B89. The owl is the king of birds.. 21.-.23.27.-.29.31.34.
Theowl (Owl) was the main bird, pretended to be or did not perform well in choosing the head of birds; now it avoids other birds and/or other birds chasing it.
Ronga, Tutsi, Zombo, Malgashi, Tibet, Kachari, Ao, Khmers, Panchatantra, Jataki, Baiga, Croats (Herzegovina), Serbs, Romanians, Poles, Luzhitans, Russians (Perm), Russian written tradition, Ukrainians (Ugric Russia, Volyn Gubernia), Belarusians, Abkhazians, Chechens, Megrelians, Lithuanians, Mongols, Oirats (?).
Bantu-speaking Africa. Zombo [the birds choose a leader, they want to be Owl, Sparrow, they praise themselves; the Eagle suggests the King, they agree with him]: Anpetkova-Sharova 1975:42-43; Tutsis [everyone was afraid of the Owl, because they agreed with him. they thought she had horns covered with hair on her head; the sorcerer found out that the owl did not have horns, but two tufts of feathers; the owl was embarrassed and flew away]: Anpetkova-Sharova 2010:426; ronga [birds choose a king; they reject the Ostrich - he does not fly; the Magpie offers the Owl, she has big eyes and horns on her head; the owl is chosen, makes the birds hunt antelopes, bring it to her; the little bird Muguban is looking for the king insects, shocks her head, realizes that it has not horns, but bundles of feathers; The parrot checked it is; the owl has been hiding in hollows since then, comes out only at night]: Anpetkova-Sharova 2010:436-437.
Sudan - East Africa. Malgashi: Anpetkova-Sharova 2010 (I'm carrying) [birds choose the king; The owl did not come because his wife had just laid eggs; the Eagle was rejected as a predator, the Raven has an unpleasant voice, they chose the Railuvi bird, who imitates the voices of other birds; the owl was driven away for failing to appear at the meeting, now she only goes out at night]: 451-452; Sibree 1891 [the birds were going to choose a leader; the owl did not come; the birds decided for this to attack her, she now hesitates to appear in the daytime; Falcon appointed himself chief, but others did not agree; since then he has been grabbing and carrying away other birds]: 342.
Tibet is the Northeast of India. Tibetans [like the Mongols and Indian sources]: Yongdong 1989, No. 46:133-134; kachari [birds choose a king; the owl is afraid to go to the meeting, considering itself ugly; the rhino bird ( Hornbill) leads her secretly, hidden under his wing; Peacock argues with the Crane; when the Rhinoceros appears, everyone offers him king; he takes off, everyone sees the Owl; for warming up such a thing horror, rejected, bimraj is chosen; the owl is expelled, now she dares to go out only at night]: Sopitt 1885:63-64; ao [birds gather to solve important issues, wait for an opinion on the sight of a wise Owl; she says that if there is light, let it be eternal, and if the darkness is also eternal; the birds rush to trample on the Owl, her head has become flat; they ask the Hummingbird to speak; he suggests that light and darkness alternated; for this decision, the birds squeezed him so joyfully that he became small]: Smith 1926, No. 1:372.
Burma - Indochina. The Khmer [birds choose the king; the Raven and the Owl both want the title, intrigue against each other; the birds quarreled, then chose the Swan as king; to avoid seeing each other, the Raven and the Owl looking for food at different times]: Foshko 1981, No. 9:39-40.
South Asia. India [The Raven does not allow the Owl to be chosen as king because he does not see that day; since then, owls have been at odds with crows; B236.1, B242, B263.5]: Bødker 1957, No. 10:11 (Jataka 270; Panchatantra; etc.); baiga [the birds choose the king, offer Peacock, ask them to appear before them in all its splendor; but he has been pretending for so long that the birds are tired of waiting, chose the Owl for their big eyes; Peacock was told that he was smart as Ganda (a member of the low caste of weavers), was told to live a distance away, like members of this caste]: Elwin 1944, No. 11:470-471.
The Balkans. Croats (Herzegovina) [Sych, as the king of birds, relies on a bird every day; he became king unfairly; at a bird meeting, the birds decided to choose the one who would fly higher as king; the owl hid under Orlu's wings, fluttered out at the last moment, was the winner]: Gura 1997:576-577; Serbs [sitting on three oaks, Cook (Serb. "hook" - Owl, Kuch in Polish versions) ate many birds; the owl drove the birds into a queue; the birds agree to kill K., the Cuckoo calls him, the Falcon kills, or K. is dead for a long time]: Gura 1997:577-578; Romanians [The owl was the king of birds, but could not command, the birds suffered losses in the fight against animals; God makes the Owl a laughing stock of birds, goldfinch appoints king]: Gaster 1939, No. 4:262-263.
Central Europe. The Luzhitans [birds choose the king, the big ones offer the Stork, the little ones - the Wren; decide to choose the one who will rise higher into the sky (Wren sits on the tail of the Stork); who will dig deeper into the sky the ground; the stork is stuck in the swamp, the wren hid into a mouse hole; big birds tell Owl to guard the hole because she has big eyes; the owl closes one eye first, then both; the wren flew away, became king birds; big birds have been chasing the Owl ever since]: Romanenko 1962:136-137; Poles [sitting on three oaks, Kuch devoured many birds; the owl drove the birds into a queue; the birds agree to kill K. The cuckoo calls him, the Falcon kills him, or K. is dead for a long time]: Gura 1997:577-578; Russian written tradition [the Bulgarian-Russian version of the Greek Stefanite and Ikhnilat, which is by reworking Kalila and Dimna (Synodal List of 1478): the birds chose an owl as king; the raven did not agree with this and began to say that the owl was the worst; the birds deposed its power; the owl said to the crow that he will not forget this; since then these birds have been at odds with each other]: Likhachev et al. 2003:258-261; Russians (Perm), Ukrainians (Ugric Rus, Volyn Gubernia), Belarusians [bird tsar Cook (crook, eagle king): devours many birds, decides to build a palace (nest) from their bones; birds negotiate to kill the king; at the signal of the cuckoo, the eagle kills him]: SUS 1979, No. 221B*: 89; Ukrainians [the king of birds (elder ptah) Cook, at the request of his wife, called the birds to make nests out of their bones; the raven was two days late; he counted valleys and mountains at that time; considering every place to be a valley, where there is water, there were more valleys; birds were temporarily released by Cook to feed; the second time the Raven was late, counting dry and green trees; if we consider dry those with at least one dry branch, then more dry; for the third time I counted men and women; if we consider men subordinate to women as a woman, there are more women; birds rebellion against K. for obeying his wife too much, Falcon killed him]: Sumtsova 1890:80-81.
Caucasus - Asia Minor. Abkhazians [the wife of the lord of animals and birds Azhveipsha asks him to make a house out of their bones; A. summoned everyone, Owl was late; said that she counted the living and the dead, adding to the number of dead those who listened his wife's stupid advice; there were one more dead; A. dissolves the meeting, says that every day one bird will go to Owl and go to heaven; when they see the Owl, the birds bite her, each demands for Owl to eat her]: Bgazhba 1983:24; Chechens [God created a man and a girl to marry him, Owl took the girl to a rock; she told the man to hide inside a slaughtered horse, asked Owl bring her horse meat; Owl brought a carcass, a man met with a girl; Owl admitted defeat before God; God asked if he wanted to be punished in this or that world; Owl chose punishment for in this light, was blind during the day, lost honor between birds]: Dalgat 2004:176-177; Megrelians: Kobalia 1903 [(=Virsaladze 1973, No. 101:152); Owl was the king of birds, they served him, cleansed him head from parasites; Jay asks why he has so soft fluff on his head; he replies that he is just as weak in spirit; according to Soyka's agreement, the birds beat the Owl, he hides in the hollow, since then he has not shown up in the afternoon, screams, I've been used to suffering for a long time]: 116; Mashurko 1903 [Owl told the birds that she was their mistress, told me to wash their feet; they began to wash, the Owl screamed that it hurt; the birds were offended, beaten Owl, she has not been shown during the day since then]: 78;.
Baltoscandia. Lithuanians [1) during the flood, all the birds gathered on a high mountain; only Kukis did not come, drowned; after the flood, the birds sent the Cuckoo to see if Kukis was alive; she sat on his horns and became joyful scream; 2) Cookie, the king of birds, did not come to the advice; only the Cuckoo agreed to go wake him up, and Pliska would feed her children at that time; the Cuckoo shouted, Cookie fell out of the nest in fear, killed; Pliska still feeds the Kukushkin children until Petrov's day, and later the Cuckoo looks after them herself; 3) Kukas was old and terrible, the birds decided to choose a new king; only the Cuckoo agreed to fly to Kukas , for this, the birds promised to feed her children; Kukas was inanimate; the new king Eagle hit him with his chest, he fell]: Voltaire 1890, No. 5:146-147.
Southern Siberia - Mongolia. The Mongols [the birds decided to choose Owl as king; the Raven said her eyes were the color of fat soup because her stepmother splashed soup at her when she was stealing meat; owls and crows have been at odds ever since]: Ë ndon 1989, No. 46:133-134; Oirats (Xinjiang) [the motif corresponds to the fairy tale "Owl and the Revenge of the Black Crow" from the collection "Betege caγān boqširγ", published in 1981 in Urumqi in the series "Xinjiang Oirat Folklore" {no details; original verification required}]: Ubushiyeva, Damrinjav 2020:15.