K44A. The frog pretends to be a mother.
.11.31.34.35.37.39.43.44.46.49.53.58.
Afrog, a toad (coastal Koryaks: Tritonicha) kidnaps or finds a boy, lies as if she is his real mother. See motif K44.
Bena-Kanyoka, Eastern Sami, Ket, Tofalars, Nanais, Coastal Koryaks, Klamath, Modok, Koutene, Mississauga, Ojibwa, Assiniboine, Yankton, Northern Shoshones, Kuna, Warrau.
Bantu-speaking Africa. Ben Canyoke: De Clercq 1909, No. 2 [The Lizard has a handsome boy, the Frog is ugly; both went swimming; the Frog first entered the water; when the Lizard came in, the Frog came out and took the Lizard's son; She had to take Frog's son; she came to the chief, the Frog was already there; everyone agreed that the Frog's son looked like a Frog, the Lizard was given her own]: 73-74; Trilles 1910 [Frog's son in blisters, the Lizard's son is pretty; both went swimming; first the Frog swam; told the Lizard that while she was swimming, she would go by the trees; she took the Lizard's son, passed him off as her own in the village; Yasheritsa's husband beat her when she tried to talk about a substitute; both women came to the creator of Nzame; he said he didn't believe the Frog could swim; while the Frog was swimming, the Lizard took her son again; N. told the Frog that her child was lying on the ground and blistered again]: 164-165.
Baltoscandia. Eastern Sami.
Western Siberia. Kets.
Southern Siberia - Mongolia. Tofalars.
Amur - Sakhalin. Nanais: Medvedev 1992:145-149; Sanghi 1989:223-226.
SV Asia. Coastal Koryaks [Tritonikha].
The coast is the Plateau. Klamath; modoc; coutenay.
The Midwest. Mississauga; Ojibwa.
Plains. Assiniboine; yankton.
Big Pool. Northern shoshones.
Honduras-Panama. Kuna [see motive J16; a woman's lover turns out to be her brother, turns into a Month; leaves, she follows him; gets to an old woman, her sons eat a woman; in the womb of a murdered old woman finds eight boys; tells them that she is their mother; they are surprised that she is so different from them, ugly and without a nose; an old woman makes a clay nose for herself; the woodpecker reports that their real mother has been eaten by fish; brothers push the old woman into the water, cut off her fingers; she and all her fingers turn into toads and frogs]: Chapin 1989 [the eldest brother hands the old woman his golden rod; she grabs it, he cuts it off her fingers with a knife]: 32-42; Wassen 1934b: 7.
Guiana. Varrau.