I41A. A rainbow from an anthill. 11.-.13.23.55.
Therainbow rises from an anthill or termite mound.
Bemba, Tumbuka, Lozi, Ndebele, Dan, Eve, Hausa, Zande, Ancient India, Muria, Maria, Baiga, Sora, Embera.
Bantu-speaking Africa. Bemba, tumbuka, lozi, ndebele [the rainbow rises from the anthill]: Chaplin 1959:152; zela [there are two rainbow snakes, a male and a female; the female is less visible, she is less visible dangerous; both come out of an anthill]: Chaplin 1959:156.
West Africa. Eva [an animal lives in an anthill, rises in a rainbow after the rain]: Chaplin 1959:152; dan [the rainbow is caused by the Dau toad living in termite mics; when it rains, she gets out, opens her mouth, the rainbow comes out of her mouth; whoever eats this toad will die immediately]: Himmelsheber, Himmelsheber 1958:202; hausa [rainbow spirit - Gajimare; the red part of the spectrum is masculine, the rest is female; lives in rivers, in springs in the form of a snake, he must leave a vessel of water in the house; he rises from an anthill like the wind; the Hottentots think the same way]: Fletcher 1912:94.
Sudan - East Africa. Zande [the rainbow is a serpent that God made different from other snakes; rather, it is a pair of snakes; the one closer to the ground is a female and above it is a male; if the rainbow comes to a village, people run away from it, and she takes the rest; lives in termite mounds; a person cannot kill her; if you kill her, the water will flood the whole earth; if you see the corpse of the rainbow, it has serious consequences, the parents of the seeker will die at the same time year; the rainbow doesn't bite people, it sucks and burns]: Lagae 1920:147-149.
South Asia. Ancient India [Varahamihira: 1) snakes live in anthills; 2) "some Masters say" that the rainbow is evaporation (exhalations) rising from snakes from the Ananta family; Kalidasa (Meghadūta, stanza 15) writes about "Indra's bow)", which rises from an anthill; Vallabhadeva: "divine bow" rises from an anthill "fraught with snakes" in the rainy season; the rainbow is the glitter of jewelry on Nāga Vāsuki's head entering the sky from the lower world through a crevice in an anthill]: Vogel 1926:29; muria [rainbow - Bhumtaras snake rising from an anthill to stop the rain]: Elwin 1949:103; maria [rainbow is an earth-serpent crawling out of an anthill to show that it has stopped raining]: Elwin 1949:103; baiga [rainbow rises from a small pumpkin lying in at the base of an anthill; looks for another anthill, descends into it; if you find such a pumpkin and give it to a barren woman, she will get pregnant]: Elwin 1939:336; 1949:103; litter [There is a king in the termite mine termites, a very large insect. It comes out during the rainy season, and then the rainbow appears. Its appearance marks the end of prolonged rains]: Krylova, Renkovskaya 2017, field materials.
The Northern Andes. Embera (hay) [rainbows emerge from rotten trunks or anthills; some say it's a snake; rainbows drink water from streams and wells; one woman says the rainbow has seven heads]: Turbay Ceballos 1998:10.