I8E. Four hold the world. .14.21.22.26.27.31.32.34.46.52.55.66.

The sky or the earth is supported, or at the four cardinal points, by four anthropomorphic male characters.

Ancient Egypt, Arabs of Egypt, Tibetans, Shans, Miao (Thailand), Gagauz, Scandinavians, Chuvash, Altaians, Pawnee, Aztecs, Otomi, Huastecs, Totonacs, Popoluka, Nahuatl of Veracruz, Chontal, Soque, Maya of Yucatan, Mopan, Tzotzil, Chol, Chortí, Tojolabal, tsutuhili, uave, kogi, takana.

North Africa. Ancient Egypt : Mathieu 1956: 127 [text "Victory of Horus": Horus established the sky on pillars], 151 [this is an allusion to an unknown myth; hence it is clear that the four sons of Horus (Amset, Duamutef, Qebehsenuef, Hapi), from the Pyramid Texts onwards, are constantly called pillars and represent the four cardinal directions]; Arabs of Egypt [four maidens or four saints hold up the earth]: El-Shamy 1995: 45.

Tibet – North-East of India. Tibetans [with Bon deities are associated ideas about dwarfs, guardians of the cardinal directions: iron in the south, copper in the west, turquoise in the north, a dwarf from a shell in the east]: Ogneva 1982b: 509-510.

Burma – Indochina. Shans [the world is square and flat, with 4 spirits holding it in their hands at the corners]: Milne 1910: 204.

China – Korea. Miao (Hmong Njua, Thailand) [four spirits hold the earth on their shoulders; when they move, earthquakes occur]: Geddes 1976: 24.

Balkans. Gagauz [having created the earth, God placed an angel at its four corners, protecting man from all misfortune]: Moshkov 1901: 58.

Baltoscandia. Scandinavians [From Ymir's body the sons of Bor made the earth, from blood the sea and waters; under each corner of the sky they placed a dwarf (Eastern, Western, Northern, Southern)]: Younger Edda 1970: 18.

Volga – Perm. Chuvash [the giant Ulăp returned tired from hunting, climbed into the sky as if onto a sleeping platform, and fell asleep; his four brothers could not wake him up, but propped up the sky from four corners with their shoulders and lifted it high up; the sleeper woke up and went to look for his brothers; the vault of heaven shook under his feet, a roar arose, sparks flew (thunder and lightning); when he realized that he would not be able to descend to the earth, he began to cry – rain; he became the supreme god Tura]: Egorov 1995: 116.

Southern Siberia - Mongolia. Altaians [four kings hold on to the “heavenly button” ( tengrinin tobchisy ); this is what strengthens the world; these are Kunkyr-kaan, Eden puudu kaan, Chagan-kaan and Amyrsananyng uly Temirsana (i.e. Temirsana , son of Amyrsana )]: Potanin 1883, No. 46d: 224.

Plains. Pawnee (Skidi) [gods of the four quarters of the world support the sky NE, SE, SW, NW]: Dorsey 1904b: xix.

Mesoamerica. Aztecs [rain fell upon the earth, the sky fell, all perished; the gods created four men (Cuatemoc, Itzoatl, Itzmali, Tenexuchitl), and Quetzalcoatl and Tezcatlipoca became two trees; these four and the two trees raised the sky with the stars to their present height, and Tonacatecutli made them lords of the sky and the stars; Tezcatlipoca and Huitzilopochtli made a road across the sky that is visible there]: Garibay 1965: 32; Krickeberg 1928: 8-9; Thompson 1934: 216; Thompson 1934: 216; Huastecs [the four drowned men hold the earth at the cardinal points; at the end of the year they descend to the subterranean paradise of the mushi {this is quoted from also Ochoa 1999: 128}, they are replaced by new drowned ones; the earth is a woman, the Great Mother, has a spouse]: Alcorn 1984: 57; mountain Totonacs [four men (angels, saints) hold up the earth, produce earthquakes]: Harvey, Kelly 1969: 671; Ichon 1969: 36; Kelly 1966: 399; Otomi [the earth is square, with "angels" or Winds at the corners]: Galinier 1990: 48; Popoluca , Nahuatl of Veracruz [Sun, Moon, Jesucristo , Virgen del Carmen hold up the world; earthquakes]: Münch 1983a: 155; 1983b: 370; Chontal [four thunders = Juan Tamaris , Alejandro , Gabriel , Gregorio ]: Vasquez Davila, Hipolito Hernández 1994: 156; Zoke : Baez-Jorge 1983 [four old men at four corners hold up the world]: 387; Sulvarán López 2007 [after creation of world, appointed four men to support it; annually pass on their burden to others, during which time earthquakes occur]: 34; Maya of Yucatan and Maya in general [four men/Catholic saints hold up the sky]: Thompson 1934: 211; 1977: 336-340; Villa 1945 [four men at corners of world (no support motif )]: 102, 154; Mopan [four Cuchcaan ("sky holders") at four corners of world hold up the sky, associated with colors that correspond to the four directions]: Thompson 1930: 65; Tzotzil [earth is shaped like a cube; at its four corners are supported by four gods Vashakmen]: Vogt 1969 (Zinacantan): 297: 297, 303 [vashak – "eight"; some informants believe that there is a pair of world holders in each corner]; chol [Ch'ujtat brought the earth out of his heart; at first it was like the wind, the wind became a cloud, the cloud water, the water mud, the mud earth; at the four corners of the earth he placed three people Chuntewinikes in each to support it; these people feed only on the smell of flowers and fruits; after this Ch. cut the umbilical cord that connected his heart with the earth; the earth became covered with vegetation; Ch. created the first people, smaller in size than the Chuntewinikes, but larger than the present ones, very intelligent; needing nothing, they forgot the creator; Ch. destroyed them with a flood, sent the Vulture to find out if anyone was left, ordered him not to touch anything, but he began to eat the corpses; Ch. punished him by ordering him to feed on carrion; sent the Turtle, she saw that there was blood everywhere, but some were saved on rafts; having stained her feet with blood, she returned to Ch.; he turned the saved people into monkeys; the foam of the flood turned into stones, which had not been there before]: Gebhardt Domínguez 2001: 49-51; devils[Katata died; his 5 sons Gavites do not know who their parents are; the youngest, Kumix, was bathing in the river; he had a cut on his leg, the fish swam up to the smell of blood; and his older brothers were going to kill him; they prepared poison from bark and poured it into the river; K. and the fish died; the brothers ate the fish, but K. came to life, for he was a god; he lay on the shore and cried; Sisimite (K'ech'uj) heard the crying; she picked up K. and began to raise him with the intention of later eating him; K. grew up, began to hunt for Kechukh; wonders why the meat he brought was always not enough; a bird asked: is this your father? K. asked to tell; the bird: your parents are in heaven, and the giant {Kuchukh's husband} is not your father; then K. saw Kechukh sharpening his teeth to eat him; he put a pestle in the hammock instead of himself; Kechukh only broke her teeth; She screamed and said that she only wanted to kiss him; K. burned her in the house or (according to other versions) in the middle of the plot; she turned into a large white stone; K. collected the ashes from her burnt hair and ordered a toad to throw them into the sea; K. looks for a way to rise to the sky; the hawk could not lift it; the black vulture was stronger, but also could not; K. cursed them, ordering them to eat carrion from now on; became small and climbed into a guitar on the neck of a hummingbird; it brought him to his mother's house; K. ordered the hummingbird to feed on sweet nectar; K. found his mother naked and barefoot in the hut; the corn in the barn ran out, all the cultivated plants and domestic animals died; K. made clothes for his mother from a small towel, fumigated the barns with copal, everything was filled; she says that K. looks like his father; he asks where his father's things are: a sword, a drum, a flute, a ring, clothes (and, according to one version, a gun); mother: everything was stolen by the "uncles", hombres malos (these are different animals); in the forest K. took the drum from the monkeys; (they survived the flood, and when God asked how they managed it, they answered that it was thanks to them, and not to God; he gave them tails and turned them into monkeys); K. beat the armadillo until it returned K.'s father's clothes that he had put on him; the stripes on the armadillo's skin remained (according to one version, from 7 lightning strikes); the crocodile took K.'s father's sword and put it in its mouth; K. lured the crocodile to the shore with bananas; together with the rabbit, he began to hit it on the head - to no avail; the rabbit found out that the crocodile's vulnerable spot was at the base of its tail; the crocodile gave up the sword and now K. uses it to make it rain; the giant put his father's ring on his tooth; the rat began to tickle the nose of the sleeping giant and he sneezed out the ring; now K. can defeat his father's killer - the Bronze King; his flesh and clothes are made of bronze, 7 layers; K. showered BC with rotten wood, ants gathered, BC threw off his covers to throw off the ants; after that K. killed him with lightning (i.e. with his sword; much is lightning); K. decided to grow a crop; began to beat the drum (thunder) and wave his sword (lightning), causing a downpour; K. learned that his brothers were building a mountain to climb to the sky to their mother; if they did this, huge eagles would descend from the sky and destroy people on earth; his mother wanted K. to persuade his brothers; she began to lower him on a rope, giving him a reed with him,filled with her milk as proof that K. was sent by her; the rope broke; K. fell; began to persuade the brothers; at that time people walked around wearing wooden cages as protection from eagles; brothers: we can no longer dig up the mountain ourselves; K. told them to bury themselves head first and not look; but they began to spy and, when K. blew up the mountain with a thunderstorm, they became toads; they (the toads and the four brothers) are called "priests who cause rain"; they (the brothers) were ordered to stand at the 4 corners ("doors") of the world; they are also called "Blind Angels" (they went blind when K. smashed the mountain with lightning)]: Hull 2009: 134-139 (=Braakhuis, Hull 2014: 452-454);tojolabal [four thunders hold up the world]: Ruz 1983: 426; tzutújili [four spirits within four mountains hold up the sky]: O'Brien 1976: 384; uawe [one or four characters hold up the world on their shoulders (no details)]: Lupo 1991: 219-221.

Northern Andes. Kogi [the world is an egg with nine levels; our earth is the middle level; the world rests on two horizontal poles or on the frame of a loom; the poles or frame are held by four men; to the east Sintána and Namsíku, and to the west Nándu and Ibáui; below is the water; in the midst of the waters, on a white stone, sits the Foremother; she gives drink to the holders of the world, sees to it that they do not tire; when the holders shift the poles from shoulder to shoulder, earthquakes occur; if the woman moves during copulation, this can provoke an earthquake; see also Reichel-Dolmatoff 1974: 296]: Reichel-Dolmatoff 1985(1): 225.

Bolivia - Guaporé. Tacana (west 1952-1954) [the earth is held by four gray-haired old men; when they get tired, they shift it from shoulder to shoulder, the earth trembles; they ask the young if their hair is still black, they answer yes; four red-haired dwarfs Idsettii Deha hold the earth in the south and 4 in the north; from time to time they ask if they are gray; they pull out their gray hair; when it turns gray, the earth will fall; var. in San Jose: underground, one man holds the earth; the earth is held at the corners by four old men; when the Sun and Moon pass by, they ask if they are gray, is it time for the young to replace them; the Sun and Moon pull out their gray hair, say it is not time yet; when the young take up the burden, the earth will shake]: Hissink, Hahn 1961: 87-89.