B86. The Tower of Babel.. 11.-.13.16.17.19.-.27. (.28.) .29. (.31.35.) .47.48.52.55.62.63.67.

To get to the sky (moon, star, sun), people build a staircase or tower consisting of separate modules (logs, poles, bricks, etc.), but the structure collapses.

Xhosa, luba, bangubangu, soko, bemba, lamba, bena-lulua, lozi (rotse), nkoya, tabwa, ila, subia, louis, tonga, mbala, mkulwe, chokwe, lunda, shona, ndaw, nyamwezi, haya, pare, grebo, Ashanti, Aquapim, Igbo, Mosi, Hausa, (Songhai), Mbum, Acholi, Lendu, Madi, Lugbara, Didinga, Ari (Ubamer), Somalis, French, Old Testament, Trobrians, San Cristobal, Admiralty Islands, Loyalty Islands (Lifou) ), Rotuma, Fiji, Tuamotu, Lepcha, Kirati, Rengma, Angami, Zeme, Dhimal, Garo, Mikir, Mishmi, Kuki (Chins), Meitei, Rawang, Karen, Banar, Khmu, Ancient India, Aoheng, Apayao, Meo, Lisu, Ancient Greece, Greeks, (Ukrainians), Adygs, Abkhazians, Georgians, Armenians, (leaders, Nenets), choctaw, vintu, hopi, teva (Hano), papago, Aztecs, bribri, amber, chikuna, spike, takana.

Bantu-speaking Africa. The scythe [The month calls people to build a tower; men build, women wear stones; when the tower has almost reached the moon, it falls, the builders die; their children decide to cultivate the land better and raise cattle]: Klipple 1992:357; luba: Kotlyar 1975 [in an effort to avoid enemy attacks, people decide to tie logs and climb them to heaven; when they reach the clouds, the stairs collapsed; in place the falls formed first a waterfall, then a lake, the fallen builders drowned]: 55; Scheub 2000 [people lived in the sky with Kalumba; he lowered them to the ground, illness and death appeared; the fortuneteller advised return to heaven in the land of immortality; began to build a tower with a base made of lusanga wood; people climbed into heaven, began to beat drums and play flutes; K. heard a noise, destroyed the tower, musicians died]: 99; Studstill 1984 (shaba) [the evil ruler of Kalala Ilunga ordered the tower to be built to the sky; it collapsed, the builders died]: 104; luba (? Shaba Province) [a man named Mlunga Leza tried three times to organize the tower to the sky, but it fell down every time]: Janssens 1926:556; Bangubangu [Mulolo Mulohwe's first ancestors and woman his wife Lolo came out of the cave; at first they ate only white ground; they had many children; they met dwarfs in the forest, they taught them to get fire by friction; then they ate differently and no longer ate the earth; they dug a well to get water, but it was dry; then they began to make a huge tree to climb into the sky and get water from the clouds; all the descendants of the first couple climbed there even when the sky was left very little, the tree could not bear their weight, branches and people fell into different places, and now there are different languages]: Maes 1933:498; soko [when the chief finally had a son, he He did not refuse him anything; one man told his son that there was one thing his father could not get for him - the moon; the son asked for the moon, the father gathered advice, one of those present suggested building a platform to the sky at the top of the mountain; the tower is ready, the leader rose and felt the moon, it is hot; when they tried to tear it away from the sky, there was an explosion, the tower burned down, the hot stream burned down the whole country; Living adults became gorillas and children became monkeys;]: Stanley 1893:105 -116; bemba [the niece of a man who descended from heaven had ears like an elephant; she has Mukulumpe's husband, three sons and a daughter; The sons decided to build a tower to heaven; it collapsed, many builders died; M. ordered the sons to be killed, but two fled, and the third, Katongo, he blinded; promised to forgive the fugitives if they returned at night, set up trap pits; K. found out, warned the brothers; they came along side paths; M. forgave them, but forced them to sweep the village (this is offensive); the brothers leave, pick up their sister]: Roberts 1973:39-40 (= Belcher 2005:233-234); a lamp [Katala Pole Connector built a tower to the sky to reach the sun and moon and make decorations out of them; but the poles from below rotted, the tower collapsed; the remaining people spoke different languages]: Doke 1927, No. 159:277; tabwa [the motif of the collapsed stairs to the sky like the Tower of Babel at Tabwa, Luvale (Kaposhi clan), Luapula (Rat clan), Lubunda, Luba, Lozi]: Roberts 1973:346; nkoya [Chief Mweru ordered to build a ladder to the sky, reach the moon; a staircase from joined folded poles, it collapsed]: Binsberger 1992:213; bena-lulua, Bakwa Kunda [people decided climb into the sky, built a tower out of logs, it fell, women and old people died]: Frobenius 1983:163; Kanyoka [people built a tower to the sky, it fell, many died, some were already there in the sky and could not find ways back; the remains of the structure are still visible]: Frobenius 1983:163; lozi (rotse) {detailed retelling in Beier 1966:7-14; Kamunu, Nyambe character names; then two various retelling of the same text; a brief retelling in Scheub 2000:186}: Parrinder 1967 [the creator of Nyambi and his wife lived on earth; Kamonu imitated N. in everything, in particular, extracted and smelted iron; N. forbid him to kill animals, allowed him to engage in agriculture; buffalo poisoned crops, K. killed him; N. sent misfortunes to K., his vessel crashed, the dog and child died; K. came to N. to complain, saw there was their vessel, dog and son; so that K. would not bother him, N. and his wife moved to the island, then to the mountain, but K. came again; the Wagtail Fortuneteller advised him to hide in the sky, N. and his family climbed there on the web; the fortuneteller advised to pull the spider's eyes out of the body so that he would not remember the roads; K. and his people began to build a tower of logs, it collapsed with them; people greet God at sunrise the sun and his wife at sunrise]: 37-38; Zhukov, Kotlyar 1976, No. 7 [Nyambi created everything, Kamonu repeated after him, began to kill animals; his dog died, the pot crashed, the child died; he came to N. and saw them there alive and intact; N. settled on the island, but K. sailed to him on a raft; on the mountain he also came; then, on the advice of the soothsayer, asked the Spider to weave a web to the sky, went up there, pricked them out Spider eyes, began to live in the sky; K. called people to build a tower from logs to the sky; it collapsed; in the morning, at sunrise, people greet N., and when they see the young moon, they turn to Nasilela, N.'s wife]: 39 -40; Shauna (Gutu Region, Zimbabwe): Baumann 1936 [1) the sage told Chief Baroswi that if he removed the moon from the sky and hung it on his chest, he would become immortal; his men built a tower of stones and logs, but it collapsed on the builders; then the chief from the mountain hooked the moon with a rope, but both horns broke off; the chief fell into the hole and died; there was oil in the horns, the grass caught fire, but it was extinguished; 2) people built a platform to get the moon as an ornament for the chief (the tower obviously collapsed); this type of jewelry is a disc made of a shell; its distribution zone in Bantu speaking Africa closely coincides with the myth of the tower spreading to the sky, see figure on page 256]: Baumann 1936:259; Hutton 1914 [one of Baroswi's kings wanted the moon; subjects began to build a tower, the tree at the base rotted, the tower collapsed, those on it died]: 481; ndau [(there is a motif for the Tower of Babel)]: Sicard 1952:67; ilah [a woman lost her parents as a child; then all her children died; she tried build a tower up to the sky from logs to talk to Leza; but the building fell down every time; then she went to the end of the world to go up to heaven; people she met said that none of her loved ones had died; she didn't make it to heaven, she died on her own]: Smith, Dale 1920:197-198 (parrinder 1967:30-31; Werner 1933:40-41); Tonga (Victoria Falls area) ["they have a tradition similar to history The Tower of Babel, with the difference that the collapsed forests broke the heads of the builders "]: Livingston in Fraser 1985:164, in Sacard 1952:67; mbala [people decided to climb the moon; put on top of each other logs, the structure collapsed]: Fraser 1985:165; mkulve [people decided to climb the moon, put logs on top of one another, the structure collapsed, the builders died; others decided not to build like this anymore]: Hamberger 1909, No. 9:304 (=Frazer 1926:195); yaka (Congo) [people wanted to see God, began to build a tower out of logs; after a few months, worms ate logs, the building collapsed, people came to different places, scattered, no longer form the same genus]: Plancqueaert 1982, No. 28:73-75; chokwe: Anpetkova-Sharova 1975 [Kangalolo responded to the call of the leaders to do a great deed; they began to build a tower, the sky was close; the logs were rotten, the tower fell, people were scattered, so they speak different languages; traces of the tower's fall can be seen in the Kaveve Gorge]: 277-278; Frobenius 1983 [people began to build a log tower to climb into heaven; Kalunga sent the Wind to destroy it; everyone died except a man and a woman; a woman gave birth to a son and a daughter, and the father sent them to another country, himself stayed where he lived]: 164; lunda [people built the Kaposhi Tower to heaven to listen to what God says; it collapsed either because termites gnawed on the lower logs, or Nzambi destroyed the tower himself; people fell, spoke different languages]: White 1948:34; louis (the upper reaches of the Zambezi) [Sunse-Nyambe lived on earth, then climbed into heaven on the web, told himself to worship; people decided to kill him; put poles on top of each other, the structure fell, people crashed]: Jacottet 1901:118 in Fraser 1985:164-165, in Frazer 1926:173); subia [people thought the moon was the shell ornament they wear on the leader's breasts (one piece of jewelry is equal to a bull); began to build a platform to reach it; when they almost reached the moon, the lower supports had already rotted and the structure collapsed, people died; only after the third Attempts people decided to abandon the idea of getting to the moon]: Jacottet 1894, No. 6:674-675 (retelling in Baumann 1936:256, Kotlyar 2009, No. 68:83); Nyamwezi [Valengo people built a tower to the sky; went down to call all relatives; when they climbed, the wind knocked down the tower, all Valengo died]: Spellig 1929, No. 2:232; couple [Kyumbi sculpted people out of clay, left, and the sun god Izuwa took his place; . gave people cattle and cereals, was close; Kiriamage the snake seduced people to eat forbidden K. eggs; K. punished them by starving them, people ate beetles, died, a man and a woman remained, they gave birth to new people; people began to build a tower to heaven to go to war; god K. caused an earthquake, the tower fell, crushed the builders; then K. removed the sky from the ground]: Millroth 1965:28 (briefly in Baumann 1936: 257-258); haya [King Bugabo decides to climb into heaven, orders to build a tower of tree trunks and iron beams; on the fourth day, the tower falls apart, those above have crashed, king abandoned his idea]: Klipple 1992:357-358; (cf. bube (? Fernando Po) [Bogoraz-Tan does not refer to the source, but he probably did not invent it himself; the episode, as described, does not fully meet the definition of motive; "The black tribe on Fernando Po Island... the boy began to climb to heaven; his mother chased him; then the gods, afraid that mothers and children would flood the sky, knocked over the stairs and threw it down"]: Bogoraz-Tan 1928:14-15).

West Africa. Ashanti: Anpetkova-Sharova 2010 [the sky was low; people cut off pieces and ate; the old woman cooked fufu, crushed cassava, touched the sky with a pestle, it moved away; the old woman told the children to put their stupas one on top of the other, getting to the sky, cutting off a delicious piece; one stupa was not enough; Ananse's spider offered to take the stupa out from below, place it upstairs; the tower collapsed, the sky remained high]: 37-38; Baumann 1936 [ just like aquapim; termites destroyed the lower mortar]: 258; Livingston in Fraser 1985 [the old woman insulted God, he retired to heaven; people began to build a tower pestling on top of each other; one not enough, the sage offered to take out the lower pestle, put it upstairs; the tower collapsed; var.: ants gnawed the lower pestle]: 165; Scheub 2000 [Aberewa woman (this name is called the spirit of the earth Asase Yaa) cooked the children are eating, hitting the end of the pestle on the sky Nyame ("sky", "God"); N. is tired of it, he left Earth; A. decided to be close to him again, put many steps one on top of the other; she needs the last one, she asked the child to give it to her, he did not find it, she ordered to give one of the lower legs, then the tower collapsed]: 5; aquapim [people decided to get to the god Nyankupon, began to build a tower of stupas; one Not enough, they pulled out the lowest one to put it upstairs, the tower collapsed; people ran away and spoke different languages in fear; (Baumann: the last motive, most likely under the influence of the missionaries)]: Baumann 1936:258:5; Igbo [Onojo Oboni was very tall with six toes and toes; sacrificed a son to know the truth, for he did not believe other oracles; ordered a tower to be built to heaven. but it collapsed, many died; then ordered a tunnel to be dug into the ground; went down there, ordering troops to follow him; but they filled a hole, OO remained buried in it]: Belcher 2005:288-289; mosi [ Nyaka (little antelope) promises a daughter to someone who brings buffalo milk, leopard skin, elephant tusk; the hare gives Buffalo sweet porridge, says it's baobab juice, Buffalo pierces its horns into the baobab, gets stuck, the Hare milks her; invites the Leopard to swim, leaving his skins on the shore; sprinkles pepper into the leopard's skin, says that his bag is also burning, offers to rinse both, takes them away; pretends to see in something beautiful in the sky; tells elephants that their eyesight is weak because their eyes are small in relation to their bodies; offers to climb on each other's backs so that the upper one can see and get what he sees, Hare; elephants form a tower, the Hare puts a smut under the lower leg, it moves, the tower falls, the upper one broke off the tusk when it fell, the Hare took it away; the bird began to scream about it, the Hare explained to the elephants that it He scolds them; the elephants ran to catch her, the Hare brought N.'s tusk; he replied that the descendant of two creatures as clever as he and the Hare would become smarter than God; therefore, he does not give the Hare a daughter]: Frobenius 1986:47-50 (=1972: 110-114); rowing (Half-Grebo) [Nyesoa came to help people, saw that they were building a huge community house; began to talk to him, but they did not listen; then he cursed their house and it collapsed; separated people, giving each group its own language]: Schwab 1947:119; Hausa [there are myths about the sun and moon, the rise of the sky, the Tower of Babel]: Frobenius 1913 (2): 539; (cf. songhai [a cruel ruler tells sons to kill elderly fathers; one young man hid his father; the ruler gathers the young, orders them to build a house from earth to heaven; father advises his son to ask the ruler indicate the place between earth and sky where his residence will be located; when he hears the question, the tyrant realizes that the young man's father is alive, he is ashamed, he abandons the idea]: Hama 1967:261).

Sudan - East Africa. Mbum [the first mbum fell from the sky; the person who lived there earlier told them to return; they began to build a staircase on the mountain; termites raised the base, people fell, became different nations]: Lembezat 1961 : 218-210; Acholi [people cut a lot of bamboo, began to make a tower to the sky, but could not finish it]: Boccassino 1938:102; Lendu [the first people multiplied; decided to put it on top of each other trees to get to God Gindi; he threw stars at them in anger, blinded them, burned their faces; people retreated and parted]: Bosch 1928:990-991; lugbara [there is a myth about separating people from heaven Spirit, separating Africans from Europeans, building and destroying the Tower of Babel, the emergence of Lugbar and Kakwa, different languages and tribes]: Middleton 1965:19 (=197:50); madi [Ori's wife descended on the ground by rain (var.: a man and a woman fell from the sky to the ground), people multiplied, first climbed into the sky with a cow leather belt; the hyena ate it, people tried to build a bamboo tower to sky, but it collapsed]: Scheub 2000:200-201; Didinga [a man and a woman descended from the sky down the vine; after that, Hyena bit the vine, the rest of the people could not go down; the first couple gave birth to a lot people, but Hyena ate many; people built a high platform (like the one that children put in the field to drive away birds) to return to heaven, but the wind knocked it down, people died; the rest built a new one platform, killed Hyena with swords; began to go to bed closer to the ground and then on the ground; no longer afraid of hyenas]: Kronenberg 1972:132-122; bilin [baboons bury their mother; the fox says he is his own buried it in the sky; to get there, let one climb on his back, the others one on top of the other; the fox jumped out, the baboons fell, crashed; the fox filled their vessel with brains, smeared honey on top; gave them to his son noble parents to try honey, ordered them to tell their parents that he would not eat anything but fox honey obtained in the sky; the father called the fox, who sold him a pot for a bull and a cow, ran away; began to live with as a lion, he chose a bull; when the fox calved, the lion ate the calf, put the last one in the bull's ass, said that he had given birth to a bull; the antelope confirmed that it had given birth to a bull; the fox gave roots to the boar, who said that gave birth to a cow; in the end, the fox agreed that he had given birth to a bull, but when the lion lifted the cow, the fox lifted the meat to the tree; the lion asked him to throw it off, the fox wrapped the hot stone in the meat, the lion swallowed it and died; The hyena asks her to share meat; the fox gave her bones, said the lion came to life, the hyena ran, fell into the river and drowned]: Reinisch 1883, No. 3:202-208; ari (ubamer) [monkeys were human, Leopard workers; he told them to build a fence by hammering stakes into the rock; Rabbit came and said he had sewed up the land; Leopard: is it possible to sew up the land? Rabbit: and driving stakes into a rock? The leopard killed the Rabbit, the monkeys asked whether to bury him in the ground or in the sky; the Leopard: in the sky; the monkeys stood on top of each other, the Rabbit's body was at the highest; the lowest one was hard, it moved, everyone fell into forest, turned into monkeys of various species, the rabbit was blown away by the wind]: Jensen 1959, No. 5:184; Somalis [to get to the Celestial Camel (an unidentified constellation of the southern sky), humans climbed to Mount Golis (in Eastern Somalia), standing on top of each other, reached the sky; the one above grabbed the camel by the tail, but remembered that he had forgotten to lead the camel; the request to take the rope was passed down, the lower leaned to pick it up, everyone hit it, Sky Camel's tail came off]: Hanghe 1988, No. 2:111 (=Capchits 1997, No. 2:16, retelling Kotlyar 2009, No. 69:83).

Western Europe. The French [there are simpletons in the village of Malaya Balzat; when the bush grew on the road to the church, they tied the church with a rope and began to pull; when they saw the moon rise, they thought it was a fire, they brought buckets and stairs; warden: let's glorify the name of our village, explore the moon; there are 13 of us here, let everyone take another neighbor, 26, and each bring a barrel; put one on top of the other, get to the moon; barrels set up, the warden says there are not many left; but there are no more barrels; take the lower one; the tower has fallen, the warden and others have broken their legs and arms]: Michelson 1976:10-12.

Western Asia. Old Testament [people decided to build a tower up to the sky from burnt bricks, fastened them with earth tar; God mixed their tongues, they abandoned construction, scattered across the ground]: Gen. 11:1-9.

Melanesia. The Trobrians (kilyvila) [once upon a time there was only one nation and one language on the Trobrians; people decided to build a tower to the sky out of wood and vines; when completed, the tower fell; some people stuck in the clouds; thunder is their attempts to get out of the vines from the tower; others have fallen and they are the current ones that speak different languages]: 1972, No. 55:5; San Cristobal [at Be'eba'earo ( the legendary village near Heuru), people split into two teams; one was preparing material (obviously logs - cutting the material}, the other was building a ladder to climb into the sky; the structure collapsed, everything those on it died; they were not Masi fools or Kakamora spirits, but ordinary people]: Fox 1924:336; Loyalti Islands (Lifou) [people were going to build the tower to the clouds; the lower pillars rotted, the tower fell]: Ray 1917:279 in Frazer 1918:569, in M'Farlane 1873:19-20; Admiralty Islands [people led by Muiquiu began to build a house to heaven; Po Avi came from Cali, banned construction; M. listened, sprinkled water on people, they spoke different languages, parted]: Fraser 1985:167-168; Fiji: Waterhouse 1866 [people decided to build a tower to the moon; when they had already built a lot, the bottom rotted, people scattered]: 344; Williams 1870 in Pavlinskaya 1989, No. 11 [people decided to build a tower to the moon to understand everything about the stars and find out who lives on the moon; they built an embankment and a wooden house on it; When it almost reached the sky, the lower pillars collapsed, carpenters were scattered all over Fiji's islands]: 88 (same as Young, p.314 in Williamson 1933 (1): 95; Williams 1960:253 in Frazer 1939:186).

Micronesia-Polynesia. Tuamotu (Hao Island) [in Marangai, on Hawaii, people built fences; they decided to build them as high as the sky to see Watea; he broke the fence in anger, dispersed the builders, and told them to speak in three different languages to prevent them from finishing the fence]: Caillot 1914:11 in Permyakov 1970, No. 167:416 (retelling in Williamson 1933 (1) :94, 95 [Cayo sees biblical influence here, but Williamson doesn't I am sure of this; in particular, Cayo himself writes that the text contains many ancient words that are no longer understood by the aborigines]); Rotuma [Sourangpol carried a stone to base the house that was supposed to be achieved sky; another man forced S. to throw a stone; after a fight, S. hid, became a stone himself; the "strongman" continued to build, began to build a roof; Fuonga, S.'s son, stole and ate food cooked builders to sacrifice to the holy leader; then killed the "strongman" himself with a club, destroyed the structure, appointed a new holy leader; people still show stones and a hill at the construction site]: Gardiner ( JAI 27:517 in Williamson 1933 (1): 95.

Tibet is the Northeast of India. Lepcha: Hermanns 1954 [=Shrestha 2019:518-519; people filled the jugs with earth, built a tower out of them; the man upstairs shouted for a hook and he would hook him to the sky; "hook and "chop" homonyms for lepcha; people below cut down the tower and it collapsed]: 43; Hutton 1914 [people began to build a tower to the sky; shouted to hook the horn of the moon from below; those below did not understand they cut down the base of the tower, it collapsed, killed many; a bunch of stones and potsherds are still visible; the builders were the extinct Na-ong people ("blind fools")]: 479-480; Stocks 1925, No. VII.2 [after the flood, the people of Na- ong ("misunderstanding", ignorant persons) decided to build a tower to heaven to get to the creator of Rum; built it from clay pots; R. decided to cause confusion by making them speak different languages; man from above he shouted for a pole with a hook from below; those below heard "Hack it"; asked if he really wanted to be cut; the one upstairs replied yes; they cut down the tower , it collapsed, killed many; Na-ong dispersed, ceased to understand each other; many pottery shards are still found at the site of the fall of the tower; about the same story is known in Tibet, but without language mixing motif]: 359-360; kirati [Kiranti first spoke the same language. There were many of them, and the ruler decided to count the people. Each person had to bring one stone and give it to the head of their clan. Mountains of stones were gathered in front of the leaders. The chiefs decided to build a tower out of these stones. Things were slow, and the tower was very tall. But there were disagreements over language: some did not understand the others. Quarrels began. Then those who were at the foot decided to bring down the tower. Many people died under the rubble. Sixteen clan heads (speaking different languages) remained among the survivors. They also started fighting among themselves. Then there were 4 chiefs left. They continued to fight. One chief led his clan east. In his clan, people spoke 12 languages, so they couldn't get along together. Of these, magars, vats (?) and the Gurungs settled in the northwest. The Nagas, Siya, Lepcha, and Kachins settled in the east in Assam, Sikkim, and Burma. For other clans, they marked the way by breaking banana branches along the way. The Limbu, Khambu, Sword, Koche, Tharu, Danuwara, and Dhimils also went east, but it took a long time for the leaves to grow again. The Danuvars and the Dkhimils settled in the Terai. Limbu and Khambu advanced a little further, but also failed to meet the first clans, and stayed in the mountains of Nepal. Swords, Koche, Tharu settled in the Assam Mountains]: Shrestha 2019:484-485 {the second half of the text detailing settled ethnic groups is outlined differently (which one?) source, p. 30-31; about the same in Shrestha 2019, but without some details}; Angami: Hutton 1914, No. 1 [in one country, people led by a great chief began to build stairs to heaven; Those above shouted to give the tree; from below they answered that there was no more wood, asked if the bottom could be cut off (they thought the top was already fixed in heaven); those upstairs did not understand agreed, the stairs collapsed, the builders died], 2 [Ukepenopfu (pfu is the ending of a feminine gender, but the Angami speak of the character as a man) was the first person; leaving descendants on earth, he rose to heaven ; in order to communicate with W., people started building a tower to heaven; W. thought he didn't have gifts for so many people; made people speak different languages and couldn't continue working]: 478; Zeme [the descendants of Neomi decided to build a wooden tower to return to heaven, from where their ancestor had descended; the one above shouted for more logs; the one below did not hear began to ask again: cut? the first one got tired, he shouted, Yes! the second one began to cut down, the tower fell, those on it died, the remains are still visible; the rest below parted to choose their land; Nriami chose the rocks, and then it turned out that nothing was there grow; they asked Neomi and Nkuoami to share good land and they agreed; Kabui felled along the trail in the humuk tree, they're black and zemi on the Kameo tree, they're white; the whites are better seen by More people went to this trail, so zemi are bigger than kabui; the Angami did not fight the zemi at first, and then they started fighting]: http://www.nagajournal.com/category/arts-literature/folktalesstories/ Ursula Graham, Nagajournal Jan 5, 2014; Rengma [when nations moved, people built a tower on the mountain, told God they wanted to go up to heaven; to prevent this, God mixed languages]: Mills 1937:275; garo [the boy saw the moon, asked his father to get it; the father asked his maternal uncle for help; he brought logs and bamboo, the boy's father was building; when the tower went beyond the clouds, the man shouted to they submitted more material, and the wife and her nephew realized that he had reached the moon and the stairs could be removed; the nephew destroyed the supports with an ax, the tower collapsed, the man crashed; the wife waited in vain for her husband to come, carrying the moon; the fragments of the tower are the Rangira chain of hills]: Rongmuthu 1960:81-82 (=Bertrand 1958:117); Mikir (Karbi): [Rama's descendants began to build a tower to heaven; celestials mixed their languages, people scattered on earth]: Fraser 1984:167 (Stocks 1925:360 indicates source: Census and Reports of Assam, 1902:47); Stack, Lyall 1908 [gods Hèmphū and Mukráng placed four pillars on the edges of the future lands, tied them with the hair of their mothers; the wife of the god Bāmon was sent to Hāyóng, the god of the lower world, but he did not give land; when she left, she picked up the scum of the worm, hid it on her chest; sent a king earthworms, he processed this particle, it all grew, turned into earth; the blacksmith Kapráng dried the earth with furs]: 70-71; Lyall 1909:70-72 in Mandal 2009 [gods Hèmphū and Mukráng they placed four pillars on the edges of the future land, tied them with their mother's hair; began to think about where to get the land; a hundred gods and their wives decided to send the wife of the god Bamon beyond the land to another world to God Hajong, but he did not give; on the way back, Bamonpi (i.e. B.'s wife) picked up the worm's excrement; sent Helong Recho for the king of earthworms, who turned the particle into a mainland; it was soft and wet, blacksmith Kaprang dried it; to get plants, they sent for Rekbepi, who is at the pole at sunset; she came and sowed plants; Pithe and Pothe ("great mother" and great "father" helped H. and M. create animals; first an elephant, then a tiger; the first man created was Bamonpo, he created two wives, one mikir and the other an assamka; they did not give birth for a long time; then the Assamka sent her husband to her brother, who gave his wives two oranges; on the way back, while B. was swimming, the crow took one orange; the Mikir wife was left without an orange, but ate the peel and gave birth to a son Ram; the assamka gave birth to a son Chaputi; R. was strong, C. weak; R. found an egg, brought it, and a girl came out of it; demons tried to steal it, but R. returned it and married it, she gave birth to many children, their descendants Hindus; decided to build a tower to heaven; gods and demons they were afraid that these giants would take the sky away from them; they mixed their tongues, people went in different directions]: 78-79; Taraon (Digaru) Mishmi [the young man grabbed the flying Star, cut off its wings, hid it in drum; began to hit it so hard that the drum burst, the wings fell out, the Star grabbed them, flew to heaven; the rank man said that the Star must be returned; together with the young man they made a ladder to sky; The star lowered a thin vine for him to break; the rank did not understand the catch, grabbed the vine, it broke off, he fell, became a rooster; the young man made him a comb of a red flower and wings out of leaves] : Elwin 1958b, No. 11:387-388; cookie (ranks) [all ranks lived together, spoke the same language; decided to get the moon, make it shine all the time; began to build a tower; it turned out to be so tall that people on different floors acquired different languages and customs; when the moon was not far away, the nat (spirit) living there sent a hurricane in anger; the tower fell to the north; those on different floors built villages where they fell; the remains of the tower are Chin Hills]: Hutton 1914:480 (=Scott 1918:266, retelling in Kühn 1936:84 by Scott); Meitei ['Illustrated Folktales of Manipur', by Ksh. Subadani, 2010, Lingthoingambi Publications, Imphal; 7 brothers, the youngest is Rongmeikai; they killed a female snake and the male crawled away; told R. to cook snake meat; he divided the snake into 7 pieces and went to get water; saw a male snake bring a piece of Langchi tree bark and revived the female; the brothers did not believe it and beat R., breaking his legs; he asked to leave him at this tree; healed his legs with bark; went to travel; he revived a dead dog for testing and she went with him; stopped at the old woman; moans at night - a girl died nearby; R. revived her and got her married; the wife accidentally found the bark and put it to dry in the sun; the sun and moon stole the bark; R. began to build a ladder to the sky; gathered all the animals for this purpose, but forgot the Curculionoidea beetles; the offended beetles decided to take revenge; R. first sent against the sun with with the moon to his dog; the beetles gnawed on the stairs; the dog reached the sky, and R. fell with the stairs and could no longer revive the dead; the dog has since attacked the sun and moon (eclipses)]: Oinam et al. s.a.; rawang [after the flood, people multiplied; they decided to build a tower to the sky so that the flood would not flood it; it collapsed, people came in different directions, spoke different languages]: LaPolla, Poa 2001:70.

South Asia. Ancient India [the asuras build an altar of fire hoping to reach heaven; everyone lays their own brick; Indra, disguised as a brahmana, laid down his own; then took it out, the asuras fell down, turned into spiders, and two flew to heaven, becoming sky dogs]: Crooke 1908:163-164.

Burma - Indochina. Karen: Fraser 1985 [people began to build a pagoda to heaven; God mixed the languages of the builders, people scattered across the earth]: 167; (cf. Kasevich, Osipov 1976, No. 157 [Nokhuva is the elder sister, Nokhudi is the youngest, they are dead, they live with Phi Na's father and evil grandmother; Nokhuva feeds two fish by name; PN hears this, tries to summon the fish, they do not come; then the PN asks Nokhudi to call the fish in his sister's voice; they come, the PN manages to kill the Yaphalau fish, Nokhuva saves Yaphaunihou's fish, tells them to swim away; melts fat from Yaphalau's fish, it drips, turns into stone, the stone grows uphill to the moon; Nokhuva asks the goddess of the moon to shelter her, but she replies that she dies periodically, advises her to go to Lightning ; Nokhudi stays with Lightning, marries her grandson Thunder; they visit Nokhuva's father; PN wants to kill them by feeding them a dog; Thunder realizes what they give him, returns to heaven with his wife, Lightning destroys mountain, now you can see boulders - its fragments; thunderstorms are raging every year at this time]: 387-390); banar [all people lived in the same place, the elder suggested building a community house to heaven; when it will be Hitting the gongs, Bock Katey will hear the sound, will come to the party; when the roof horse almost reached the sun, Bock Katey became angry, sent a thunderstorm, a downpour; because of the noise, the builders stopped hearing each other; old people they decide that the house is not pleasing to heaven, invite people to disperse on earth; the departed became the ancestors of different peoples, the rest built an ordinary community house]: Nikulin 1990:28-30; ahem [woman pregnant for 7 years, gives birth to Aay Cet Reey ("Seven Wooden Steamed Rice Jars"); he immediately eats seven vessels of rice, fried buffalo, goes to his father, who has gone to cut down a wooden stupa; he cuts to do this, a tree; A. orders to fall a tree on it, drags it home; stops to swim in the river; livestock traders tie animals to the tree, hang washed clothes on the branches; allow A. all this carry it away with the tree if he can; A. takes it away; the father is frightened, tries to destroy A.; leads to cut bamboo; throws cut down bamboo at him from the mountain like spears, A. catches everything and takes it away; orders to collect the debt from demons, supposedly they owe him money; A. takes seven helpers; they dig up a big grasshopper, but he kicks each with his foot, they fall into the water, they are swallowed by sturgeon; A. tears off the grasshopper's leg, eats, catches, cuts sturgeon, sturgeon swallowed in its stomach wove 7 salt baskets; first demons, then A. eat iron; try to drive each other into the ground; the demon drove A. to the ankles, A. throat; demons give money; father asks for the liver of banteng (Bos javanicus), an elephant; A. brings; the liver of the moon; A. puts iron rods on top of each other, climbs to the moon; when he almost reaches, mother lubricates the lower rod with fat, the father rubs salt into it; the rod rusted, fell apart, A. fell and crashed; earthquakes - the demon he drove into the ground tries to move]: Lindell et al. 1978, No. 8:84-88.

Malaysia-Indonesia. Aoheng [Mount Batu-Milli used to reach the moon; Asu-Buang descended it, terrifying the inhabitants of the earth; people decided to build a bamboo tower (or rather bamboo forests, leaning them against the mountain) to climb into the sky and punish the aggressor; the structure collapsed, the fragments of rocks dammed the river, it overflowed, only those who fled to the mountain escaped; it was Asu-Buang's revenge; the waters descended, This is the end of the mythical time]: Ivanoff 1958:71-72.

The Philippines. Apayao [Etkan decided to build a road (i.e. a tower) to the sky, told his mother not to bring him food until he finished his work; but she did; E. destroyed the tower in a rage, piles of stones are still visible pore]: Wilson 1947b: 99-99.

China - Korea. Meo (North Vietnam) [after the flood, people began to build a tower before the Garden of Eden; God ordered Thunder and Lightning to destroy it; told people to speak different languages and disperse on the ground]: Karpov, Tkachev 1958:255-256); fox: Bystrov et al. 1962 (the fox of China) [Asu's husband is ill, almost paralyzed; to prevent him from being killed by tax collectors, Asu takes him to the mountains, leaving him food; he is out of food; he saw a snake reaching for him, killed it; another snake revived the first one with leaf juice; the man rubbed himself with this juice, recovered; found his wife sick, cured her too; becomes a famous healer; forbids the wife should open the chest with leaves; she opened it, the rays of the sun fell on the leaves, ate half, so the sun is immortal; the moon stole the other half in the evening; the husband made a ladder out of hemp, climbed to the moon; ordered Asu moistened the end of the stairs with water; he almost climbed, his dog had already jumped to the moon; Asu forgot to pour cold water on the stairs at noon, poured cold water in the evening, not warm; she broke off, her husband fell down and crashed; the dog stayed on the moon when it chews on it, there are eclipses]: 226-231; Zapadova 1977 (Burma's fox) [the sky was close, people poked poles at it to attract the removal of spirits and ask for mercy; the spirits were tired of it, they went higher; bears attacked the ground; people built a staircase to the moon, put two lamps and two bowls of warm water at the base as a sign of reverence for the spirits; the man got up and brought a moon dog from the moon, it killed most of the bears; the man climbed to return the dog to the moon again; at this time, the girl watching the lamps fell asleep; when she woke up, the water in the bowls cooled down, she was hers splashed out, filled the lamps; the guardian spirit threw away the stairs, the man fell, the dog remained on the moon; the moon moved away, decided not to help people anymore; the dog sees if everything on earth is all right; To prevent the moonlight from interfering, a bag is thrown over the moon, an eclipse occurs; people shoot with guns and shout so that the dog knows that they remember it]: 157-159.

The Balkans. Ancient Greece [excerpts from Pindar's text (c. 522 - c. 443 BC) about Ota and Efialt: "... Quickly sprout into steep skies"; "... They drove spears of mutual death into each other" (trans. M.L. Gasparova)]: Pind. Fr. 162-163; ["Poseidon, who came down with her {Iphimedeus}, gave birth to two sons, Ota and Ethialt, called the Aloads. Each year, these Aloads grew in width by an elbow and a fathom in height. At the age of nine, nine cubits wide and nine fathoms tall, the Aloads ventured to fight the deity and piled Mount Ossa to Olympus, and Mount Pelion was piled up on Ossa: they became threaten that they will climb to the sky from the height of these mountains, that they will turn the sea into a continent, covered with mountains, and the land into the sea. Efialt began to marry Hera, and From to Artemis. They also tied Ares up, but Hermes stole him. Artemis destroyed the Aloads on the island of Naxos by deception. Taking the form of a deer, she jumped and stood between them; the Aloads, trying to hit the animal with darts, pierced each other" (trans. V.G. Borukhovich)]: Apollod. Bibl. I. 7.4 (Apollodorus 1972:11-12); ["Myths" attributed to Guy Julius Gigin, who lived at the turn of the eras, but most likely date back to the 1st and 2nd centuries: "Other writers say that they {Ot and Efialt} were sons Neptune and Iphimedees and that they were invulnerable. When they wanted to rape Diana and she couldn't resist their strength, Apollo put a doe between them. Out of anger, they tried to kill her with spears and killed each other. In the underworld, they suffer this punishment: they are tied by snakes to a pole facing the opposite side of each other; between them is an owl sitting on a pole to which they are tied" (trans. D.O. Torshilova)]: Hyg. Fab. 28; Greeks (Imbros, Turkish. Gokceada) [the lonely old woman Drakena had countless herds of goats: she made so much cheese from goat's milk that when she put it on the shore to load it on the ship, she made a whole mountain; One day March was very cold, a lot of cattle on the island fell and only the old goats were not injured; boasting, she said to March: "March, you came and went, but you couldn't freeze my goats!" angry March took two days in February, cold and frost let in, and all the goats rested for the old woman; she managed to hide under the cauldron where she made cheese and cover a thousand frontal (buttery) and a thousand horned goats; only they were saved; February, since it lent March two days, was lame, and now it has 28 days; when the weather was good, the old woman, angry at what had happened, put on cheeses, who remained on the shore for loading, one on top of the other, climbed upstairs and frightened God; God cursed her, turned her and the cheeses into stone; there was a rock of "old woman cheeses"; and for some time stood on The top is an old woman; and the old goats scattered and ran wild, so that all the wild goats that on Imbros and Samothrace are descended from that old woman's goats; Imbros and Samothrace were the same island at that time]: Tom 1965:303 (translated by O.V. Czech) to Golan 2013:195; the Greeks (Zakynthos) [giants wanted to own land and sky; climbed the mountain, began to throw rocks at God; but that threw his thunder club at them, killed many; one tied many reeds together, climbed them to heaven; God struck him with lightning; others tried to put mountains one on top of the other; God sent an angel and he took the giants inside the mountain]: Schmidt 1877, No. 1:131.

(Wed. Central Europe. Ukrainians (Podolia, Vinnytsia district) [the oldest devil decided to build a high tower; the devils climbed it, but God destroyed it; the devils flew down for 40 days and nights; whoever fell was named after this place - a waterman, a woodman, a swamp , field; who fell into the queue is a queue]: Chubinsky 1872:191).

Caucasus - Asia Minor. Adygs [sledges asked Pataraz how he would get to the sky; he offered to put up stairs, stand on top of each other; sledges did not reach the sky; then they put people, other people, animals , birds, trees, stones, clay, from above P. - he reached out his hand, but he was not enough from the cat's tail]: Aliyeva 1974:278; Abkhazians [the elder of the Atsanov dwarfs noticed that the wind was starting and that he was all of them will destroy; the Atsans did not believe it, decided to appeal to the "son of the sister of God" who lived in heaven, who was their pupil; they built a staircase from stones, logs and whole trees, but they did not reach the sky even halfway through returned back; the pupil of the Atsans came down himself, promised to ask God what the fate of the Atsans would be; God told him that he would destroy the Atsans with fire; and so it happened]: Inal-ipa 1971:134; Georgians [ Herod said that there is no God, and he is God himself and built a tower to the sky that could not reach the arshin; took cannons, water, climbed upstairs; began shooting and pouring water, saying that thunder was rattling and raining; took scrap and wanted to break through the sky to enter God; he ordered a bug to tickle Herod's nose; I. began to sneeze and, sneezing three times, died; God destroyed the tower with thunder, and scattered stones to all countries]: Mashurko 1894:377- 378; Armenians [(after Movses Khorenatsi and Sebeos); the first generation of people were giants; proud, they began to build the Tower of Babel to reach the sky of the gods; from the anger of the gods, a storm rose and destroyed tower; every giant spoke his own language, chaos began]: Harutyunyan 2007:59.

(Wed. Baltoscandia. Counselors [my grandfather said that our language began when the tower was built in Babylon; it fell, the people were scared, everyone began to speak their own language; I ask for an ax, and they give me a brick]: Konkova 2009:105) .

(Wed. Western Siberia. Nenets: Golovnev 2004 [people spoke the same language, their leader decided to build a tower to heaven; Num told his sons to hit the tower with fire, it fell, many people died; the rest spoke different languages]: 98-99; Lekhtisalo in Barmich 2014 []: 620; Taimyr Nenets [Loon and Dog swam on the water; the loon dived, brought a blade of grass from the bottom on the third day; at the request of the Dog, continued dive, assembled the island, he grew up; a man in iron mittens and bacaries made a man and a woman, went after souls, telling the Dog to protect the creation; a man with a black face came, revived the dolls, left; first the man came back, said that now people would get sick; people inhabited the land, began to build a stepped house; a man in iron mittens and bacaries hit with mittens, people were scattered, they started talking to different languages]: Nenyang 1997:21-23).

(Wed. Subarctic. Hea [at the beginning of the world, two brothers lost each other; ran around the sky in different directions, met as adults; the elder said he was the one who made the earth grow; created the mountain, told the younger enter it; the mountain split, the youngest came out as a child; the eldest, both younger; decided to destroy monsters; saw a rainbow (this is a web of a huge spider in which he is trying to catch the sun), went at her; on the mountain, the old man gave them arrows, told them not to pick up the ones fired, they would return to the quiver themselves; the youngest shot the squirrel, the arrow was stuck in the tree, the brothers climbed after it, the tree was getting higher, the arrow stuck hand in hand, they found themselves on a mountain in the sky; there were a lot of people there; the brothers made a fire, the mountain became a plain, people parted speaking different languages]: Petitot 1886, No. 9-10:123-130).

Southeast USA. Choctaw [the good spirit Aba created choctaw from yellow clay, they came out of the depths of the earth to a surface where there were no people before them; people came together, began to stack stones to get to the sky; blew the wind scattered the rocks; the same thing two more times; the fourth time the rocks fell on them at night; they survived but spoke different languages]: Bushnell 1909:30 (=1910:527; quail in Mould 2004:66-67; in Thompson 2000, #95:263).

California. Vintu [people have decided to build a ladder to heaven; Vulture Chief: old people will go up to heaven and rejuvenate; Coyote: it will be good for people to die and cry at funerals; Vulture: acorns ripen without peel; Coyote: let boys and girls clean their acorns; it got cold, people got angry and destroyed the stairs; var.: Hawk instead of Vulture, made a ladder alone, climbed upstairs; Coyote: Come back! The coyote made his wings out of sunflower leaves, they withered, he fell]: Dubois, Demetracopoulou 1931, No. 9:299; Demetracopoulou, Dubois 1932, No. 42-60 [19 texts about how a vulture builds a tower out of stones to the sky so that people can understand and rejuvenate themselves there; the coyote says it's not necessary, let him die; the vulture destroys the tower, the stones are still visible]: 472-483.

The Great Southwest. Hopi [underground, people were in the form of ants; when they penetrated elsewhere, they became other creatures; in another place they became human, but had tails; women refused to marry men, men went across the river; in the first year, both women and men had a rich harvest, but women had fewer harvests every year, and in the fourth year they asked men to give them corn, etc., but refused; the flood began to approach; women began to build the tower, believing that they were smarter than men, but the tower fell; the men planted a pine tree, it grew to the sky but did not break through it; then the reeds, it grew up and struck; Badger was the first to climb in, came back, saying that it was dark and nothing could be seen; the Sorokuput flew to the ground, saw a light in the distance, Masauwü was sitting there, did not have time to put on his mask; people began to go out; two young men placed the Pleiades, Orion, the Big Dipper in the sky; the Coyote decided they would never finish their work, threw the rest of the stars at random; two young men created the moon from the wedding veil, then the sun is made of the skin of a fox, the tail of a parrot; but the sun did not move; Coyote said that the movement of the sun required the death of man; the girl died, the sun reached the top of the sky, stopped; the leader's son died, it went into the sunset; in the morning, at noon and in the evening, someone must die every day; the girl, then the woman died, came back on the fourth day; Coyote said that they must die forever, otherwise people would be afraid death; he died and was not reborn, followed by others; after the flood, the earth was soft; the twins built canyons with lightning to drain water]: Parsons 1939:236; Tewa (Hano) [women decide they can live alone; stay in the village, men go across the river; every year men harvest more abundant crops and women poorer crops; the flood begins, women try unsuccessfully to build a tower to the sky; men plant a pine tree, it grows to the sky but does not break through it; reeds pierce; first the Badger, then the rest climb into the upper world; half of the women failed to get up, drowned; Mockingbird gives its tongues to speak; in the lower world, people were with tails, now they have lost them; it is dark around; two young men (the Son of the Sun and the Son of Ooting Water), together with the Coyote, are instructed to place stars on heaven; see further motif H24]: Parsons 1926, No. 1:169-172; popago [The Great Spirit created the earth, descended, took clay, rose, threw it into the recess, Montezuma appeared; he helped create people the wild Apaches were the last; first the sun was low, warm, everyone was happy; then the flood, M. and Coyote were saved; M. escaped in the boat, Coyote in the empty reed stalk; when the earth was dry, M. sent Coyote to find out is the earth big; from the west, from the south, from the east he quickly returned, in the north did not find the end of the earth; the Great Spirit created new people, told M. to lead them; he did it badly, rebelled, the Great Spirit in punishment raised the sun far from earth to where it is now; M. ordered the tower to be built to heaven, the Great Spirit smashed it with thunder; M. ordered the destruction of temples, in response the Great Spirit called on Europeans, who destroyed M. ]: Olmos Aguilera 2005:153-155.

Mesoamerica The Aztecs (Cholula) [after the death of the first three races, the fourth race of giants was created along with the current sun; they gathered at Iztaczolin Inneminian (Dwelling of the White Quail), became build a tower before the sun using clay and resin; the Sun told the gods on four sides of the world to destroy it, dispersing the builders to the four ends of the earth]: Duran in Hutton 1914:481; honas [it started raining, people began to build a high tower; the Raven brought a book saying that there would be a flood; after the flood, God (El Jefe) forbade further construction; people tried to continue building the tower, but spoke to different languages]: Driver, Driver 1963, No. 1:206.

Honduras-Panama. Bribri [evil giants live on earth; God puts a star low in the sky to destroy them; giants build a platform, climb to reach it; the wind destroys the platform; giants fall into the sea, turn into stones]: Bozzoli 1977:71.

The Northern Andes. Ambera [Buro-Poto was born from a tumor on a man's leg; he died; B. asked who killed his father; Jaguars (los viejos thought B. would hunt jaguars and die); killed everyone with arrows jaguars, a pregnant female remains, new from her; Snakes (the same with snakes); etc.; said that the father was killed by a snake, similar to cancer, but huge, lives in a pond, swallows whole people; B. put on a raft of firewood, made a fire in the monster's stomach, began to crumble the monster with a knife; killed an unborn cub, fried it, fed the others swallowed; swam out with a raft over the ass; killed the Moon; built the stairs, hand to the moon, there was a stain on it, the woodpecker cut off the stairs, B. fell into the sunset; the Sun took him on his underground journey along the river; there people who ate the smell, only B. ate, they asked make them anuses, died, B. revived them; crabs attacked, for underground people it was death, B. easily destroyed them; a few days later the Sun took it with it; a lot of food in a small basket; B. suck blood at night, kill women; they poured boiling water on it, it petrified, made corn grinders out of it]: Isaza Bravo 1987:128-130.

NW Amazon. Chikuna [people led by Dovi began to build a tower to the sky; two hummingbird eggs were enough for builders to eat every day; one day someone stole and ate them; people no longer understand the language each other, parted on the ground; D. stayed in place, became the chief of the chikun]: Nimuendahu 1952:130.

Eastern Amazon. Spiking [monstrous animals (a swarm of cancans, a bat, and a caramanã (caramanã) the size of a heron) attack humans; they tie bamboo poles and climb them into the sky; a swarm of cancans attacks them and there, people go back down; a storm hits, stairs fall, people fall, crash into dust; now hisses live both on the ground and in the sky]: Nimuendaju 1920:1008-1009.

Bolivia - Guaporé. Takana (tumupasa) [men hide meat from women, bring them only bones; one young wife followed her husband, told others; men had to bring all the meat to their wives; they decided Take to heaven by tying bamboo poles together; the wind blew, men fell down, many died]: Hissink, Hahn 1961, No. 235, var.4:370.

(Wed. Chaco. Chamacoco [people saw a giant battleship buried in the ground, people came down for it; it was the Mother of the Battleships; she warned of the flood, ordered the construction of a tower of logs and clay, take refuge in it, kill her, eat her meat; after the flood, the Mother of the Battleships, who killed her, ordered her to gradually get used to the sunlight; people dispersed in different directions, became the ancestors of different peoples; who killed The mother of the Battleships went north, got to people who did not have anus, ate honey diluted in water; cut holes for them to consume solid foods; perfumes that they did not turn into those who hide from the flood take all their food for themselves; the killer of the Mother of the Battleships turned them into various animals]: Escobar 2007:230-233).