Yu.E. Berezkin, E.N. Duvakin

Thematic classification and distribution of folklore and mythological motifs by area

Analytical catalogue

Introduction
Bibliography
Ethnicities and habitats

E26. Trained people .34.42.56.57.59.62.63.70.

Fish caught turn into first people or women. (Texts on catching women in human form from the water are not included; cf. Motive F7).

Southern Siberia - Mongolia. The Mongols [Jeonun-bel goes north to marry his wife, kills 20-headed Hotgor-Hara-Mangys and his men; the old woman is left alone, goes to look for her husband; rejects someone who has a penis like a stallion; marries someone who answers that he can wrap a mountain three times with his penis; they have many children; they led their people down the mountain across the sea; the old man's penis serves as a bridge; he was pecked by a crow, he moved, the people drowned; the old man makes a seine out of his wool; those caught became Mongols (or humans in general), left in the water with fish]: Potanin 1883, No. 112:384-387.

NW Coast. Bellacula [The raven hooks fish, throws it into the boat, the fish turns into a woman; promises to live with him until he looks at others; the raven violates the ban; the wife leaves, taking from all dried salmon]: Boas 1895:246.

Llanos. Guajibo [Kuwai makes a woman out of clay; she is able to bake cakes but cannot bring water; from wax, she can neither bake nor stay in the sun; from wood, she burns by the fire; his Matsuldani's son stomps on the ground, causing wind from the sky; a rainbow rises from the ground, and fish with it; when they fall to the ground, they turn into people; (a similar story in baniva, R. Wright)]: Baquero 1989, No. 2: 82.

Southern Venezuela. Fish caught are turning into women. Makiritar: Civrieux 1959:112-113; 1960:109; Sanema: Wilbert, Simoneau 1990b, No. 189:373.

Guiana. Trio: Koelewijn, Riviere 1987, No. 1:15; Riviere 1969:259-261; vapishana [Jo√£o hooks piranha, wants her to be his wife; she jumps back into the water, turns into a woman, he brings her home, hides her; his younger brother Pedro discovers that someone has made soup; gets naked, rocking his penis; a hidden woman laughs, he finds her; she tells her to pour fish poison into her nostrils first; he does not listen, his penis is bitten off; deer, tapir, agouti refuse, the monkey agrees to change his penis with him, now her penis seems to have been bitten off by piranha; P. brings blood-sucking insects to the festival, they've been biting people ever since]: Wirth 1950:168-170;

NW Amazon. Baniwa [see guajibo]; chikuna [Dyoi and his brother Epi went to their niece's initiation party; the girl went to D., E. wanted her for himself; in the yard outside the house, the girl turned into a fruit on umari tree; D. did not allow it to be plucked, E. waited for it to fall; D. let E. clean the dead birds, at this time the fruit fell, the girl took on a human form, D. reduced it, hid it in a flute, 4 nights brought him into his hammock secretly from E.; he hears laughter at night; in the absence of D. dances, showing her genitals; the woman laughs, E. finds her inside the flute, copulates with her; she becomes pregnant, does not fit more into a flute; E. lubricates his penis with fruit juice to imitate a long abstinence; frozen latex falls off, D. understands the deception; to make black paint and paint the boy, D. ordered E. climb the genipa tree for fruit; it began to grow, but E. began to descend; then the woody mushroom orehla de pau grew along the perimeter of the trunk, but E. turned into an ant, crawled over the mushroom; D. ordered E. to grind the fruits of the genipa, E. the source of himself; the woman painted the boy, threw the rest of the pasta into the water; fish, including epi fish, appeared from the pasta; D. began to catch fish with various baits; when on stones, the fish caught turned into jaguars, urucuri husks into squirrels, tukuma husks into wild pigs, sweet cassava into chikuna Indians; however, E. could not catch; let Techi-ari-Ngui catch, E. pecked, on the shore, becoming a man, said that he had visited the land of gold in the east and would return there, and let D. go west; D. told him to catch fish, but E. killed them before they turned into people ; Var.: After understanding how to catch, E. caught kokama and other tribes, but not chikuna]: Nimuendaju 1952:127-129.

Central Amazon. Parintintin [Baira catches beautiful fish in the river, they turn into women, he distributes them to men; catches his daughter; his companion tries to do the same, but the fish jumps back into the river]: Pereira 1980 (2): 554-556; munduruku [see motive F34; women have a tapir lover, men kill him; women jump into the river, turn into fish; Karusakaibo fishes, does not look over her shoulder, she turns into his wife again; makes a drink from cassava; K. says that his pet monkey made it; Dairu does not believe it, she dances indecently in K.'s house; the woman looks out, laughs; D. also goes fishing; looks around right away, the fish does not turn into a woman; D. copulates with fish, since then the motley jacunda is inedible; the rest of the fish can't turn into women now, K. accelerates them along the river]: Kruse 1952, No. 10:997-998; Murphy 1958, No. 3:76-77.

Eastern Brazil. Suya [at night, the brother stains the face of an unknown mistress with genipa juice; the exposed sister lives openly with him, although he does not want it; they fish, the water blows her down the river; she turns into androgyne; under her leadership, women kill most men and go far east; set up a village behind a lake full of piranhas; men who return from hunting fish from the river different fish, they turn into new women; they are of different physiques depending on the fish they came from]: Wilbert, Simoneau 1984a, No. 158:459-467; kayapo: Wilbert 1978, No. 111, 112-113 [like Munduruku], 114:275, 277-278, 283-284, 286.