J58C. A bridge of arrows .12.21.37.64.68.72.

A chain of arrows forms a bridge over a water barrier.

Thompson: D469.3. Transformation: chain of arrows to bridge.

Hausa, Vai, Gola, Lepcha, Nivhi, Tenetehara, Urubu, Kayabi, Matako.

West Africa. Hausa [three friends named the King of Fighters, the King of Riflemen, the King of Prayers come to marry the girls; after taking their wives, they see that the river has overflowed on the way back; the King of Prayers with prayer spreads the waters, brings his wife dry; Tsar Strelkov shoots a series of arrows that fall on the water, runs over them, holding his wife, behind him the arrows float with the flow (arrows fell upon the stream in a stream, strong line from one bank to the other); The King of Fighters jumped the river with his wife]: Jablow 196:101-102; vai [three twin brothers are sorcerers; one crossed the river by a stream of smoke from his own pipes, the other along a thread from a loose ball, the third made a bridge of arrows, launching one after the other]: Ellis 1914, No. 8:191-192; naked [girl rejects suitors; the forest spirit borrows from other different parts of the body, comes handsome, the girl goes with him, he returns the loan, the girl is forced to live in his lair; the girl's mother has twins, goes to look for her sister; by the river one makes a bridge out of arrows, the other crosses in clouds of smoke; they come to their sister, live with her, their two big dogs guard them; while the spirit is gone, the brothers pour rice to the rooster to prevent him from picking up the spirit anxiety, they run away with their sister to their parents; the spirit again appears under the guise of a beautiful woman, one of the brothers takes her as his wife; the wife takes her husband to the forest to collect fruits; when the husband climbs a tree, accepts his true appearance, trying to knock down a tree; the husband restores the tree with witchcraft; so several times; her husband's dogs come running, killing his imaginary wife]: Westermann 1921, No. 20:101-102.

Tibet is the Northeast of India. Lepcha [at ra so pu nu (PN), king of ra zo, wife of shing ra ni pun di (PD); she washed her hair in the stream, one carried water to the land of mungs (evil spirits); hair appeared there in the form of a rainbow; the king of the mungs sent his sister to look for the mistress of the hair; she flew in as a crow, then tried to persuade PD to leave her husband as a woman; she refused; while PD was hunting, the Mung king sent warriors, they brought PD together with the room she's locked in; PN goes in search; the black monkey fights the white monkey, PD kills the black monkey; the monkey king surrounds his palace with a lake; the monkey king tells PN to shoot at wooden painting above the entrance to the palace, arrows pierce each other's tails; monkeys cross, carry PN, dismantle the bridge; the monkey king throws seed, mango grows to PD room, monkey king brings PD to her husband; mung warriors rush at him, he bounces, they kill each other; catch the monkey king; he replies that you can kill him if you put his tail in oil and set him on fire; runs with a burning one with his tail, the palace burns down, the monkey king extinguishes his tail in the lake; the monkeys killed all the mungs; they cursed the monkeys, they died at night, except for the king and queen; the monkeys were revived; the feast, PN awarded the monkeys] : Siiger 1967, No. 2:215-218.

Amur - Sakhalin. Nivhi [the poor young man lay motionless in the house; the woman called him; he got up, went breaking trees; went downstream, trapped in an evil spirit made to the size of a human figures; cilantro flocked, began to argue whose trap was and whose prey; a cilantro woman took him to a house with cilantro; he was ironed, two dogs were guarded; an elderly man in shackles next to him - a son the owner of the mountain, and the young man and sister are the children of the master of heaven; the man put cilantro to sleep with a song, ordered the iron mouse to gnaw through the shackles, ripped open the stomach of a huge old woman, in it a chest of snakes and lizards, their man trampled on seven eggs in the same place; he breaks these eggs on the bridge of cilantro, they die; far in the sea, a hanging barn, in which the daughter of the master of the sea, will marry whoever gets to it; a man fires an arrow , she pierces the wall of the barn; then the others, they pierce each other's tails; he runs across them like a bridge, taking them off with him; the woman puts a hundred needles at him, then something else, then something else, then disappeared; he beat everything off, slashed it with a knife, the woman appeared, he married her, returned to her people he had saved, took his second wife, the daughter of the master of heaven (he bit off her little finger and swallowed her, and now he regurgitated) ; he has one wife from heaven, the other from the sea, and both sons are even more powerful than their father]: Pevnov 2010, No. 4:105-114.

Eastern Amazon. Tenetehara [see motive J9; a pregnant woman goes to the Jaguars, they eat her, throw the children into boiling water, they jump out; the Jaguar grandmother adopts them, they learn about the death of their mother, decide to kill them Jaguars; throw cassava pestles into the water, which turn into piranhas and water snakes; make a bridge across the river in the form of a chain of arrows; show the Jaguars the fruits growing across the river; Jaguars cross the bridge for with fruits; brothers tell the banks to disperse, the river turns into a sea; (var.: cut the end of the bridge); Jaguars fall into the water, are eaten]: Nimuendaju 1915:282-285; urubu [passing by a tree, Maïra he put his penis into the crack because he did not have a wife; the tree was swollen, a pregnant woman came out of it, the baby in her womb spoke, pointing the way to his father; asked his mother to tear flowers for him; one day she reached for a flower, bitten by a snake, slapped her stomach, reproached her son; he fell silent; she went to Mukura's house (i.e. opossum); he offered to spend the night with him; it was raining at night, Mukura A woman made a hole in the roof over the hammock, who was forced to lie in his hammock; in the morning he told me to go left from the fork, but she turned right and ended up in a jaguar village; the jaguar wives told me to leave as soon as possible, but she stayed; she was hidden under a vessel; the jaguars turned the vessel over; Maira's son turned her mother into an animal, she ran away, caught up, killed; two embryos were given to the old woman; she began to fry them, but burned her hands; the embryos turned into agouti; the old woman began to raise them; the jaguars wanted to eat them; they became boys, ran away, went to look for Maira, stayed with him; Maira's son offered to steal a fishing hook a forest demon; Maira's son bit off and took it away; Mukura's son was caught in the guise of a piranha; the demon ate her, threw her bones away; Maira's son turned into ants, they collected bones, Mukura's son came to life; another forest spirit Mukura's son took the hook safely; Meira praised them; the brothers turned into hummingbirds, flew, set fire to the forest demon's beard, his head burned; the brothers killed the hummingbird {real}, found it in his stomach human; when they went to the wide river, they started shooting arrows one at the tail of the other, it turned out to be a bridge, they crossed it to the other side, killed many bakers there; called the jaguars to pick up the meat; when they they crossed the bridge with arrows, the brothers destroyed it; all the jaguars drowned because they were carrying a load of meat]: Ribeiro 2002:210-215.

Southern Amazon. Kayabi [bridge of arrows across the river]: Pereira 1995, No. 1 [God and his children run away from enemies], 2 [twins go looking for their father]: 25, 29.

Chaco. Matako [the old men took the young man to a city in the middle of the sea; he fired arrows one after another, making a bridge; he came back over it, destroyed the bridge behind him; it must have been Takwah]: Wilbert, Simoneau 1982a, No. 195:313