Yu.E. Berezkin, E.N. Duvakin

Thematic classification and distribution of folklore and mythological motifs by area

Analytical catalogue

Introduction
Bibliography
Ethnicities and habitats

I102. The Milky Way is a tree .16.24.31.42.59.72.

The Milky Way is a tree, a tree trail.

(Wed. Sudan - East Africa. Malgashi (Merina) [The Milky Way is the "big road" or the "sky vine"]: Molet 1979:29).

Western Europe. Germans [Milky Way - "wind tree", Wetterbaum (Westphalia), Windbaum, Windwurzel]: Volpati 1933b: 18; French (northeast: Pas de Calais to Burgundy) ["wind tree", "tree of the wind", "tree Abraham", "the Maccabean tree", "the tree of Christ" (in the sense of his family tree), "the tree of St. Jacob "]: Volpati 1933b: 47-49 (details the same and other data for France and Westphalia in Rotzler 1915:833-840).

Malaysia-Indonesia. Nias [The Milky Way, Dsawa Nagara ("ring around the world") is considered part of the Tara'a world tree (gods were born from its branches)]: Suzuki 1959:21.

Baltoscandia. Finns: Eichenwald et al. 1982 [The Milky Way - a fallen tree]: 164; Sarv, Sarv 1979a [Harva first showed the Finnish Milky Way association with wood in 1918; Uhtua and other areas say about the trunk and top of the Milky Way; in the Estonian and Finnish versions of Big Oak, six brothers go to cut, each with five axes (6 x 5 = 30 days); Finnish January is tammikuu ("month oak"); for Estonians, Karelians, Mansi, Khanty, January is the "backbone of winter"; for Mansi, the next month after the "month of the winter ridge" is "the month of 30 axes"; it is really better to cut down the forest at this time]: 30-31.

(Wed. The Great Southwest. Western Keres (Akoma) [The Milky Way is a beam that holds the earth]: Parsons 1939:213).

NW Coast. The Tlingits [souls of those who die violently go to heaven to Tahit; the Milky Way is a thin tree trunk over which fighting flare souls jump back and forth]: Boas 1895, No. XXV.3:320 (= 2002:624).

Guiana. Oyana [Kuyulu and his companion (twins) burned a huge seiba, now the Milky Way; fire fell to the ground, then it started raining]: Goeje 1943, no. d25:111; trio: Magaña 1987 [Milky The path is a burnt tree; Orion (Yalawale) placed it in the sky; its movement in the sky can determine the seasons of the year]: 183; Magaña 1989a: 210 [in the center of the second heaven where Rain lives is kanopo rain tree, tall as a ceiba; when it blooms, a royal vulture, a red guacamayo and an amazon parrot come and sit on branches; their movements cause the flowers to crumble, Yalawale (Orion) the sky opens, for us these flowers are rain], 216-217 [this tree is the Milky Way].

Chaco. Mokovi [in the history of chasing nandu, a hunter with dogs or one dog chases nanda; they all go to the sky by tree - the Milky Way; i.e. tree = Milky Way = river; river because stories about the Nalliagdigua tree It stretched from ground to sky; people used it from branch to branch to fish in large rivers and lakes; the old woman caught nothing, others refused to help her, she turned into a capybara, blew up a tree and it fell]: Lehmann-Nitsche 1927:152-154.