i35B1. The icy sky. (.17.29.49.)

The sky is made of ice.

Western Asia. Old Testament [Ezekiel's vision compares heaven to ice]: Ezekiel 1:22.

Caucasus - Asia Minor. Ossetians (Western 1870) [from a conversation on a village hill (a place of public gatherings): "How does the sky work?" - the same curious person asked {the old man}. "There are five heavens: the first is ice, the second is copper, the third is silver, the fourth is gold, and the 5th is pure diamond." "Why doesn't the icy sky melt from the sun?" - the same person questioned me. "And that's how God arranged it," another expert explained with importance. "Why does the thunder happen?" - "It's hard to explain... They say that rocks are rolling across the sky, but this is hardly the case... But have you heard about this miracle: where thunder strikes, there is often a steel chain"]: Kanukov 1875:16.

Big Pool. Shoshones (Western?) [a snake, which is associated with a rainbow, rubs on the ground from friction; in winter, snow melts and rains in summer]: Powell 1881:26-27 (retelling in Lowie 1909b: 230-231; in Wherry 1989:102-105).