fell through the trunk and branch at the mother's house; envious neighbors began to cut down the tree; water poured out, flooded the island, only that woman and son escaped on the raft; the son flew to heaven, returned to his mother]: Krämer 1929:61 in Wassen 1940:70.
Malaysia-Indonesia. Kayan (NW Borneo) [a rock fell from the sky into the primary ocean; the top remained above the water; under the influence of rain, silt and sand formed on the surface; then the handle of the sword fell from the sky, which became wood, and c The moons wrapped around the tree are a vine; they gave birth to people: animals, birds and fish arose from the twigs and leaves of a tree; moss and small plants appeared from the silt on the rock surface]: Furniture 1899:6-7 c Hatt 1949:34-35 (also briefly mentioned in Dixon 1976:176).
Honduras - Panama. Eastern Panama (kuna?) [The sun has made a big river, a tree has grown on its bank, branches prevent the Sun from moving; it tells two Squirrels to cut down a tree; a bouncing chip has injured the Big Squirrel's spine, it has become crooked; Malaya knocked down a tree; it blocked the river, formed the sea; fish appeared from the leaves, crocodiles, turtles, iguanas from the chips; to prevent the tree from growing again, the Sun told the Monkey, the Hawk, the Ant since then gnaw on shoots]: Adrian de Santo Tomas in Casimir de Brizuela 1972:60-61; in Reichel-Dolmatoff 1945:22; kuna [tree fruits fall into the sea, turn into sardines]: Chapin 1989:158-159.
Guiana. Warrau [tree fruits - fish]: Wilbert 1970, No. 47:123
Western Amazon. Napo: Foletti Castegnaro 1985, No. 1e [among the leaves on the tree were all kinds of fish; the twins cut down the tree, it fell to the east, only one branch remained in the upper reaches; so there are few fish, and downstream a lot]: 70; Mercier 1979 [Apustulu alone uses a tree with fish in its trunk; a wasp boy helps him fish; Jaguar and others pull the Wasp's belt with a rope; he reports wood; they can't catch fish, they cut down the trunk; felling overgrows as soon as they don't look at it; they work non-stop, burn chips; the tree still does not fall; the bird sees that it is tied to the sky a vine; The squirrel climbs up, cuts off the vine; the tree falls, turns into rivers, leaves into fish; A. in anger throws its feather fan and belt into the water; they turn into a poisonous stingray, an eel; turns the remaining chips into fish and aquatic animals; makes rapids to prevent fish from going up the river; turns the squirrel into stone as punishment]: 69-80; napo or canelo [ripened on the tree all kinds of game; only the wasp used it and kept a secret; she was drunk, pulled together with a rope around her belt, she had to tell her; everyone began to cut down the tree, but the next morning the felling was overgrown; so several times; decided that the tree was suspended from the sky; asked the squirrel to cut the rope, she refused; the little squirrel agreed; when the tree fell, it managed to jump; the tree fell downstream; the leaves that were on drier, turned into animals, and those in the river into different types of fish; if the tree fell in the opposite direction, there would be a lot of fish in the upper reaches]: Orr, Hudelson 1971, No. 22:67-69; sekoya [tree leaves - fish]: Cipolletti 1992:165.
NW Amazon. Baniva (hohodene) [Kufali's ancestor receives a basket full of all types of fish and aquatic animals from his father-in-law; opens it before reaching home; the fish ends up hanging on trees like leaves; he collects these leaves, puts them in two decks at home, lowers them into the river; decks turn into great snakes filled with fish (fishing boats)]: Wright 1995:47; letuama [boiling water floods the ground; four Ayas brothers climb a tree, send a Pigeon, a Possum, and a howler monkey to find out if the water is high; they scald their tails; the pigeon's tail turns white, the opossum's tail turns naked; The dove brought the land, the brothers scattered it, the soil reappeared; they came down from the tree, it turned into a mountain; they came to their aunt, she keeps rainwater in a large vessel; they cut down several giant trees; from one to Apaporis with tributaries, from the other to Caquetá, etc.; branches and leaves turned into fish]: Palma 1984:71-72; Yagua: Chaumeil 1983:155; Chaumeil, Chaumeil 1978, No. 2:169-170; Payne 1992:207-208; Powlison 1972a [see motif J23; the twin grandfather owns the water hidden in the tree trunk; the brothers call all birds and rodents to knock down the tree; felling overgrows at night; the youngest watches his grandfather, finds out the secret; they cut down a tree; it turns into the Amazon, rivers into tributaries, chips and leaves into fish, worms into Europeans, blacks and non-Yagua Indians]: 76.
Montagna - Jurua. Pyro [after killing the jaguars (a pregnant female survived), Tsla ordered the brothers to bring red clay, sculpted a man and a woman, breathed life into them through their noses; sculpted their ancestors out of white clay Europeans; created cultivated plants; created different types of fish from different leaves]: Matteson 1951:52-54.
Southern Amazon. Paresi: Pereira 1986, No. 1 [first water and a mound of earth; Miore, one of the heavenly men, made a hole in it, went into it and carried it; the earth began to grow; going in four directions, marked the boundaries of the earth; hung it on ropes to the sky; the cardinal turned into a heavenly tree, growing upwards; its leaves fell and turned into various fish; M. put the leaves in a frying pan , sprayed with juice, ate], 32 [(end of a long text); the vulture began to eat raw meat, and tachãs (Chauna torquata) placed it on a tree to fry in the sun; when two tachãs climbed to take the meat to the tree, Wakomoné told them to throw the leaves of the tree on the savannah, they became game; others into the water, they became fish; said that now the paresis would hunt and fish, bring it to house of sacred flutes]: 22-25, 361-365.
Eastern Brazil. Apinaye [Mebapame (Sun) throws leaves into the river, they turn into various fish; throws tucum fibers, they become snakes, eels and other long fish; on his companion Brubure (Month) M. tries how snakes bite; immediately heals him]: Wilbert 1978, No. 15:77-78.