J28A. The Truth About Father .20.36.43.55.59.62.63.66.68.72.

When asking how one of his parents died, the hero receives a number of false answers. He often exposes himself to the same dangers, but remains alive, proving the falsity of the proposed versions.

Micronesia-Polynesia. Tokelau: Macgregor 1937 [Chief Alo wiped himself off with coconut fibers after bathing; Sinafatukimoa picked them up, sucked them, became pregnant, gave birth to son Alomoanaki and daughter Sinamoanaki; son became ask who his father is; the mother consistently replies that it is a stone that holds the corner of the mat; a certain pole between the pillars of the house; a pole of the house; each time the son refers to this object with when asked whether he is his father, does not receive an answer, the mother asks again; in the end, she replies that it is Chief Alo; the son comes to him, the chief is happy, puts the boy in his seat; advises not to accept competing for the right to marry a Meto girl in the house; the son participates, only his spear breaks through the wall of the house, he gets a wife; their roof is leaking, the father refuses to help, the mother's brothers they cover the roof; M. asks to cover the floor of the house with crushed pearlescent sinks; Alomoanaki goes to Tonga, where his sister married, gets sinks]: 82-83 (retelling in Blixen 1987, No. 20:236-238); Thomas 1990 [{about the same; long text; the names of Alo's opponents are Angry Rat, Brown Rat, Black Rat, etc.}]: 66-84; Tuamotu [when Rata's clay boat is left behind (or, conversely, ahead of everyone else, other children say that his father's head was swallowed by a bird and his bodies were eaten by a tridacna; that his mother was buried on her shoulders in the ground to stay alive and serve as a meal stand for the chief's wife Puna; R. asks his grandmother to talk about her father; she replies that his father is in a pole at home; R. digs and does not find it; that she herself is his father and mother; R. does not believe; then reports that the Matutu bird, owned by Puna , took his father away, bit off his head, and R.'s mother became a food holder for P.'s wife (or daughter), or she was captured to sacrifice at the altar; R. cuts down a tree to make a boat, it revives; he waits two of the best artisans, boat makers, feeds them, they make him a boat; P. sends sea gods to meet sea gods (double-leaf, fish, coral rock), R. pierces them with a spear; kills the bird M.; in house P. R. trickily fills his basket with crabs, taking them out of P.'s people's baskets; killing P.'s people and himself, taking P.'s daughter]: Henry 1928:495-515 (retelling in Beckwith 1970:267-268).

(Wed. Caucasus - Asia Minor. Armenians [the shepherd found the treasure, told the village chief; he sent another worker to kill the shepherd and pick up the treasure; before his death, the shepherd asked the worker to give 3 precious stone to his pregnant wife; if a boy is born, let him call Dad-Bedad, and if a girl, let him call him whatever he wants; the elder and the worker shared the treasures; DB has grown up, asks the mother what his father did ; mother: was a blacksmith; DB asks to take him as a student to a blacksmith; after a day he returned: scary and unpleasant; the same with a tailor, with a carpenter; mother admitted that his father was a shepherd; DB began to herd calf headmen, earned quite a lot over the summer; asks the mother where the money his father earned in 30 years; mother: he was crazy, spent everything; but gave one of the three stones that her husband's murderer gave her; The jeweler gave him a bag of gold; they moved closer to the king; with the money they received for the second stone, they built a palace like a king's; on the third DB they bought a royal dress and crown; in the afternoon, the boy herds his calves, in the evening he sits on the throne at home; advisers come to him, he solves difficult matters; one day the king and vizier also came under the guise of dervishes; the adviser talks about a case that the king could not resolve; one the merchant left the money to his wife for 8 years, but was absent for 12 years; on the way home he met another; gave him 3 gems to give to his wife, and left again for 12 years; the second merchant stole stones; the first returned ; wife: I didn't get anything; second: she spent everything; brought false witnesses; DB tells me to bring merchants and witnesses; DB asks witnesses separately, each answers differently about the size of the stones ( DB gave everyone clay pellets of different sizes and everyone replied that the stone was exactly this size) and about the time of year when it happened (spring, autumn, winter); witnesses confess they lied; the next day, the boy went to herd his calves; the king orders him to be brought to him; the DB asks for royal power for two hours; the DB again called witnesses, merchants and his mother; the killer worker confessed everything; The king allowed the DB to cut off the head; {the text does not explain what Dad Bedad means; apparently, the name is significant}]: Harutyunyan 1986:146-157).

Eastern Siberia. Baikal Evenks: Voskoboynikov 1973, No. 24 (Kachugsky District, Irkutsk Region) [three sisters are married to three men; the first promises to sew mittens, the second boots, the third to give birth to a golden child; two replace the child with a puppy, the child is thrown into the river; the husband cuts off his wife's leg and arm, cuts off one breast and leaves; a woman sees a boy coming out of the river; lures him with breast milk, bread, small onions, leaving them farther from the shore; grabs him; fish scream that they fed him with caviar and liver; the mother first denies that the son had a father; then says that he fell off the larch; the son tries, does not die; then the mother tells the truth; the son comes to the mother's sisters and tells her the story; men want to listen, women ask him to be silent; the boy cleans off the dirt, shines like gold; the father maims evil sisters like his wife used to; returns to his wife, she recovers]: 111-114; Titov 1936, No. 15 (Tutura) [Bolognour's wife is pregnant, he went to marry the daughter of the Sun for his future son Altaney; did not return; birds on larch ask A. not to shoot at them, his father A. went to him marry his wife; the mother first replies that A. did not have a father, then that he fell off a cliff; A. rolled down, did not die; the mother had to tell the truth; A. chose a foal in the scab, which became a good horse; came to a girl, she wanted his horse, he killed her with an arrow; came to another, that beautiful woman; says that monsters are killing his father, that he got off a squirrel, his horse with a hare; A. made a fog, sucked his chest mothers, killed monsters with arrows, married the girl, returned home; father and mother stuck to the doorstep; A. brought living water, they became young]: 184-185.

The coast is the Plateau. Lillouette [woman masturbates with an edible root, gives birth to a son; lies to him that his father drowned; he is going to kill Water, she replies that she did not kill his father; mother tells her son other false stories (not decrees, which ones); son throws her into the lake in anger; travels across the land, turning people into animals, fish, rocks]: Teit 1898, No. I: 95-96.

The Northern Andes. Ambera [a young man born from a tumor on a man's leg dies; seeing that he has no parents, the young man wants to know who killed his mother or father; he is told the culprits, he makes sure that they are not his parents were killed; the moon is the last; he climbs a tree or vine towards her, slaps her in the face, the trail remains; the woodpecker cuts down a tree or vine, the young man falls into the underworld; after adventures returns]: Isaza Bravo 1987 [a Buro-Poto boy is born from a tumor on a man's leg; he is dead; BP asks old people (los viejos) who killed his father; they say that jaguars (hoping BP will go to them) take revenge, and they will eat him); BP kills jaguars, leaves a pregnant female, the current ones; then old people say that BP's father was killed by snakes; BP killed snakes; a monstrous crab that lives in a deep body of water and swallows whole people; BP sits on the raft, makes a fire, the crab swallows it; the PSU keeps the crab on the fire, roasts the unborn cub, feeds the other swallowed ones, swims out on the raft through the ass; crab dies; old people: your father was killed by the moon; BP made a ladder, goes up to the moon, has already reached out his hand, but the woodpecker cut off the stairs; BP fell at sunset, and there have been spots on the moon since then; The sun took the PSU in its underground journey along the river; there people who ate the smell only B. ate, they asked them to make anuses, died, B. revived them; crabs attacked, for underground people it was death, B. easily exterminated them; through The Sun took him with him for several days; a lot of food in a small basket; at home B. began to suck blood at night, kill women; they poured boiling water on him, he petrified, and made corn grinders out of it]: 127 -130; Pinto García 1978 [Who Killed Mother? answers: whale, sea monster, moon; the hero lets the whale swallow himself, stays alive; meets a monster; climbs into the sky and hits the moon; kills the shaman who killed his mother]: 116-117, 122; Rochereau 1929 [ nutria bites a person's leg; caviar swells, a boy is born between the thumb and second finger; the boy feeds on menstrual blood; asks who killed his mother; Keith; he goes to sea, Keith swallows it, he goes out through the anus, realizes that Keith is not to blame; the sea monster; he sees it, it's not his fault; the moon; the willow grows to the sky, he climbs it towards Moon]: 100; Wassen 1963 [two brothers are born from a man's foot, he dies; old people say the Moon killed their father; they tie vines, climb into the sky; one brother falls at sunrise, the other to the west]: 71-72; nonama [two brothers are born from a tumor on their leg; asking who killed their father]: Lotero Villa s.a.: 22 [brothers are told that snakes killed their father; they kill snakes; Jaguars; same; Moon; they climb the vine into the sky, but the Woodpecker cuts it off], 23 [one brother is eaten by a snake; the other finds out that his father was killed by the Sun; he goes to sunset, comes to people without anuses]: Wassen 1935, No. 8 [two brothers are born from a woman's caviar; they ask about their father; swallowed by a snake, they come out alive; this means that the serpent did not kill their father; one of the brothers flies to the moon, scars it; the woodpecker hits him in the face, he falls on sunset]: 133-137; 1963 [old people: Moon; brothers climb the vine into the sky, hit the moon, the spots are still visible; the woodpecker tears the vine, the brothers fall at sunset and sunrise]: 71-72.

Guiana. Trio [a woman has been pregnant for several years, brings baskets of fruit from the forest; her brothers watch her, see her spread her legs, five little boys come out of her vagina, grow up, climb on a tree to collect fruit for her; her older brother kills a woman and three boys, two remain; grow up; ask her uncle how their mother died; he replies that she was eaten by a jaguar, that a tree fell on her, etc.; brothers send flies, they report that there are no fallen trees in the forest, no poisonous snakes, etc.; brothers kill their uncle; turn into flies, then Caribbean ancestors]: Magaña 1987, No. 80:149; oyampy: Grenand 1982, No. 21:172; Renault-Lescure et al. 1987, No. 4 [Thunder (Tupã) killed everyone, became Thunder, left a woman with a young son; he grew up asking how his father died; 1) bitten by a scorpion; 2) bitten by a snake; 3) fell from a tree; the young man tried everything, he was alive; the mother admitted that the young man's father was eaten by Thunder, the young man went to kill him, but his arrows did not harm Thunder; the young man's head fell on a plate, left in the square]: 117.

NW Amazon. Carijona [a woman takes Jaguar as a lover, allows him to kill her husband; when she is two years old, her son Months asks his mother how his father died; Missing in the woods; boy wanders through the woods, Forest says he did not kill his father; Fell off a tree; boy jumped off a tree, fell slowly; Earth; Didn't kill; - Drowned fishing; boy swims in a hollow over rapids, Water: She did not kill; the boy took a hummingbird egg, from which his younger brother Tukuchimobi (hummingbird egg first) was born; he is the Sun, smarter than the Month on the third day; the Month brings a lot of meat, but his mother gives everything to Jaguar; brothers kill birds to tell them about their father's death; the woodpecker who hammered the tree in which the Jaguar and the Night Monkey lived told; brothers revive dead birds; spy on how a mother dressed as a girl brings food, calls Jaguar, knocking a vine on wood, copulates; when she leaves, the brothers call Jaguar with the same signal, kill him with poisoned arrows; T. made his fangs necklace, wears it for war; when the Month wears the necklace, the hunters have a lot of prey; the mother takes a palm larva as lovers, the brothers burn the palm tree, the larva dies; the mother causes T.'s eye disease (then but after the murder of Jaguar); the forest chicken screams about it; T. tells all the birds to voice, finds a chicken by voice, brings it to its mother to fry; she witches to pour out of the bone broken while eating water flooded the earth with a flood; T., with the help of a magical calebass, stops the flood; tells her mother to drop her milk into a pot of ash, from which a fruit tree grows; animals come to the tree, among them Night Monkey; she has a horn from Father T.'s skull around her neck; brothers ambush the Monkey, but her mother creates a snake that steals her father's skull; therefore, he could not be resurrected; see motive E9]: Schindler 1979 : 21-39; andoque [the woman's brothers, night monkeys, ate her husband, hid his wind gun in the house; the woman hid the dart and cotton wool to plug the sarbakan hole between her breasts; son the victim was made by a small sarbakan, shot flies, hit his grandfather's testicles, who said that the boy had his father's habits; so the boy found out that he had a father; began to ask his mother how he died; she replies that he was eaten by the owner of the forest (the boy walks through the forest at night, untouched); 2) fell off the roof (the boy jumps off the roof, is alive); 3) was bitten by a snake; 4) ran into a branch; the boy wants to kill a rat, she says that he his mother's brothers killed his father, showed where the sarbakan was; the boy found him, asked his mother to give him a breast; she admitted that his father was killed, by mail that he killed monkeys himself; the son put his hand in the hollow, then his head, stuck; head cut off]: Landaburu, Pineda 1984:133-136; Uitoto: Pereira 1980 (2) [Jaguar Gaimo is Hitoma's wife's lover; kills him; his widow gives birth to Monaro Hitoma twins and Fishido Hisema; they ask their mother about their father; she first denies that they had him, then says he burned down, fell off a tree, etc.; they try fire, fall from a tree, etc., but unharmed; see a monstrous cannibal ball rolling; mother says he ate his father; F.H. collides with the ball, dies; then comes to life; brothers kill Gaimo with arrows; they are going to burn their mother]: 484; Preuss 1921, No. 8:305-306; Rodríguez de Montes 1981, No. 23 [see J4A motif; Hitoma (The Sun) came to a woman, they had a daughter; the wife tells them to swim down the river; he goes higher, ate it Jaguar Gaimo, the woman's other husband; she gave birth to a son with H.; tells him that he was born from her knee; he sees his father's heart hanging on a tree - a hummingbird egg; he warmed up at home, and his brother came out of the egg; the mother lies that his father was bitten by a snake; the brothers found a snake - it does not want to bite; fell from a tree; burned in a fire; brothers do not break, do not burn; a woodpecker is injured, he lives in the same tree as G.; for they treat, woodpecker talks about G.; G. has an assistant; advised to bring cassava to G.'s hollow so that he thinks a woman has come; said that pucuna (wind gun?) the father is under the roof; the assistant (ocelot?) will be the first to come out , do not kill him; the brothers called and killed G., H. the youngest took a tooth for the necklace; for the fact that his sister was silent, turned her into a tuayó bird, sings at night; when the mother pulled fleas out of their feet, they threw her into she has coal and achiote; she asks to put a rat trap in the garden; she was caught herself (the brothers identified it by paint); did not want to live after G.'s death]: 198; okaina [mother's lover killed the father of the twins , they were born after their father died; they ask their mother where the father is; she replies that she climbed for fruit, fell off a tree; brothers try to fall, they are alive, they ask again; she comes up with something again; they they injure a butterfly from the sarbakan, she refers to the grasshopper, he to the woodpecker; the woodpecker tells him to be cured first; says that in the side where the sound of the slit gong comes from, lives the father who ate them; the brothers reward the woodpecker, giving him a red hat; the brothers waited for and killed Drake (mother's lover and father's murderer; Blixen, p. 116: this is a deviation from the usual version in which either a jaguar or a monkey} was made from it soup, given to the mother; she tells me to make a trap, turns into a rat, falls into this trap; the brothers leave; their mother is now a frog, hiding in the ground, they dig there, find a worm egg, decide to raise a brother ; pierced an egg, hit him in his eye; a boy came out, remained one-eyed; two sisters saw two sparkling worms on the tree; called people, more and more worms, they made fire, the tree threatened a world fire ; brothers (two and a third one-eyed) are called for help; they go to Thunder, climbing into the sky, throwing carrizos that pierce each other (var: climbing a tree); the twins failed to create a chain of darts, the younger brother created; the dart chain turns into a vine (they argue which one is too smooth, the other is prickly); you can't approach Thunder, they fall asleep; then they go to their grandmother- the snake, which gives them a dream wrapped in a sheet; the one-eyed man says that he saw that the grandmother did not put anything; they open the bag, fall asleep; the grandmother reluctantly sleeps again; the thunder falls asleep, his daughter does not; while One-Eyed flirts with her, the twins replace Thunder's club and mirror (causes lightning); when they came down, añuje, at their request, cut off the vine, it fell, injuring its paws; the brothers told The battleship undermined the roots of the tree, knocked it west with Thunder's weapon; Thunder was surprised that its former strength was gone]: Blixen 1999, No. 5:113-134; letuama [night monkeys killed the hunter; his head fell into the hollow, the body on the ground; the pregnant wife put a stick in her ass (thinking that there should be a head here), and the palm leaves in her neck stopped bleeding; the body turned into an anteater; the woman gave birth on the way; the boy for I grew up for seven days, came to my grandfather; he says that if a boy is his grandson, he will not get wet in the rain; he went out and did not get wet; Who killed my father? - Snake; a young man came to the Snakes, asking him to be killed as a father; - Not us, ask his mother; - He fell off a tree! - I ate a jaguar! - The forest spirit of Kurupir killed; once a young man helped his grandfather get rid of mosquitoes on the site; he said in gratitude that night monkeys had killed; the young man demanded his mother's wind gun, shot him monkeys, but one was only injured; when her mother wanted to put her into the fire, the monkey killed her; when she saw the mother dead, the son turned into a frog]: Palma 1984:134-137; yagua [man married to Night Monkeys; wife makes masato (alcoholic drink), sends her husband to hunt night monkeys; her brothers are waiting there, killing him themselves; everyone eats it, drinking masato; giving meat to his little son, planning it kill too; or the son is born after the death of his father; asks the mother how the father died; she replies that she fell from a roof, from a tree; cut down a tree, it crushed him, a nest of bees fell on him; ate a jaguar; bitten by an anteater, a snake; a young man exposes himself to the same dangers, is alive; asks animals, they say they are innocent; (see motive H39); a young man broke a vessel of poison at Chuchupe, snakes took possession of it; Ch. tells him the truth; the mother lies that there is a bird's nest under the roof; the son climbs there, takes his father's wind gun; waits for monkeys in ambush; the father of the young man's mother hangs around his neck the skull of the young man's father eaten, he blows he is like a horn; others have a flute made of the bones of the killed; the young man kills everyone; the cub escapes, the current monkeys come from him, but the young man makes them harmless; Chuchupe received a horn for his help skulls to warn people of his intimacy; the Frog asked for it to be given to her, jumped into the water; since then her voice has been loud; the son brings the mother of her father and brothers he killed; C. warned the young man to he left animals and thorns behind; the mother throws the magic lasso, but only attracts what is left behind (or the son tears the noose); the Sloth catches fish, saying "monkey food on the father's bone hook"; the fish is here but he bites; the young man asks for him, repeats the trick; presses the Sloth into a tree, tears off his fingers, turns him into a sloth; four Trogons (birds) make battle loops (garrotes) to kill the young man (they talk about this); he asks to let him see, kills them with them, blood turns into trogons; makes a hat out of palm leaves, leaves them on the trail, she turns into a woman; he needs a male servant; does the other, she turns into a young man; he tells him not to touch his wind gun; he sees toucans, climbs onto the platform, the toucan pecks out his eye, then his eye swallows powhil; companions catch birds in snare, each cut in half, from which the male and female of the corresponding species emerge; the pauchil is the last eye in it, the servant inserts it back; the fish pulls out his eye, he disappears completely; because of this, it begins rain, flood; a young man plants a seed, a tree grows, raises them with his house above the waters; a young man takes manioc cakes from the sky; the crumbs fall; he tells the servant that he eats his crap; he eats his own (or does not eat); to find out if the water has slept, they throw pods; the first turns into majás, swims away; the second runs away in paka; they go down; the servant is afraid to go down, turns into a nest of bees; the young man himself asks the electric eel for his rod; he gives a false one; the young man sits next to his mother, hits the ground with a rod, there is a distant thunder; he throws ants in the eye, grabs the rod, Eel jumps into the water forever; son cuts his mother in half with a thunder; both halves turn into frogs; now, when lightning strikes, their tadpoles lose their tails and become adults]: Powlison 1959:9- 11; 1972a: 78-79; 1993:80-96; chikuna [nu'tapa got angry with his wife, tied her to a tree, hornets bit her genitals; she told the cancan bird (Ibycter americanus) that if he were a man, he would have untied her; that's what happened; he gave her a hornet nest; she threw him at her husband, hornets bit him, and his knees were swollen for a long time; they were born from the right Dyoi and his sister, from the left Epi and his sister; came out five years old; their father N. was torn to pieces by a jaguar; his mother tells her grandchildren that N. destroyed ash, they showered themselves with ash, nothing happened; that a leaf fell on him (the same); when they grew up, she said the truth; the brothers encircled the earth with hair, driving all the animals into the corral; the Jaguariha was the last to come, blowing into a horn made of N.'s stomach; when she saw the brothers, she swallowed her stomach, became hypocritical to mourn N.; they offered her to wear a necklace, put on a chain, pulled out her stomach, but it fell into the river, swallowed it by the caiman; it was pulled out, but her stomach bounced again, swallowed by a forest lizard; Hot coal was applied to her throat, her stomach fell between the butterfly's wings; a hole was burned in her wings, her stomach was taken out, and her father was revived]: Nimuendaju 1952:122-123.

Central Amazon. Maue [The Harpy Eagle carries the son of monkeys; he cries and wants fish; the eagle suspects that his wife has a lover bringing fish; sends a fly to watch her, kills his lover, the Soko bird, drives his son away; tells his wife to put her hand in the hollow to catch the rat; the hand gets stuck, the wife turns into the creaking of trees; the eagle asks Aram to eat the corpse, take the twins out of the womb of the victim; Soko's son eat it too, and give his son (Eagle) to his mother; she washes the baby in the river, he slips away, becoming a fish; the brothers of the killed offer Eagle to pick up a log in the middle of the water; it breaks, the Eagle falls into the water, he is killed by the Big Turtle; the grandmother asks the sisters of the killed to catch his grandson; he asks his grandmother who killed his father; answer, Wind, then Hot Summer; he scratches his aunts, they say that their father killed his father; he finds feathers, later his father's leg on the ceremony site; trains to pick up logs and stones; pulls the Turtle out of the water; the Toucan, then the Dove, can't penetrate its shell, The woodpecker pierces; these birds are colored with her blood; Jaguar and fish also color]: Ugge 1991, No. 2:130-146.

Montagna - Jurua. Shipibo [at night, the young man masturbates in calebass; his mother began to put him one at a time and throw him away; two boys came out of the broken calebas; they ask who killed their mother; the grandmother replies that Lightning; they killed the Lightning Spirit; they ask again if they threaten to kill the grandmother herself; she replies that Tapir killed; they found Tapir from fresh litter; the youngest became an ant, climbed into Tapira's anus, cut off his heart; the eldest cut the tapir's stomach, released the younger one; the youngest turned into a pot to cook meat; the elder puts it on the fire and then in the water; the meat is cooked; the Sloth promised to call a bird that will transport the brothers through the river; the bird asks not to step on the bow of her boat; the eldest listened, the youngest stepped on the shore, the boat turned into a caiman, bit off his leg; the Sloth dried the river with a magic spear, the elder cut off caiman's jaw, takes out his brother's leg; when they return to their grandmother, the brothers again ask who killed their mother; she replies that they will receive an answer in heaven; the brothers climbed a chain of arrows, the eldest has a jaw in his hands caimana - Hyades]: Roe 1982, No. 8:63-66.

Southern Amazon. Kayabi: Pereira 1995, No. 3 [black spirit kills father; mother: he was bitten by an ant; scorpion; other poisonous insects (the hero does not bite himself to them)]: 35; Ribeiro 1988 [toad and The forest spirit kills father and other people; mother, grandmother, sisters: he was bitten by a snake, killed by a jaguar; brothers kill a snake, a jaguar, and other animals; they kill a toad, a spirit and his wife]: 423.

Chaco. Maca [the grandmother hides from the young man who killed his parents; he asks the yellow bird Quistawá about this; the bird says they are two water snakes, a male and a female; the young man lets himself be swallowed male, cuts off his heart, then the same with the female; comes to his grandmother, who says that his father was killed by Sinjenaj (royal vulture); he kills S., birds smear in the victim's blood; see motive B36]: Wilbert, Simoneau 1991a, No. 10: Wilbert, Simoneau 1991a, No. 10:43-45