B86A. Get the moon from the sky. [.11. (.16.19.) .21.22. (.25.56.)]

People are trying to climb into the sky to get the moon. (In parentheses, there are traditions in which the goal of building a tower to the sky is the moon, but it is not necessary to reach it).

Soko, Lamba, Nkoya, Shona, (Mbala, Mkulwe, French, Fiji), Subia, Garo, Kuki, (Karen), Khmu, (Karen, Fox, Embera)

Bantu-speaking Africa. Soko [when the chief finally had a son, he did not refuse him anything; one man told his son that there was one thing his father could not get him: the moon; the son asks the moon, the father gathers advice, one of those present suggests 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, a hot stream burned down the whole country; the surviving adults became gorillas and the children became monkeys;]: Stanley 1893:105 -116; lamp [Katala Connector Poles 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; 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; shona (Gutu region, Zimbabwe): Baumann 1936 [1) a 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 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; the horns contained oil, the grass caught fire, but it was extinguished; 2) people built a platform to get the moon as an ornament for the leader (the tower has obviously collapsed); this type of jewelry is a disc made of a shell; its distribution zone in Bantu speaking Africa closely coincides with as the myth of the tower spread 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, a tree at the base rotted, the tower collapsed, and those on it died]: 481; (cf. mbala [people decided to climb the moon; put logs on top of each other, the structure collapsed]: Fraser 1985:165; mkulve [people decided to climb the moon, put logs one on top of another, the structure collapsed, the builders died; others decided not to build it like this anymore]: Hamberger 1909, No. 9:304 (=Frazer 1926:195); subia [people thought the moon was the shell ornament worn by the leaders on their chest (one piece of jewelry costs equal to a bull); they 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 attempt did people decide to stop getting to the moon]: Jacottet 1894, No. 6:674-675 (retelling in Baumann 1936:256, Kotlyar 2009, No. 68:83).

(Wed. 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 ; the barrels are set up, the elder 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).

(Wed. Melanesia. 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 Pavlin 1989, No. 11 [people decided build a tower to the moon to understand everything about the stars and find out who lives on the moon; they built an embankment with a wooden house on it; when it almost reached the sky, the lower pillars collapsed, carpenters scattered all over Fiji Islands]: 88 (same as Young, p.314 in Williamson 1933 (1): 95; Williams 1960:253 in Frazer 1939:186).

Tibet is the Northeast of India. 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 for more material, and the wife and 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 in vain I was waiting for my husband to come carrying the moon; the wreckage of the tower is the Rangira chain of hills]: Bertrand 1958:117; cookies (ranks) [all ranks lived together, spoke the same language; decided to get the moon, make it shine all the time; they 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 long, the nat (spirit) living there a hurricane sent 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 (in Kühn 1936:84, Mythology of all Races, vol. XII: Indo-Chinese by J. G. Scott, Boston 1918, p. 266).

Burma - Indochina. Khmu [7 years pregnant, 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 a tree for this purpose; A. orders the tree to be knocked down on it, drags it home; stops to swim in the river; livestock traders tie animals to the tree, hang the washed ones on the branches clothes; allow A. to carry it all 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 away; tells the demons to collect the debt, 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 the sturgeon swallowed in the stomach wove 7 salt baskets; first demons, then A. eat iron; try to drive each other into the ground; the demon drove A . ankle-length, A. his 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 she almost reaches, the 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 move]: Lindell et al. 1978, No. 8:84-88; (cf. Karen [Nokhuva is the older sister, Nokhudi is the youngest, she is dead, they live with Phi Na's father and evil grandmother; Nokhuva feeds two fish by name; PN hears this, tries to summon 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 the Yaphaunihou fish, tells them to swim away; drowns fat from Yaphalau fish, he drips, turns into stone, the stone grows up 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 the mountain, now you can see boulders - its fragments; thunderstorms are raging every year at this time]: 387-390): Kasevich, Osipov 1976, No. 157).

(Wed. China - Korea. Lisa: 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 has run out of food; he sees him reaching for a snake killed him; another snake revived the first with leaf juice; a man rubbed himself with this juice, recovered; found his wife sick, cured her too; becomes a famous healer; forbids his wife to open a chest with with leaves; she opened, the sun's rays fell on the leaves, ate half, so the sun is immortal; the moon stole the other half in the evening; her husband made a ladder out of hemp, climbed to the moon; told Asa wet 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 water; she broke off, her husband fell and crashed; the dog stayed on the moon when it gnaws at 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; spirits are tired, 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 spirits; the man got up and brought it from the moon moon dog, she 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; so that the light of the moon does not interfere, throws a bag over the moon, an eclipse occurs; people shoot with guns and shout so that the dog knows that they remember it]: 157-159).

(Wed. 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, left a stain on it, the woodpecker cut off the stairs, B. fell into the sunset; the Sun took him on its underground journey along the river; there people who ate the smell only B. ate, they asked them to make anuses, died, B. revived them; crabs attacked, for underground people it was death, B. destroyed them easily; a few days later the Sun took it with it; a lot of food in a small basket; at home B . began to suck blood at night, kill women; they poured boiling water on him, it petrified, and made corn grinders out of it]: Isaza Bravo 1987:128-130).