Yu.E. Berezkin, E.N. Duvakin

Thematic classification and distribution of folklore and mythological motifs by area

Analytical catalogue translated by Jon F White

Introduction
Bibliography
Ethnicities and habitats

B74B. Owl and moon wedding.. 24.

The

owl is forced to part with the moon and now screams when it sees the moon. It is usually told how the marriage between an owl and the moon broke up or did not take place.

Iban, Murut, Dusun, Palawan, Malays, South Sulawesi.

Malaysia-Indonesia. Iban [at the request of the Month, Sovka married him and gave birth to a radiant boy; four years later, Months wanted to return to heaven, Sovka said she would have nothing to eat there, spouses quarreled; shared the child, Month took the upper part with him, made stars out of it; The scoop kept the bottom, made it all kinds of trees; the scoop still screams at the full moon; (hereinafter the story Cuckoos, Calao and Nightjar)]: Sandin 1964 in Macdonald 2005:76; murut [Puok was the wife of the supreme god Kohlong, whose face can be seen on the moon disk, lived with him on the moon; taking insects out of her husband's hair, dropped the comb to the ground; volunteered to follow him herself in her winged feather clothes; on the ground, the man gave her the comb, invited her into the house; she told how K. determines the fate of all people; K. punished her for her chatter, her body became heavy, she could not fly to the moon; clothes grew to her body, K. became an owl, screams at night, calling her husband]: Wooley 1928, No. 20:376-378; dusun [Eared The Owl (Puak) was the sweetheart of the Month; the sky was close to the ground, seven Suns were shining; the pregnant woman felt sick from the heat; her husband went to sunrise, shot six Suns with a wind gun; the seventh ran, taking it to The sky is now high; the Long-eared Owl came down from the roof of the house at that time to pick up the crest that had fallen to the ground, could not return to heaven, and has been screaming plaintively when the moon comes out]: Evans 1914: 433 (=1923; retelling in MacDonald 2005:79; Ho 1967, No. 16:220); palawan [Married Sovka for a month; promised to return from fishing in a day; if he is away for two days, then he was bitten by a poisonous fish; A month comes back in two days, the wife is in bed, does not listen to him, repeats that the Month is dead, bitten by a poisonous fish; A month cooks and eats caught fish, shoots into the sky with a sarbakan, making a chain of darts, climbs it; seeing her husband in the sky and the fish cooked, the wife believes that it was the Month, she cries; animals and birds are consistently called to deliver her by the Month, planting her for themselves on its back; a hornet rises into the air, but sees a Solanum inequilaterale bush, goes down to it, says that this is the sky; a monitor lizard leaves a woman on top of a dry tree; a dung beetle in a latrine Raji; Osprey picks up for the Month; when he goes swimming, he warns his wife that if she looks and sees kuhung bulan mushrooms (below), she should not go down, they are mushrooms, not him; she looks, sees mushrooms, thinks it's the Month, jumps down, crashes, turns into a scoop, screams into a full moon ever since]: Macdonald 2005:77-78; Malays [Owl fell in love with Princess Moon; she promised to marry him, if he let her chew the betel; before she chewed it, she spit it it out, the betel fell to the ground, becoming a bird whose name translates as "princess betel gum"; Luna asked Owl to find her gum, and because he failed, the marriage failed; the owl still sighs as she looked at the moon]: Skeat 1901:73-74; south Sulawesi (boogie or makassars) [the ruler of the heavenly state is predicted that when he has a daughter will be born, she will destroy his country, because people from earth will try to take possession of the girl; a daughter is born, grows up, the ruler hides her in a palace on the moon; the ruler of the earthly state sends an army capture a girl, the heavenly state is destroyed, but the girls are not found; she lives on the moon with an old wet nurse; one day she thinks she sees a flower on earth, comes down to take it, it's they are just sugarcane cake; the girl got her wings dirty and could not fly; climbed a tree and turned into an owl, and since then screams at the full moon; the nurse is still waiting for her at to the moon, she can be seen sitting there under a banyan]: Kratz 1973, No. 28:162-166.