F53A. The Bat or Owl hides its face.
.21.34.47.-.51.55.61.66.72.
The husband hides his face from his wife because she does not know that he is the Bat or Owl.
Sherdukpen, Darhats, Khalha Mongols, Chiroki, Cahuilla, Western Shoshones, Goshiyute, Southern Utah, Yavapai, Havasupai, Varigio, Guahiro, Kofan, Shipibo, Maka, Toba, Mokovi.
Tibet is the Northeast of India. Sherdukpen [Gyamu-Lala-Pipi rejects bird grooms; The Bat comes at night, says he only has this appearance in the dark, and during the day he is the king of birds; G. agrees to marry him; he leaves until dawn; G. says her marriage will be decided in the afternoon at the Bird Council; The Bat promises to come, says his wife will recognize him; she secretly ties a red thread to his claw; at the council in the center sits a gorgeous Rooster, the Bat hides on the edge; G. sees and notices him, says to the birds, they laugh, the Bat runs away, has not shown up since then; G. became a forest bird, and her chick from Black Duck Bat]: Elwin 1958b, No. 9:385-386.
Southern Siberia - Mongolia. Darhats [The Bat became a lover of the Koh-Zechtse bird; she asked why he arrives late at night and leaves early in the morning; LM replied that he was Khan Gardy's senior nobleman, should judge cases ; KC did not find him between the birds, and the Golden Eagle was sitting at the top of the tree; LM said it was him, but in a different guise; KC did not believe it, flew in the next day, saw him clinging to a rock; LM replied that he held the stone, otherwise it would have fallen off and killed many people; the CC did not believe it and divorced LM]: Potanin 1883:175; the Khalkha Mongols [the bat became a lover of the Berkutikha, flew to her at night; she did not know her lover by sight; tied a red thread to her leg; the next morning Khan Gurdy gathered birds; the golden eagle saw her lover at the very bottom; he sat facing the tree, hiding from the sun's rays; the golden eagle left him]: Potanin 1883:174-175.
Southeast USA. Chirokee [man marries two sisters; leaves early, arrives late; the house stands with his back to the fire; the woman's brother lights a branch, sparks fly; the husband turns around, everyone sees big eyes and crooked owl nose]: Kilpatrick, Kilpatrick 1966, No. 3:425-426.
California. Cahuilla [beauty rejects suitors; Bat wears a vegetable fiber wig, goes to her at night; one day she sleeps until dawn, she sees the Bat with her; she calls her grandmother, he runs away]: Modesto, Monut 1986:70.
Big Pool. Usually, the Bat marries two sisters; says he hunts all the time, but brings ice under the guise of fat; his wives leave him when they see his face. Western Shoshones [Girls' Mother Toad]: Smith 1993:65-67; Goshiyute: Smith 1993:22-23; Southern Utah [wives pinch the Bat to make him laugh; see its yellow teeth and festering teeth eyes]: Lowie 1924, No. 5, 5a: 10-13; (cf. chemeuevi [two Worms in Yucca Fruits sisters travel in search of a suitable husband; Asparagus Worm's house has tendons; girls watch their husband and see what he is turning into tendons asparagus stems; go away; black pudding is hung near Poloz's house; wives watch, see Poloz scratching his body with thorns, bringing home his blood instead of food; fat at Bat's house; he brings ice, calls it "ice fat", advises eating raw, not frying; girls find their perfect husband in the Red-Tailed Hawk]: Laird 1976:162-168).
The Great Southwest. SV yavapai [two wives of the Bat accompany him on the hunt; he misses, shoots deer, kills a deer, his wives take the meat home; the Bat comes back late, brings a scar, says meat; wives want to see his face, light a bunch of grass, see ugly eyes, run far east; he can't catch up with them, wanders in the dark]: Gifford 1933a: 372; havasupai [w The Bat is two wives, many children; always comes back in the dark; the children want to see his face; once they lit the bark, they saw that he brought not fat, but ice, that he had an ugly face; wives and children ran away, took to heaven, became Ursa Minor; he was behind them, stayed at the edge of the sky, it is not known what happened to him]: Smithson, Euler 1994:98-99.
NW Mexico. Varigio [The Bat leaves and comes back in the dark; the wife brings her husband lunch to where he should clear the area, but finds only a bat hanging upside down in the tree; mother-in-law offers to give his son-in-law a drink, tries to keep him drunk at dawn, because he is still drunk, he flies away, does not return; the wife gives birth to bats, her mother kills them]: Relatos Guarijíos 1995:52-54.
The Northern Andes. Guajiro [sister's husband finds a wife for the Bat; he hides during the day, hiding his little eyes from others; one day he works a lot in the garden and then gets drunk and falls asleep; wife's sister opens his face; he leaves]: Wilbert, Simoneau 1986 (1), No. 81:214-215.
Western Amazon. Cofan: Barriga Lopez 1988b [The bat visits a girl at night; at holidays she dances away from the hearths; flies away; she gives birth to bats, now they bite people]: 198; Calífano, Gonzalo 1995, No. 135 [The Bat's wife makes a lot of chichi, arranges holidays; her husband never dances until morning without seeing his nose; one day she forgets the danger, everyone sees that his nose is flying mice; he turns into a bat; his wife gives birth to bats]: 189.
Montagna - Jurua. Shipibo [The Bat marries a girl; leaves and comes back in the dark; goes to build a boat, tells his wife to warn him when she brings him a drink during the day; one day she walks quietly , sees his ugly head; at night, bats sucked the juices out of it, leaving skin and bones]: Roe 1990, No. 1:145-149.
Chaco. Maca: Wilbert, Simoneau 1991a, No. 95 [ashamed of their big eyes, Owls return to their wives only after dark, forbid making fires; bring only dientudos fish; alone the woman suddenly set fire to an armful of dry grass, frightened her husband's face; the women ran away from their husbands], 96 [The owl returned home only in the dark; one day his wife suddenly lit a fire and saw his terrible eyes, ran away]: 213-214, 214-215; you: Wilbert, Simoneau 1989a, No. 185 (Western Tobas) [(Tomasini MS) Watoki bird marries the Owl; the owl is ashamed of its big eyes, brings fish only in the dark, not tells the fire to move; one day the wife moves the coals to fry the fish, sees her husband's eyes; talks about what another V. saw, who is married to another Owl; both leave their husbands, make a big fire, Owls do not dare to approach them], 186 (pilaga) [(Idoyaga Molina, MS) Dove advises his wife's sister to marry Owl, a good fisherman; one day the wind blows the coals, the wife sees her husband's big eyes, she doesn't want to anymore live with him; The owl leaves, stays alone], 187 (Eastern; by Wright MS) [The owl always tells her two wives to put out the fire when he returns; one manages to see his eyes; both run away; Social tells the Crane draw jaguars and other predators on the ground, revives them, they kill people in the home village of Owl's wives]: 259-260, 261, 262-263; mocovi: Wilbert, Simoneau 1988, No. 155 [two Ducks take off their clothes, they bathe; the Owl and the Heron hide their clothes, marry Ducks; they always come back late, prevent their wives from seeing them; one day they light a fire, they see that the Owl has ugly eyes and the Heron has a neck; they leave], 156 [two Owls marry two Ducks; come back in the dark, prevent their wives from kindling a fire in front of them; one day they light up, see the ugly eyes of Owls, leave their husbands], 157 [as in (156), one married couple] : 195, 196-197, 197.