K69. Pilgrims to the Deity. (.19.) .20.25.44.-.48.

Several men walk to the horizon to go up to heaven from there to visit the Sun or another supreme deity. Usually one or more die along the way, others reach their goal. They're coming back a shorter route than they came in.

(Wed. Melanesia. Malaita [Vulanangela is swallowed by a fish, swims east in it for 10 days; when the fish is aground, it cuts through its side with a flint knife, goes out, sits on the ground; hears a knock underneath him; The sun replies that V. prevents him from going out; V. rises; the Sun brings him to him, he has been living with him for two years; returns, bringing fire to people from the Sun]: Coombe 1911:291; Saint Matthias [Karakarasan with their 10 brothers made a boat, sailed to sunrise, the Sun told me to be more careful (watch out) when he rose, but K. did not pay attention; the boat split; K. climbed the tree into the sky, others clung to him, fell, drowned; K. came to star people; they did not know what to do with their wives, copulated in the eye {whose?} ; K. showed how to get along with a woman; he was given a wife, she has a son; he chased a lizard under the leaf, he found a hole in the sky, saw his father's mother below; promised to show him his mother if he fixed it for him the tip of the spear; K. went down the rope, the mother realized that her son had returned when he saw the mark of his teeth on the bitten fetus; K. told her that her other children died when they met the sun]: Nevermann 2010:172 -175).

Micronesia-Polynesia. Palau: Kubary, vol.1:57 f in Frazer 1924 [four men went west to visit the Sun; he invited them to his home, fed them inexhaustible food; took them with him on his heavenly journey ; when they saw their house below, the guests cried, explained that it was smoky in the Sun; the Sun understands what was going on, lowers them to the sea in a segment of bamboo, bamboo carries them ashore; before, in the human world, bamboo was not grew]: 262-263; 1939 [{probably the same text}; four leaders swam to the Sun at sunset; there was a tree, under it a shark; they threw fruits on it, dived themselves, got into the house of the Sun, walked with it across the sky, saw relatives crying; the sun threw them into the sea in a segment of bamboo, people found them alive]: 157.

Taiwan - Philippines. Bagobo (Mindanao): Benedict 1913, No. 2 [Lumabat quarreled with his sister (who has become the mistress of the lower world), decides to go to heaven, takes siblings with him; on the way, stones and trees ask where they go; those who answered themselves became stones, trees; as soon as people approach, the edge of the sky begins to clang against the ends of the earth like jaws; L. slipped through, everyone else is shredded, turned into stones sand; L. sees sinners suffering in the sky; Diwata carved his insides, making him God himself (the gods do not feel hungry); when food is needed, just call for food, fish appears; L. became the chief God; his brother Wari, who remained on earth, followed, also slipped between the ends of the earth and the sky; but did not want his insides to be taken out, cried when he saw his house and field below; God descends him on rope with dogs and food; tells you not to eat until he reaches the ground, otherwise the dogs will gnaw, he will let go of the rope; as it happened, V. fell on a tree, became a kulago bird (like an owl- barn owl, Aluco candidus), whose cry portends bad things; she has feathers, hair, hair of all birds, animals, people; three dogs from the sky ran to the house of V.'s sister and two brothers; sister and brother got married, they many descendants (retelling started in Raats 1970:38, brief in Hatt 1949:79)]: 21-23.

The Midwest. One of the petitioners wants eternal life, turned into stone. Eastern Swamps: Bird 2007 (Winisk River) [Wisakaychak goes far to the west, turns into stone; a pine tree grows on his forehead; when the earth ends, he will stand up again, go; one day two people reached him; one asked for eternal life, V. turned it into stone; the second wanted to live long, W. turned it into larch]: 193-197; Ellis 1995 (West Bank of James Bay), No. 7 [during the flood, Weesakechahk lowers Beaver on a rope to get the ground from the bottom, he pops up dead; the same Muskrat, but there is some land under his claw; V. revives the Muskrat, creates land, asks Wolverine to run land; she returns three years later; V. says the land is not big enough; next time Wolverine does not return, the land is big; V. went north, leaving piles of stones at the place of overnight stays (this is his wind barriers); he sits there, Christmas trees grew on his forehead, partridges nest in his eyebrows; one day two Indians came to him; one asks for a long enough life for the children to become adults; the other wants eternal life, V. turned him into stone], 28 [Weesakechakh left, a pine tree grew on his head; two people came to him; one asked for and received a medium life; the other wanted to become immortal, V. turned him into a stone]: 35-39, 171; menominee: Bloofield 1928, No. 87 [four men come to Menapus for witchcraft herbs; one wants eternal life , turned into stone; the rest return home in four days], 88 [Menapus calls a young man, tells him to take nine more virgin youths with him; there is a narrow stream on the way; one looks down, jumps, falls into the abyss; four years later, young men come to M., who promises to fulfill their wishes; they want to be 1) a lucky hunter, 2) a warrior, 3) a healer, 4) a runner, 5) also a hunter, 7) be successful with women; the latter wants eternal life, turned into stone; the rest are soon at home; the lover loses weight from exhaustion]: 253-255, 255-265; Hoffman 1896 [eight men come to Myanyabush; one wants hunting amulets]: 206; Skinner, Satterlee 1915, No. 52 [ten men go to the sunset to Nashpatyao, Myanyabush's brother; one asks to make him good a hunter, another a healer, a third a prophet, the fourth a warrior, the fifth a long-lived, etc.; they get what they want; the latter asks for eternal life, is turned into a boulder; tobacco is still being donated to him]: 485 -488; Ojibwa [several men come to Nyanaboz; one asks for eternal life, the second for success with women, the third to become a great warrior, the fourth a hunter; everyone gets what they ask for, the first turned to stone]: Jones 1916, No. 60:389; chippewa [Winabojo lives in the west over big water with his grandmother and daughter; 10 men went to him; his grandmother's voice comes from the moss-covered stump; V. takes a bear bone out of the bag, it turns into a half-alive bear, those who come cook for themselves; a beautiful daughter brings spoons and bowls; V. promises to fulfill wishes; the first wants eternal life, V. makes it a stone; the second asks for eternal success, is turned into a fox; the rest ask for medicine together; V. sends them home, tells them to take his daughter with him and choose her fiancé from theirs numbers; otherwise she will return and the power of the medicine will be lost; last night, men try to find out which one a girl likes, but she disappears with the medicine]: Densmore 1929b: 99-101; (cf. chippewa [the man's daughter died; five shamans agreed to go with him to Wanabojo; asked their friends' spirits at the graves, who replied that V. was still on earth; people had reached the island on the lake. Upper, at sunrise; V. grew a cedar on his head, the roots braided his body; one asked if he could live forever, V. replied that only the stone is eternal, the one who asked to turn it into stone, became with a stone, stayed with V., the rest went to the land of spirits; V. said that when the spirits began to dance, the father should put his daughter in a bag, not untie it; on the second day, one of the shamans untied this V. the "snake chain" immediately became a spirit; on the fourth night, the father grabbed the daughter, put it in a bag, they returned to V., who, when he returned home, ordered him to put the bag with the man's daughter in the steam room; she came to life] : Densmore 1928:384-386); Ottawa [five young men and a teenager decide to go to the sun, head east; a European ship transports them across the sea; they come to a place where the sky beats against land; Manabozo invites them to fulfill their wishes; two want eternal life, turned into stone and cedar; two want life longer than usual and military success; two want to hunt so many animals to have enough food for their parents and relatives; they slip under the sky when it rises; the other two are crushed; the Moon is an old woman, the Sun is her brother; he leads guests through the sky stops at noon, between sunrise and noon and noon and sunset; people go home and meet fathers]: Schoolcraft 1999:144-154; Fox: Jones 1907, No. 16 [six men go to Visaki; go under shooting stars, one is killed; across an abyss that opens and closes, one falls; four reach their goal; one wants to live forever, turned into stone; the second wants to be brave, the third wants to be a good hunter, the fourth wants to be easy to succeed with women; all three get what they want]: 333-337; 1911 [as in 1907; one falls into the abyss, five come to V. Mother of All Earth sitting next to her grandmother; desires: 1) the ability to choose a wife and pass this ability on to others (gets); 2) a long life (turned into a granite boulder); 3) win competitions ( gets); 4) quickly follow where they play (V. halves his way home, and at the same time the rest); (apparently, the fifth asked to make him a good hunter); everyone crossing his path, gets sick, people leave him alone]: 209-211; potauatomi [six go to the Sun; one asks and receives the gift of clairvoyance, the other two want eternal life, another one always be by the sea; the Sun leads them west, says goodbye; one turns into cedar, the other into a boulder, the third into a water man (p.47: probably referring to sturgeon); the sixth says he does not want anything, but went for the company]: Skinner 1924:363-365; Fox [six men go to Visaki; walk under shooting stars, one killed; across a chasm that opens and closes, one falls; four reach the goal ]: Jones 1907, No. 16:333-337; 1911 [as in 1907; one falls into the abyss, five come to V.; he lives with his grandmother named Mother All on Earth; 1) one wants and gets the ability to find the right one a wife and give the same ability to others; 2) a long life (turned into a granite boulder); 3) win running and playing lacrosse (gets); 4) doing the right thing when playing (gets); people return home faster than they went to V.; (as is clear from the following, the fifth gets hunting luck); everyone who crosses his path falls ill; people leave him]: 209-211.

Northeast. Mikmak: Leland 1968:69-72 [three men come to Gluscap; the first asks the flute to lure the game (gets it); the second wants a lot of women (gets a bag, warned not to untie) the third wants to blow the winds so that everyone laughs (gets a spine, is warned not to eat on the way); both prohibitions are broken; hundreds of girls jump out of the bag, copulate with a person he dies; the one who has eaten the spine constantly emits gases, frightens the game, people drive it away from themselves, he commits suicide], 94-97 [the young man comes to Gluscap; on the way he slips between the heads of two snakes; under the Wall of Death, which rises like a cloud above the ground, then falls, crushing everyone; asks for a cure for all diseases; G. does not tell you to open the bag along the way; the young man opens, the medicine disappears; three men come to Gluscap; one wants to be taller than everyone else, the other to live in his own land, the third to live a long time; the earthquake lives in a nearby teepee; when he walks, the earth trembles; Gluscap tells him to turn three petitioners into trees]; malesite [Gluscap lives with his grandmother on the southern edge of the world; he is young and his grandmother also rejuvenates every time she gets old; seven men went to he is seven years old to talk about his desires; one asked for eternal life, G. turned it into a cedar of a species that is useless, so no one will cut it; next to G. lies a witch doctor; every seven years he turns to the other side, and medicinal herbs grow in the same place; how to use them was told to the one who came, who was a shaman; G. showed the way back, those who came returned home in four days]: Jack 1895:193; seneca [young man Dehaehyowe leads 28 young volunteers to sunset to get scalps of unknown people; many months go by killing people; a giant with half a tree tells them to stop killing, otherwise they will die themselves; they agreed; when they reached a large lake, they walked across the water; on the opposite bank they saw the sky rise and then descends; flocks of pigeons flew from the world beyond the edge of the sky, then came back; by this time 5 were alive; they hid the scalps they carried, four slipped under the edge of the sky, the fifth was crushed; in the country beyond the corner of the sky, the trees are beautiful, their flowers give off a bright light that illuminates the whole country; local people play lacrose; one plays rude, the chief throws him away as punishment while playing head into the tree, the body pierces the trunk, the head is visible from the other side; after the game, the chief frees the intruder; each of the four visitors is disassembled, the bones are washed, the bodies are reassembled, the bodies become strong, light; the mistress of the house (later admits that she is the Moon) weaves a cape out of human hair; as soon as she leaves, her dog unweaves everything; later Luna says that from everyone who dies to she gets one hair; when everyone dies and no new hairs stop appearing, she will finish her cape; local people come (these are Thunders), eating not food, but the smell that comes from it (exhalations); hostess puts corn grain and pumpkin seeds in the ash, immediately they germinate and bear fruit; one of the people accidentally fires an arrow into the pond; when they return, the owners smell game; go to this pond with lightning they kill a terrible enemy, the Great Blue Lizard; they are grateful to the people for helping to find it; people see the ground below; there is a thunderstorm, a downpour; people see how the Thunders drive and kill a huge horned serpent with lightning; horned snakes live underground; they will come to earth at the end of the world; the heavenly leader tells the Thunders to rest, half of his body is made of ice; every day (i.e. year) turns one (winter) and then another (summer) half a body; Thunders fight a monster, for humans it's a squirrel; people easily kill her, give her skin to a grateful housewife; one of the visitors agrees to become a thunder named Thaw, or Warm Spring Wind; for this purpose they push it in a mortar; people visit the village of the dead, it is impossible to talk to them; they visit the house of the Sun are men; in the spring they go down to the ground, but the place where the village was overgrown with forest; they find a village, only an old woman heard from her grandmother how people took the path of the Sun as a child; D. and his two companions talk about what they saw]: Hewitt 1928:792-806 (=Curtin, Hewitt 1918, No. 119:607-632).

Plains. Assiniboine [after Sitkonsky left the people, he began to live on the island; four Cree Indians (Var.: Ojibwa) go to him, hear the sound of a drum every day, but get there only four days later; the first asks for eternal life (turned into stone), the second asks daughter S. for a wife (receives, he is told not to sleep with her for four days, he sleeps on the third, the girl disappears); two asked witch doctor roots and herbs; came back four years later, thought it was four days]: Lowie 1909, No. 35:123-124.

Southeast USA. Shawnee [people go west across four seas; go to heaven under the descending and rising sky; they come to Our Grandmother; she brings them back to the ground in a basket]: Voegelin 1936:5; yuchi [four men want to know if death exists, kill their wives; go look for them; before entering the cave, a cloud (=sky) rises and falls; three run under it in the form of a deer, a cougar, bear, rise to the cloud on the other side; the fourth is crushed; the old sun woman hides them under her clothes from a monstrous cougar; sows corn, beans, pumpkins, they immediately produce crops; the dead are invisible, they dance; The sun puts four wives in calebasses, gives them to their husbands; they wake up on the ground; one opens the vessel before reaching home, the wife disappears; three return their wives, become leaders]: Speck 1909, No. 8:144- 146; chirokee [seven young men go east to a place where the stone vault of heaven falls to the ground and rises; they see the Sun, but it is too bright; one of those who come tries run through the crack that opens, but crushed; the rest return home old men]: Mooney 1900, No. 7:255-256; chitimacha [two dozen men go north to the edge of the sky; only six are not crushed ( apparently, the sky goes down and rises), come to Ru'tnahin; one descends like a squirrel, crashed, the other two, becoming different animals, are the same; the fourth is a spider, the fifth is an eagle, the sixth is a dove, brought to the earth was a gift to K.; a spider could heal everyone, but by then one person had already died (first death); the eagle taught me how to fish, the pigeon to sow corn]: Swanton 1911:358; choctaw [people gathered, began to think where the sun was going; one young man went to find it out; came back as a deep old man; said he had reached the water, saw the sun sink into the ocean; died]: Bushnell 1909:35 in Mould 2004:83-85; Alabama: Swanton 1929, No. 20 [two (or four) men decide to go to heaven (west); they come to Sharp buttocks, they dig a shelter, expect ducks, geese, and whites to attack cranes; the battle begins, people beat and fry birds; they come to an old woman, she gives them some pumpkins, the food does not end; gives them a scoop of pumpkin, they scoop up water for them in deep water, splash on both sides, the waters diverge, they run along the bottom, the waters close behind them again; man gave them cigarettes, the other gave them bark to their legs; in tobacco smoke they passed the fighting, with bark on their feet, snakes on the trail; the old woman told them to bypass the village of Dogs and the village of Girls; you can look at the dogs, you have to pass by the girls in spite of them; travelers saw many people walking along the way; came to Sitting upstairs; he gave them a melon, told them not to bite through the seeds, collected them back in their peel, the melon became whole again; he poured boiling water on them, which seemed only warm water, scraped them, the dirt came off, their bodies became lungs; he pulled the lid away, they saw their house downstairs; when they woke up, they were at home with God-given corn, melons and beans seeds], 21 [woman died, her children were crying, two men They went after her, reached a place where the sky was rising and falling; one ran as a puma, the other as a bear; the old woman gave them a scoop, they went to the river, scooped up water, splashed around the waters dispersed, they were dry; the man gave them an ear, told them to throw them at the woman they had come for, also gave them a bottle; the woman was dancing, they had a hard time hitting her on the cob, she fell, they placed they brought her to the ground; they woke up near the house in the morning, heard a scream from the bottle, opened it; the woman said they did not revive it properly, disappeared], 22 [the woman died leaving a child, two men went to return it; the old woman gave them pumpkin to eat, they ate, but the pumpkin did not run out; they came to a place where dwarfs fought ducks and geese; spent the night with another old woman, she gave Each pumpkin should scoop water from the rivers and so go; let the bark be tied to her legs to pass the place where the snakes were; another woman gave tobacco, they lit a cigarette, hiding in clouds of smoke from people who fought; they came to the edge of the sky, he went up and down; one slipped by a cougar, the other as a wild cat; in the sky, a man warned women about the city, they would try to stop them; they passed without stopping; God gave them a melon, told them not to gnaw the seeds, put them back in their peel, the melon was reborn; God pulled the lid away, they saw their house below; gave pieces of cobs, they threw them at the dancing woman, she fell they put her in a vessel, closed the lid; they woke up at home in the morning; the woman in the vessel moaned, saying they had killed her; they opened the lid, she disappeared, returned to heaven; they came for her again, God gave it again, they lost it again; if they hadn't turned the lid off, people would have come back after death]: 139-141, 141-142, 142-143; koasati [woman dies, her two brothers follow her the sky; the sky fell, one jumped on it, it rose; then the same with the second brother; the old woman showed them the path; they reached the place where the snakes, tied elm bark to their feet, passed; the man gave them cigarettes, people are fighting clubs on the way, the brothers lit a cigarette, everything was covered in smoke, they passed; another woman gave a scoop, they went to the river, scooped up and poured some water, the water split, they passed dry, the waters came together again; they came to God (Never-dying), he cut the melon, gave half of them to eat, told them not to bite through the seeds, put the seeds and peel back; pushed something away, they saw into the hole in the ground where their home is; on the fourth day they put their sister in a vessel, covered it with a lid, went back (apparently they were immediately on the ground); the sister from the vessel began to say that she was suffering there; they the lid was slightly opened, everything was quiet, the vessel was empty]: Swanton 1929, No. 26:189-190; Alabama, Koasati: Lankford 1987:211-221 in Archer 2000 [four elderly men go to search for the end of the world; they go west, because there, after going through the day, the sun is not so hot; they kill a turkey and a bear, instead of them there is a mosquito, a hairy caterpillar; the mountain on the way turns out to be a turtle; with its bast wrapped in its legs, travelers mine forest with rattlesnakes; by the river they reject the Crocodile, the Turtle, swim on the Horned Serpent, throwing its bones; the stock runs out, the latter is brought to the opposite bank, the Serpent swims after it, riders go ashore; the sky hits the ground; three slip, screaming, I'm a Puma, I'm a Lynx, I'm a Wolf; the fourth did not call himself a beast, crushed; the old woman tells me not to touch humans and animals; they they touched a horse and a girl, they turned into skeletons; another old woman gives seeds of corn, sweet potato, potatoes, beans, and other cultivated plants; travelers wake up at home and give people plants]: 193-197; Martin 1977 [three brothers; one crushed]: 25; Seminoles [four Seminoles and a colored one go to the eastern horizon; Seminoles move to the sky, and the colored one hesitates, crushed by the sky; Seminoles come to God; two want to become angels; they are boiled, they come to life, now they have wings; two want to come back, wake up at home]: Greenlee 1945:143.

California. Cahuilla [a group of men go west; swim across the sea, most die after drinking salt water; three survive because the sea has given them a spell that allows them to drink salt water); for there is a pine tree by the sea near the house of the Sun; every day the Sun climbs on it; when it is at the top of its head, it comes noon; when it descends, the pine burns down, grows again during the night; the seasons vary depending on because the Sun carries in his hands; one of those who come violates the ban on looking into the vessel; people jump out from there, kill him; another visits the house of the Month; an old woman talks to him, he dies; the last the rest is brought home by the wind; violates the Sun's ban not to talk about what happened for a year, dies]: Woosley 1908:239-240.