L100d1. Mullah in the cradle. 29.30.

A person with (spiritual) power comes to a woman in the evening. When there is a knock on the door, the woman, having agreed with her husband in advance, tells the guest to lie in the cradle and replies to her husband that their son is in the cradle. He begins to turn an adult into a baby or threatens to do so: he shaves off his beard, knocks out his teeth, grabs an ax to cut off his legs. A disgraced and exhausted guest runs away.

Crimean Tatars, Adygs, Chechens, Kumyks, Tatas, Lezgins, Persians, Tajiks, Mountain Tajiks, Ishkashim, Sarykol residents.

Caucasus - Asia Minor. Crimean Tatars (Bakhchisaray) [when the poor man could not even earn bread, his wife told him to return home at 4 am, promising to arrange everything himself; consistently goes to the merchant to teach him, the grocery store, the shoemaker, asks everyone to come in at intervals of an hour; when there is a knock on the door ("crazy mother-in-law has come"), the first is put naked in the closet, the second in the basement, the third (this is a hoja) puts it in the cradle; the husband who comes shaves the beard of a strange baby, goes for an ax to cut off his legs; the old man runs, followed by the other two; agree to climb into the yard through a hole for the dog and kill the couple ; they cut off one nose ("the smell of food hurts my nose"), the other's ear ("drumbeat cuts my ear"), Hajj's genitals ("drums beat because I was circumcised"); everyone drowned, the couple shared their money]: Radlov 2021, No. 6; Adygi: Huth 1987 (bzhedugi) [by agreement with his wife, the husband pretends to have left, and the wife makes a date for three men who harass her; the first undressed, there was a knock, the wife hid it in the pantry; the same with the second; the third is efendi, hidden in the cradle; the wife tells her husband that she gave birth to a son in his absence; husband: already with a beard and teeth, this is different, you have to knock out your teeth with a chisel; Efendi ran away with the cradle, after him, knocking out the window, two from the pantry]: 283-284; the Chechens [the spouses became impoverished; the wife (having agreed with him) sent her husband hunting, dressed beautifully herself, went outside, met a shepherd, invited him to her place; then an Armenian; a miller; the shepherd brought the herd to the yard; when he was about to eat dinner, an Armenian knocked, the woman said that it was her husband, hid the shepherd in a barrel; an Armenian came with an arba of goods; a miller arrived with an arba of flour, the woman put the Armenian in the cradle as if she had a child there; when her husband came, the woman told the miller to hide behind the door and moo like a calf; told her husband that she had given birth; husband: newborn and already with a beard? it is necessary to shave; shaved an Armenian; and there is a calf that the cow gave birth to; the husband aimed his gun, the miller rushed to run; the shepherd also could not stand it for a long time, jumped out and ran away; the couple went to everything brought]: Dirr 1920, No. 75:264-265; Kumyks: Aliyeva 2013, No. 66 [a mullah, a butcher, a merchant and a miller bother the beautiful woman; after agreeing with her husband, she makes an appointment for everyone for the same evening, but for a different date time; everyone brings gifts, the woman tells everyone to undress; hides the first two in a niche, the third in the basket, the mullah in the cradle; the husband comes back, says he wants to sell the canopy that covers the niche, starts knocking him out, hits the hidden ones, then hits the miller lying in the basket ("calf or goby?") ; shaved off his beard and mustache, pulled out the teeth of the "child" in the cradle; when he was about to saw off his legs, the mullah ran away with the cradle; in the morning all four ran away from the village], 68 [cadiy to the boy: tell his mother that cadia to her said "hyte!" ; the wife agreed with her husband that when the kadiy undressed, the husband would return, and the wife would hide the kadia in the mill house and let him turn the donkey mill; the wife tells her husband that she harnessed the donkey; the kadiy is tired; the husband loudly: I'll go rip the braid off the donkey's back to walk faster; Kady is working hard again; so twice; finally, the wife released the kadia, giving her husband his clothes; sent her son to the cadia to say "hite"! cadia: did you run out of flour?] : 285-288, 291-292; Lezgins [the mullah bothers the woman; having agreed with her husband, she invites him; the husband knocks, the woman hides the mullah in the cradle, says that she has given birth to a child; husband: in this form of a child you can't show people; shaved the mullah, pulled out his teeth, went to cut off his legs for an ax; the mullah ran away with the cradle; the mullah's wife did not want to let him in; when she finally let him in, he lay down and died]: Aliyeva 2013, No. 67:289-290; taty [the poor man's wife negotiates with her husband; consistently invites a shopkeeper, a moneylender, a mullah with gifts; each time the husband suddenly returns; the shopkeeper lost his horse with tarantas, the mullah was forced to pay a lot of money; the wife put the mullah in the cradle: my husband would think that I had given birth to a child during his absence; my husband cut the mullah's beard, knocked out his teeth with a hammer, the one with He ran away with difficulty, carrying the cradle; the punished met and told each other what had happened to them]: Kukulla 1974, No. 31:221-230.

Iran - Central Asia. Persians [the poor man's wife agrees with her husband on a way to improve things; takes outfits from friends; invites a butcher, merchant, casia with gifts; everyone is told that her husband has been gone for seven years; every time the husband knocks on the door; the butcher hides in the chest, the husband dumps the contents down the stairs; the merchant in the carpet, the couple throws the carpet off the roof; the woman puts it in the cradle, tells her husband that her son was born; his husband shaved him, said that the child was ugly; Kaziy ran away; all three agreed to dig an underground passage into the woman's house; the woman cut off the butcher's ear, the merchant's nose, and Kazia was a masculine nature]: Osmanov 1987:405-412; Tajiks [the wife, having agreed with her husband, decided to improve the family's affairs; invited a butcher, kadia and raisa, each with rice, a pound of butter and silk clothes; the husband comes; the butcher - calf (husband goes to slaughter him and hits him), cadia is a baby (husband shaves him), Rais is a lamp holder (the husband wants to fix it and hits him on the shoulder); all three decided to climb into the house again; the first two wife grabbed her nose with hot forceps and Raisa by the ass]: Osmanov 1989:522-526; mountain Tajiks [Ashur-Ayor lived, there was nothing to eat, he went to look for food, and his wife went to the judge; agreed to he came in the evening, told me to bring flour and a ram; they were feasting, and then there was a knock on the door, A. came; the wife told the judge to lie in the cradle, told her husband that a child was born; A.: the legs are long, it must be shorten, bring an ax; the judge ran away with the cradle; the next time the woman called the judge; when there was a knock, the wife told the judge to wrap himself in cow's clothing; husband: whose cow? wife: raisa; husband: let's kill her; the judge ran away like he was in his shoes; the next day A. tells his wife that while she was getting food for the children, now he will try; bought a donkey, says that he is wasting money , sold to three people he met; they came to demand money back; he hit his supposedly dead wife with a stick, she jumped up; three bought a stick, they were called to the deceased king; they were beaten; they came to A., and the wife says he died; everyone sat down to desecrate the grave, but A. hit everyone in the ass with a hammer and killed; healed happily]: Semenov 1903, No. 5:105-108; Ishkashim (Sanglic) [during the shipwreck, the merchant lost property; the wife sent money, but the ship sank again; the merchant returned with nothing; the wife promised to fix the case; after agreeing with her husband, asked the judge to borrow 1,000 rupees and invited her to visit for the evening; here the husband knocked; the wife told the judge to lie in the cradle; the husband: who is this? wife: your son; husband shaved off his "son" beard and took an ax to cut off his legs; the judge jumped up and ran away]: Grierson 1921:504; Sarykoltsy [after the king's death, his son went broke; brings the donkey to the bazaar, puts ten gold under his tail, says that the donkey defecates with gold; the son of a rich man buys a donkey for three thousand gold; the prince comes to the judge with his wife; the judge decides in favor of the prince, hopes for a meeting with his wife; she negotiates with her husband; he seems to come suddenly; the wife ties the judge to the cradle, says that they have a son; husband: if there is such a beard now, what happens next; pulls out beard with forceps, is going to cut off his legs, the judge runs away, carrying the cradle]: Pakhalina 1966:114-115.