Yu.E. Berezkin, E.N. Duvakin

Thematic classification and distribution of folklore and mythological motifs by area

Analytical catalogue

Introduction
Bibliography
Ethnicities and habitats

K87B. A woman steps into bear litter. 40.-.43.

A woman picks berries, steps into bear droppings, scolds bears. An insulted bear takes her away and marries her. Her former husband, brothers, or another character kill bears.

The Arctic. A chugach [a woman picks berries, steps into bear droppings three times, wakes up berries, scolds bears; the third time she asks her friends to send her husband for her; he comes and turns out to be a bear (or Does the bear take his form?) ; he takes her away; she gives birth to five cubs; The bear says that her brothers will come to kill him, let them beat him in the side, not in the face; the woman throws snowballs at those who come, they will recognize his sister; kill the Bear in the side , bring her sister back to people; her bear children stay in the forest; she cries (because hunters killed them?)] : Birket-Smith 1953:153-154 (=Johnson 1984:46-48).

Subarctic. Inner Tlingits, Tagish, Southern and Northern Tutchoni [a girl steps into bear droppings, scolds bears; meets a handsome man, who takes her to him, marries her; it turns out grizzly bear; preparing for hibernation, the wife tells her husband to set up a den where her brothers hunt in spring; gives birth to two (three) sons, she feels like one night every month of winter; in spring she rolls out a lump of grass down the slope so that the brothers' dogs can smell it; the bear realizes this, asks his wife why she gave him away; decides to allow her brothers to kill him; the brothers find a den (the sister leaves in front of her or ties arrowpoles or mittens to the dog that has found the den); the sister teaches how to ritually treat the Bear's body; asks her mother to bring clothes for her and her children (they all started to grow hair); contrary to the sister's warning, the brothers ask her and her children to wear bear skins and walk down the slope; when they start shooting at them with toy arrows, the sister actually turns into a grizzly, kills brothers (or only younger, older, two younger ones); people still follow the rules for dealing with a dead bear that the sister taught the brothers]: McClelland 1970:5 [ general summary], 5-55 [13 separate texts, =McClelland 2007]; tagish [cf. McClelland 1970]: McClelland 2007, No. 99:435-438; southern tutchoni [a woman picks berries, steps into bear droppings, scolds bears; the bear takes the form of her husband, takes her away, takes her as a wife; hers Brothers kill Bear, bring her home; ask them to play bear with them; she turns into a bear, kills everyone, returns to the mountains with her bear children]: McClelland 1987:261-264; taltan [a woman picks berries, steps into bear droppings, scolds bears; the bear takes the form of a man, takes her away, takes her as a wife; she becomes a bear herself; gives birth to two sons; Bear sends her back to people, tells her to talk to her ex-husband; in the village she takes on a human form again; people tease her sons because they look like bears; she turns into a bear, kills many; hunters kill her and her sons]: Teit 1921a, No. 59:337-338; (cf. helmet [the younger sister of the two brothers has only a few berries in the basket, and her brother's wife has collected a full one; a man takes her away, makes her a wife; she finds herself among a grizzly; spends the winter with them, gives birth to two children; in spring her brothers hunt; one of the bears kills her older brother; people ask her sister to appear as a bear; she becomes a grizzly; her bear son is injured by an arrow in the eye; she tore up her younger brother]: Moore 1999:332-355).

NW Coast. Eyak [a woman picks berries, steps into bear droppings, scolds bears; the bear takes the form of her husband, takes her away, takes her as a wife; she returns to people, helps hunters find bear dens]: Birket-Smith, Laguna 1938:276-277 [(=Johnson 1978:65-66); woman runs away, shows where the bears are (=Johnson 1978:27-28)], 277-279 [gives birth to two sons; brothers find her; she sends sons to their bear father]; Tlingit: Romanova 1997, No. 25 [by Swanton 1909, No. 89, two options; the leader's daughter picks berries, steps into a bear cake, swears; her basket of berries falls apart, the maids go; the grizzly in the form of a man takes her away; she collects dry firewood, it doesn't burn; Bears collect raw; when they take off and shake off their skins, fat drips on the wood, they burn good; they teach the woman how to do it; the mouse grandmother tells her to run, gives her a branch of thorny bushes, a thorn from rose hips, dirt, sand, stone; the woman runs away, throws what she has received, appears behind her back thorny thickets, rose hips, quagmire, dunes, rock; a man in a boat (son of the sun, or Gonakadet) promises to help when a woman agrees to marry him; kills grizzlies with a club; the sons of the Sun were married to a cannibal; they killed her to marry a girl, cut the corpse to pieces; it was over the Tsimshian country, so there are many cannibals among the Tsimshians; from above, the girl sees her house father; loading the Sun Father's boat with their belongings, his sons and the woman with her child sailed to her father's house; on the way they fed the boat; for earthly people, the sons of the Sun - moon glare, the woman's son - ray; once a stranger took a woman by the hand at the well; the water she brought turned into mucus, her husbands immediately returned to heaven; when they left, they wished the woman's son to fall ill; people told her to leave villages; she began to live with her son in a hut, he grew stronger; people called the boy "Garbage Dump Man"; his father's copper boat swam at him with its mouth open; he shot, it fell apart; young man made the first brass things out of her; married the leader's daughter; looking for a daughter, the chief found a copper house inside the hut; this is how copper appeared]: 87-91; Swanton 1909, No. 31 [1) the girl picks berries, steps in bear droppings, scolds bears; Grizzly turns into a human, takes her to the Grizzly; she leaves her beads where she relieves herself; Grizzly thinks this is her bowel movements; the supply of beads is running out; old woman -the captive tells her to take devil's club grass, rose hips, clay, sand, stone; she runs, throws objects, they turn into thickets of grass, rose hips, swamp, sand slope, rock; she promises the man on the boat to be his wife; his club kills the Grizzly pursuers; at home does not tell the new wife to look at the old Oyster when she eats; the woman watches the water pouring out of the Oyster, the woman drowns; her husband revives her, kills the Oyster; allows a woman to return to her parents]: 126-128; Hyda: Deans 1889 [the chief's daughter secretly meets a young man of an unknown kind; she is kidnapped by a Bear; a young man finds her in a hollow, brings her back to people; one of her sons stays with bears, the other lives with humans; The bear taught her ritual songs]: 255-259; Haida (Masset) [the girl's parents and relatives her suitors are constantly rejected; picking berries, she steps into bear droppings, swears; her basket strap breaks off, she falls behind, two men take her to the village of Bears; there is a woman sitting there glued to the ground with resin; warns that the Bears collect not dry, but raw brushwood; she collected dry wood, for which it was glued; tells her to pretend that her bowel movements are copper bracelets; Bears eat raw fish; taking oil, whetstone, hair, runs, abandoned becomes a lake, mountain, windbreak; it is surrounded by birds (snowbirds), it throws them ocher, they pick it up, since then their faces are red paint; a woman throws a comb, it turns into a mountain; a man in a boat takes a woman, puts a club into the water, she kills all the bears herself; a man does not tell me to watch his first wife in his house will eat seals; a woman watches, sees her put a whole seal in her mouth; the first tears it apart with her claws; the husband cut his first wife in half; the halves no longer converge when he puts it between they are a whetstone; revived a new one; she visits her father, lives with her husband]: Swanton 1908a, No. 36:500-508; Hyda (Skidgate) [the chief's daughter picks berries, steps into bear droppings, swears; bears take her away; to in the bear house, a woman, half turned into stone, warns her not to eat bears, bury her excrement; instead, the kidnapped woman leaves copper bracelets; grizzlies believe that her excrement - copper, forgive her swearing; a stone woman gives her a comb, hair, oil, whetstone; the kidnapped runs away from her grizzly husband, abandoned objects turn into a windbreak, a thicket, a lake, a cliff; she promises copper to a man in boat; the boat bites off the heads of pursuers - wolves and bears; the new husband tells him to look in his head; there are frogs, the woman bites her nails instead of them; at home, the husband tells him to look at his first wife, when she eats; a woman sees her swallowing a whole cat; a piece gets stuck in her throat, she dies; her husband cuts and powders her body, revives his wife; the new wife gives birth to a son; see motive M21]: Swanton 1905:336-338; Tsimshian [the chief's daughter picks berries; the strap of her basket breaks, her friends go home; an unfamiliar man offers help, takes her away; the mouse says it's the Bear who took her away for cursing when she stepped on bear droppings; advises replacing her excrement with a copper bracelet; Bears decide that the girl had the right to scold them since her own copper excrement; Mouse tells her to collect raw firewood, if dry, the Bears are angry; one day a girl hits her watchman with a stick, runs; throws a copper bracelet, then the second one; they turn into mountains; sees a man in a copper boat , promises to marry him; he kills bears by throwing a club in the form of a monster with heads at both ends; at home he tells his wife not to look into the closet; she opens the closet; there is a Wolverine woman sitting there, chewing bones seals; when she sees her, chokes, dies; husband to wife: now her relatives will persecute us; they go to live elsewhere]: Barbeau 196:60-62; bellacula [girl steps in bear droppings, scolds bears; a man comes up, tells her to relieve herself; she puts copper jewelry under her; he does not believe, he really demands, says that her excrement smells worse than that any animal; takes her as his wife; he is the son of the leader of the Black Bears; gives her lamb, then says it was human; winter passes like one night; in the spring, the husband says that his wife's brother will shoot him, orders to make a blanket out of his own skin; the brother goes in front, the sister is called to carry the skin, if desired, becomes a bear; in the village she asks for bone needles, each time says that the old one is broken; the youngest the sister sees that she inserts needles into the jaw of her skin instead of her teeth; the woman turns into a bear, kills her mother, tortures her sister (something sexy, in Latin); takes out her heart and lungs, hides it in palms; brother comes, younger sister tells the Bear to shoot in the palm of her hand, she falls dead; brother and sister run, put a log through a deep ravine; The bear comes to life, pursues, falls off a log; brother and sister comes to the village; Toadstool and Loon send a boat for the Bear, tell crayfish and worms to bite her, she falls into the river, crayfish and worms eat her; brother tells her sister to take the same road, walks along the same path the other, if the roads come together, they will get married; that's what happened]: Boas 1898:111-114; uvikino [women pick berries, one steps into bear droppings, scolds bears; a man in a bear appears cape, wants to see what her bowel movements look like; she puts a copper ornament under her; repeats the trick three times, then he believes her; marries her; she brings dry firewood, it doesn't burn; he puts it in the hearth is wet decks and a stone, the fire breaks out; on the first evening she gives birth to a son Sukhoi Firewood, on the second night she gives birth to a daughter, the third son is Wet Firewood, and on the fourth evening she gives birth to another daughter; they look like bears; in fact four years have passed; her husband lets her and her children go to their parents; by the river she picks flowers, her children catch salmon; her brothers also come there, she tells her story; takes off the bear skin on the children, but the youngest daughter did not want to live as a human being, she returned to the forest; the woman moistens the clothes of her parents and other elderly people with water, who are getting younger; gives gifts]: Boas 1895, No. XX.10:226-227 (=2002:470-472).

The coast is the Plateau. Quarry [women pick berries; one girl brings nothing, says the bears messed up everything; the next day, her basket strap breaks off; everyone goes home; two people approach her Black Bears in the guise of young men; when she opens her eyes, she finds herself in a large village; all the animals take turns dancing and saying what they will feed their wife; Muskrat, Raven, Laska, Frog, Caribou, The marten is rejected, she marries the Grizzly; in the spring he says that the youngest of her four brothers will kill him; this is what happens; the brothers ask what part of the carcass she will take home; she drags her skin and head , turns into a Grizzly on the way, kills brothers, then other people; the youngest brother and sister return from squirrel hunting; the boy tells his sister to run between the Grizzly's legs; then she takes off bear skin, promises not to harm the girl; the girl asks where the Grizzly's heart is; he shows what's in the palm of his hand; the brother kills the Grizzly by hitting the palm of his hand with an arrow; says that if they run around the mountain with different sides and jump between two trees at the same time, they can marry; he manages to catch up with his sister, jump; she gets pregnant at the touch of his foot; gives birth to a son; she is killed by an ogre; brother kills an ogre, burns both bodies; goes to the village, carrying a baby on his shoulders; he kills him by spreading his throat and pulling out his tongue; in the village takes out the tongues of sleeping people; two girls who were in ritual isolation; they push the baby into the fire; its ashes turn into mosquitoes; one girl conceives from a stone and dies, the other gives birth to four Transformer Brothers; see motive J55]: Jenness 1934, no.6:129-136.