Yu.E. Berezkin, E.N. Duvakin

Thematic classification and distribution of folklore and mythological motifs by area

Analytical catalogue translated by Jon F White

Introduction
Bibliography
Ethnicities and habitats

I78. Square land. .12.13.21.22.26.-.29.31.-.34.36.39.42.43.47.48.50.52.59.-.61.66.72.

The Earth is thought to be rectangular (usually square).

Anaguta, Murle, Tibetans, Garo, Shans, Viets, Ancient China, Miao, Yao, Serbs, Russian written tradition, Nogais, Scandinavians, Chuvash, Mordovians, Kazakhs, Mongols, Orkhon Turks, Altaians, Shors, Central Yakuts, Northeastern (Verkhoyan) Yakuts, Baikal Evenks, Evenki Orochons, Chukchi, Tlingits, Thompson, Shuswap, Screams, Yuki, Central Pomo, Sia, Santa Ana, Totonaki, Otomi, tsotsil, tseltal, chol, tojolabal, Maya Yucatana, Akuriyo (turaecare), kayapa, murato, conibo, kashibo, shipibo, chorote.

West Africa. Anaguta [the land is square, sloping from south to north (unlike all other Nigerians who consider the north high and the south low)]: Diamond 1960:31.

Sudan - East Africa. Murle [the earth is flat and round but has four corners or horns where "the sky touches it with its feet"]: Lewis 1971:134.

Tibet is the Northeast of India. Tibetans: Hermanns 1946-1949 [the earth is quadrangular, the sky is an eight-spoke wheel]: 845; 1971 [Heaven and Earth (letters. "quadrangular earth") like Father and Mother]: 189; garo [the earth is flat, square, hung in the corners by ropes to the sky; on each of the four ropes there is a squirrel trying to gnaw it; four blind people stand side by side, driving them away with bamboo sticks; when one of them falls asleep, the squirrel manages to loosen the rope, an earthquake occurs; var: the earth is like a table on four legs; on the legs mouse runs, earth shudders]: Playfair 1909:88.

Burma - Indochina. Shany [the world is square and flat, with 4 spirits in its corners]: Milne 1910:204; Viets: Knorozova 2000:21-22 [heaven and earth were one dark mass; God was born in it; with his head resting on the sky, he lifted it up; the ground became flat as a square tray, the sky like an overturned bowl; God built a pillar supporting the sky; when the sky hardened, destroyed it, scattered the debris , it turned out mountains], 98 [the spirit tells you to make pies - one round like the sky, the other square as the earth]; Cadière 1907 [the earth is square according to the Chinese model]: 125.

China - Korea. Ancient China: Yuan Ke 1987 [After suppressing the flood, Yu began to measure the land; it turned out to be square; the henchmen of the gods Taizhang and Shuhai went one from east to west, the other from west to east, both counted 200,333,500 li and 75 steps]: 178; Granet 2004 [the earth's horizon is a square with a side equal to 9; the celestial horizon is a circle with a diameter of 12]: 422; Yanshina 1984 ["Spring and Autumn of Lu": the nature of the sky is round, the earth is square]: 134; Hermanns 1946-1949 [the sky is round, the earth is quadrangular]: 847; Lemoine 1982 [at first the earth and sky are close to each other; they reached the sky by hand; Ndjo Lou Tou and his wife Ngo Ntchi Tii, they have a son, R'eng Tcheu (a slightly distorted Chinese "Lord of Heaven"); he's been in his mother's womb for 6 years; his father said it was time to go out; he waited another 9 years, went out, cutting mother's side with a knife; father and son stamped their feet three times, clapped their hands three times, creating 15 levels of sky, 16 levels of earth; the sky rose high, backed up in four corners with four iron knives; then they put a pole to support the sun, and around a road for the sun to move; when the sun passes from one side of the world to the other, the guards open the doors, the chickens wake up and the rooster sings; the sun He bathes and gets up; Mr. Neba is in charge of all this]: 86-87; Yao (Thailand) [the sky is octagonal, 33 tiers; the earth is square, 48 tiers]: Kacha-Ananda 1997:267.

The Balkans. Serbs [the earth has four corners]: Janković 1951:35-38; Serbs [the land is quadrangular and rests on four oxen: black in the west, blue in the south, white in the north, and red in the east; they stand in muddy water, drink it and eat it; every year one of the oxen shudders and the ground shudders; as oxen age, they weaken and one day fall to their knees, people will drown; during an earthquake people are trying to understand which side they are shaking from; if, for example, from the west, they shout: stay black as long as we live (same appeal to oxen supporting the earth on the other sides)]: Eschker 1992, No. 73:252.

Central Europe. Russian written tradition (apocrypha) [in the renounced word "About All the Creature", quadrangular earth floats in water that has no end; overseas, land, "paradise and torment are on it"; in the middle of this land a deep abyss where a fiery river flows, separating torment and paradise]: Tikhonravov 1863 (2): 350 in Uspensky 1982:56.

Caucasus - Asia Minor. Nogais [the earth has four corners to the cardinal points; each side has its own color; the east is blue, the west is white, the north is black, the south is red; the doors of the yurts opened to the southern second]: Kapaev 2012:32 .

Baltoscandia. Scandinavians [Bohr's sons made earth out of Ymir's body, sea and water out of blood; they planted a dwarf under every corner of the sky (Eastern, Western, Northern, Southern)]: Younger Edda 1970:18.

Volga - Perm. Chuvash: Denisov 1961 [during the childbirth sacrifice, they said "Let the child be the inhabitant of the entire quadrangular world"; in the bride's wedding lamentation, they also said it talks about quadrangular space]: 74-75; Egorov 1995 [Mount Ama te is in the center of the four- or octagonal middle world, surrounded by water; at its top is the Ama Yivaç tree ;; its roots go to the lower world and the crown to the upper world; branches extend to the farthest periphery in all directions and support the sky]: 133-134; Meszaros 2000 (1906-1908) [the earth is quadrangular; conspiracies and other texts often mention a "quadrangular bright world"]: 58; Mordovians [the earth is quadrangular, with a silver pillar in every corner]: Mokshin 1998:99.

Kazakhstan. Kazakhs: Ibrayev 1980 [western 1976 from Berkimbay-Ata bucks; "... square earth is pollinated around the water of Mukhit (ocean); its four corners are marked by four towers topped with eggs; but they say otherwise that instead of towers, there are four great trees, and others that there are four points or peaks at every corner of it;... when the world ends, all mountains will collapse, towers will appear on the horizon to the remains humanity;... these towers support the seven layers of the sky in the corners of the earth "]: 41, 44; Castagnier 1910 [Horhut-Ata dreamed as if they were digging a grave for him; he traveled all over the world in a quadrangle, in I had the same dream at each end; I stopped in the center, laying a blanket on the waters of Syr-Darya, sat on the water for a hundred years; the Turkmens have the same legend]: 218.

Southern Siberia - Mongolia. Mongols: Neklyudov 1982a [the earth is in the shape of a disk or square]: 172; Potanin 1881, No. 25a (khalha) [there was only water; the llama descended from the sky, began to interfere with the ocean with an iron stick; in the middle of the ocean The ball of earth thickened; as a result of further mixing, the earth hardened into a quadrangle; two swans (hong) descended on it; the llama made a woman out of the female's nail, and a man from the male's nail; from them people happen; Mongols do not kill swans; swans have yellow cheeks, so Tangut lamas have yellow clothes; the body is larger than the head - so the White Khan (the Russian tsar) rules over ten tongues; legs - black, so people on the seashore do not know much about books; the Tanguts know the most, because the language is closest to the head (=Potanin 1886, No. 24:26)]: 166; Potanin 1881, No. 25c [in ancient times there was only water: There was no land; a llama descended from the sky, began to interfere with the ocean with his stick; interference from the middle of the ocean thickened a ball of earth; as a result of further interference, the earth hardened into a quadrangle; see motive H6b]: 166 ; Orkhon Turks [(Rassadin 1981 [the language of the Yenisei-Orkhon inscriptions is part of the same Uighur-Tukyu subgroup as Tuvan and Tofalar]: 219); the firmament in the Orkhon inscriptions appears as a space bounded on four sides and has four corners; the Turks went on campaigns to conquer the "four corners of the world"]: Klyashtorny 1981:122; Altaians: MAE Archive, f.15, op.1., d.9 (Danilin A.G., "Burkhanism"), l.65 in Lvova et al. 1988 [Six-petal white flower, six-sided rich Altai, four-articular blue grass, four-sided rich Altai]: 34; Potanin 1881 [llama takes his rod, creates the earth; first it's round, then he made it square]: 160 (translated to Holmberg 1927:308); Shors: Chudoyakov 2008 [episodes of the epic tale: "Pai-pie, my wife! There is hardly a hero in the universe/Quadrangular/Another hero who I, Ak-Kaan, would be afraid of!" ; "Eze, father, our world is quadrangular/Conquer the born Altyn-Som, /My younger brother, why/Was he not the best hero?!"] : 36, 142.

Eastern Siberia. The Central Yakuts (materials from 1741-1745, the place of recording is not specified, most likely Yakutsk) ["Ar-Tojon, Urung Tojon and Suga Tojon unanimously agreed to create heaven and earth and, as they say: Sir Tangara ödübita, Kuin, Cui, U, Kisi, bari Kamnür Kara ongnorbutag - "Earth, sky has begun. The sun, the month, water, man, and all those who drive are black are created." Adsjarai bögo also created meteors because he wanted the whole world under his rule, like the previous ones, but Ar-Tojon and his brothers cursed him and plunged him into hell, Ödangnia, so he has become an enemy of the human race and animals and at times torments them with frost, snow and rain. The Yakuts have a story about this. He, Adsjarai bögo, only demanded sun and water for himself, which they wanted to give him if he caught a gleam - Dsergelgen, but since he could not do it, everything remained old one. The world they created consisted first of the sky, which was like a small ring, and an earth that looked like Tellak (a horseskin rug in the shape of an oblong quadrangle}, but only she It was big. Later, it increased even significantly. According to the Yakuts, this world will stand for another two generations, 200 years, after which it will die from fire. Only two children - a boy and a girl - will be left, and the sky will be like a ring again and the earth will be like Tellak. The world will be given to these children and will expand again, as it was before"]: Lindenau 1983:44-45; northeastern (Verkhoyan) Yakuts [references to the "four corners of the sky" in fairy tales]: Khudyakov 1890, No. 7, 8.4, 8.12, 8.16, 8. 20:113, 117, 155, 198, 213, 228 (quoted in Troshchansky 1902:67-68; Holmberg 1927:308); Baikal Evenks [the idea of the Earth as a tetrahedral body supported by four racks, frogs or turtles (call list. MAE, No. 1879), came to Transbaikalia from its southern neighbors and reindeer herders brought it to the origins of Vilyui and to the west]: Vasilevich 1969:210; Evenki Orochons: Mazin 1984:22 [the land is flat, in the east of it the upper world, in the west - the lower world; it looks like a Kumalan fur rug, divided into ancestral territories; they are depicted by shamanic rectangular namu rugs (figures in Tables 1, 2, 3)], 74-75 [ on shamanic bibs, the square depicts the ground]; Evenks (band?) [description of how the Tungus makes a quadrangular image of the earth]: George 1775 (1): 276 in Holmberg 1927:308.

SV Asia. Chukchi [in the four corners of the world, the rocks of the sky meet the rocks of the earth, hitting them and then rising; on their way to their world, migratory birds fly through an opening gap; flying from behind crushed; the wind creates the movement of the rocks; beyond the edge of the sky is the place where all fur-bearing animals and wild deer came from]: Bogoraz 1939:42 (=Bogoras 1907:332).

NW Coast. The Tlingites [the earth is square, oriented at angles to the cardinal points; there is a hole in the northern corner into which ocean water rushes to the lower world at low tide; at high tide, it spills out back]: Boas 1895, No. XXV.2:319-320 (=2002:623).

The coast is the Plateau. Thompson [the earth is square, oriented at angles to the cardinal points; some consider the earth to be almost round]: Teit 1900:337; shuswap [the earth is considered round but some think it is almost square]: Teit 1909a: 595.

Southeast USA. Screams [the ground is square, the sky is hemispherical, the sky rises and falls; the stars are stuck to its lower surface]: Swanton 1928:477-478.

California. Yuki [foam on the water; Taiko Mall ("Lonely") comes out of it; puts the rope four times from south to north, but the water absorbs it; then places the "stone hooks" at the four corners of the world pulls them to cross in the middle of the world, creates land; covers its edges with whale skin so that the sea does not wash away; creates mountains, rivers, birds; takes sticks of mountain mahogonia, turns them into people (with thickening at the end in men, smooth in women, small in children); Coyote helped him, put the sun and month in the sky]: Curtis 1976 (14): 169-170; central pomo [the earth is quadrangular, swims in water; the corners rest on poles, each one is watched by one of the spirits (two more at the zenith and nadir)]: Loeb 1926a: 300.

The Great Southwest. Eastern ceres: White 2004a (Sia) [the earth is square and flat; divided into four layers - yellow (lowest), blue/green, red, white (this order is the opposite of what was recorded in Santa Ana); the four sides of the world, the zenith, the nadir, and sometimes the center also have their own color]: 770; 2004b (Santa Ana) [the earth is flat, square; there are four more under this world; the lowest is white, then red , blue, yellow]: 552; Navajo [they placed pillars in the corners and stretched the sky in four directions; the same goes for the ground; sand drawings depict the earth by a woman with a square body]: O'Bryan 1956:21-22.

Mesoamerica Mountain Totonaki [the world is square like a house or a temazcal (steam bath), four Catholic saints support it in the corners; the earth is round like a frying pan, surrounded by water; the sky is like a stove vault, stars - holes]: Ichon 1969:36; otomi [the earth is square, "angels" or Winds in the corners]: Galinier 1990:48; tsotsil: Gossen 1980 [north, south, west, east are at the edges of a square land]: 145; Guiteras-Holes 1961 [the land is square, supported by four pillars similar to the pillars of the house]: 254; Klein 1982 [(by Villa]: 12; Holland 1964 [in the center of a square ground of land supported by in the corners of the four Atlanteans there is a huge seiba, the branches of which penetrate and connect the tiers of the sky; in the section of the sky there is a stepped pyramid (6 steps on each side, the 13th is green in the center ); below the ground, such feet are 9, 13 or an indefinite number; the sun rises up the steps of the sky as if in a two-wheeled wagon; at noon it rests on the upper platform; at night it passes in the opposite direction along the steps of the lower world]: 14-16; Vogt 1969 (Zinacantan) [the earth is cube-shaped; four animals support it at four corners (with shoulders or tails); when they shift the burden, the ground shudders; or these are the four gods Vashakmen; there are four square skies above the ground; on the lower Moon, then the stars, in the upper Sun]: 297; tseltal [the world is flat and square, divided into four parts and surrounded by the sea]: Hermitte 1970:32; chol [Chu'jtat brought the earth out of his heart; at first it was like the wind, the wind became a cloud, a cloud of water, mud, sight of the earth; at the four corners of the earth gave Chuntewinikes three people each to support her; these people feed only on the smell of flowers and fruits; after that, C. cut off the umbilical cord that connected his heart to the ground; the earth was covered vegetation; C. created the first people, smaller than the Chuntewinikes, but larger than the current ones, very smart; needing nothing, they forgot the creator; C. destroyed them in a flood, sent Vulture to find out did anyone stay, told him not to touch anything, but he ate the corpses; C. punished him by telling him to eat carrion; sent Gorlinka, she saw that there was blood everywhere, but some escaped on rafts; getting dirty with the blood of her foot, returned to C.; he turned the surviving people into monkeys; the foam of the flood turned into stones that did not exist before]: Gebhardt Domínguez 2001:49-51; tocholabal ["mother earth" has the shape of a square, supported by four atlanta lightning in its corners; a hemispherical sky above; dwarfs live on the lower surface of the earth; when the earth turns over, we will switch places with them]: Humberto Ruz 1982:55; Maya Yucatana: Montolíu 1989 [judging by Chilam Balam's books, Tozzer and Villa Rojas, the Mayans of Yucatana imagined a rectangular land with four pillars in its corners]: 40, 45-47 ; Tozzer 1907 [the seiba permeates the upper 7 worlds supported by its branches; its roots go back to the upper world; each of the worlds is square in plan]: 22 in Sotelo Santos 1988:52, fig.8.

Guiana. Akuriyo (turaecare) [the land is thought to be rectangular, resembling a house under a gable roof (the north and south sides are longer); water is around and below]: Jara 1989:201.

Ecuador. Kayapa [each of the world's three tiers is flat, roughly square in plan, and the same size as the rest]: Barrett 1925:255.

Western Amazon. Murato (shapra) [square land]: Girard 1958 in Weiss 1958:486.

Montagna - Jurua. Konibo, shipibo, kashibo [square land]: Girard 1958 in Weiss 1958:486.

Chaco. Chorote [at first only dust; the wife of the Month does not believe that he will be able to create land; the Month drew a square with his hand, spat on it, the dust settled down, the Month poured water on it, the earth began to grow, the wife happy; A month grows wild and cultivated plants on the ground]: Wilbert, Simoneau 1985, No. 8:23-24.