H34E. Edible snow .26.27.29.31.33.34.37.40.48.-.50.

The snow was edible.

Chinese (Qinghai, Shaanxi), Bulgarians, Macedonians, Karachays/Balkarians, Nogais, Kumyks, Estonians, Kyrgyz, Shors, Mongols, Oirats (merchants, durbuts), Dagurs, Udege, Manchus, Northern Alaska Inupiate, Nuniwak, Vintu, Northern Payute, Western Apache, Yavapai.

China - Korea. The Chinese (Qinghai) [the ox did not work before, the flour fell from the sky like snow; people did not respect flour {it is not said what they did}, Yü Huang began to send snow instead of flour; the ox from He asked Yu Juan for bread for the name of people and animals; he was so angry that he knocked down the ox, he fell his face on the ground, knocked out his upper teeth, the ox no longer has them; told the ox to work (for people)]: Frick 1954, No. 3:517; Chinese (Shaanxi, Shangzhou City) [It used to be white flour rather than snowing from the sky. People lived in abundance and fed flour to livestock. Many people walked through the flour and mixed it with mud, and some threw it into the river to swim east. The flour reached the East Sea, and as a result, the water there tasted floury. The Dragon King of the East Sea complained to Heavenly Lord, who commanded the heavenly deities to understand, and as a result found out how disdainful people are for torment. His Eminence became angry, and ordered the dragon king of the East Sea to send snow in winter, and forbidden the heavenly deities to send people flour. Since then, it has been snowing in winter and people have begun to take care of grain]: Zhou Yang et al. 1996, No. 17:18.

The Balkans. Bulgarians [snow used to be flour; one woman wiped a child with it, God turned flour into snow]: Stoynev 2006:306; Macedonians [flour used to fall from the sky, not snow; one woman wiped the baby with a cake, for which God turned the flour into snow]: Ortenzio 2008, No. 3:184.

Caucasus - Asia Minor. Karachayevs/Balkarians [flour fell instead of snow; the woman wiped the child with it; for this Teyri began to send snow instead of flour]: Jurtubayev 2007:401; Nogais [the tree asks the old man do not cut it, promises to fulfill the request, he asks for firewood; the old woman complains that the firewood is small, tells me to ask for flour; the tree's leaves have turned yellow, it promises to give flour; the next day the old woman says that it was snowing, it turned out to be flour; the old woman wants gold and silver; the tree's foliage is almost opal; the old woman is afraid that they will now be robbed, tells the tree to be afraid of them; the tree's last ones have fallen leaves, it turned an old woman into a fox, an old man into a bear]: Aliyeva 2013, No. 107:467-468; Kumyks [milk flowed in the rivers, sugar was falling from the sky; the woman washed the baby with milk from the river, it turned into the water; wiped the baby with sugar, sugar became snow]: Khalidova 2012, No. 4:31.

Baltoscandia. Estonians [sugar used to fall from the sky but people wanted more and it turned to snow]: Eisen 1913:30 in Masing 1998:53.

Turkestan. Kyrgyz (Issykkul Region, Ton District, p. Kalkagar, 2003; an informant heard from someone while studying at university) [instead of snow, flour fell from the sky, people did not starve; one person went to a latrine and found no water or paper there , used flour; for this, God turned the flour on the earth's surface into snow; therefore, during snowfall, people freeze, and the snow is white, because the flour was white]: Dyikanbayeva 2005, No. 14:331.

Southern Siberia - Mongolia. Shors ("Kuznetsk foreigners") [at first, the snow itself turned into flour, the firewood cut itself; the woman murmured that when kneading the dough, her hands were cold; since then, the work has not been done by herself, the snow is not flour ]: Shtygashev 1894:10; Dagurs [the sky was close to the ground, people walked bent; there was no need to work: flour fell instead of snow and vegetable oil instead of rain; Endur saw a woman mixed flour with butter, wiped the baby and threw this cake away when E. hit the face; he retired from the ground along with the sky, life became hard]: Stuart et al. 1994:79; Mongols [woman wiped the child with a test; after that, instead of flour, snow began to fall from the sky]: Sumtsov 1890b:11; Oirats: Ivanovsky 1890b (Tarbagatay traders) [people ate grass like horses; God was afraid that they would eat everything, became send people flour; the little boy got dirty in the kibitka, hid the sewage in a bag of flour; God began to send snow instead of flour; the dog begged God not to starve her, God sent her grain; from him cereals occurred]: 263-264; Potanin 1883, No. 89 (durbuts) [flour fell from the sky in winter; one woman wiped the child with dough, since then snow has fallen instead of flour]: 352; (cf. Siberian Tatars [the sky was low, the woman baked pancakes out of heavenly flour; wiped the child with a pancake, stuck it all into the sky; God got angry, raised the sky, the heavenly food disappeared; the dog told God it was not her fault, God left her alone spikelet; today's cereals come from it; the dog must be fed, it gave people bread; bread is called "dog bread" (folk etymology: it and itmek)]: Korusenko et al. 2013:181).

Amur-Sakhalin. Udege people [there were three suns, one big, two small ones around the edges; cereals fell from the sky instead of snow, oil in the lakes; Batani had a son, cried all the time, his mother left him in fresh dough; he fell silent, since then he slept in the dough; God Enduri found out that the child was sleeping in the dough, began to send snow instead of cereal, water instead of butter; the father decided that three suns were to blame, killed two, the third managed to rise high]: Podmaskin 1991, No. 4:119 (=Podmaskin, Kireeva 2010:27); Manchus (Liaoning): Liaoning 1994, No. 148 (Liaoning, Zhuanghe County, Inlieshi District, Tsaoweibai Village, peasant, primary education) [crops did not ripen prematurely, the wind did not blow too much, and the rain was too abundant, in winter the Heavenly Lord (HB) ordered wheat flour to be thrown down; people became lazy; a lot of land remained uncultivated; women went from the east gate to the west gate and spread gossip: "One man got out of a cat hole and climbed into a dog hole, which caused jealousy ; eventually broke his head and broke his leg"; the Earth's patron spirit could not hide it, the news went to heaven; the Jade Emperor {apparently =HB} ordered the Fire Star (Mars, hereinafter OZ) to go to the lower world and investigate everything; he took the form of a Taoist, began to collect alms; one day he went into the house, asked his daughter-in-law for food, she said that there was no food; then took the child's white flour cake from under his ass and threw it away, put a new one under her ass; Oz was indignant; the woman slapped him in the face, told him to fail; OZ came to another village, asked the old woman for food; she threw the bun at the dog, the bun rolled into a manure hole, an old woman scolded the dog for not being able to find food; Oz could not ask for food in any house, released a belly full of fire and came to heaven with a report; HB became angry; that year with from the very beginning, there were few seeds, hail passed in the spring, there was a hurricane in summer, flooding in autumn, no seeds left; buns that were thrown at dogs were picked up, cakes that were used as diapers, dried again; hoped that flour would save the sky in winter, but instead of flour it snowed; people collected it, but meltwater did not saturate their stomachs, all winter and spring people gnawed on tree bark, ate grass and roots, many died; the Earth's patron spirit (DPZ) could not watch the human race decay, tried several times to go to the heavenly halls to ask for people, but he was put out the gate; when HV was already hovering above the ground, his brother-in-law, that is, the DPZ, was still small; when he first appeared in the sky, he went around and touched everything; at the gate there was a tree with small white flowers, and black flowers were tied under them shiny trihedral unprecedented fruits; the DPZ tore off the twig to take a closer look, but the fruits from it crumbled and scattered around the human world; it was a buckwheat bush; a scandal arose in the heavenly halls, as . nothing from heaven could be given to the human world; heavenly warriors and generals seized the DPZ and called it to account for the seeds that had spilled; the God of the wind fiercely blew out, covered the fallen grains with a layer of yellow earth; God Rain sent furious rain, which mixed the grains and moistened the earth; the sky did not expect the seeds in the humid earth to shoot in a few days; after going through disaster, humanity found the original virtues: hard work, frugality, philanthropy, justice; since then, after the storm, hail, etc., they sowed buckwheat; seeing buckwheat flowers, angry celestials sent frost to the ground, but buckwheat quickly seeds bloomed and set, and those that did not ripen remained flowers; when buckwheat seeds are close to ripening, there are snow-white flowers above the black grains]: 325-327; Chen, Wang 1989 (31) [first the dog ate what humans ate, but then began to eat excrement; when people first appeared, they ate wild fruits and roots, in winter, many died of hunger; the divine farmer (BZ) found out about This is what she sent down to people, which was so abundant that pigs, dogs, and cats also began to eat it; people soon stopped appreciating her; BZ descended into the human world disguised as an old woman to see what they do with the flour she sent; asked for food in the rich house, but the hostess, instead of feeding her, gave the tortillas to her children as bedding; BZ returned to heaven and instead of flour began to send snow; people again began to eat wild plants, and starve in winter; BZ felt sorry for them again and in the spring sent the fairy a hundred cereals (F.) to bring people five cereals; so bread appeared on earth ; corn grew five cobs per stem; corn tasted less than white flour, but also plenty of it; F. turned to an old woman, went to see what people were doing with corn, and saw people they throw their cobs at each other; she asked her for a treat, but she was refused, people began to throw their cobs into the lake; then she took people's corn; but the dog ran up to the fairy, bowed, and began to beg her not to take all the grains from people; F. refused, but the dog promised that if F. left people at least some cereals, the dogs would no longer eat them, but would eat excrement because they are obtained from the same grain, and as long as people have grain, dogs will not starve; F. saw that the dog was sincere and agreed to comply with the request; since then, corn has grown one or two on the cob per stems, and gaoliang and millet, no longer one ear per leaf, but one ear per stem; to occupy people, F. sent down weeds, and people had to weed them out and fertilize the land; people realized that It is not easy to grow grain, and they have begun to appreciate it; dogs have been feeding on excrement ever since]: 50-54.

The Arctic. Point Hope [at first humans were animals and vice versa, walked in their arms, snow was seal fat, seal fat was caribou fat; there was an old woman chewing soot from a lamp made of this man with a beak, the Raven]: Lowenstein 1993:3-4; Nuniwak Island [The raven picked up a lump of earth, fixed it on poles; the supports broke, the lump swam, joined a piece of ice in winter, Having formed Nunivak Island; Norka built a mountain so that the old people would be younger when riding in it; Raven, Then there will not be enough food, there are too many people; Mink, Let the snowdrifts be bacon; Raven, No, then bad hunters will also get rich]: Himmelsheber 1951:31-35 (quoted in Meletinsky 1979:99-100).

California. Vintu [Vulture: old men go up to heaven and come back young; no sexual intercourse; acorns don't have shells; snow has salmon caviar; Coyote: death is final; people marry and give birth to babies; babies work cleaning acorns; the snow will be cold]: Curtin 1898:163-174.

Big Pool. Northern Payut [Tobats made grass and trees out of stone, animals have nothing to eat; they protest, T. tells his younger brother Shinob to exterminate humans and animals; he objected, sent food, white She covered the mountains with a layer; then T. turned it into snow; then softened his anger, told S. to give people corn]: Palmer 1946:62-65.

The Great Southwest. Western Apaches (White Mountain) [falling snow was flour; Coyote said he was chewing ice, snow and becoming icy]: Goddard 1919:138; SV yavapai [people lived underground at the bottom of a deep dip; there was a pine tree ("dog-tail tree") wrapped in a vine; people climbed it to the ground, their leader was Hanyiko' (Frog); his shaman daughter made him sick; before his death, he ordered him to be burned and watch the stars; when two stars appear in the east before sunrise, these are feathers that adorn his head; in 2 months, 5 stars appear, this is his right hand; in 3 months it will be cold, you will see his whole body; the red star will celebrate 4 months; corn will grow on his grave; when the corpse is burned, everyone surrounds the fire, but the Coyote jumps over the short Badger, grabs, carries, eats his heart; before that, people said that the deceased would be reborn in four days; Coyote: let him die forever; H. died forever; Coyote agreed; his daughter died, people refused to change their mind; fell out snow; people: mountains covered with cornmeal; Coyote: snow; therefore snow does not consist of cornmeal; when it rained, the dry tree did not get wet; Coyote: let it get wet; because Coyote H. took possession of his heart, water poured out of the hole from which people came to the ground; people placed all kinds of seeds and the girl in the hollowed out pine tree trunk, sealed it; after the flood, the girl came out, the rest died; she lay down so that water dripped into her vagina, the sun was shining on her; she conceived and gave birth to a girl; she grew up, her mother placed her in the same place, but the Water and Sun did not want to converge with her daughter; then the mother covered her with her body and her daughter became pregnant; her son Skatakaamcha; his mother took the eagle and fed it to the chicks; he interrupted the partridge's leg; when he repaired it, she spoke about the fate of his mother; S. decided to kill monstrous bull (bison?) ; The badger dug an underground passage under him, S. plunged a hot knife into the monster, killed him; put on a stomach filled with crumbs; the eagle brought it to the nest; the eagles say that the prey is alive, the eagle does not believe; the eagle flew away, the eagle flew in, S. killed her with a hatchet; told the eagles to remain silent; killed the eagle when it returned; threw the eagles out of the nest; made the rock half as low, but no more; The Bat lowered it into basket; he opened his eyes, they fell, the Bat was injured, S. cured her; came to his grandmother, who was crying; he threw eagle feathers at her, said he killed both eagles; married; The Wind stole his wife; Spider warns that Wind offers to compete, kills losers; S. beat him in a ball and ring game; won a competition whose hair is longer; Wind stabbed S. 4 times without causing harm; S. killed him with a knife; threw one hand east, the other south, one leg west, the other north: let the wind blow from different directions; S. brought his wife back; grandmother: there is a bad Chewasistesikkaamcha; S. came to him into the house, slowly throws food away for fear of being poisoned; killed C. with a knife; Bear's arrow reeds; S. invites him to marry his grandmother; he gave reeds; believes that the best tips are coal ; S. killed him with flint; the tree for the ends of the arrows at the Owl; S. and offered him his grandmother as his wife; she found the heart of the Owl, it was on the sole; S. shot there, killed the Owl; an bow tree in the canyon with converging and diverging walls; S. put a deer horn between them; went east to his father the Sun; the Sun's wife warns that the Sun will try to kill S. in the steam room; but S. is not afraid of the heat; the Sun recognized his son, let him choose a horse; a man at the cliff pushes passers-by with his foot; he grew up with his back to the rock; S. lets a chanterelle first, it dodges; then a rattlesnake, the man is afraid of it; S. disconnected him with an ax from the cliff, threw it into the abyss; below 6-7 women devour the fallen; S. threw that man's stomach into the fire, he burst into the eyes of the women, S. hacked them; there was a boy, he ran to the cave, S. did not I could get it, left the snakes to guard, but they fell asleep; the boy left, creating new ones like him; grandma: you can't handle them]: Gifford 1933a: 349-364.