E18. Vessels and snakes. .20.22.59.63.64.66.68.
People learn to make or decorate pottery or baskets (usually learn how to draw a pattern) thanks to a water creature.
Micronesia-Polynesia. Palau [elderly spouses are childless; husband dies; wife repeats she wants a child; gave birth to a sea serpent; then a cat; one day a snake hears a mother lament: others give birth to people, and what kind of daughters I've got it! the snake and the cat decide to leave; the snake curls up like a top, with fish in it; tells the cat to get the fish when it's low tide; Dedmau {about him for the first time} sees it from the top of a palm tree, comes to the shore; sea serpent: remember, looking at me, how to make the top, what design is {apparently it's not about ornamentation, but about design}; then do it yourself, call deng (coral trap for fish); bring my sister (i.e. cat) to your home and treat her well, then she will be affectionate; and if you are rude to her, she will start to be naughty; D. did it all]: Kesolei 1975:19-20.
Burma - Indochina. Palaung [naga princess I-ran-ti took the form of a girl, went to earth, met the Sun; 7 days later he returned to heaven, leaving her chariot; I. laid 3 eggs; the Sun sent I. a bag with a letter and a wonderful gem, giving it to the golden crow; he stopped pecking the carrion, the fisherman found the bag, replaced the treasure with a pebble; the Raven brought I.'s bag, she found it inside a simple stone, threw it at the Raven; the Sun, as punishment, painted the Raven black, ordered him to live on earth; I., in the guise of a naked, returned underground, throwing her hairpin and three eggs; the hairpin and two eggs turned in a scattering of gold and precious stones; a third egg is stuck at a fork in a tree floating along the river; he was found by an elderly couple, raised a boy born Kok-ya; his Sun Father sent him an onion; his mother The naga sent her daughter to earth from her naga marriage, K. married her, she gave birth to a daughter; K. killed an ogre bird; the naked wife forgot that she should not be completely immersed in the water, became a snake again while bathing; told her daughter to make clothes striped like snakeskin, gave the clothes the color of snakeskin scales by touching them; people began to copy these patterns; K. became the ancestor and king of Palaung ]: Obayashi 1966:51-54; Muongi [King Dit Dang defeated the monster Tin Win Tuong Wuong, divided his body into pieces; the inhabitants of each village took one of them and began to copy the patterns on their skin; so women and girls have learned to ornament fabrics]: Grigoreva 2019:61.
Guiana. Carinha (Guyana) [people come to look at a huge snake to see and reproduce the pattern on its skin]: Gillin 1936, No. 3:193; kalinya [mother dies; people mistreat her daughter, they send her to heaven to look for her mother; she approaches the Month, who marries her; punishes evil people with a flood; the wife of the Month descends, sitting on a turtle, teaches people patterns; patterns on the shell appear monthly from the blood of the wife of the Month; the patterns seen then are still used]: Penard in Goeje 1943, No. b3:28; waiway: Fock 1963 [myth told in connection with the meaning of the ornament on cassava sieve; the same pattern for coloring the body with a genipa, although it is not important; the author did not see a rattle with this pattern; hoping to destroy his son-in-law, his father-in-law sends him to kill akri {agouti?} and frogs; in fact, Uruperi lives in this place - a snake covered with hair, with the legs of a jaguar; a man runs, grabs a tree; W. swallows it, but the man did not release the tree, W. regurgitated it; on human skin remains an imprint of the waratapi meander pattern, which covers W. (it is now reproduced on cassava screens); while inside W., the man became bald from the heat; died and soon came to life; went back to W.'s habitat; W. appeared as a man, gave a rattle covered with that with the same waratapi pattern; if you shake it, lightning flies out; if you point it at the beast, it kills it; W. warned not to show the rattle to others; the man became a good hunter; soon died, and the spirit of W. took the rattle]: 91-92; Roe 1989 [father-in-law sends his son-in-law to kill Aguchi; he meets an iridescent anaconda on the other side; kills her, removes her skin, brings her to the community home; the skin emits thunder and lightning ; people reproduce patterns on it to decorate baskets]: 23-25; vapishana [water serpent; like a waiwai; those trying to repeat the feat die]: Farabee 1918:116-119; aparai [huge caterpillar devours people; oyana and aparai kill her; reproduce skin patterns to ornament baskets and ceramic vessels]: Rauschert 1967, No. 33:201; oyana: Hussak Van Velthem 1988 [huge anaconda drowned boats; people ambush her with arrows; Aparai and oyana copy patterns on her skin]: 322-324 (=Jara 1990:43-44); Magaña 1987, No. 83 [the shaman cuts off the tail of the salamander, turns it into a jaguar; people kill him; some take the right side, others the left; reproduce patterns on the skin on the baskets]: 50; Kashuyan: Frikel 1970:13-17 [Purá and Murrá made people; P. left bows from solid wood, they turned into people; put them in a boat, told them to live downstream; the boat was swallowed by the Marmaru-imó snake; P. sent people in several small boats, M. swallowed everyone again; the japu bird warned her every time about the near harvest; more hardwood bows did not turn into humans; P. and M. began to be made from different breeds, but they turned out to be wild pigs, bakers, snakes; came to life made of soft wood, so now people are mortal; P. and M. got into the boat themselves, let themselves be swallowed, cut M. inside with knives - P. on the right, M. on the left; when they went out, they saw snakes - M.'s children; saved their lives; The skin removed from M. was covered in patterns; P. ornamented baskets, cassava push-ups, etc.], 19 [the great shaman found a snake, the son of a big snake from the lower reaches of the river; dug a hole of water for him, grew it, then dug a canal into the river; this snake turned into marmaru-imó, which was then killed by Purá and Murrá]; Kruse 1955, No. 21-28 (arikena) [Marmari'mo (female) snake swallows boats; Purá and Murá swallow themselves; cut her insides with knives, came out on both sides of her abdomen; found a home with snakes - M.'s children, killed them P. left one pair; returned home, sailing in calebasses so that they would not be eaten by piranhas; black and red paints were painted with patterns copied from M. (the origin of the ornament on the baskets); P. and M. took to heaven]: 411-413.
Central Amazon. Yurimagua [when painting vessels and fabrics, women copy patterns on the skin of a snake - Mother of Waters]: S.Fritz in Goeje 1943, No. b3:28; Porro 1985:31; katawishi (Lake Teffe): Tastevin 1925:195-198 [ a girl does not know how to make pots; a water snake takes the form of an old woman, teaches her], 201 [like yurimagua: a bad craftswoman sees only Boyusu's snake's tail, a good one sees Boyusu's chest and head]; maue [snake chases children, crawls after them into a tree, falls, breaks; man: Let the ornament {on vessels?} copies patterns on his skin! ]: Ugge 1991, No. 3:154.
Eastern Amazon. Spiking [people hunt water monsters to reach their stomachs; when ornamenting vessels, they copy the ornament on its walls]: Nimuendaju 1920:1028-1030.
Montagna - Jurua. Shipibo: Bertrand-Rousseau 1983 [people get an idea of the ornament when they meet a woman (an anaconda's daughter?) on the beach? and seeing the patterns on her clothes and skin]: 80-81; Gebhaert-Sayer 1987 [Ronin water snake is the source of the idea of ornamentation; her skin is covered with ornaments traditional to the shipibo-conibo]: 39, 40, 85-91, No. 14 [man marries her friend's sister, a water snake; they come to live in the village of people, the wife gives birth to a daughter; asks her husband not to cheat on her; he sleeps with other women, she leaves; the daughter teaches people to spin, weave, make ceramic dishes, apply ornaments to fabrics and ceramics], 16 [as in (14); the wife herself teaches the women of the village; returns to the river, taking her daughter]: 361-363; Roe 1982, No. 3 [a hunter on an anaconda woman sees a real kushma (ornamented shirt)]: 52.
Southern Amazon. Vaura: Barcelos Neto 2000 [pottery clay - the bowel movements of a huge snake; there was a snake boat with eyes in front and back; sailed all the way to the sea, defecated; Kamalupi saw Arakuni's body coloring (a man who became an anaconda, see motif L28) painted the same patterns on the vessels; therefore, clay and vessels made from it are dangerous and have cosmological associations]: 145-147; Coelho 1988 [ a huge snake is filled with ceramic vessels; crawls and drops them on the site of future villages; now pottery is made there]: 527-528.