Yu.E. Berezkin, E.N. Duvakin

Thematic classification and distribution of folklore and mythological motifs by area

Analytical catalogue

Introduction
Bibliography
Ethnicities and habitats

E1D. Clay boats .26.38.40.-.42.58.68.

The (first) boat is made of obviously unusable material.

Ancient China (Sichuan, Guangdong), Okinawa, Japanese, Chugach, Kuchin, Upper Tanana, Nootka, Warrau, Kalapalo, Kuikuro.

China - Korea. Ancient China (Ba possession, east Sichuan; Sui jin zhu, or "Canon of Waters/Rivers" of the Han era or so, and Hou Hanshu, i.e. the History of the Late Han Empire; also other sources) [in Mount Wuluozhongli (possibly Mount Hen on SW Hubei) were black and red caves; members of the Fan, Tan, Xiang, and Ren families came from black, and the Ba family came from red; (in some Eastern Sichuan dialects, "ba" means cave); candidates for seniority were offered two tests; 1) throw a sword and get into a hole in the rock; a Ba man named Wuxiang fell into the eye of a bull; 2) make a boat out of clay; only Wuxiang managed to do this, became the leader and received the title Linjun (hereinafter W. appears under this name); after that, the name Ba passed to all five families; Linzhong sailed up the river in his clay boat Qing (in SW Hubei) and in the Yanyang area met a goddess; she offered to live together, taking advantage of the abundance of fish and salt; however, L. refused to share and demanded that everything be given to him; the goddess turned into an insect , a cloud of such insects eclipsed the sun, darkness came; many days later L. managed to hit the goddess with an arrow, the sun shone again; L. founded the city of Jichen, where people of four generations began to live; he himself after Death became a white tiger; therefore, bah let tigers drink human blood]: Sage 1992:108-109 (also briefly in Eberhardt 1944:211); Ancient China (Guangdong) [for an expedition to the south, General Ma Yuan makes copper ships]: Eberhardt 1944:211-212 with reference to Chiao-chou-chi.

Japan. Okinawa [Akana is a character who lives on the moon; "they" are a category of demonic creatures"; A. and O. go fishing, A. has a wooden boat and a rich catch, O. has clay and a poor catch; A. advises O. to urinate on the boat, which falls apart; A. believes that O. will eat him, run away; O. catches up and asks why A. has red pepper in his hand; A.: "If you wash yourself with this, you will see China and Yamato (i.e. Japan)"; O. believes, washes his face (infusion) of pepper, sneezes and temporarily goes blind; A. climbed a tree at the edge of the pond, O. sees its reflection; enters the water, catches shrimp and fish, ties them to all parts of the body ; A. laughs, O. notices him, climbs a tree; A. promises God to carry salt and water for him; if God loves him, let him lower the iron staircase, and if he does not love him, a rope ladder; God lowers the iron ladder; O. he climbs after A. and manages to gnaw off one leg; the staircase with A. rises to heaven]: "Tales of Ogimi Village", 1998. The text "Akana and Them"; translated and reported by Yoko Naono Fukasawa, April 25, 2016; Japanese Fairy Tales by Yei Theodora Ozaki [a badger ruins a peasant's field; he finally caught him, hung him for legs in the house and did not tell his wife to let go: in the evening he would make soup out of it; the badger offers the peasant's wife to grind barley instead of her; and then she would hang him again by the legs; the old woman untied the badger, that killed her with a pestle, made soup out of it; when the peasant returned, the badger took the form of his wife, and when he ate the soup, he became a badger again, said that the peasant ate and ran away; the rabbit was a friend of the peasant, promised to punish the badger; invited him to mow sweet (dry) grass; on the way home, quietly set fire to a bunch of grass behind the badger's back; his skin was scorched; rabbit: I had nothing to do with it, I'll bring medicine; smeared the badger's back with pepper; he writhed in pain but still recovered; the rabbit invited the badger to fish; got into a wooden boat and gave him a clay boat; the clay softened in the water, the badger drowned]: Tales of Japan 2019: 133-139.

The Arctic. Chugach [north of Kayak Island on the mainland in Kilkak, a mighty old man created a man and a woman; first made it out of stone, but putting the ready man on his feet, he accidentally broke his left leg; then made out of the earth; so people die, and people out of stone would live forever; people multiplied, decided to settle; man made a boat out of sand, the old man, if he wanted, turned it into a real one, they sailed first to Kodiak]: Doroshin 1866:369.

Subarctic. Kuchin [Giateaquoynt throws pieces of fir, poplar, willow bark into the river; they all sink; birch floats up, he makes a boat out of it; kills a partridge (willow grouse), makes a nose modeled on a bird's sternum; while he sleeps, two types of partridges sew pieces of birch bark; spruce grouse ran on one side, she had smaller steps, stitches more often; willow grouse on the other, she did worse The spruce grouse was redone; J. first covered the seams with clay, it melted in the water, the boat began to sink; then it looked, the boat sailed]: McKennan 1965:104-105; upper tanana [The gadfly sits in the hollow of a stump ( then it talks about a tree), kills the axes of those who come for eggs; the Raven climbs to the hollow, calls the Gadfly a nephew; offers to go down, arrange boat races; makes the Gadfly a boat out of sand; It falls apart in the middle of the lake; the raven swims up to the Gadfly, cuts off its head; therefore, gadflies have eyes on their chest, but no head]: Kari 1996:53-55.

NW Coast. Nootka [at first, the boats were made of resin and melted in the sun; people poured water all the time to prevent them from melting, fishing only at night]: Boas 1895, No. XIII.23:128 (=2002:287).

Guiana. Varrau: García 1993, No. 90 [Mayacoto fisherman has two wives, each with a son; when he returns home, he always plays the flute; Chebu (forest demon) Jajuba swallowed him, disguised as he came to to his wives, but did not play the flute; fell asleep, snored, then the wives heard the voice of the swallowed flute; the sisters took the children and ran away; the eldest put her hair off her head on the path, the youngest turned it prickly thickets; Guauta did not want to open the door for them at first, they pinched the children, they cried; when she found out that they were boys, G. let him in; invited Khahuba, who ran up, put his head under the door, cut it off with a knife; sent cassava sisters, at that time turned their babies into adult boys, their common name is Jaburi; told them to bring her fatty birds from hunting, and give skinny ones to women after urinating on them; the arrow of one stuck in a tree, he climbed after her; young otters passed under the tree, saw Haburi's bowel movements, said it stinks of crap from those who give mothers bad birds and Guauta good ones; they told the brothers everything story; they described skinny birds, gave it to Guauta; recognized mothers; one of H. made a boat out of clay, it melted in water; from wax, the same; from the bark, they sailed in it; the supports of the house, the leaves on the roof shouted to Guauta that the women and the boys had run away, she did not understand them; understood the parrot, threw herself into the water, grabbed the boat, H. cut off her fingers with an oar; the women asked to take G. so that she would not drown; H. began to row the end oars, the bird shouted to row with a blade; H. knocked down a tree with a hive in the hollow; G. began to suck honey, H. knocked another tree on this tree, G. stayed in the hollow, called "son Haburi", told the boat to stand a rock when it reaches the sea; this is a rock near Trinidad Island]: 281-287; Wilbert 1970, No. 110 [made of wax (magic good boat)], 139 [wax; two unsuitable types of wood], 141 [bone; unusable bark], 144 [clay; wax]: 231, 281, 292, 305.

Southern Brazil. Kalapalo [Taugi made a boat out of clay, learned to make bark from ducks; pretended to be dead, grabbed a vulture, received fire from vultures, dawn, day, wives; satisfied wives with his finger; dicks were hanging in the Lizard's house, his wife masturbated with them; the lizard came and gave T.'s dick, but he copulated non-stop, T. got thin; took the cock back, he gave a smaller one; now it's fine]: Basso 1987:124-138; kuikuro [there was no fire, Kanassa is looking for it while carrying firefly; the curasso bird (Crax daubentoni) made feather jewelry; K. offered to try it on, it grew, now curasso is always in this outfit; met a little caiman (the same, the cassava brazier grew to the tail); his relative, the bird Sarakura, made a boat and oars out of clay; the Duck has a bark boat; K. offers change, assures that the corn boat is fragile; K. and saracura sail away in a coryja boat; clay sinks; Duck floundering, learning to swim; Sarakura says that Urubu-ray owns the fire with two with his heads; K. drew a deer in the sand, hid under it; Urubu-ray told the vultures to lift the carcass to his tree, K. ordered him to leave it in place and remain silent; Urubu-ray came down with the light with him; K. caught him, ordered to bring fire; he told his son (a small black bird) to bring coal; a fire was fanned out of it; frogs came out of the water, filled the fire with water they held in their mouth; a little remained, K. fanned again; flying away, Urubu-ray taught me to get fire by friction, make torches; to transport fire across the lake, K. gave it to various snakes; they were tired, they lost fire in the middle of the lake; only Itóto endured ; K. gave her a cassava drink and cassava tortillas]: Villas Boas, Villas Boas 1973:105-110.