K166. Forty girls. 13.17.27.30.33.

A group of girls form a community or detachment and acts independently of men. Cf. motive F39.

Dinka, Anuak, Nubians, Sudanese Arabs, Kordofan, Bilin, Yemen, Greeks, Bukhara Arabs, Tajiks, Baluchis, Karakalpaks, (Kazakhs).

Sudan - East Africa. Dinka [Diirawig is more beautiful than other girls; her brother Teeng refuses all her suitors because he wants to marry her; mother doubts, sends her father to ask; so all relatives; finally, aunt by mother agrees; T. is preparing a wedding, stabbed his beloved ox; the kite grabbed and carried away the oxtail, threw D. on her knees; she recognized the tail of her brother's favorite ox, went to find out why he was stabbed to death; the youngest her sister, Nyanaguek, told her everything and gave her a knife: let her husband cut off his testicles in the morning, when his brother-husband is not yet awake; when T. is going to get together with his sister at night, the lizard warns him not to do so he lies down again; then grass; rafters; in the morning - walls, utensils, rats; T. fell asleep without getting along with D.; N. woke her up, D. cut off his brother's testicles and he died; the sisters began to beat drums in a special way; When they hear, the girls should get together and dance, and everyone else is not allowed to come; D. told us what happened, now she will go to the forest; girls: you and me, because this can happen to us too; they did not take the little girls with them, but N. had to take it, otherwise she promised to raise the alarm; the girls settled on the border between the land of people and the land of lions; built a village; found an anthill in which an inexhaustible source of grain and meat; the lion saw the girls, did not dare to attack, returned in the form of a dog; only N. felt the danger; at night the lion knocked to ask D. to open; N. in response gives names girls, about everyone - that she sleeps; lion: why don't you sleep? G.: I want to drink, but I only drink water brought in a wicker vessel; the lion tried to bring water in the basket until dawn; so many nights; D. wonders why N. is losing weight (from lack of sleep), but she does not have anything says; finally confesses; D. stays with her for the night and tells her not to answer; in the morning he breaks, D. wants to kill him with a spear, but the lion promises to become a brother; brought cattle, ordered the bull to be slaughtered and feed him to tame him; saliva on his face, a puppy pops out of it, the puppy is killed, the lion is given boiled meat; so 4 times; then hot broth is poured into his mouth; he is fed milk for several months; the lion tells the girls return to the village, taking all the cattle; became a young man - D.'s new brother; D. was the first to know her younger brother, who was young when the girls left; he understood this by D.'s resemblance to his mother; everyone is happy; The chief's two sons, both named T., want D. to marry; D.: I will marry someone who will give my new brother four wives; after getting married, D. gave birth to 12 children; the 13th had the nature of a lion; as a baby, he got up, He put on clothes made of skins and sang; stabbed his claws at his brothers and drank their blood; the lion brother offered to kill this child, but D. refused; but when he grew up and continued to drink blood, he still killed him]: Deng 1984:78 -90; anuak [Awili has Owili's brother; he wants to marry her, his parents don't mind; when O. went to his sister, she cut off his penis head, ran out of the hut, took all the girls in the village, with her and white dog; asked God to open the termite mound, the girls went inside and stayed there; cattle graze nearby, one bull rubs against the termite mound and A. sings at that time; heard the song; the leader tells us to dig up a termite mound, but no matter how much they dug, the dug is again filled with clay; but after the chief sacrificed an ox, the young men dug up a termite mound; A. jumped down the throat of her dog, the boys dismantled the girls, but alone the poor and ugly young man was left without a wife, he only got a dog; he lives with his mother in a hut on the outskirts; when they go to the field, A. gets out of the dog, cooks food; the boy's mother spoke loudly Son: Let's go! but in fact they hid; the young man grabbed A.; she turned into a cow, a hippopotamus, a leopard, a pelican, and other animals and birds, but he did not let her out and A. remained in human form; A. ordered to make a beer and appeared to the people in leopard clothing; became the wife of a young man, refusing to be the leader's wife; he hunted, the young man also went, the chief killed him by filling the corpse with branches; the white dog licked the owner, ran home, the mother saw blood, and the dog led A. to the victim; A. covered him with leopard skin and the young man came to life; the leader denied that he killed the young man; A. touched the ground with her bamboo with a staff and all the villagers fell into the crevice; after 4 days A. returned them, but they were heavily eaten by termites; A. became the village leader]: Evans Pritchard, Beaton 1940, No. 15:66-70; Nubians {synopsis Nubian and Arabic Sudanese versions} [brother wants to marry his sister, Beautiful Fatma; F. and his companions run away, get to the cannibal, they manage to send her away, run away again, they cross the river on a crocodile; F. meets an old man (in two out of five versions, an old woman), peels off his skin with a thorn, puts him on himself; the girls hide in a cave, they are found by young men, taken away, the Sultan's son gets an imaginary the old man, whom he tells to herd geese (pigeons, goats); the slave, followed by the Sultan's son, sees F. bathing with the old man's skin off; the sultan's son plays chess or another game with an imaginary old man, the winner gets the right to skin the loser; F. wins first, but then the Sultan's son wins; wedding]: Goldberg 1997:34; Sudanese Arabs: Al-Shahi, Moore 1920, No. 20 [Fatima is so beautiful that her brother Muhammad decided to marry her himself; F. asked her mother to help put a jug of water on her head; she replied that F. should first call her not mother, but mother-in-law; the same with her father (father-in-law), brother (groom) ; F. told all the girls in the village that it was decided to pass them off as brothers, took them all away, they came to the cannibal giantess; F. ordered them not to eat anything, hide the food in a cooked hole, but the youngest girl tasted it; F . told the cannibal to bring water from the seventh sea in a net or in a leaky calebass; the girls ran away, but the youngest could not; the cannibal returned, found out from the younger that the girls had run away, told them to be in front of them piles of gold appeared; silk fabrics; each time F. told me to take only a little and run on; the river; F. asked the crocodile to transport, on the other side he would give one girl to eat; when they swam, F. tells the crocodile to transport their mother (i.e. the cannibal) first; when they are in the middle of the river, F. shouted that the crocodile's prey was on his back; he dived and ate the cannibal; the girls settled in a cave; nearby an old man with 6 sons; F. asks him how to remove his skin - to pierce a thorn; she plunged, her skin slept, F. put it on, returned to the cave in the guise of an old man; the camel fits to eat foliage from the bush, girls he is driven away; the young men consistently began to come to find out what was going on; each took a girl; when Wad al-Amin approached, only an imaginary old man came to the cave; the old man says he can't herd cattle; YES agrees that he should herd pigeons by the river; F. removes the old man's skin by the river; the slave sent with her is delighted, but he cannot tell him anything; the imaginary old man said that the slave is sick, let him be burned chest; so several times; then AM himself went, saw everything; at home he offered to play chess, the winner would remove the skin from the loser; F. won, but did not fresh AM; AM won, F. took off her skin; on the whole village gathered for the wedding], 21 [Fatma's older brother's horse slipped on strands of hair by the river; the brother promised to marry the one whose hair it was, even if it was F.; F. persuaded seven girls to run together with her, otherwise their brothers will do the same; before the wedding night, she went out to pee, pierced a pre-prepared wineskin with water, you could hear the murmur of the stream, the girls managed to leave; in the desert they came to the cannibal; she offered them milk and one of the girls tasted it; at night F. replies that she is awake; asks them to go calm the dogs in a distant village; and other tasks (not named); in the morning they asked the cannibal to bake them bread on the fire that burns there; it is the sun; the cannibal tried it, but did not bake the bread; when she returned, she found only the one that drank her milk; broke her neck and ate it; the girls asked the tree to become little, climbed on top of it, then asked him to stand tall again; stuck knives around; lowered the cannibal's rope, picked it up and threw it several times; knives pierced her and she died; the girls went further; F. began to look for the old man in his head; asks how he could be killed; the old man: pierce a thorn into the crown; F. did so, put on old man's skin; the girls began to live in a cave; merchants passed by, them the camel began to chew the straw that closed the entrance; the merchants dismantled the girls; one of them was crooked; he said to the merchant: they took the curve, but left the flower; the Sultan's son heard, returned, took the imaginary old man; when they they go, F.'s jewelry rings; "These are my bones"; F. chose to herd geese rather than sheep to be able to swim; the slave sees her taking off old man's skin; she makes him speechless (apparently by witchcraft) ; at home he points to F., but cannot say anything; F.: he is crazy, he should be burned with iron; burned to death; this is how almost all slaves died; the Sultan's son went to spy himself, climbed a tree, stole F.'s ring; at home offered to play checkers: the winner would take off the other skin; F. won twice, but did not exercise her right; then the Sultan's son won; married F., but hid it from people; once F. went out, people fell breathless because of her beauty; she sprayed blood from her little finger on them, everyone came to life; all was well], 23 [Fatma the Beautiful saw the camel come to eat crops; not knowing it was a camel her brother Muhammad, tied him with strands of her hair; M. swore to marry the one whose hair it was; the parents agreed on the condition that M. would bring dowry from distant places; told F. to flee with 6 daughters of her mother's sisters; one of them was lame; they saw big and small lights; F. said that where big, there was a cannibal, but the girls did not listen; the cannibal gave crushed human bones to eat, moistened with her milk; F. told me not to eat; the lame did not listen, the others quietly threw the food into the dug holes; in the morning the girls said that they should bring water with a net, a calabass without a hole, with an unburned vessel; she could not, came back, fried and ate the lame girl, rushed in pursuit of the others; wants the wedding to meet (the girls start dancing at the wedding, but again they run) so that the river with the crocodile; he transports on the condition that he is given one of the girls; but on the other side they ask to transfer the cannibal first, they say that she is his share, the crocodile dives; the girls live in a cave; a camel approaches her, followed by his owner Wad al-Nimair, he tells the girl to go out; so one girl every day; F. secretly came to the VN garden, asked the old man how to skin him off (a thorn in her forehead), stabbed a thorn, put on his skin; the imaginary old man agrees to herd only pigeons; and only a dumb slave with him; by the river F. took off the old man's skin, bathed; at home, the slave gestured to talk about what he saw; F. explained that the slave had a headache and wanted to be cut off; the slave had his head cut off; so all but the last slaves were beheaded; VN went with him himself; stole F.'s ring while she bathed; the slave is the same as with the previous ones, but VN refuses to cut his head, but offers to fight; the winner will open the belly of the defeated; VN loses three times, but F. does not touch him; for the fourth time won, skinned the old man, married F.]: 110-114, 114-118, 120-125; Sudanese Arabs (Jaaaliyin) [approximately like Al-Shahi, Moore 1920, No. 21]: Hurreiz 1977, No. 8:83-85; Kordofan (ethnos not specified) [a rich man unfairly took another man's money and son, made him his servant; took him to the city, where he was going to give three daughters of the impoverished for his acquaintances; on the way, the poor man argues why he could kill a rich man; and killed him; told his acquaintances that he was dead; when he came to the scene of the murder, he saw a magnificent watermelon growing there; decided to present it to the Sultan; but when the cook cut it watermelon, blood poured from there; the poor man told everything; people sympathize with him; the eldest daughter Fatma notices that they are not treated as before, comes to the city, finds out what is going on; tells the Sultan that if he kills her father, then they, daughters, will kill him; the sultan does not take the threat seriously; F. found 7 more girls, 10 of them; they took out horses and weapons; when the Sultan took the girls' father out of town to to execute him, the girls rode, began to defeat the Sultan's men; he hurried back to the city; two younger sisters fell in battle, but the Sultan's men lost great; they managed to close the gate before F. return and threatened to destroy the entire city if something happened to her father; F. ordered the horses to be killed and their weapons left, took the girls to another country; they met an old shepherd; F., at his request, cleaned his lice; he replied that he had to stab thorns into his head, then it was easy to tear off his skin; F. did so, put her skin on herself and turned into an old man; they came to the drone; she crushed the bones of those who she ate before to feed those who came; F. noticed this and did not order to eat; asked Gulya to bring water to the sieve; the girls ran away; on the banks of the Nile they asked the crocodile to transport them; they fed them along the way mutton; he transported them; unable to get water into the sieve, Gulya chased her; the crocodile took her too; but since she did not give him lamb, but hit him in the face, he drowned her; the girls spent the night in the cave; the Sultan's son and 7 noble young men were nearby; the Sultan's son was lost; the young men began to look for him, releasing their horses; the horses came to the cave, the girls drove them away; the boys found the girls, brought them to They married their parents; the Sultan's son also came there; one of the girls advised him to look in that cave too; he brought an imaginary old man to him; he said that he could not herd goats and sheep, but geese can; when the Sultan's son sent a slave to bring lunch to the goose shepherd, he saw a beautiful woman at the spring; F. quickly pulled on the old man's skin, and when they sat down to eat, asked the slave to show the tongue is some kind of insect on it; she cut off her tongue and the slave could not tell anything to the Sultan's son; so with 4 slaves; after the fifth, the Sultan's son followed and saw everything; in the evening he ordered to bring the imaginary old man to dinner ; he said that he was too weak, and the Sultan's son ordered him to be brought; began to play dice: whoever wins can do what to the other; the third time the Sultan's son won, cut the skin with a knife and from under it F. came out; agreed to marry the Sultan's son if her father was released; the Sultan's son and the husbands of F.'s friends came with an army; at first, the Sultan decided that F. was not among those who came; but during the battle she left with her friends, interrupted the Sultan's people and captured him; he had to let Father F. go and give a large ransom]: Frobenius 1923, No. 20:224-237; bilin [the girl went to get water; when she returned, her mother says that she is not her mother, but her mother-in-law, her father is not her father, but her father-in-law, etc.; her brother says he is her husband; she sharpened her razor, stabbed her brother, ran away with seven friends; on the way she refuses meat, jewelry, gives everything to her friends, says that she killed her brother; girls come to the ogre's house; the old woman tells them to run; by the river the girl says that if she did evil, let the water take her away, and if no, let the waters part; the waters parted, the friends crossed dry to the other side; the cannibal asks how they crossed; the girls tell him to tie a white stone to his feet; the cannibal drowned; the girl's rain climbed a tree, and King Dschaga's son and seven companions stopped under it; his brother's murderer pulled the animal's skin over his head to look like a monk; the youngest friend wrote, the girls were noticed; The prince took the imaginary monk as a servant; when the girl was secretly bathing, a dumb servant saw her, but could not tell her; the interpreter ordered the prince to hang a cow's skin in the doorway; if the girl, seeing her, wuhir will say, I must say: be my monk; if hetekay says, be my wife; she said hetekay, the prince married her, they have seven sons]: Reinisch 1883, No. 51:178-183.

Western Asia. Yemen [when leaving, the merchant wanted to please his wife while he was away; the man in the bazaar offered green goldfinch for 1000 dinars: whoever bought will not regret it, the merchant who does not buy it will be upset; the merchant bought a goldfinch and left it to his wife; the Sultan's son saw the merchant's wife and fell ill with love; the old woman promised to lure her out and bring her to him; when the woman was persuaded and began to go down the stairs, The goldfinch said that she had forgotten him altogether; the woman began to claim that this was not the case and agreed to listen to his story; cousins (ideal Arab partners) were in love, but parents were against it; they decided to flee; the girl stayed on the ship, and the young man went shopping; the ship went without him; the girl pretended to marry the captain; considered in detail how to steer the ship; they landed on the island to rest, she put sleeping pills in the captain's coffee, left it on the island; parrot: if you go with an old woman, you'll regret it like the captain when he woke up; the next the day the story continues; the girl brought her ship to the destination harbor; there, the merchant prince Shahbender wanted to marry her; she agreed to the condition that another 40 more would marry her at the same time girls; agreed with them; each gave her fiancé sleeping pills, they all sailed further on the ship and fell into the hands of robbers; put them to sleep, and left them on the shore; parrot: if you go, you'll regret it, like those robbers; the third story of a goldfinch; wearing men's clothes, the heroine and her 40 girls arrived in the big city; the king died there; the crown was thrown into the crowd and she dressed on the heroine's head; she was made king, not knowing that she was a girl; married a vizier's daughter; she opened up to her, they surrendered to act together; the heroine made a mask from her face, ordered her to show her in the bazaars and brings to her those who will pay attention; the girl's lover and Prince Shahbender were brought to her; the king (i.e. the girl) ordered S. to bring the 40 young men to whom her 40 girls were to marry; her lover became king, marrying her and the daughter of the vizier; then the merchant returned and found out everything; asked the goldfinch why he should be upset that he had bought it; the goldfinch: open your hand; the merchant opened and the goldfinch flew away]: Taibah, MacDonald 2016:75-80.

The Balkans. Greeks (Asia Minor) [40 robbers rob all; the king sent soldiers, the robbers killed them; the princess asked for 40 girls, 40 horses and 40 knives; got to the cave, killed those who were coming out the robbers one at a time; one was only wounded, he recovered, married a princess {obviously unrecognized}, tied him by the hair, was going to burn it, but walked away; at that time a caravan was passing, one was blind, the other was deaf ; they released the girl and hid her in a camel pack; the robber looked for her but did not find her; the caravans took the girl to another king, who married her to another prince; the girl asked her to be at her house there were a lion and a leopard; the robber brought land from the grave, it puts her to sleep; without waking up her husband, the wife stabbed the robber herself and gave his head to a lion and a leopard]: Dawkins 1916:343-345.

Iran - Central Asia. Bukhara Arabs [the emir's daughter asks her father to gather her daughters of senior dignitaries; there are 40 girls; they come to an old man who serves 40 robbers; they hang him on a hook for the first time, then they lock them in a chest; then they tell the robbers that anyone can take one of them; let them only bring them water to wash; they lock the door, pour water on the wall, the clay is wet, they have punched a hole, run away; the robbers ordered the old man to buy 80 donkeys and 80 wineskins; they poured molasses at 40, sat down themselves at 40; the emir's daughter ordered her father to buy all the molasses; each of the 40 wineskins in which the robbers were staying was approached one of the girls killed the one inside with a knife; one night the girls disappeared and went to the ground; since then there has been a mazar "Forty Maidens"]: Vinnikov 1969, No. 14:94-96; Tajiks [Padishah Bakhrom gives away 40 sons for the 40 daughters of Padishah Diyor; the youngest Bakhodur marries the youngest, Zarina; the old man gives her seeds, tells her to throw it without looking back; fruit trees grew out of the seeds; but Z. looked back ahead of time, so figs and pomegranates have grown little; on the way to the kingdom of Fringe, the divas stop the caravan, demands Z. for himself; otherwise he will stop the canal and cover everything with sand; took Z. and Bachodur with her; at night in the cave, Z. noticed the box with the soul of a diva, B. cut it, the diva died; during this time, enemies attacked the kingdom of Bakhrom; Z. led a female detachment that helped win]: Amonov, Ulug-zade 1957:178-182 (=Ulug-zade 1967:43-51); The Baluchi [Kuh-i Khoja hill, where the mazar is now, was surrounded by the sea; this island was inhabited by a dokhter man, 40 pari girls with terrible power; one woman learned that the power of betting lies in their virginity; dressed her son in a woman's dress, sailed with him from Tyutek on a reed boat, hired a wager; convinced them that their strength would increase if they met a man; who would jump to a man tied in the distance a ram, will temporarily become a man; only the woman's son could, he got along with all the bets as a man; they all gave birth, lost their strength, the children were thrown into the sea, the corpses were nailed to Huck i Telf]: Gaffenberg 1975:228.

Turkestan. Karakalpaks (Turtkul District) [Bai Allayar, the father of six sons and daughter Gulaim, lived in Sarkop. At the age of fifteen, G. asked his father to take possession of the island of Miueli and built a fortress on it. She picked up 40 friends and taught them martial arts, because she knew that Kalmyk Khan Surtaisha was thinking of going to war. She fell in love with the hero Aryslan, who appeared to her in a dream. Nadir Shah dreams of marrying Altynay, Aryslan's sister. Having received a refusal, he goes to war. Wounded Altynay is captured and becomes a slave. At this time, Surtaisha looted Sarcop. Returning from the hike, G. rushes in pursuit and meets Aryslan on the way. He joins a group of girls. Having defeated Surtaishi, they liberate their people, G. marries Aryslan. After marching to Iran, female warriors liberate Altynay]: heroic poem "Forty Girls", western 1940; retelling the content on the site https://www.ziyouz.uz/ru/folklor/karakalpakskaya-narodnaya-poeziya/1076-2012-11-29-09-47-20 (cf. Kazakhs, Karakalpaks [Zanay ruled the women's khanate in Samiram; it stood on 37,000 pillars above the ground; men nursed boys, and girls were brought up in Z. Palace; 99 of 100 newborn boys were killed, thrown to pieces by animals and birds; who to leave was chosen by a blind old woman; when she was preparing to give birth to Z., the old woman said that her child would destroy the khanate; Z. bribed her servants by allowing them to choose husbands outside Samiram; the servants said that Z. had given birth to a girl; Iskander's son was raised by strangers; men gathered around him and tried to win women, but were defeated in battle; Z. must cut out I.'s heart; tears from her eyes formed Amu Darya and Syr-Darya; Z. kills herself; women have fled, men have taken power; 37,000 years later A woman will arrive in the north (and establish the same order)]: Karazin 1875 in Sidelnikov 1958:153-158 (=Daurenbekov 1979:119), comm. 422-423 [N. Karazin recorded at the Chimbay Bazaar from an old woman who was dressed in Kazakh and spoke "in the local dialect" but with a Kazakh accent]; in Tolstov 1984:112-115 [Tolstova calls the text "Karakalpak" ], 229 (note 90 [a similar legend was recorded by the Kazakhs of the Bukeev Horde (Astrakhan Vedomosti, 1894, No. 13, 24)]).