Yu.E. Berezkin, E.N. Duvakin

Thematic classification and distribution of folklore and mythological motifs by area

Analytical catalogue

Introduction
Bibliography
Ethnicities and habitats

J6A. The mother is eaten, the daughter is being saved. 13.14.

A pregnant woman with her young daughter ends up in cannibals. Cannibals find and eat a woman, but her daughter and the baby eaten in the womb are saved.

Damara, nama, kabila.

SW Africa. Damara [the pregnant woman fell behind her own, sat down to rest; her daughter Aga-abes stayed with her; the cannibal called them to her house, promised to give a massage to restore the woman's strength; sent A. for water, squeezed the twins out of the woman, put them in a leather bag, ate the woman; told her daughter that her mother went to catch up with her own; the bag became small for the twins, the cannibal placed them in an ostrich egg; grew up and from there; they consider the leather bag to be their mother; A. met them, explained everything; while the cannibal was away, they brought brushwood into the house; at night they set fire to the house; they demanded that the cannibal's mother's heart, she threw her mother's heart to them; they they demanded again, she gave; the cannibal's heart and herself were burned; the mother's heart was buried in warm ash, the mother came to life; married the eldest of her sons, A. took the youngest; they came from small and large Half of the damar eater called them into her house, promised to give them a massage to restore the woman's strength; sent A.]: Vedder 1923:7-8. Several published and dozens of unpublished records on nama and especially damara in Schmidt 1995, No. 863:570-572 with the comment: No close variants outside Namibia known.

North Africa. Kabila: Taos-Amrush 1974 [daughter asks to open the cage, her father's favorite partridge flies away; mother and daughter run away in fear, climb a tree; the girl wrote, the animals saw her, the snake got up, the mother bit, the animals ate the fallen woman; the rabbit saved the baby from her womb; told the girl to go down, gave her the boy, taught her to quickly make him an adult; he marries; the wife does not love her sister, lays snake eggs on her, her stomach grows; her brother throws her into a hole in the forest; the passerby pulls her out, the healer pulls out the snakes, the woman dries them; gives birth to a son; goes with him to his brother; the boy talks their story; brother and wife fall into the ground, sister pulls brother by the hair back]: 154-163; Mammeri 1996, No. 1 [the hunter brought a partridge to later use as a coat; daughter asked mother let him play with the partridge; she flew away; although it is late in the evening, the husband kicked his wife and daughter out of the house - do not come back without a partridge; in the forest, the hare tells them to climb the tree, predators will soon return ; the girl's tears are dripping down; the hare explains that it is rain, but the jackal finds out that the sky is clear; the lion sent an ant to check, the woman killed him; then the snake, she bit the woman, she fell, the animals ate her; the hare asked to leave her baby from her womb, kept it; when the animals went hunting, told the girl to go down, handed her a boy, his name was Hawthorn, that is, he was born among hawthorn bushes; gave bone marrow to feed the child; the girl was sheltered in the village; she found a pot of gold, now they have enough to live on; asks her brother what he would do with the money; buy toys; in a few years: horse; then: home; so the brother became an adult and his sister showed him gold; he married; the wife is jealous of Sister B., because she is more beautiful than her; made an omelet from 7 snake eggs and gave her; B. believes his wife that her sister pregnant; sister advises to leave her sister in the forest; in the forest B. tells her sister to cut wood in one place, and he and his wife will cut in another; all day the sister hears her brother's dog barking and the sound of his ax; already twilight; the rider asks what the girl is doing alone in the woods at such a time; she tells him to go by - her brother and wife are nearby; the same second rider; the third led her to a place where barking and knocking could be heard an ax; there the dog is tied to a tree, and a mallet is swaying on the tree, which the wind hits the calebas; the girl went with this man; in the village, an old man advised him to feed the girl salty meat, do not drink for three days, then hang them by the legs over a trough of water; as the snakes crawled out to the water, the man killed them with a knife; married a girl; they have a son, the wife suggested the name Serebryany, because he born in wealth; he complains that other boys laugh at him - he does not have a maternal uncle; the father agrees to let the boy go with his mother, but warns that his uncles are forest animals; they come to B . under the guise of beggars; agree that S. will ask his mother to tell the story; the brother's wife does not want to let her in, but B. himself allowed it; the woman pretends not to tell, but B.'s children are intrigued and ask tell; as the story progresses, B. and his wife sink into the ground; at the last moment, the sister grabbed her brother by the hair and pulled it out, and hit his wife on the head with a mallet, and she disappeared into the ground; he came to them woman's husband; B. married again]: 7-24.