J8. Feathers at a fork in the road. 43.56.-.59.61.-.63.68.73.

A woman or girl goes in search of her husband (groom, etc.). Bird feathers left on a trail, at a crossroads or at a dwelling mark the right or wrong path. See motive J7.

The coast is the Plateau. Thompson [Coyote's two daughters marry two hunters; one gives birth to a son; he cries to see his grandmother; hunters send wives to her; a narrow path covered in red ocher leads to grandmother; wide, covered in bird fluff, to the Ogre; contrary to warning, women walk wide; the Ogre's wife advises them to run before their husband returns; the Ogre puts the women and the boy in the cauldron; the boy does a hole in the bottom, fills the fire with urine; women and a boy run; one turns four pubic hair into four trees; fugitives hide in them; while the Ogre cuts trees, husbands lower dogs; this is the Grizzly and The Rattlesnake; they kill the Ogre]: Teit 1898, No. 6:34-36; quinolt [The Sea Monster sends a daughter to marry one of the Owl's five sons; after a fork, the path to the right is dotted with long white feathers, to the left - little, disheveled; despite the warning, the girl turns left; comes to Hohojos, Sipuha; he pretends to be who she is looking for; tells me to bring the bear he killed; she finds only a mouse; at night she runs away, hides in a tree above the river; H. dives behind her reflection, returns home; she marries Owl's eldest son; X. serves as a jester at the festival; repeats: My wife sitting on the other side of the cauldron; he gets killed]: Farrand 1902, No. 13:122-124; the upper chehalis [the chief tells his daughters to follow the right path, it has red paint; the eldest is on the left, where the feathers are, the youngest returns home; the eldest marries Skunk; his master tells him to bring meat; the woman realizes that her husband is a servant; suffers from the stench; the owner sends Skunk, runs with the woman to heaven; Skunk sees their reflection, throws a stream into the water; then looks up, asks how they climbed; feet forward; the owner throws hot stones into Skunk's ass, his iron falls out; see motive J12]: Adamson 1934, #27:46-52

Llanos. Sicuani.

Southern Venezuela. Yanomam.

Guiana. Varrau [The sun goes west, leaving feathers on the path; his wife is following the trail; the wind blows her feathers away; the baby from her womb guides her; asks her to pick flowers; she is bitten by a wasp; she claps herself belly; son thinks his mother beats him, stops talking; a woman comes to an old frog; see motive J16]: Wilbert 1970, No. 166:359-360; carinha (Orinoco): Civrieux 1974:82-83.

Western Amazon. Shuar; achuar; aguaruna; napo [The swallow leaves a feather sign after a woman leaves the Tsuna]: Foletti Castegnaro 1985:102; candoshi [Swallow met two girls, Huito and Achote {"genipa" and "uruku"}; went hunting, explaining that there would be a parrot feather (guacamayo clavado) on the path to his house, and on the trail to Alcanfor {a smelly repellent for insects from the sap of certain trees} - chicua feather; A. changed feathers; the girls came to him; later came to Swallow, but he rejected them because of the stench; they turned into genipa and achiote, pulled them out of their tail Swallows feathers, it's split now]: Page 1975:24-55.

NW Amazon. Bar; Desana; Tariana; Whitoto: Preuss 1921, No. 23:105; Barasana: S.Hugh-Jones 1979, No. 4A, 7K: 275, 300; Macuna [Month (Makañi ñ amigaü - "Night Sun") copulated with plants due to the absence of women; his leg began to swell; to cure him, his sister Meneriyo offered to meet her on the condition that it was no longer will happen again; but he began to secretly come to her at night; becoming pregnant, M. smeared her lover's face with her genipa to find out who was coming to her; he could not wash off the paint, drowned himself in the river; the father sent the owls to look for his son, those did not find it; the Ayawa brothers found, the sixth finger was missing; A. began to laugh with the stories of all the animals; the toad did not laugh (apparently, the finger was in her throat), so people between the thumb and index There is no sixth finger; Bakonea (naughty little brother) ridiculed the Month, so the elder was only able to revive him for the fourth time; he was placed at the mouth of the Amazon, collected dust from his body, and it turned into midges biting when the moon is in the sky; when M. entered Maloka, did not greet his revived brother, but asked the Monkey what he ate; the Month said that the fruits of caimo; M. tried to pluck it, the branch springed her, threw her into heaven; then their father went to live in another boy, put the figure of an old woman at a fork in the roads; if M. laughs at her, the old woman would send her to the path where the feather of the utu bird, leading to the cannibal shaman ~Gãs; if not, then on the path to her father's house, where the guacamayo feather; the mochilero bird saw M.'s reflection in a water vessel, found M., cleared her body of flies, brought a rope go down; the rope turned into a certain kind of vine; finding no one, M. asked the old woman where her father had gone, laughed at her; she sent her on the path to ~Gãs; then see motive J15]: Å rhem et al. 2004:484-488; yagua [After the Month met their sister, people became drunk at the festival, turned into herons and flew away; the sister of the Month went looking for them; asked about the path of Heron's ancestors , they almost killed her; Agouti ordered her to turn at the fork not where the parrot's feathers were, but the pineapple peel; on that way she would reach her uncle; she did not understand, she turned where the feathers were and went to the Jaguars; the old woman hid her under the roof; Jaguar came, she dropped something, he began to copulate with her; the second Jaguar ate her; the grandmother took the embryo, he jumped into the water; the woman's uncle's sons swim, they see it; he lit a fire, threw himself into it, became the Sun; one of his uncle's sons followed him and became the Evening Star]: Chaumeil 1983:193-194.

Central Amazon. Tupi (or rather, the place of recording is not known) [the girl looks for the Falcon groom, sees the wrong pen sign at the fork, gets to the Possum; then to the Vulture; finally to the Falcon; the Vulture comes for her, the Falcon hits him]: Couto de Magallães 1882:57 -61; Vila-Bela [when leaving, the husband tells his wife that she will find arar feathers on the way to him; the children from the mother's womb show the way; they want to eat, they cry, she hits her stomach, they stop talking; she falls to the Jaguars, says that she followed the trail of urubu and the feathers of the arar; one day the Jaguars return without prey and eat it; their grandmother finds eggs in the uterus, of which 7 boys and a girl are born; avenging their mother, invite the Jaguars to swim where it is deeper; they drown; the Jaguar grandmother comes, they kill her; they go up to heaven, turn into Pleiades]: Barbosa Rodrigues 1890, No. 13:261-262.

Bolivia - Guaporé. Surui; synta larga [the Kaboêp girl loved the Owl, but met the Paxit bird (blue, considered the son of Jaguar) at the festival, asking her to leave a sign for her on the path to his house; this is his pen; sister K. says that on the path to Owl's house, the Owl's feather; K. and his sister come to Owl {the sign substitution is not mentioned, the sister is no longer mentioned before the Mutum bird episode}; Owl's mother says that he should bring game to his wife; he brings rats; agrees to give corn; leads for honey, K. does not see bees, Owl climbs a tree, knocks out his eye (? ; quebrou olho), the liquid poured out, Owl says it's honey; K. replies that she will go for the vessel, goes to Pxit herself (took her hammock with her in advance); asks Pomi (Rolinha; bird?) , who eats fruit on a tree, does not say he has seen it; comes to the Crane (Socó), who hides it in his throat; Pomi, Socó tell Sova that they have not seen his wife; Owl asks what kind of bloating Socó has a throat, he replies that his teeth hurt; K. sleeps under the wing of Mutum, becomes pregnant with him, sister K. and Mutum did not get along; K. came to Paxit, Owl demands her return, K. does not want to, Paxis kills the Owl with an arrow, he comes to life, returns home; Jaguariha's mother-in-law asks K. to remove the splinter from her leg; there is no splinter in her leg, Jaguariha kills K., sister K. saves the egg, Sunkip was born from it, grew up; his father tells him to kill Mutum so as not to shout (letters. "cried"); Mutum tells S. not to kill him, says that he is his father, that his mother killed Jaguariha; brings a snake to hide it among edible larvae; she bites Jaguariha, but she does not feel anything; then C . asks Jaguariha to catch nuts that he will throw from the tree, she catches; Mutum asks to check if Yaguariha feels the heat of the fire; advises her to get the larva thrown there out of the fire; S. pushes Jaguariha into the fire, she burns; the ashes have turned into harmful insects; S. asks the Turtle to deceive the Jaguar, who will take revenge; more about the Jaguars and the Turtle, full text in J12 motif]: Leonel Queiroz et al. 1988:63-69.

Southern Amazon. Iranshe; paresi.

Southern Brazil. Caigua [pregnant wife does not believe that the corn and pumpkins planted in the morning are ripe; yet she goes to the garden; at this time the husband goes to heaven; the son from the womb indicates where the father went; woman sees feathers of a large white bird on the path; the son confirms that the father passed here; the son asks to collect flowers for him; the woman is bitten by a wasp, she hits herself in the stomach, punish her son; the son falls silent; the woman gets to the Jaguars; the old Jaguariha hides her, the Jaguar finds it, eats it; the Jaguariha asks for unborn twins; the eldest is Nanderike-s; they are not fried, they are not crushed in a mortar; Jaguariha adopts them; does not tell them to hunt in the other side; they shoot Jacques, the parrot; Jacques says they are fools, the Parrot talks about the death of his mother; the brothers fail to catch Jaguariha with a noose; her name is fruits on the other side of the stream, lay a pole across the stream; turn the pole over, Jaguarikha falls into a stream, which turns into a sea; brothers make their mother; kill Anya's spirits]: Strelnikov 1930:306- 308.