H20A. The owner of the fish loses it.13.19.43.48.49.62.65.
A woman or several women keep fish or water in a container; a man releases all the fish into rivers or into the sea, releases water. See H20 motif.
Sudan-East Africa. Zande [the old woman has all the water; she gives hot yam to come, they eat, die of thirst, she cooks them; Ture (spider) noticed which path the water was sprayed on; after eating the yam, he ran along it to the dam, destroyed it, rivers flowed; the old woman drowned]: Arewa, Shreve 1975, No. 2:194 (per. Katznelson 1968:318-320).
Melanesia. Komba [the widow cut off her deceased husband's penis and scrotum, placed her in a fenced area, where a salty sea full of fish splashed; she feeds fish to her two sons; the youngest spies on her; while the mother is in the field, the brothers shoot fish; when they tried to pull out a very large fish, the dam collapsed, the stream followed the brothers wherever they ran; formed the sea]: Wagner 1963, No. 6:126-127; tangu [a lonely woman went fishing, left her little daughter in the village, a stranger killed and buried her; in a dream, the woman found out where the grave was, dug her body, carried her from village to village, found a place for burial, married the youngest of two brothers, gave birth to him two sons; found that salt water was flowing from her daughter's grave and fish in it; gave this fish to her son to eat, he immediately became an adult; her husband's brother He is jealous, wants the same for his son, grabs the biggest fish, the water poured out of the grave, formed the sea, dividing the brothers; they sent messages to each other on the leaves; the younger brother invented everything there is Europeans]: Burridge 1960:84-85 (=1967:34-36).
(Wed. Subarctic. In other Alaska Atapaskan texts, the Male Bear put the fish dam. Kuchin [The bear made a dam, the salmon do not go up the river; the Raven offered her a resin knife, received a real bone knife in exchange; the bear cub stained the Raven, he killed him by hitting a log; The bear rushed, her resin knife broke, the Raven killed her with a bone; ate the bear's meat, released the fish]: McGary 1984:268-275).
The coast is the Plateau. Shuswap; Thompson; Lillouette; Snohomish; Puget Sound; Lower Chehalis; Cowlitz; Clackamas; Vasco; Vishram; kalapuya; klikitat; yakima; western sachaptin; sanpual; kordalen; kutene.
California. Yurok; villot [without details]; Karok: Kroeber, Gifford 1949, No. 6 [Coyote came to two girls who had acorns and salmon; put oak bark in his quiver to show that he also has acorns; hit the oak tree, the acorns fell down, then spread across the country; when they took the salmon out of the hole at the edge of the dugout, Coyote took out the alder bark, which was red as if dried salmon; began to chew like he had salmon; the girls resisted, but he released the salmon into the river; the girls turned into two white cliffs, their dog into another]: 116-117; 1980, No. II9 [like yuroks; Coyote makes fish bones out of bark; shows them to sisters so they think he doesn't need their fish]: 156-157; Powell 1877 [Kareya created the fish, but it lived in the sea, and the dam stopped entering the Klamath River; keys K. gave it to two old women; people were starving; the coyote tore off a piece of alder bark, came to the old women and pretended to chew it; the alder bark, if torn off, turns red, and the old women believed that the coyote also has salmon; they have ceased to fear that he would try to steal their salmon; after waiting for the old woman to put the key where it could be grabbed, the coyote pushed her, grabbed the key and opened the dam; salmon went up the river]: 37-38; hupa.
Big Pool. Northern Payutes; Northern Shoshones.
NW Amazon. Ufaina; kabiyari; yukuna [Karipulakena (four orphan brothers) lived with their aunt Amerú; there was no water, A. gave them little by little; younger Lamuchí watched A. pulls water and fish out of the tree trunk; when asked A. where the water came from, she replied that she was collecting dew at night; K. decided to cut down the tree; A. ordered to put a balsa platform to prevent the tree from falling into the lower world; but it broke through the platform, turning into a huge river in the lower world with clear water and fish; A. brought cultivated plants from the lower world; K. realized that A. had deceived them; found other trees; one has water, but no fish; the other has only snakes; in the third, all species of fish; K. made a platform out of solid wood; the wei river flowed from the fallen tree; the underground and heavenly rivers form one system, on which the Sun sails in a boat]: Hammen 1992:87-88; macuna.
The Central Andes. Uarochiri.