Yu.E. Berezkin, E.N. Duvakin

Thematic classification and distribution of folklore and mythological motifs by area

Analytical catalogue

Introduction
Bibliography
Ethnicities and habitats

B61. Mole's foot.. 48.50.

The

mole had to hold the fallen sky and the sun. Usually, since then, his paw (arm) has been sprained back.

California. Villot: Kroeber 1906, No. 11 [the sky has fallen; The mole supports him with his hand; his arm is arched and remains sprained]: 99; Reichard 1925, No. 25 [Southwest-Young-Man comes, he is given baked tuber; The mole says the little one will fall; Yuyu that the big one will fall; the sky is falling, the Mole tries to hold it with its paw, it bent]: 185; Teeter 1964, No. 4 [Descending to the West: Let it be small will fall! takes the tuber, gives half to the mole; the same again; the mole: let the big one fall! the sky fell, the mole could not hold it, its legs bent]: 139; (cf. yurok [trickster's sister Vohpekumeu was afraid to climb up from the ground with him; turned into a mole, her paw remained twisted]: Kroeber 1976, No. F3, P1:289, 359-360; synkion [two the women were in the house, pushing the seeds alone, heard thunder, twisted her arms back in fear, they were left twisted at the mole]: Kroeber 1919, No. 10:349); yuki: Foster 1944 [when the twins dabbled, their father Thunder (Taikomol) shot a butterfly with a sling, a balloon split the sky; the grandmother of the twins Krotikh supported the sky with her front legs, joined it; her paws bent back, and the sky moved away from Earth farther than before]: 207; Kroeber 1932b [Thunder twins break off the leashes of the sky; their mother Krotiha holds the sky with her hand, tells him to stay in place; since then her hand has been turned out]: 929; screw [ The mole wanted to build the highest mountain (Mount Shasta), but dislocated his arm; it remained sprained]: Dubois, Demetracopoulou 1931, No. 71:395; achomavi [the sun fell from the sky; the mole held it until then until others took the sky back; the wormfoot has been sprained ever since]: Dixon 1908, No. 9:169.

The Great Southwest. Kiliwa [it was night; Metip√° took water in his mouth, spat south, north; took more, spat west (sea arose), east (Gulf of California); smoked, the sea grew; created four mountains, each has a mountain ram (on NE, SE, NW, SW); sheep horns, respectively (the informant does not remember who is in which direction) are dark brown and blue, yellow and oak bark (tan), silver and gray, red and white; took off his skin, pulled it over his horns, but it sagged; told the Mole to dig a passage around the world; a ridge formed, over which M. pulled his skin, and the Mole raised his head and paws (pushed) skin around the perimeter of the world; to make the sun, M. removed it from his elbow, thigh, head - unsuccessfully; then it turned out from his mouth, but it was too hot; told the Rattlesnake to push the sun higher; M . fell ill, died; he was burned]: Meigs 1939:64-66.