I135. Celestial skin .12.18.35.36.39.74.
The sky (the Milky Way) is the skin of an animal.
Pears, casena, dieri, tundra Nenets, Eastern Khanty, Chum salmon, Far Eastern Evenks, Evens, Chukchi, Araucans.
West Africa. Groosi: Cardinall 1931:24 [the brothers quarreled over a dead cow - who will get the tail; wanting to reconcile them, the father planted a cow's skin so that when it falls, everyone will take the corresponding part; the skin became sky and clouds, the horns became the sun and moon, the tail became the Milky Way], 24-25 [two men asked the chief to feed them, then let him kill them; he did so; the third in the same conditions, he asked permission to spend the night with his daughter; the chief left the dog at the door of the hut, but the chief's daughter gave her food and the lovers ran away; by the river, the horsemen sent by the chief almost caught up with them, but The ferryman's daughter was transported to the other side; the three of them came to the ogre's wife; she poisoned her husband and the man was left with three wives; each gave birth to a son; one was black, the other was red, and the third was white; sons quarreled: everyone wanted the tail of a dead cow; the father threw the cow's skin up; it became the sky, the horns the sun and the moon, the tail the stars; the wives began to argue which of them did more for saving her husband; the husband said that everything is the same and that their sons are also equally dear to him]; casena [the boa constrictor ate the baby; the parents called four men; one knew how to track down the snake, the other how to kill, the third how to rip off, the fourth how to revive the swallowed; four began to argue who should get the skin of a boa constrictor; the child's father offered to throw a skin - let the one on whom he gets will fall; the skin rose, became the sky, the head became the sun, the tail the moon, the spots on the skin became stars]: Cardinall 1920:24 (=1931:26).
Australia. Dieri [(Howitt, Siebert 1904:105, 107f); two Malku-Malku-ulu heroes ("two unseen") killed, refreshed the kangaroos, stretched the skin on the ground between four pegs, picked it up in the middle, forming the sky]: Pettazzioni 1924:152.
Western Siberia. Nenets: Elders 1930 (tundra?) [riddle: "acne (subcutaneous larvae) wild deer skin" (sky and stars)]: 150; Helim 1982 [visible sky is a skin that covers the real sky, shining through holes in it with stars]: 399; Eastern Khanty (b. Tromyegan) [father-in-law laughs at Torum's son, believes he is a bad hunter; T.'s son has a hard time catching up with a six-legged moose, cuts off a pair of his legs so that future people can catch up with moose ("Be four-legged, four-armed, with six legs, six arms, even exhausted me, but what should the future person do?") ; spread the meat on the water of the lake, only took his heart and tongue; attached the skin to the sky ("When white dolls, black dolls appear, you will mark dawn"); the moose trail he walked along was nailed to the sky with the tip of an onion for people to navigate (Milky Way); brings language and heart to father-in-law - let him eat, and then get lost and die]: Lukina 1990, No. 8:66-69; Kets [com. to Dulzon: the sky was thought done from Rovduga, so the Rovduga with holes is especially similar to the starry sky]: Alekseenko 1976:79.
Eastern Siberia. Far Eastern Evenks: Voskoboynikov 1960a, No. 68 [mystery: a big skin covered in holes (sky)]: 296; Vasilevich 1959 [the idea of the sky as a skin thrown on the ground preserved in the multax quine mystery? - nyakgnya (letters. "Is the wild deer skin perforated? - sky"; that is, the sky at night seemed like a skin with holes left by gadflies); this idea of the sky was included in the heroic tales of the Amur Evenks, who had an idea of the sky like a carpet thrown to the ground]: 161-162; Evens [mystery: black tire with many holes (night sky)]: Burykin 2001, No. 24:114.
SV Asia. The Chukchi [the Chukchi considered the sky to be a gentle tire made of smoky rovduga (suede), light falls through the holes in it, they seem to people like the sun, moon and stars]: Ergis 1974:134.
The Southern Cone. The Araucans [men killed women because they did not work; after that, the Sun and his wife Luna hid under their skin; it was dark for 4 days; Agouti and other animals tried to bring the Sun back to the sky was burned; only the Condors succeeded; then the Moon fell from under the skin (Fell des Mahlsteines); var.: 4 days later, the Flamingo pulled off his skin; since then it has not been white, but slightly burnt, pink; skin remained in the sky, this is the Milky Way and the Southern Cross; (retelling in Keller 1962:525-528)]: Kössler-Ilg 1982:136-140.