H53. The wolf is the lord of the dead .44.46.48.

The wolf takes part in the creation of the earth or is the brother of the creator and/or the victor of the demons of the lower world. He dies and/or is considered to be the first to die and/or becomes the master of the land of the dead.

Montagnier, Northern Ojibwa (Sandy Lake), West Ojibwa, (Eastern Ojibwa), Ottawa, Northern Solto, Western Forest Cree, Kickapoo (?) , sauk, potauatomi (?) , Steppe Cree, Sarsi, Omaha and Ponca, Skidi Pawnee, Yokutz.

The Midwest. Northern Ojibwa (Sandy Lake) [Oh-ma-ma-ma, Mother Earth, gives birth to Visakajak 'a, Wolf and other world spirits; V. knows that the water monster Mishipizhiv and his two sons Wolf will be killed; Kingfisher talks about the death of the Wolf, V. paints his throat red; hides on the beach, shoots monsters; the Frog goes to heal them; V. kills her, puts on her skin, hurts M.'s heart, runs away; the flood begins; V. ties ropes to the Beaver, the Otter, the Muskrat; the animals dive one by one, emerge dead; clay on the Muskrat's paws; V. revives animals, creates land; sends Wolverine to watch is it big; the third time Wolverine does not return, the earth is ready; V. puts clay on the turtle's back, makes blacks first, then whites, then Indians; animals get their habits; the raven climbs without queues, carrion eats for it; The dog wins the race, lives with a person for it; dogs are speechless not to be sent messages]: Ray, Stevens 1971:20-26; Western Ojibwa: Barnouw 1972, No. 1 (chippewa) [unnoticed, the old woman's daughter conceives from the Wind or the Sun; gives birth to triplets; does not put children immediately on the ground, so people do not walk for the first year of life; one brother - Flint; the elder Venebozho kills him (first murder); second brother Nekadzhivecik (The One Who Goes Beyond Sunset) gets tired of wandering around with V., makes the way for the dead; puts the Otter on it, An owl, two hills on the sides (these are fire-breathing snakes with their heads to each other), a log-snake across the river (see motif H24); strawberries eaten at the fork turn into toads or go to the left, disappear; going right come to N.]: 13-18; Josselin de Jong 1913, No. 9 [Wolves give Nenabojo the young Wolf as a nephew; N. does not tell him to jump over the stream; he jumps, finds himself in the river; Kingfisher says N. that it was eaten by water Snakes, advises what to do; N. turns into a stump; when the Snakes crawl ashore to warm up, injures the one that killed his nephew; The frog goes to heal the wounded; N. asks her, kills her , puts on her skin; kills the Snake, not heals him; runs away, taking the Wolf's skin; the water gushes after; N. escapes on a raft, revives the Wolf; Beaver, Otter, Loon do not reach the bottom, the Muskrat brings earth in its paws ; N. throws the earth into the water, it grows; sends the Wolf to see if it is big; the first time he returns; the second dies before he runs around the earth; it is big]: 12-16; (cf. Eastern Ojibwa : Laidlaw 1915, No. 7 (Southern Ontario)] [The hunter notices that his wife is embellished; the eldest son tells him that every time he goes hunting, his mother also leaves home; the hunter looks after his wife; Sees how she came to the tree, knocked, and a handsome man came out; when he returned home, the hunter taught the children (both boys) what to do; when his wife returned, her husband killed her, burned her body; said to the children: if the sunset is red, it means that her mother's lover killed her; when the children saw the red sunset, they ran; the mother (i.e. her spirit?) pursues; they threw a pebble (mountain), a thorn (thorny thickets), an awl (many awls pointing upwards); the mother overcame everything; by the river, the children asked a large snail to transport them to the other side; that stretched out and they crossed; when the stalker asked for the same thing, the snail clenched in the middle of the river and the woman drowned; the brothers settled by the lake; a man in the boat swam up; asked the younger one to shoot, the arrow fell into the boat; asked the elder to pick it up and sailed away with him; kept it in his house; once offered to roll down the mountain in a sleigh; the young man refused to sit in front, sat behind; the sleigh rides on stumps and stones, a young man picked up a stone and killed a man; came to where he left his younger brother; he turned into a wolf (or half a wolf); this is how wolves appeared]: 6-7; Radin 1914, No. 9 [Nonbozho paints Kingfisher feathers; for this, Kingfisher reports that water Pumas killed Brother N.; N. turns into a rotten stump; beats Pum who come out of the water to lie on the beach; the water pursues N.; he climbs a tree, makes a raft; The Otter, the Beaver emerge without bringing sand; the Muskrat brings earth in its paws and mouth; N. creates land; sends the Raven, he does not return; the Hawk, who reports that the Raven is biting corpses; for this now eats only stolen; N. sends Caribou; he says the land is not big enough; N. blows sand from the horn into the water again; tells the Ducks to dance with their eyes closed; see motif M53]: 19-21; Radin, Reagan 1928, No. 2 ( southeast Ontario) [Manabozo injures a Minito Leo, an old frog goes to treat him; without recognizing M., says that Minito is going to catch M.; M. kills her, wears her skin, when he comes to the minito, he drives the arrow deeper into the body of the wounded, killing him; the water rushes after M., he climbs a tree, makes a raft; tells Beaver, Otter, Muskrat to dive; they float up one by one without feelings; between the fingers of the Muskrat M. finds grains of earth, makes land; sends the Ferret to find out if it is big; the first time the Ferret returns, the second time does not return, which means the land is great], 3 [for now Vissekejak hunts, his younger brother M. disappears; V. gives the Crane a white stripe around his neck; he tells how the Minito Sea Lions killed M., hung his skin in his doorway; V. turns into a stump on the shore, where the minito go out to warm up, shoots into the shadow of a black minito, injuring him; the water rushes after V., he makes a boat; then (2); Fox instead of a Ferret; then episode with the Healer Frog; V. runs away, carrying M.'s skin and the body of the killed minito; hides in a groundhog's hole], 4 [M. injures the Leo, blood floods the ground; M. makes a raft (as in 2); sends the Raven, The Falcon, the Eagle find out if the land is great; the Raven returns in seven days, the Falcon in a year, the Eagle does not return; so the land is great], 5 [M. lives with his grandmother; the Sea Lion lives on an island surrounded by resin; M . covers the boat with fat, floats on resin; during battle, Blue Jay advises M. to shoot at the enemy's little finger, M. kills the Sea Lion; takes the young Wolf as his comrades, warns not to jump through streams; The wolf chases the moose, jumps across the stream, it turns into a turbulent stream, carries it away; then in (3), the Wolf instead of M., the Kingfisher instead of the Crane, the minito - the Snakes; the water rises, but falls; the episode with the Frog and the Minito Killing; Beaver, Otter, Loon, Muskrat dive; Raven, Dove are sent to find out if the land is big; the Raven returns four days later, the Dove does not return; now M. lives in the east]: 62, 63-67, 67-70, 70-76); (cf. Jones 1917, No. 61-63 [Nyanabushu (N.) asks his grandmother if there were any other people besides them; she replies that they are all missing, including his older brother Nyanapatam, from whose placenta N. himself appeared; N. sharpens an ax to make arrows, the whetstone repeats, Your father, your mother; N. sails in a boat, asks the Great Sturgeon to swallow it; cuts his heart from the inside, he cannot regurgitate; Sturgeon people bury him at the bottom of the sea; N. causes a storm, Sturgeon nails to the shore; N. asks the Seagulls to open the hole; for this makes them beautiful, white; makes sturgeon from Sturgeon; returns to her grandmother; she tells how various animals came to her, saying that her grandson died or imitated the voice of her grandson; says that N.'s parents were killed by a beating leg (B.); N. sails to a distant island, hears uniform blows; B. constantly cuts the calf of his leg; he and N. shoot arrows at each other; the bird tells B. to aim at a bundle of hair on his head; before death, he reports that the contents of the wooden the bucket must anoint the trees in the grove, collecting bark from such a place before; N. smears the trees, they turn into his parents and other people; returning to his grandmother, N. goes around them with his older brother islands, tells him to cross the river and become the master of the dead]: 467-501); Ottawa: Chamberlain 1891 [the girl lives with her grandmother; gives birth to two sons; the youngest is flint, kills her by going out through God; the elder Na-nav-bo-ju and his dog (this is a wolf) chases him, breaking off pieces (the origin of flints); where he kills, a rock appears; the "god of the depths" kills the Wolf out of jealousy, water monsters they gather for a holiday; N. pretends to be a stump, they pull it, they cannot move it, they believe that it is a stump; he kills the "god of the depths"; the flood begins; the Beaver dives, pops up dead; Muskrat too, but on his paws earth; N. sends the Raven to fly, the earth dries up]: 204-205; Charencey 1884 [The Great Hare sends the Beaver to dive; he sinks; the Otter dives to the bottom, brings land; the Hare creates land] in Danhardt 1907:82; northern solto [The wolf jumps across the river, three Pumas drag him into the water; his uncle Visekajak hits one arrow; the Toad goes to heal her; he puts on the Toad's skin, drives the arrow deeper, Puma dies; other Pumas cause a flood; Visekajak with animals flees on a raft; animals dive to get the ground from the bottom; see motif B3A]: Skinner 1911:173-175; Steppe Cree [see M49 motif; Vesakaicak kills Pum who have come out of the water; the wounded rush into the water; the Toad goes to treat them; he kills the Toad, puts on its skin, finishes off the wounded; the remaining Pumas cause a flood; animals dive to get from bottom of the earth; see motif B3A]: Ahenakew 1929 [see motive K27, motif L5; two brothers flee from their mother chasing their head; Waimesosiv takes an elder named Vesakaiczak into his boat, leaves the youngest; he turns into a Wolf; his brother finds him; tells him not to go to the shore; he comes; the Kingfisher tells Vesakaicak that the Water Pumas killed the Wolf; Vesakaicak is beautiful paints it; turns into a log on the shore, kills Pum who have come out of the water; the wounded rush into the water; the Toad goes to heal them; he kills the Toad, puts on its skin, finishes off the wounded; the remaining Pumas are summoned flood; animals dive to get the ground from the bottom]: 320-327; Bloomfield 1930, No. 1 [Visakechak's younger brother turns into a wolf; Water Pumas and Snakes eat the Wolf; V. injures the Pisces Chief; the Frog goes to him heal; V. learns from her about her normal behavior, kills her, takes her form; shoves an arrow deeper into the Chief's body, he dies; the flood begins]: 16-20; Skinner 1916, No. 1 (1) [see motive F73; Visakecjak meets Volkov, makes the wolf cub his nephew; tells him not to approach the lake; he comes up, disappears; the Sun tells V. that he was dragged away by underwater Lynxes; V. turns into a stump, then into a tree on the shore, the Lynx lies in wait; the Sun tells him to shoot in the shadow of the White Lynx; the wounded Lynx hides in the lake; the old toad goes to heal her; V. kills her, wears her skin, comes to heal Lynx; instead this kills her, runs away, taking her nephew's skin, revives him; later the flood begins; V. asks Fish on a raft, then Beaver to get the land; they can't; the muskrat brings the earth from the bottom, pops up dead; In . it revives, blows to the ground, it grows up; the Deer and other animals run around; the Wolf is sent fourth; goes so far north that it becomes too old to return; the earth is big; nephew V. sends to the Sun]: 341-346; Western Forest Cree [husband notices that his wife wears beaded shell clothes, and when he returns, she is wearing simple clothes; he watches and sees her comes to the tree, knocks on the bark, calls the "husband", a snake crawls out to it; at home, the hunter sends his wife to fetch the prey, puts on her dress and jewelry, calls the snake with the same signal, cuts off her head, cooks meat ; gives two sons amulets that can be used to create obstacles in the path of the pursuer; the wife returns without finding the prey left; the husband says he cooks her lover's meat, cuts her off head, rises into the sky, turns into a star; children hide in the underworld; the wife's head asks objects where the children have taken refuge; a knife, a cape, a pot, a bison skin are silent, a pebble from under the skin shows where the children have run; the eldest carries the youngest, throws the first pebble (fire, the head is burned, but passes), then a thorny bush (a monstrous snake paves the way under the thorns), rocks ( a monstrous beaver gnaws); the fourth amulet falls in front of him, a turbulent river appears, another snake carries the boys to the opposite bank; when it carries its head, it throws it into the water; the eldest son tells her to become a sturgeon; {the end of the text is either connected to the main part of the recording missionary, or the informant himself forgot everything when trying to add Christian mythology}; the older brother is Wesakitchak; he was taken away by a giant; his younger brother was left alone, turned into a half-wolf, killed by a monstrous sturgeon - his ex-mother; V. married the giant's daughter; he and his daughter could not destroy him; Kisemanitou sent a flood because people went bad, saved V.; created a new pair of people out of clay]: Vandersteene 1969:44-48; kickapoo [Kitsihiat is Visaki's father; V.'s younger brother is Pepaske; the brothers turned into acorns, let the wind carry themselves; underground horned cougars caught P. in the net, beat him to death; P. placed his spirit in the west, where he now reigns over the world of the dead; the earth - grandmother, raised by V. (and P.)]: Latorre, Latorre 1976:263, 267; potauatomi [Chibiabos - Visyaki's brother - killed by underground gods, resurrected, placed west to rule the world of the dead]: Skinner 1924: 48; sauk, fox [Visakya and Kshyapatya are sons of the supreme deity; Snakes kill K.; the spirit of the killed man comes to his brother; he does not let him in, tells him to go west; the dead they will go to him; the bird tells V. that two killer manners are underground; V. paints her feathers under her eyes red; injures the Snakes with arrows; the Toad goes to treat them; V. persuades the Toad return; he comes under the guise of a Toad Healer, finishes off the wounded; other Snakes first cause a world fire, then a flood; V. escapes in a boat or on top of a pine tree; sends the Pigeon to bring a branch, tells Muskrat dive, get the earth from the bottom; both complete tasks, but fall or float dead; V. revives them; puts a branch of clay on the water, creates earth]: Jones 1901:226-235.

Northeast. Montagnier [see motif M53; Mesh companions Wolf; he says he dreamed that he could not chase the Caribbean by swimming across the lake; M. insists that the Wolf sail; Wolf disappears; The bird {apparently a kingfisher} says that during the day, lake stones raise the Wolf to the island and pull him back at night; M. rewards the Bird with fish; hides in the hollow of a tree on the island; when stones they fall asleep, hit them with a spear, run away with the Wolf; the Frog goes to heal the wounded stones; M. asks her what she is doing, killing them, pulling her skin; whistles, pouring cold water on the stones, the stones are not recover and die; M. meets women, they reply that they sew bags for the bodies of the stones killed by M.; he kills themselves, gives them to their daughters; they find mothers inside their bodies; see motif L33, racing with Boulder]: Savard 1979, No. 7:28-30.

Plains. Sarsi [the man has a wife and two sons; he combs his wife, paints her face, but every time she goes for brushwood and comes back, her hair is tangled, the paint is blurred, the clothes are dirty; he watches, sees her approach a rotten tree, knocks, says that she has come, snakes crawl out, wrap around her body; the husband tells his sons about this, tells them to run, goes to the tree, calls the snakes in the same way with a signal, kills with a stick, throws her bodies into the ravine, one escaped, but lost her tail; the wife finds only one snake, comes back, her husband cuts off her head, she falls into a tipi, her body outside, her husband runs away to in the opposite direction than the sons; they ran to the river, asked the water monster to transport them; he invited them to eat its parasites; they were frogs; the brothers snapped the seeds from which they had necklaces, the monster is happy, lay down like a bridge, the brothers crossed to the other side; the mother's head chased, saw through the frog, spat in disgust, the monster invited her to cross the river, threw her head into the water drowned; the brothers saw the raft, put a board from there, offered to take food, the elder stepped, threw him on the fruit, sailed; he shouted to the youngest not to go anywhere, wait for him; he returned, but the brother turned into wolf; they hunt together; the wolf rushed after the deer into the river, something dragged him under the water; the old man brought his older brother to the river, where there are fish on the shore; they started shooting at them, injuring the leader; the shaman frog goes, saying that she was called to treat the wounded fish chief; the old man killed him, dressed like him, went down to the fish, found the wolf's skin, revived it, he returned to the shore; the old man told everyone to close their eyes until he was heal the leader, killed everyone, returned to shore; other fish caused a flood; the old man on the raft tells the animals to dive; only the Muskrat dived, surfaced dead; the old man took grains of earth from under his claws and teeth, revived the Muskrat; this is how she dived four times; the old man invited the animals to run around a lump of earth, only the Wolf and the Otter agreed; the earth grew, they came back old, the Old Man rejuvenated them; so three times, after the fourth they did not return, the land is great]: Dzana-gu 1921, No. 4:6-8; assiniboine [two orphan brothers sit by the old man's shore in a boat; the youngest plays, throwing up the hooves of a deer, one falls into boat, the old man pretends to hand the hoof to the elder, drags him into the boat, takes him away; the youngest shouts to him that his (younger brother) legs will become wolf; the old man leaves the older brother under by boat, tells his eldest daughter to take him as her husband; she refuses; the old man says that the young man has become ugly because he cried; the youngest daughter takes him by her husband; every day the young man kills helper spirits father-in-law; when the last one is killed, the father-in-law dies in his sleep; the young man goes looking for his brother, finds a trail, one wolf leg; he is told that his younger brother has become a wolf, he cannot be caught up; the elder turns into a dead moose, animals come to eat the carcass; the youngest wolf feels deceived; the elder grabs it; the brothers live together but are dissatisfied with each other; the elder tells the youngest to drive the moose, he jumps after him into the lake; the Bald Eagle says that he watches dogfish play with wolf skin; that they go ashore to bask in the sun; older brother kills and injures many dogfish; shaman toad goes to treat them; older brother asks him about his normal behavior, kills him, stretches his skin, comes to dogfish; pretends to heal and kills them all]: Lowie 1909a, No. 5:145-147; Omaha, Ponca { identification with a wolf is possible, given the options of neighboring groups} Dorsey 1888b: 204-205 [Haxige warned his younger brother not to hunt on the ice of the river; he chased otters and ended up in a water den monsters, he was dismembered, his skin was hung in the doorway; H. went to look for his brother, cried, the current rivers arose from his tears; becoming a leaf, he got close to two Ducks discussing the murder of his brother, grabbed them by throat, tore the evil one, spared the good; tried to penetrate the lair of monsters in the form of an eagle, leaf, black-headed kite, each time exposed; in the form of a grass snake he got close; becoming human, shot both monsters, ran away; sees, hunting, that someone has crossed his trail; so four days, this is Ictinike in the form of Vulture, is going to heal the monsters; H. asked him to tell me how he will become shamanize, killed, took his rattle, etc.; when he came in, he recognized his brother's skin, whispered to her, the servants suspect something, others claim that he was a real shaman; H. kills monsters (Vulture ordered to quickly put in wounds and take out the hot iron sticks, apparently H. plunged them deeply), cuts them into pieces, cooks; the grass snake looked in, H. filled her mouth with monster meat; ran away, taking her brother's skin, in boiling the spring turned into a stone at the bottom; taking the meat out of the snake's mouth, the monsters rushed in pursuit, could not pull the stone out of the bottom, returned; X. revives his brother four times in the steam room, but he becomes again in spirit; H. says it means that people will die; the old beaver makes a boat, warns of the flood, because water monsters want revenge; if they cannot drown H., they will let snakes into the ground; H. says , who is not afraid, kills Bobrikha; once again trying to revive his brother, turns him into a wolf, himself into a deer], 205-206 [two water monsters killed Haxige's younger brother, hung skin in the doorway; invited everyone animals for the holiday, giving everyone the meat of the victim; looking for a brother, H. got close to two Ducks in the form of a leaf; one says that she was given only a little finger, so she will tell H. everything; tells him about the shaman- Vulture healing monsters; H. rewards this Duck by giving (hitting her on the head) a tuft, making white feathers near his eyes; H.'s tears formed rivers; H. asked Vulture to sing his shamanic song, killed him, took his rattle, an iron rod, a bag; two of the four servants, carrying H. in buffalo skin, disgrace deception; as in pp. 204-205; Bobrich, without recognizing H., explains that the gods (i.e. water monsters) took her to help them fight X.; they would send a flood and she would gnaw through the bottom of his boat; then they would send darkness and snakes; H. says who he is, breaks her skull; on the fourth day in the steam room, she is convinced that her brother is not revive; tells him to become a young deer, becomes a wolf himself]; 1890 [=1888b]: 238-253; throw off Pawnee [Wolf Star (Sirius) envied the Bright Star (Evening Venus Woman), decided that he too will be able to put something valuable on the ground; sent the Wolf after Lightning, to whom the Bright Star gave a bag of stars; he took them out from time to time, they formed a village; the Wolf stole the bag, opened it, thinking that food was inside killed him; this is how death appeared on earth; people carved his skin, brought him for themselves, so they skinned him (Pawnee's "wolf" unit); Sirius is Wolf Star; also Fooled Wolf, Stupid Wolf, Stupid Coyote, Coyote Star]: Dorsey 1904b: 17-18 (translated to Miller 1997:226).

California. Wobonuch (Centrall Hills): Gayton, Newman 1940, No. 40 [The wolf warns his younger brother Coyote not to touch a leather bag full of soil and water; the bag hung on the wall, his Coyote he made a hole with a stick, the water flooded the world, the Coyote drowned; the Wolf made a raft, a net, caught tobacco falling from above, chewed, revived the Coyote, ordered the Duck to be brought, and the Duck to dive; she emerged, saying that she had reached the bottom; The wolf ordered silt to be brought in, promising to revive the Duck if it lost consciousness; under the Duck's fingernails, the Wolf found grains of earth, revived the Duck, threw the earth around him, and a little land appeared; sent the Coyote to find out Is the earth big; Coyote returned saying it was small; telling Coyote to close his eyes, scattered the earth again; when he returned, the Coyote said that the land was great; sent the Coyote to bring the Moose, then the Mountain Ram; said where to live, first ordered mountains to be made in the west (Moose went north, Ram went south, then met); the wolf sent the Coyote to name all the elements of the landscape; called the Eagle, and went to rule the land of the dead; see further motif H34 (Eagle and Coyote argue about the fate of people)]: 39-40.