H7C. An Unfinished Prayer, ATU 1199.
.15.-.17.23.27.-.31.33.
Death promises a person to pick him up after they finish a prayer or song (formerly ATU 1199B)). A person ends a prayer (song) in the middle and Death cannot take it away.
Basques [prayer], Italians (Tuscany) [prayer], Spanish [?] , Portuguese [prayer], Catalans [prayer], Irish [?] , friezes [?] , Germans (Pomerania, Hessen) [prayer], Iraq [song], Palestine [song], Socotra [prayer], Andhra Pradesh (obviously Telugu) [prayer], Hungarians [?] , Greeks [?] , Slovaks [?] , Poles [?] , Ukrainians (Eastern Slovakia, Kiev), (Russians (Lithuania) [song]), Crimean Tatars [book], Ingush [prayer], Dargins [prayer], Georgians [prayer], Armenians [prayer], Persians (Khorasan) [prayer], Norwegians [prayer], Icelanders [?] , Swedes [?] , Finns [?] , Lithuanians [?] , Kazakhs [?].
Southern Europe. Basques: Azcua 1942, No. 59 [God knocked on the poor coal miner's house; he did not open the door, saying that God was unjust; Death knocked the next night; the coal miner opened because Death was with everyone equals; Death rewarded him by advising him to go to the sick queen; if Death is in his heads, the Queen will die, if in her legs, she will recover; seeing death in the Queen's legs, the coal miner "cured" the patient; became a court doctor; one day Death came to him; he asked for permission to read Our Father and Ave Mary; Our Father read it, but Ave Mary did not intend to; then Death pretended to hang herself; when she saw corpse, man read Ave Maria and Death took him away]: 166-170; Barandiaran 1962a, No. 35 [as in Azcua; only Our Father; saw some hanged man]: 133-135; Italians (Tuscany) [grandmother Poverty fed Jesus and St. Petra, they promised to fulfill her three wishes; a hearth bench, a fig tree, the salvation of the soul; Death comes, cannot get up from the bench, Poverty gets another hundred years of life; the same, cannot get off the fig tree; for the third time Poverty asks for permission to say Ave Maria, but he doesn't think to start praying either; so Poverty is with us to this day]: Clouston 1887:395-396; Portuguese: Cardigos 2006, No. 332 [people seeks a godfather or godmother; rejects God and the devil, agrees to the offer of Death, which is fairer to everyone; Death gives him (or his son) the ability to see her at the head or feet of the patient and thereby determining whether the sick will die or recover; when Death comes for a person, he asks for permission to finish the prayer and intentionally ends it without finishing it; or a person, wanting to save the sick, turns the bed; the person tries to take a different form, but Death cannot be fooled; it makes him have to finish the prayer and dies; or she shows him his lamp or candle life and extinguishes it], 1199 [a person asks Death to allow him to finish the prayer, but does not finish; one day, when he sees a dying man (Death), he has to read the prayer to the end and he dies]: 83, 265; Spaniards: Uther 2004 (2), No. 1199:70-71; Catalans [Death promises to make the coal miner rich: let him pretend to be a doctor and Death will indicate whether the patient dies or recovers; When Death comes for him, the former coal miner asks for permission to read the prayer first and does not end it; Death tries to provoke the person and eventually succeeds: she pretends to be a corpse , who lies on the road, a person is forced to pray and dies]: Oriol, Pujol 2008, No. 1199:216.
Western Europe. Irish, Friesians: Uther 2004 (2), No. 1199:70-71; Germans (Pomerania) [when the poor man had his 24th child, the father cannot find the godfather; met Death {mr.} and that agreed to be a godmother; let the boy become a doctor; he will be able to see her at the patient's bedside; if in his heads, the patient will die, if in his legs, he will survive; the young man has grown up, became a famous doctor and became rich; one day, the dying count ate him a lot of money and the doctor told him to turn the bed around; the count recovered; Death came in and said that he would now take him away for the deception; the young man asked permission to read it first prayer, but after "like you are in heaven" he stopped; Death went away, saying that the godson had deceived her again; one day the doctor came across a dying beggar and he asked him to pray for him; when the doctor said , Amen! , the beggar jumped up; it turned out to be Death; she brought the doctor into the mountain where candles were burning {or lamps: Die Lebenslichter allen Menschen}; the doctor's candle glows slightly and flickers; Death: you had long life, but you gave it to that count; the doctor tried to replace his candle with some child's candle, but didn't have time: his own went out]: Jahn 1893, No. 9:61-63; Wolf 1851 (Hessen) [Death godson, turned bed, unfinished prayer]: 364-368.
Western Asia. Iraqi Arabs, Palestinians [man says Death a delay until he finishes singing the song, the song never ends]: El-Shamy 2004, No. 1199B: 714; Socotra [poor man asks the sage how to get rich; he offers to rush into the abyss, the man does not get even a scratch; offers to enter the snake's cave; he is safe again, brings amber from there - snake excrement, gets rich, gets married; before the wedding night, Azrail comes for his soul; a man divorces his wife, gives all the money to the poor; A. says that he has received a new order - a person can live; a person brings again amber, everything repeats itself, but man takes an oath with A. not to take his soul until he finishes praying; he promises not to read more prayers; A. complains to God, but he advises him to wait; this man was imam; he is told to pray at a woman's funeral; he warns that he will die; dies after praying]: Naumkin, Kogan 2013, No. 25:188 (with additions to the English translation of the full text).
South Asia. Andhra Pradesh (obviously Telugu) [ATU 1199 story, The Lord's Prayer]: Jason 1988:45
The Balkans. Hungarians, Greeks: Uther 2004 (2), No. 1199:70-71
Central Europe. Poles, Slovaks: Uther 2004 (2), No. 1199:70-71; Ukrainians (Eastern Slovakia, Kiev) [Endless Prayer ("Our Father"): a person must be taken away by the devil, he has the right to read Our Father for the last time; hell should wait]: SUS 1979, No. 1199:272 {Russians have no motive, the SUS only refers to Russian folklore in Lithuania, the "long song" option}.
Caucasus - Asia Minor. Crimean Tatars (Miskhor) [Azrail came for the soul of a man; he asked for permission to finish reading the book; then said that he would finish reading in 70 years; A. complained to Allah, but he was indignant: Why did you agree to wait? this is how a person lived two lives]: Radlov 2021, No. 35; Ingush: Kibiev, Malsagov 1981 [Tsagen fell ill, Allah sent an angel to take his soul; Ts asks to be allowed to say five times first prayer; A. tells the angel not to take Ts's soul until he says the prayer five times; C. says twice; tells the angel that he will say the last prayers when he gets tired of living]: 206 (=Kapiyeva 1991: 170-171); Malsagov 1983, No. 125 [as in Kibiev, Malsagov 1981; four hammers were uttered, the fifth was postponed]: 272; Sadulaev 2004, No. 81 [Tsagen fell ill; by Allah's permission, an angel of death went to him; Ts. said to the angel, "With only one thought, I die. If I could pray to Allah five times, I would not worry about anything. Give me the opportunity to perform these prayers"; the angel conveyed these words to Dyala, who promised that he would not take C.'s soul until he prayed five; C. performed two prayers, morning and noon, after Why he did not pray for a long time; Uncle sent an angel of death to C.; C. said: "I swear to Uncle that you will not receive my soul until I complete the remaining three prayers. Dyala has no right to change his word, and I promise that I will not perform the remaining prayers"; C. did not pray for a long time, his soul could not be accepted for another sixty years]: 221-222; Dargin people [ the dying Nasreddin asks Azrail to allow him to say two prayers; A. agrees, having received permission from God; N. refuses to say a second prayer, continues to live; for him A. we see; A. reports that if he stands at the patient's feet, N. can promise recovery if his head is certain death; N. becomes a famous doctor, gets rich; refuses to share anything with A. to do it]: Khalilov, Osmanov 1989:244-245 (=Khalilov 1965, No. 107:291-292); Georgians: Kurdovanidze 1988 (1), No. 43 [the robber demands that the old man let the girl go; he replies that he is Death, through he will come for a week; the robber orders to build a solid palace with a single door; falls asleep; when he wakes up, sees Death nearby; asks him to swear that he will not take him away until he finishes praying ; he does not finish reading; Death offers friendship; he will see Death standing in the patient's heads or legs; if in the heads, the sick will recover; the robber becomes a healer, is rich, for always correctly predicts the outcome of the disease; prays to the end over the drowned child, the child turns out to be Death; the person asks for permission to say goodbye to the father, he asks Death to pick the pear; Death she climbed a tree, could not get down (Jesus visited the old man, who complained about the boys, I. promised that a person who climbed a pear would not get down without the owner's permission); the old man promises Death not to kill him son until he asks; he asked when he was old]: 166-169; Armenians (Baraleti is a village with an Armenian population in southern Georgia) [the man goes to look for a godfather for his son; the wife tells find the richest; the man rejects Christ, St. George (they are poor), invites Death (she in rich clothes); after baptism, Death advises the man to treat the patient if he sees her in his legs, to refuse if in her heads; the man becomes a famous healer, gets rich; one day he sees Death at his head; makes her promise not to kill him until he finishes praying; breaks off prayer in the middle; with a break of several years, a man adds a line at a time, but far from the end; Death brings a golden coffin to his yard, a bag on top, the text of the prayer on it; carried away, the man read it to the end, Death jumped out of the coffin and killed him]: Bogoyavlensky 1894c: 145-148.
Iran - Central Asia. Persians (Khorasan) [a poor man who collects a thorn becomes a doctor, agreeing with the angel of death: when he sees him, he will know whether the patient will die or not; when his own hour of death comes, a person deceives the angel of death by asking permission before he dies to read a prayer that does not end]: Marzolph 1984, no. 332:76.
Baltoscandia. Norwegians [the young man drags a heavy keg of beer, thinks who to drink part with to make it easier to carry; drives away Providence (unfair), the Devil (harmful), sits down to drink with Death, because . he is equal to everyone; Death rewards him: the keg will not run out, beer will become a medicine, the young man will be a healer; if he sees Death in the patient's legs, he must begin to treat, if his heads are useless; at the bedside a young man sees Death in the princess's heads; tells the servants to turn the bed; Death wants to take him away; he asks to pick him up after he has read a prayer, stops without saying the last word; one day Death brings him a full-text board; the young man wakes up and reads to the end, Death takes him]: Asbjíørsen, Moe 1960:131-134; Icelanders, Swedes, Finns, Lithuanians: Uther 2004 (2), No. 1199:70-71
Turkestan. Kazakhs: Uther 2004 (2), No. 1199:70-71