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

I96. Bloody rainbow.

.19.-.21.23.-.25.27.31.60.52.66.72.

The rainbow consists of blood or foreshadows war and death.

Melanesia. Papua (Dutch New Guinea) [rainbow - blood of a victim splashing into the sky]: Wirz 1924:60 in Loewenstein 196:33; bukavak [rainbow is the blood of the dead; or wherever it comes from, there is human bile and splashes into the sky; either at one end the rainbow rests on a butterfly or a huge snake with iridescent skin]: Lehner 1931b: 110; Fr. Rossel [rainbow - blood of people eaten]: Armstrong 1928:121

Micronesia-Polynesia. Hawaii [Maui comes to Kane and Kanaloa, tries to pick up the bananas they bake with a sharp stick; his head is shattered; his brain stains the mountain and river shrimp, the blood turns into rainbow]: Beckwith 1970:233-234.

Tibet is the Northeast of India. Sema [if the rainbow ends within a village, one of the residents will die in the war within a year]: Hutton 1968:252.

South Asia. Juang [first a fluctuating sea of mud; an anthill rose from it, Mahesur Rusi from an anthill; ate forest fruits and rhizomes; met an asur girl; she said she lives alone and is not going to eat it; they are married; there was a Kapila cow on Baora Hill; the wife sent MR to slaughter the cow and then the earth would stop shaking and wobbling; when the cow's blood spilled on the ground, the earth was established; the blood turned into a rainbow, it arched above the world, attached to each end with a peg (nail); from the head of a cow; at first MR did not want to eat beef, his wife said, otherwise the earth would not will be established; Dharam Deota gave a digging stick, taught farming, gave clothes made from bast and leaves; this is how Juang appeared]: Elwin 1949, No. 18:39-40.

Malaysia-Indonesia. The Andamans [rainbow foreshadows illness or someone's death]: Man 1932:86; haynoi (semai) [when a tiger kills a person or a large animal, it throws their blood into the sky, blood turns into a rainbow; where a tiger recently killed its prey, the rainbow sucks blood out of the ground]: Dentan 1968:21; Tagbanua (Palawan) [double rainbow - god Diwata shows someone soon will die]: Loewenstein 196:33; Western Toraja [rainbow is blood, foreshadows death; more precisely, the rainbow is dangerous in the morning, because it is in the West and people will remain under its influence all day; the warriors rejoiced to see a rainbow in the afternoon, so is the blood of enemies on it; on the rainbow before noon their own blood]: Kruyt 1938, No. 9:356; Flores [the rainbow rises from the graves of the dead; when it rains and the sun is shining, them blood evaporates to form a rainbow; Dawa killed his brother Lawin, then stabbed himself; that's why the rainbow is called lawin-dawa; those killed in an accident are not buried, and the naked corpse is left in a tree dry in the sun; the stench of such corpses also turns into a rainbow; once a moneylender was killed, buried his head down with a stake behind him; saw smoke coming from the grave, turning into a rainbow; the rainbow was evil a spirit especially dangerous for evil people like moneylenders]: Bader 1971:947-948.

Taiwan - Philippines. Manobo [at one end of the rainbow is the head of a huge turtle; the appearance of the rainbow is a sign that the gods of war are looking for blood, that bloodshed is happening; if you point your finger at the rainbow, it will become crooked]: Eugenio 1994, No. 149:263; mangian (Mindoro) [double rainbow is God Diwata's sign that someone is going to die]: Loewenstein 196:33.

The Balkans. Bulgarians ["in the villages of Yana (Sofiysko) and Kalkovo (Samokovo), the bright red color of the rainbow means bloodshed, in some cases honey (p. Gyrlo - Trynsko, Western Bulgaria), or zhito (p. Iopitsa - Beloslatinsko, Kraevo and Kurnovo - Orkhaniysko, i.e. Botevgradsko, Kovachev, 1914, p. 65)"]: Tolstoy 1997:209.

Baltoscandia. Lithuanians (Samogites): Veckenstedt 1883, No. 55.1 [rainbow is blood shed by a sun angel and a rain angel when they fight against each other], 55.2 [same, other characters fight]: 239, 239-240.

Ecuador. Otavalo [a woman takes a stranger as a lover; he asks her to cook frogs and lizards at noon while her husband is at work; her husband finds her doing this, leaves her; kills her lover, cuts him to pieces; the victim's blood turns colorful, turns into a rainbow]: Parsons 1954:131.

Northwestern Amazon. Tucano [people fought a lot, bled, went to heaven; when the rainbow appears, there will be blood, warriors, suffering and other misfortunes]: Brüzzi 1994:230.

Montagna - Jurua. Kashinahua [see motif B27; a rolling head thinks what to become; does not want bats (people kill them), in the sun (warms people), rain (fills rivers, grows grass, people will fish, hunt), night (people will sleep), morning; decides that his blood will become the Road of Enemies (rainbow), his eyes will become stars, his head itself will become a month; on a full moon, women will also lose blood, material for the Road of Enemies]: d'Abreu in Koch-Grünberg 1921, No. 85:238-239.

Chaco. Caduveo [three children always play late; a painted vessel with flowers in it descends from the sky; children climb after them, the vessel begins to rise; the mother clings to the last boy's leg; the leg comes off; blood stains the sky, since then there is a red stripe on the horizon (at sunset); white birds come to bathe in a pool of blood, take on color; the Vulture could not stand the heat, wiped off with coals, blackened; original in Riveiro 1950, No. 8:140-142; comm. Ribeiro 1950:14: Some of the spilled blood formed a rainbow]: Wilbert, Simoneau 1990a, No. 30:55-56