H34D. A piece bitten off from the sky .10.-.14.27.
Azoomorphic character climbs to the sky or moon to bite off a piece of them.
Hottentots [jackal and hyena], kikuyu [raven and hyena], mankana [hyena and hare], matmata [raven and jackal], Serbs [dog].
SW Africa. Hottentots: Bleek in Koropchevsky 1874 [The Jackal climbed the white cloud, began to eat it; when he went down, asked Hyena to support him; now Hyena climbed; when she was full, asked the Jackal for him support; he pulled back, shouting that he had pricked his leg, Hyena knocked off her hind legs, now they are short]: 14-15 (=Olderogge 1959:11-12; =Pozdnyakov 1990:33-34); Metelerkamp 1914, No. 4 (Cape Province) [ as in Bleek; the informant called himself a Bushman, "but he clearly had a Hottentot mixture in his guise"]: 43-46.
Bantu-speaking Africa. Kikuyu: Gagnolo 1952, No. 13 [Wakahare climbs a tree, drops Hyena's honey; says sweetness must remain in her body, Hyena agrees for V. to sew up her anus with thorns; cannot relieve the need, Jackal, Serval, Hare refuse to help for fear of getting dirty; the Raven agrees, for Hyena promises him pieces of meat from his belly; finds himself under a pile of white droppings; since then his neck turned white; decides to take revenge; tells hyenas that clouds are pieces of bacon and meat; invites them to hold each other's tail, let the first hold on to its tail, raise high into the sky, cut off their feathers in tail, hyenas fall, break, one pregnant female injured her leg but escaped; hyenas have been limping ever since]: 128-129; Mwangi 1983 [when the Hare gets honey, he only lets Hyena lick his finger; says that such sweetness should be eaten little by little; and in order not to disappear, the anus must be sewn up; the Hyena is barely alive, asked the Eagle to tear the thread, the Eagle was under a pile of droppings; to take revenge, he began to bring meat to Hyena; said that these are pieces of clouds, let all hyenas gather, he will pick them up; hyenas clung to each other, the Eagle flew; asks if the earth is far away; when hyenas answer that they do not distinguish between land, the Eagle asks The hyena scratches his feathers from behind; hyenas fall, break, only one has survived; since then, hyenas have been limping]: 57-61.
West Africa. Mancagna [Hyena spies on the Hare asking the vine hanging from the sky to become shorter, climbs it into the sky, eats up there, then asks the vine to grow longer, goes down; Hyena too casts a spell, finds herself in heaven, the lord of heaven Nashi-Bata invites her to cook the porridge herself; Hyena does not want to cook, he drives her back; she has forgotten the spell, cannot go down; the NB gives her a goat make the skin a drum, tells it to be soaked; the hyena eats the skin; so several times; the NB gives shade from the skin; makes the drum himself; lowers the Hyena on the vine, tells you to hit the drum when the Hyena reaches the ground; The hyena sees the merchant, asks for food; she demands that the Hyena hit the drum; the Hyena first tries to just say "Nderen-Nderen", then hits the drum, the NB cuts off the vine, the Hyena falls; from then He limps and howls at night, looking at the sky]: Nikolnikov, Katasonova 1976:109-113.
North Africa. Matmata (sedentary Berber farmers in southern Tunisia) [The raven, seeing the Jackal's Hood, brings him to the sky, who bites off a piece of the moon there; the Raven later throws him off, the Jackal falls into the swamp; falling, promises God to build him a domed mausoleum (qubba) if he stays alive; in the myth, the Jackal bites off one piece, cannot get away from the moon for 28 days, and then bites off the second; each of the pieces bitten off fell into a star; these are two winter stars, six of them (sic!) Ursa Major stars, with six more (actually 7) constellations]: Pâques 1964:186-187.
The Balkans. Serbs [the sky was low; moved away after the dog mistook the month for meat and gnawed off a piece of it]: Janković 1951:23, 109.