H2. A selfish animal. .11.13.21.-.24.29.31.34.-.36. (.41.) .42.43.47.49.-.52.74.
Animals ask God to make humans (tigers: pets) mortal or otherwise reduce their number because they fear that people will trample them, deprive them of food or habitat, will make you work, etc.
Embu, Gogo, Chuka, Tigre, Vancho, Zeme, Korku, Birkhor, Mundari, Banar, Toraja, Abkhazians, Lithuanians, Oirats (Dyurbuts), Nenets, Western Evenks, (Kuchin, Tagish, helmet), haida, kutene, kous, clamate, (takelma), choctaw, seminoles, chirokee, washo, mojave, papago, seri, tarahumara, tepehua, tehuelche.
Bantu-speaking Africa. Embu [The sun tells the Mole to carry to earth a remedy that revives the dead; he is greeted by a corpse hyena, says that then there will be no food left for her, gives her a remedy instead of the elixir of life causing final death; The mole tells the Sun what happened, which punishes it by telling him to live in the ground; if he looks at the sun, he dies]: Baumann 1936:277 (=Frazer 1926:266-267); gogo [ a person argues with Hyena, says he wants to live forever; Hyena says people must die, then she can eat corpses; this is how death appeared]: Baumann 1936:278; Chuka (Meru) [Murungu (Ngai, Mwene inya) - creator; people lived in Mbwa, did not work; God created a young man first, then a girl, they gave birth to a child; God forbid eating the fruits of a particular tree; the snake said that the one who tasted them will find the mind of God; the woman tried, the man refused, but in the end agreed, Adam's apple was formed; God punished the snake by flattening its head; sent a mole to tell people that after death, they must be reborn; the mole met the hyena, talked about God's commission; the hyena resisted - it would have nothing to eat if people became immortal; threatened the mole to swallow it, that agreed to tell people that death would be final; God punished the mole by telling him to live underground far from heaven; since then, the mole has only been getting out of the earth at night]: Scheub 2000:162.
Sudan - East Africa. Tigre [The Bat ("animal with wings") owned camels and stole them from him; he began to explain what remedies should be used to treat camel diseases; the Raven hit him and told him to be silent since he lost camels; Raven didn't want camels to recover, he wanted to eat fallen camels]: Littmann 1910, No. 54:74-75.
Tibet is the Northeast of India. Vancho [people did not die, but only metamorphosed like a caterpillar; there were so many of them that they began to take all the food from animals and birds; one man snatched the fish from the crane's beak; he cursed him, saying that he would soon die, the man hit the crane on the head, the crane went bald; then the man snatched a piece of meat from the crow's beak; the crow complained that if people remained immortal, everything birds would die; then Tatchak Namlong announced that people would die]: Elwin 1958a, No. 15:296-297 (=1958b: 329-330); zeme [the text is called "The Birth of Spirits"; there was no land, a tarot leaf was floating on the water ; Bangklawong fell from the sky, said that if his foot did not touch the water, he would be king; one leg was on a leaf and the other fell into the water; he realized it would be a long time before he became king; began to ask everyone who could make the earth, but only King Worm (CC) replied that he was capable of doing so, but on the condition that every day a thousand people died to be eaten by him; B.: but then people were not will remain; CC: but every day a thousand will be born; went down to the bottom, began to do worm casts (what the worm leaves on the sand or soil, like a cast of a worm) until land appeared; raven ( mr., crow, but perhaps a crow) leveled it, but when he began to level the hills, he was tired, so there are rocky hills and there are plains; in a dream, Tingwong came to B. and told B. to cut off two fingers , one would make a wife, the other would become a sister; the sister did everything so quickly that she returned with water before B. could retire with his wife; then B. scattered katsing seeds in the grass and told his sister collect everything, otherwise she will hack her machete (dao); she completed the task and came in when B. copulated with his wife; this sight excited her so much that she was about to lay an egg; B. told her to go to the upper reaches of Barak To Tallaurok, taking a machete, a banana and a gibbon with her, lay her eggs there; she laid 8 eggs at the waterfall, left a machete, planted a banana and told the gibbon to guard; Katsingpeo was the first to hatch, but was frightened and climbed back; Tsiuperai was the second; then K. came out again, they began to argue who was first and in charge; 5 more eggs hatch, one remained intact; T. found a banana and a machete, cut down a banana for them, served them one banana, but Gibbon quietly took them for himself; T. hit Gibbon with a machete, smeared blood on his and his brothers' eyes, now they found sight; the brothers thought the last egg was spoiled, threw it into the river; decided consider the main one who will throw the stone across the river; all the stones fell into the water, but T. accidentally threw the bumblebee and it flew to the other side; then they began to throw the grass stalks; T. threw the snake and it was far crawled; the brothers flew to her mother in the form of crows; when she saw that there were only 7 of them, she decided that they were not her children; but T. called her mother, spoke about the eighth egg; the mother explained that the one who it will hatch, be wiser and stronger than the others; a boa constrictor was born out of it; to determine who was in charge of the seven, the mother sprayed milk from her breasts; the jet went to K., but turned and fell into T.'s mouth, and him back to K and then to the others]: http://www.nagajournal.com/category/arts-literature/folktalesstories/ Nagajournal Oct 27, 2013.
Burma - Indochina. Banar [the dead were buried under the roots of a long blo tree, they were reborn; the chameleon was afraid to stick out its tail so that it would not be squeezed out; suggested that the dead be buried under the long tree khung; people were no longer resurrected]: Guerlach 1887:479; Karpov, Tkachev 1958:258 (retelling the same text in Fraser 1913:74, 1919:73).
South Asia. Cork [Mula saw that his wife Mulai was dripping blood, collected it in a vessel; at this time, Mahadeo was making people's bodies out of clay; the trees decided that people would cut them, smashed the bodies until M. was nearby; he angrily put the trees with crowns in the ground, with roots outside; made new bodies; when he sprinkled blood from a vessel on them, they came to life; thanks to this blood, people were covered with skin, otherwise they would be naked flesh; Mula buried a blood vessel, a tree grew; when the fruits were ripe, he gave them to Mahadeo's men and women; after that, women became menstruating]: Elwin 1949, No. 73:280-281; birkhor [ Singbonga created the Pankhraj winged horse; then sculpted a man out of clay, left it to dry overnight; at night, P. trampled on the figure fearing that the man would harness the horses; the next day S. sculpted the new figure and the figure of a dog to her, placing it with its face against the wind; by evening the dog dried up and the wind revived it; S. left the dog to guard the figure of a man that was not yet dry; at night the dog barked and drove the horse away; the man was imperfect, his joints did not bend; then S. redesigned him]: Roy, The Birhors, 398 in Elwin 1949:16; mundari [Singbonga made male and female figures; while they were not yet alive, the horse trampled on them so that people would not force it to work later; S. sculpted new figures and created a spider to protect them; the spider protected them with a web, S. breathed life into them]: Roy, ii, 201 in Elwin 1949:19.
Malaysia-Indonesia. Western Torajas [The toad asks the Creator to reduce the number of people, otherwise they will trample toads; Creator, Let people die like the moon for a month and then be reborn (Ik zal de menschen als de maan een maand laten doodgaan en dan weer doen herleven); Toad, Let them die forever; the Toad has the last word]: Kruyt 1938, No. 8:434-435; Eastern Torajas [people became too much, the Toad asked the Lord of Heaven to make them mortal so that they would not trample all the toads; he complied with the request]: Adriani, Kruyt 1951, No. 7:12.
Caucasus - Asia Minor. Abkhazians: Bartsyts 2005 (the author is an ethnographer, knows from his mother) [when the world was being created, the devil sent horses to smash him, or else, they say, will torment them all his life; the man managed to snatch a handful of clay from his stomach and throw them into horses, these clods became dogs, drove the horses away]; Gabnia 2002 (recorded by folklorist V. Kogonia 11.07.1991) [God created man from clay; Damn warned horses: "If a person comes to life, you will not live. Kill him!" , the horses rushed at the man. Dogs, seeing this, rushed to horses to save a person; therefore, humans and dogs are considered close]: 56.
Baltoscandia. {The original source is not known, a hoax is possible}. Lithuanians [the swallow asks God to have more people: there would be more roofs for her; the lark wants people to die: there will be more neglected land for its nests]: Kerbelite 2001, no. 1.3.0.3.: 113.
Southern Siberia - Mongolia. The Oirats (durbuts) [the tigress ate the cow and began to raise the calf; the calf and the tiger cub lived like brothers; so people did not die, the cattle did not fall; the fox has nothing to eat; said to the bull: the tiger wants you kill; look in the morning: if he doesn't stretch and bend his tail, I'm lying; the same to the tiger: if the bull lowers his head in the morning and his gaze changes, I'm lying; in the morning the brothers noticed that everyone behaves as the fox said; killed each other; after that, people and livestock began to die]: Potanin 1883, No. 90:353.
Western Siberia. Nenets (no place of recording) [God wants people not to die; land owner Ja-Muzarem objects but then agrees; Nibia's spider asks for a change of mind, because then he will not be able to do a web for himself, because he pulls the hair of the dead, making them thin; without them, his children will starve; World Cup, and then God, agree]: Osharov 1936a: 210-211.
Eastern Siberia. Western Evenks: Duvakin 2013 (Podkamennaya Tunguska, Mutoray, 2007) [The mouse met a pika and began to argue: the former wants people to die, because there are too many of them - they are trampling mice; began to fight, the mouse stuck its long tail into the ground; the pika could not defeat it, so people die]; Osharov 1936b (Podkamennaya Tunguska, district with. Baikit, 1928), No. 7 [there were many mice, people walked and trampled on them; mice began to harm people, they hid supplies in high storage facilities; Pika has lice, the Mouse asks her to give them to people so that they can eat them; The pika refused; the mouse transplanted its lice into the sick woman's head; she died, the lice passed to other people], 8 [The mouse tells Pishchukha that people are trampling on her children, there is little land, people need to disappear; The pika does not agree; they fight, the Mouse wins with its long tail; The pika hides in stone placers to prevent its children from dying]: 278, 279 (=1936a: 16-17); Rychkov 1936, No. 5 (exact location no record specified) [The flying squirrel wants people to rot like tree stumps on the ground; The mouse says they should live and die as they are now; decided to fight; the Mouse leaned on its tail, but the Flying Squirrel does not have a tail, her mouse failed; thus saved the human race]: 267; (cf. Evens [squirrel with a neighbor (it is not said who it is) live together; they cook meat one by one, each gets a brisket or a tenderloin; the squirrel required tenderloin out of turn, the neighbor did not give; then protein I made myself wings out of kumi (a woman's arcuate tool for making skins), became a flying squirrel, flew and brought me old age; before that, people did not grow old or die]: Bolshakova, Chaiko 2015:21).
(Wed. Subarctic. The raven hides animals to starve people and feed on their corpses. Kuchin [The raven always warns the Caribou when hunters are approaching; people starve, the old man and his wife are left; the old man pretends to die; the raven comes down to peck at his eyes, the old man catches kills him, plucks him, burns him]: McKennan 1965:98; Tagish [Yéil tells all animals not to fall into traps; wants to starve people to eat their corpses; warns animals about the approach of hunters, and eats dead people; deflects hunters' arrows from the target; one hunter hid in the snow from the Raven, shot the caribou unnoticed; asks his two wives to leave him like he's dead; the raven comes down to peck his eyes, the man grabs him, breaks his wings, burns him in hot coals]: McClelland 2007, № 73g: 366-368; helmet [two Crows drive animals away; people starve to death, Ravens peck their eyes out; Beaver pretends to be dead, grabs Ravens, burns alive; kills caribou for his wives]: Teit 1917a, No. 1:441).
NW Coast. Kaigani [Having created humans, the Raven tells them to be immortal; the wren objects, because he lives under graves, he will have no place to nest; the Raven agrees]: Swanton 1905 (Contributions to the Ethnology of Haida): 238 Boas 1916:664 (here with the deaf reference Ri 5.214 {ethnicity is not clear}: Nōaqaua and Masmasalā'nix want to be immortal, but the bird wants to nest in their graves; they agree to die if they are resurrected after four days; the bird insists they agree not to be resurrected; after death they go to heaven; people mourn them, they return with drops of blood that women they breathe in and give birth again).
The coast is the Plateau. Kutene [chief: humans have two lives; Raven: only one (he wants to peck out dead eyes); people kill Raven's son and daughter; now he wants people two lives; chief refuses]: Boas 1918, No. 65:213; cous [The Water Comer's proposal to make people immortal is accepted by the trickster after the death of his son; but the Water Mixer says his legs are long and people, if there are many of them, will be on them to attack; so people must die forever]: Jacobs 1940, No. 29:200; Klamath [The snake wants people like her to shed their skin and get younger; The mole wants them to die; The beetle of the same opinion, for otherwise people will crush bugs]: Gatschet 1890:103-104 (quail. Judson 1997:38-39); (cf. takelma [a half-inch long legged beetle called "roasting dead people") and is always killed because it is believed to be responsible for the fact that humans are mortal, although, according to myth, Coyote is to blame]: Sapir 1907:49).
Southeast USA. Choctaw [in a cave in the depths of the earth, the Great Spirit Aba created men and grasshoppers out of yellow clay; along the passage leading to the top of Nané Chaha Hill, they began to surface and disperse across the world; then the mother of grasshoppers in the cave was killed by people, new grasshoppers no longer rose; people still got up, stepped on grasshoppers in the grass, trampled on them; the grasshoppers were frightened that they would all be trampled, Aba was asked to kill people; he closed the passage; the people who remained underground turned into ants, still crawling to the surface from cracks in the ground]: Bushnell 1910, No. 2:527 (quail. in Swanton 1931:37ff, in Mould 2004:65-66; Seminoles [people trample on grasshoppers; those who die on the third day are reborn; grasshoppers decide to trample graves by the end of the third day; since then, humans have not are reborn and it is easier for grasshoppers to survive]: Gallagher 1994:73; Teal: Kilpatrick, Kilpatrick 1966, No. 4 [people want the dead to come back in seven days; Frog: They'll trample us, let die forever]: 389; Mooney 1900 [animals invent diseases to make people fewer; beetle larvae are especially angry as humans step on them]: 250-252.
Big Pool. Washo [Wolf and Coyote brothers discuss what to do with yours when they arrive; Wolf suggests digging a well at the top of the mountain; old people will bathe and rejuvenate in it; Coyote does not agree: he does not know how to kill animals and feeds on carrion; if there are no corpses, he will die; the Wolf offers to hunt small animals, but Coyote insists that dead people are the most delicious]: Lowie 1939, No. 1:33.
The Great Southwest. Mojave [Lizard: Let people die, otherwise there won't be enough space, they'll have to defecate on each other's feet! Because of the Lizard, people are dying]: Kroeber 197:6; papago [the worm fears that large creatures will trample on it; asks Big Brother to create death]: Kroeber 1912:97; series [death called Coyote and Konte Shiat (pinakate, a smelly insect with a black belly - a dung beetle?) ; Coyote wanted to eat dead bodies and Pinakate was afraid people would step on him; Coyote killed his daughter (son?) , people started to die]: Kroeber 1931, #3:12-13.
NW Mexico. Tarahumara: Bennett, Zingg 1935 [horned toads ask God to send diseases so that people do not breed or step on them]: 325; Mondragón et al. 1995 [God asked everyone, should whether creatures die; red ants, lizards, grasshoppers, beetles-all small creatures said death was needed or they would be trampled]: 87.
Mesoamerica Tepehua [Lizard: Don't let people resurrect, I'll have nowhere to put my tail; Jesus confirms this decision]: Williams García 1972:95.
The Southern Cone. South Tehuelches [Elal forbids sex until the next morning when he finishes the world order; the Sea Lion copulated with his wife and died; the cockroach pulled a small bone out of his throat, so that E. could not revive him; the cockroach wanted people to die and there would be fewer of them, otherwise they would trample all cockroaches]: Wilbert, Simoneau 1984b, No. 63, 64:106-107.