H30. Wrong choice. .19. (.28.) .38.61.62.64.66.-.68.72.

When meeting two women (together or one at a time), the hero must or can choose one. Usually it is either less beautiful or dangerous enough, causing trouble or trouble for himself or people in general.

Melanesia. Bining (Gazelle Peninsula) [To-Kabinana tells To-Karvuvu to get two light-skinned coconuts, put one aside, bring the other; Then Karvuva picked one dark nut, laid it down, brought Toh Cabinana; he tied him to the stern of the boat, swam, ignoring the noise of the walnut or looking back at it; the walnut turned into a beautiful woman; To Karvuva wished her, but To Kabinana ordered her to be brought laid nut; seeing that it was dark, said that people would now be mortal and would be divided into two classes: light men would marry dark women and vice versa]: Meier 1909:21 (quoted in Dixon 1916:108); Tolay: Janssen et al. 2012, No. 4 [mother To Kabinana and To Purgu, they buried her and a palm tree grew out of her head, brought coconuts; TC threw off one, he crashed, inside a girl, he was hers raised, married; TP got along with her and became pregnant; TC was furious, so people split into two exogamous groups], 7 [To Kabinana told To Karvuvu to pluck two immature light yellow ones from the palm tree coconut, hide one, bring the other; put the coconut aft, swam on the bow of the boat himself; the coconut turned into a fair-skinned woman; That Karvuva wanted her to belong to both of them, but To Kabinana told he should take his coconut; but To Karvuvu tore it off another palm tree and the woman was dark; since then, two exogamous halves: the blond ones marry the dark ones and vice versa; if people were the same color, they would not died]: 16-17, 18-19.

(Wed. Central Europe. Ukrainians (Kyiv region) [After the fall of angels, God creates the first ancestors of mankind. God makes the first man, puts him in paradise, and that person is completely different in nature from today's people in that he has a horn skin. God then creates a woman for that person from a flower. Adam does not like it; he asks God for something else that is not so fragile and closer to him in nature. God takes a woman from a flower, and Adam creates Eve, a woman from his rib, like him, with a horny body. Adam is marrying her. Soon, the ancestors of the human tribe fall into sin and are expelled from paradise. As punishment, God deprives them of a horny body that was durable and not subject to corruption. Without this body, the progenitors remain naked, except for their nails. A woman from a flower becomes the Virgin, whom God later made the mother of his son]: Nowosielski 1857 (2): 5-6).

Japan. Kojiki 1994, ch. 32 [Goddess Amaterasu sent the god Amatsuhiko-hikoho no ninigi-no from heaven to earth; he met the Virgin of the Flower Blossoms in the Trees, her father Ooyama-tsumi-no kami, gladly agreed to marry, giving the groom and her older sister the Virgin of the Longevity of the Rocks; she was ugly and the fiancé sent her back; her father said that because of this, the life of a descendant of the heavenly gods would be short-lived as flowers on trees, not eternal, like a rock]: 88-89; Nihon Shoki 1996, scroll 2 [the grandson of the goddess Amaterasu descends from heaven; chooses the Virgin of Blooming Flowers on Trees as his wife; rejects her ugly older sister Eternal Rock; if he had chosen otherwise, people would live forever]: 158-159.

Guiana. Pemon [Sun catches a water woman; she sends him successively other women]: Armellada 1947:105.

Western Amazon. Kandoshi (myna) [maid instead of mistress; female parrots (see E9D motif)]: Metraux, Rivet 1912:35; aguaruna [two stars in the form of worms descend from the sky; the one that man marries, says she is the ugliest of the heavenly maidens; his companion throws the beautiful woman away]: Chumap Lucía, García-Rendueles 1979, No. 19, 19a: 221-225; achuar: Mowitz 1978:21 [ during the flood and a long night, a man climbed a genipu tree, threw fruits down, a harpy eagle screamed, dawned, the water came down; three types of parrots flew in, became women, chewed cassava so that make a masato (an alcoholic drink); a woodpecker knocks on wood, sparks fly, a person gets fire; a person has caught that Parrot that is less beautiful, so people are not as beautiful as they could be; descendants of man and Parrots gave birth to humans], 27-29 [same, two, not three Parrots], 33-39 [the man freed the anaconda from the nets; at night a woman approaches him, says that her father is calling him; after visiting in the underwater world, a man and his wife return to earth; at night a wife is a woman, during the day a snake, the husband hides it in a basket; a man's mother finds an anaconda, hits it with a stick; a flood begins, a man climbs a tree, throws fruits down, water comes down; out of three parrot women, man wanted to grab the one that was more beautiful, but grabbed the other two, one of them darker; Europeans come from the rest of the uncaught].

NW Amazon. Carijona [two female vultures descend]: Schindler 1979, No. 1:41-42; yukuna [the gardens have dried up, people were starving; Kanuma consistently marries Dyatlikha, some a green bird, a Parrot; they are not suitable; then the Rat, she finds out that He'echú (tapir, sky) owns the food; stole cassava from him; the fisherman Chuurumi saw him on a boat at midnight A woman Inérukaná sails in the river, brings food to her children; she gives him cassava, tells him not to speak to K.; the same with her sister He'echúmero, a mother of piranhas, who is sailing in a boat in half an hour; C. does not take cassava from K.; he notices that ants carry crumbs from C.'s hammock; C. talks about meeting women in boats, K., hiding behind C., catches the first woman; she tells her to let her go, take her sister; sister invites K. to copulate, he refuses; then he gets into a half-flooded boat, tells him to throw poison, piranha comes out of the vagina; the woman orders to throw piranha into the river; K. sends a flea into the vagina, that bitten; the episode with poison and piranha repeats; sent picón, bitten; removed the third piranha, left the last little one, bit off K.'s penis; the woman went with him to him; the former wives turned in birds; a woman went to her father He'echú, brought yams from him, taught him how to cook; told K. to eat a lot, stepped on him, his penis reappeared, they copulated; she waved her club, a site was formed, on which all varieties of cassava]: Herrera Ángel 1975a, No. 2, 3:394-405; uitoto [a woman from the river sends her sister instead]: Rodríguez de Montes 1981, No. 17:140.

Eastern Amazon. Paracana [during the Wirapyna flood (he is Maíra's son) escaped on the only tree left, the bakaba palm; all the birds gathered here, the parrot pooped on his head, he became bald (so now they shave their heads); when the waters came down, the deer, then the boar, then the tapir came to offer to climb to the ground; at first the earth was soft, when the tapir came for the third time, it hardened; while hunting, someone was at home cooks; he waited for two Wiratin women; grabbed a dark one, not fair-skinned, so the parakan has dark skin; their sons are ancestors of family groups; after the boy killed the same parrot, because who was bald Wirapyna, everyone quarreled and parted]: Magalhães 1991:206-207.

Montagna - Jurua. Urarina [the maid he grabs, the hero does not allow her to leave despite her warning that her mistress is intended to be his wife]: Bartholomew 1994:27; achuar [among two or The hero catches three parrot girls is not the most beautiful]: Mowitz 1978:21-39; shipibo: Gebhaert-Sayer 1987 [a boy comes, shoots fish with a bow, they become big; people are jealous, they bury a boy with his property on the river bank; a man with his wife and two children finds him, tears him off; he causes a flood, tells a man to climb a genip tree; the rest of the people die; the wife turns into a nest of termites; the sun hides; a man and his children grope for food prepared for them in the dark; a man throws fruits down, on the sixth day the fruit falls to the ground, not into the water; a man descends, his children turn into huancay birds; a man finds food cooked in the house; waits for two women who have arrived in a boat; she grabs a maid sitting on her nose; the daughter of the sun sitting aft swims away, marries a Spaniard; a conibo shipibo is the descendants of a maid]: 347-349; Roe 1982, No. 1 [as in Gebhaert-Sayer; after the flood, a person does not know where the beer vessel comes from; hides, sees two women swimming in the boat; before the boat appears, a parrot arrives and flies away; grabs a maid, not a noble one]: 49-50; netsebo [a person suppresses the fish with poison; sees an unfamiliar boy picking it up; he says that his father sent him; a man buries a boy on the shore in clay; another man finds him, saves him; he tells him to climb a tall genipa, which has many fruits - his father will punish people with darkness and with a flood; a person warns others, they do not believe him, arrange a holiday; rain floods the earth; when a tree is climbed, a man with his wife and children see others turn into palm trees (palmera) tuquituquis birds; survivors find a vessel with food supplies on a tree; a person throws fruits down to see if the water has descended; as the water level drops, the last fruit falls into the mud, dawns; son a man turns into a huancahui bird, flies away; the wife is afraid to get off, turns into a termite nest; a man descends, wanders in search of people, every time he returns to a tree, finds him next to him a vessel with a drink; hides in a hole, sees a boat coming from the upper reaches of the river, in which one woman aft, the other on the bow; the first to descend, the man grabs her; she says that his father is Inca sent him the one at the stern; tells various poisonous insects to bite him, but he does not let her out; so the maid remained with the man; two days later she gave birth to a boy, three days later a girl, they immediately grew up; for the third time, the husband spies, so the child dies; the wife says people will now die]: Bardales Rodriguez 1979:42-47; machigenga [man flees on a genipa tree; after the flood, he goes down; a boy comes up, says that a boat with two women will sail up the river; we must marry the eldest, who is sitting aft; the youngest on the nose will be a man's daughter; the man is enough the youngest, the oldest disappears; copulates with her; she gives birth to a girl, disappears; she is a wild cassava; if he took the oldest, it would be easy to grow cassava; the boy says he will now sail a man; he has a calebass with him, she turns into a woman; a woman marries (both men?) ; humans are her descendants; (the informant believes this myth belongs to a conibo)]: Baer 198:245-246.

Bolivia - Guaporé. Takana: Hissink, Hahn 1961, No. 38 [someone steals cotton from the field; a man is waiting for two women; they are sisters Luna and the Morning Star; Luna advises taking a sister, but he wants the Moon; after copulating his penis grows, he carries it in the basket; at night, his penis crawls towards women; one girl's father cuts it off when he enters a hole in the wall; the severed part turns into an amphisbene lives in a termite mound; var.2: The moon asks to put the penis in the basket before copulation; from there it crawls towards it; var.3: the penis crawls to the sky, there it copulates with the Moon; the man cuts it off for himself, dies; var. 4: every girl and woman to whom a penis crawls cuts off a piece; pieces turn into snakes; var.5: first a man, then his wife, cut off pieces from the penis; they make many snakes]: 81-83; Nordenskiöld 1924 [Moon and Venus are sisters; they steal corn, cassava, etc. from the Sun field; he awaits them; despite the moon's warning, he takes her, not his younger sister; his penis grows, he carries it in a basket; Venus comes back to the field; the Sun lets his penis go to her; she cuts it for a snake; the Sun rises to heaven]: 296-297; chacobo [The sun and moon come to steal fruit, a person catches the moon and is later killed (it is not clear if marriage to the Sun would be more favorable)]: Kelm 1972, No. 8:235.

Southern Amazon. Rickbackza [the first fish caught jumps back into the water; she would turn into a beautiful woman; humans are descendants of an ugly woman that another fish turns into]: Pereira 1994, No. 1:31-32 .

Chaco. Angaite [men rape a girl they meet in the woods despite her warning that they should take her mother; go blind]: Cordeu 1973, No. 8:205-206, 211; (cf. toba [fire destroyed the earth; three old women escaped in the sky as stars of the Orion Belt, several boys became the Pleiades; a man became a bright Buick star (apparently Aldebaran or Betelgeuse) a woman is Morning Venus, the other is Evening Venus, whiskacha is the Southern Cross; in front of him is a dog, and behind him are two more (α and β Centaurs); Coal Bags are two mortars that the women took with them; the people who remained on earth hid in caves, and when they left, they turned into animals; the old man became a caiman, the old woman became a crocodile, others into deer, nandu, fox, bear and others; only one man was left a man; a woman was lowered from the sky on a rope; the rope was cut off when the woman was already near the ground, so the woman was ugly; if cut taller, all Indian women would be fair-skinned beauties; var.: Many women descended and ugly women were the first; due to the fact that the rope was cut off near the ground, the beautiful ones remained in the sky]: Lehmann-Nitsche 1924-1925 in Wilbert, Simoneau 1982b, No. 1: 25-26).