B96. The stalker turns into a sturgeon (.40.43.) .44.45.
Whilechasing humans, a monstrous creature falls into the water, turns into a commercial fish or a commercial aquatic mammal.
(Northern Alaska Eskimos), Northern Solto, Ojibwa, Western Forest Cree, Western Marsh Cree, Steppe Cree, Naskapi.
(Wed. The Arctic. Northern Alaska Inupiate: Curtis 1976 (20) (Kotzebue) [mother was fishing, left the baby unattended for the whole day; at night he bit off her chest; people are running across the river; the foreman forgot the knife, the quick-footed orphan agrees to run after him, grabs a knife, runs away from the monstrous baby; the man puts a spear across the river, throws off the baby when he steps on him; since then, fish of the same species the chest bone is shaped like a baby]: 259-260; Hall 1975, No. PM79 (Noatak) [husband and wife forget to grease the baby's lips; at night he devours parents; the woman's parents and other villagers flee; the old man forgets the knife, promises his daughter to the one who will bring it; one person agrees; grabs the knife, the baby is next, getting closer; two trees lie like a bridge over the river; a man runs across to the other side; when there is a baby on the bridge, people destroy it; the baby is swallowed by a nelma; since then, these fish have a hill under their jaw, and that baby is in it]: 291-293).
(Wed. The coast is the Plateau. The lower chinook [the youngest of five brothers feels that the Glutter is coming; the brothers run, dig a hole in the ground, tell their female to show the monster a different path; but he catches up, eats four brothers; the fifth runs to the river; Thunder stretches his long leg like a bridge when a man calls him not grandfather, uncle, but father-in-law; warns not to touch his leg with a stick; when a monster crosses, he touches, Thunder bends his leg, the monster falls, is carried to the sea, turns into the sound of the surf during the storm; the man marries the daughter of Thunder; he does not tell you to watch him catch whales; the man watches, the whale leaves from the Thunder net; a man's wife gives birth to two boys; Thunder requires his son-in-law 1) to bring wolves (then bears; grizzly) with whom Thunder played as a child (son-in-law blows, they bite his father-in-law), 2) help split a log (father-in-law takes out a wedge, pinches his son-in-law, who tears the log), 3) bring metas shot by powerful people (the son-in-law steals metas at night, he is chased with torches; Thunder's daughter tells the children to beat grandfather; The thunder urinates, it rains, the torches go out); the son-in-law goes to the village, lives with two old mice; loses a shooting competition to the locals; his hair is cut off, hung in the chimney; his children they come with their metas and arrows; win; turn the local leader into a sturgeon, his messenger into a blue jay; revive their father]: Boas 1894a, No. 2:31-36.
The Midwest. Northern Solto [see motive L5; the wife is cheating on her husband, he cuts off her head, leaves; the head chases her sons; the elder throws a needle, a comb; the head stays at the needle, the crest turns into mountain; The Swan carries his brothers across the river, warns him not to sit on his neck, there is an ulcer; the head promises Swan to be his sexual partner if he carries her; she grabs him by the neck, he sheds him off it into water; it sinks, turns into sturgeon]: Skinner 1911:168-169; ojibwa? (The origin of the text is not specified, but it mentions Lake. Upper) [two brothers finally decide to tell their father that a lover has been coming to their mother for many years; the father kills her, buries her in the ashes of the hearth; the mother's skull pursues her sons; the crane puts its neck like bridge over the waterfall; tells you not to step on a sore spot at the back of his head; young men cross, the Skull steps on the back of the Crane's head, which dumps the Skull into the water; the brains turn into sturgeon caviar ( the origin of sturgeon)]: Schoolcraft 1999:237-239; Western Swamp Cree (Stone Cree) [the hunter's wife leaves all day every time, telling the children to cut wood; by the time her husband returns, things are they are not made at home; sons answer that the mother meets snakes; the husband goes, cuts off the snake's head, brings it into the house; runs away; gives the sons an awl, flint, a towel (?) , tells me to run; the wife finds the head of a snake, goes to the forest, finds the body of a snake; chases her husband, they go up to the sky, she kills him, he turns into the Big Dipper (that's the way she killed him up in the air, that's where the Dipper now); the husband managed to cut off his wife's head; the head is chasing the children; they throw an awl, thorny thickets appear; the head asks two snake-like creatures, worms to become them wife, if they make a move underground; makes her way, pursues sons again, they throw flint, fire behind; she promises marriage again, overcomes the barrier; Wisahkicahk throws a third the object, it falls in front, turns into a river; the Swan carries them, tells them not to touch her neck; the head touches her neck, the Swan throws it off, it turns into a sturgeon]: Brightman 1989:9-13; western forest Cree [husband notices that the wife wears clothes decorated with shell beads, and when she returns, she wears simple clothes; watches her approach the tree, knocks on the bark, calls "husband", to A snake crawls out to her; at home, the hunter sends her wife to bring prey, puts on her dress and jewelry, calls the snake with the same signal, cuts off her head, cooks meat; gives her two sons amulets with which It is possible to create obstacles in the path of the pursuer; the wife returns without finding the prey left; the husband says that he cooks her lover's meat, cuts off his wife's head, rises to the sky, turns into a star; the children are hiding in the underworld; the wife's head asks objects where the children have taken refuge; a knife, a cape, a pot, a bison skin are silent, a pebble from under the skin shows where the children have run; the elder carries the youngest, throws the first pebble (fire, the head is burned, but passes), then a thorny bush (a monstrous serpent paves the way under the thorns), rocks (a monstrous beaver gnaws); the fourth amulet falls in front of boys, a stormy river appears, another snake carries the boys to the opposite bank; carries his head, throws it into the water; the eldest son tells her to become a sturgeon; the elder brother - Wesakitchak; he was taken away by a giant; his younger brother was left alone, turned into a half-wolf, killed by a monstrous sturgeon - his ex-mother; V. married the giant's daughter; he and his daughter could not destroy him ; Kisemanitou sent a flood because people went bad, saved V.; created a new pair of people out of clay]: Vandersteene 1969:44-48; Steppe Cree: Ahenakew 1929 [see motive L5; wife cheats on her husband, he cuts off her head; tells her eldest son to take the youngest on his back and run; gives them an awl, flint, a beaver's tooth; runs away to heaven, her Body pursues him; her head chases sons running west; abandoned by them objects turn into a barbed fence, a mountain (a huge worm gnaws through the gorge for the Head), a wall of fire, a river; two old bitters stretch their necks like a bridge, brothers cross it; Head steps, causing pain, they throw it into the river; the older brother throws a stone at it, the head turns into a sturgeon]: 309-313; Bloomfield 1930, No. 1 [see motif J35; the wife has a snake lover, her husband kills him, cuts him off the wife's head; the head pursues his two sons; the elder brother Visakechi carries (first?) under the ground, the youngest is on the back; they throw objects (not named), they turn into fire, a thorny forest, a mountain; the Serpent makes a passage for the Head through the forest; a beaver with iron teeth gnaws through the mountain; the fourth object falls in front of the brothers, turns into a river; the Serpent carries them; when it carries the Head, it says it swims too slowly; he dumps it into the water, it turns into a sturgeon]: 14 -16; (cf. winnebago [see motif L5; heads without bodies chase the Hare; he jumps across the river; heads fall into the water, sink; he pushes them, the powder turns into fish that gently bite the legs entering the water]: Radin 1956, No. 11:73-74).
Northeast. Naskapi (mistasini) [The cannibal kidnaps the baby, turns him into a young man; he is white, her own two black sons; she says they were born at night and he was born during the day; a real mother finds son, makes him a baby again, kills the cannibal's children, leaving their bodies standing as if alive; runs away; The seagull, although she says she has an ulcer on her back, transports them across the river when a woman gives her a bear fat; transporting a cannibal, dumps it into the water; she swims underwater; a young man pierces her with a spear; she turns into a beluga whale]: Speck 1925:24-25.