L109. The cannibal pumpkin. .11.-.13. (.52.)
Thepumpkin turns out to be an absorber monster and/or grows from the remains of a monster.
Yao, Xhosa, Suto, Shona (Karanga), Shambhala, Kamba, Kikuyu, Nilamba, Iramba, Isanzu, Swahili, Sukuma, Baule, Tenda, Guro, Mamprusi, Jukun, Eve, Akposo, Hausa, Mukulu, Samo, Beta, neyo, wobe, sarah, iraku, sandave, (maya itza).
Bantu-speaking Africa. Yao (told in Suahili but apparently coming from Yao tribe) [a pumpkin grows at the place where the ogre died; the boy passing by talk disrespectfully about it, she rolls after them]: Werner 1933:215-216; scythe [brother quarreled with his sister, killed her; mother killed her son; sent her second daughter to her uncle, said she would commit suicide; in the river mbulu (chief monster) hits the water with her tail, the spray flies; says that whoever gets a little wet must take a dip; puts on a girl's clothes; the girl's uncle pretends to be his niece and the girl to be a maid; she is sent to chase birds in the crops, she sings about what happened; women hear it; mbulu slip mice; mbulu's tail chases them, falls into a trap; people poured milk into the pit, made mbulu jump; mbulu's tail wants milk, rushed there; people killed mbulu, buried in this hole; a real niece married a man who had previously married mbulu; they have a child; a square pumpkin grew up in the place where mbulu was buried, tried to swallow the baby; but people cut it to pieces and burned it, threw ash into the river]: McCall Theal 1882:135-138; suto [motive known]: Zeitschrift für Kolonialsprachen VI, 1915/16, 53f und 238 in Kohl-Larsen 196:199; shona (karanga) [people lost a pumpkin seed; one person picked up, planted, grew a large pumpkin; a man sent a boy to cut it; the pumpkin does not tell us to do so; the boy says in fear to the person who insists that the pumpkin be cut off; the pumpkin is brought, she asks who cut it; the person replies that he is; the pumpkin turned into a lion and ate everyone in the kraal]: Sicard 1962, No. 137:282-283; shambhala [boys are surprised at the big pumpkin, she replies that she will "pick them if they pick it"; they do not believe them; sisters come to check, the pumpkin is silent; grows up, swallows everyone, hides in the lake; one woman stays alive, her son grows up, summons a pumpkin, she rolls after him, he splits it with arrows, swallowed ones come out]: Seidel 1896:174 in Basset 1903:297-300 (retelling in Werner 1909:450 =1933:216-217); kamba [the mother of a young woman turns into a cannibal eima; eats her child; after driving her daughter into a tree, she throws a knife up, cutting off the branches; at the last moment, the woman's husband comes running, cuts an aime into pieces; one piece falls into a cattle pen, turns into a pumpkin; a piece of cut pumpkin falls twice on a young woman's finger, a finger falls off; pumpkin shoots close the house overnight, spouses died in it]: Zhukov, Kotlyar 1976, No. 124:302-304; kikuyu [the man went to help the blacksmiths, leaving his pregnant wife; the cannibal began to come to her, ate everything; helped give birth, but continued to eat everything; the woman is barely alive; she put castor seeds in the sun, the bird began to bite; woman: once you bite, fulfill my request, fly to the blacksmith, sing about me and the ogre there; blacksmiths to a woman's husband: this is a song about you come back; the blacksmith came back, hid, killed the ogre when he fell asleep, went to live with his wife and child in a new place; a pumpkin grew at the scene where the ogre was killed; one person found it, called the people, in the pumpkin they began to make beer in the big fire; every time the child came to see, the pumpkin swallowed it; so with all the children; one young man saw that there were no children, and the pumpkin was moving slowly; it was split, cut to pieces, kids came out alive]: Mwangi 1983:86-89; nilamba: Johnson 1931 [retelling the same text with further details in Arewa 1961, #3067:144-145; Kiali's husband kills her sister; K. goes to his mother; on the way, the cannibal porcupine throws her into a hole, takes her form, comes to her house; the real K. comes to life, the cannibal is exposed, thrown into the fire, buried under the hearth; in the morning a pumpkin grows there; she repeats everything the people of the village say; they come to chop her with an ax, she swallows them, and the woman with her son Mlilua remains hiding in the cave; he, starting with a grasshopper, hunts larger and larger ones animals; kills Kiali pumpkin with arrows in the lake; when dying, K. tells him to cut it from the back so as not to injure the swallowed ones; swallowed ones come out; cutting K., M. injured one woman's ear, she gives him water poisoned by beer, he dies]: 334 in Werner 1933:217-218; iramba: Klipple 1992 [the porcupine turns into a pumpkin; when it is cut it, it swallows it all; an old woman remains; hid in a cave ; gives birth to a son Mlilua, who is already talking in her stomach; brings larger animals, asking each time if it's a swallower; the porcupine tells them to build 7 huts each; the mother tells throw thorns at the porcupine, it has lost its strength; tells you to cut it; swallowed go out]: 365-366; Millroth 1965 [the pumpkin spoke, began to grow when someone raised an ax to cut it, it swallowed it; the last woman with the child hid in the cave; the boy Mlila grew up, brings his mother bigger game, asking if it's an absorber; finds a giant, kills with arrows, dying, he orders him to be cut from the back so as not to cut the swallowed ones; swallowed people and animals come out of his stomach; ripping open the giant's womb, M. cut the ear of one woman, she killed M. with witchcraft]: 194; Isanzu: Kohl-Larsen, Allenbach 1937, No. 34 [Mulilwa boy released the bird from his father's trap; the bird promised to help him; his father sent him to the tree for fruit, cut off the lower branches, left him; five days M. was sitting in a tree; the bird flew to the rescue, ordered her nail, snot, hair, some excrement to be thrown down, picked up M. on its wings, lowered it to the ground; ordered it to be cut from the back, eat it, bones fold; M. covered the bones with a stone, a herd of bulls came out; the zebra refused, the bird brought his little sister news of his salvation; the girl told her mother, she also heard; M. came with the bulls; He stabbed one, asked his father to open his mouth to put fat in it, threw a hot stone down his throat, his father died; a pumpkin grew on his grave; his wife (mother M.) cut it, and a monster jumped out of it, ate everyone], 39 [father warns three sons not to go with girls who will laugh; sons meet girls, one notices that they turn into lions at night; brothers make a stupa out of wood , fly away in it; the one who sees the danger tells the brothers not to look back, they looked around, the lions ate them; the rest reached home; his lioness girl came, he pushed her into a hole with hot coals; a pumpkin grew, brought fruit, he swallowed them all]: 44-47, 53-54; Swahili [the girl picked up a shell on the shore, put it on a stone, forgot; came back for it, the others left; zimwi sat on a stone, put the girl down to the drum, began to walk around the villages, playing the drum, and the girl inside sang; in the girl's native village, the parents recognized their daughter's voice; gave them beer, replaced their daughter with a snake and bees; next time the drum was silent; z. opened it, died of bites, a pumpkin grew in this place, the boys passing by wanted to chop it, the pumpkin rolled after them; the man and the boat transported them across the river, in the village the boys were hidden in hut; The pumpkin began to demand them, the men chopped it and burned it]: Werner 1933:180-182; sukuma [a pumpkin grew, repeated what it said, became gigantic, and the monstrous Shingwengwe came out of it , ate everyone, a woman with a small child was saved; he grew up to bring bigger game, his mother replies every time that it's not Sh.; the real Sh comes out, he and the young man are building everyone around them seven walls; Sh. and the young man take turns firing seven arrows; the monster's arrows burn seven fences, the young man's arrows do not reach; when Sh. fired all his arrows, the young man came closer and killed him with an arrow in the forehead; when he dies, he tells him to skin him, starting from behind, not from his stomach; when the young man cut his stomach, all the swallowed people and animals came out]: Millroth 1965:192-193.
West Africa. Tenda [girl rejects suitors; the monster turns into a handsome man with shiny skin like a palm peel; goes with him to him; on the way he returns bark to the palm tree (var.: and teeth to the snake); he swallows whole animals, belching at home, the wife must grind meat; the girl's father's other wife (co-epouse) comes to visit her; the girl tells her to go back along the dew road, but she walks along the road where there is no dew, meets a monster; he swallows it, belches it at home like other game, tells them to grind it, eats it; the same is true with the girl's mother; the monster's two younger brothers come, the girl invites them to sit in a mortar, pushes; confesses to the monster; he promises to swallow it tomorrow; her younger brothers come to her; she runs away with them, throws grass behind, then dirt, detaining the pursuer (the narrator did not say how exactly); runs to the blacksmith; the monster swallows him, but the blacksmith immediately comes out of the monster's anus; kills him with a sledgehammer; makes sandals and straps out of monster skin to carry children; warns not put them together; children (i.e. the girl's brothers) climb the fig tree, throw their sandals in a pile; the monster is reborn; one boy manages to go down, calls the blacksmith, he kills the monster again; burns; The frog plants pumpkins in this place; comes to pick ripe pumpkins, they do not tell; so consistently all actions (cut, cook, eat); it plucks (etc.), each time she says, "By herself planted, why not rip it off" (etc.); raspberry people (or other neighboring people) come, the Frog teaches them what to say; people cannot go out of need; the Frog tells them to say the same phrase again; people are relieved, many flies appear; The frog puts them in a vessel, closes them; the thief stole the vessel, opened it, the flies flew out (the origin of the flies)]: Ferry 1983, No. 42:226-234; mamprusi [hunter planted pumpkin, it has grown up, decided to roll towards it on its own; all the animals and the hunter himself run away from it; Leo, Elephant first volunteer to help, but when they see the pumpkin, they run away; the wasp swallows the pumpkin, but it falls out of it belly; then the Wasp tells the hunter to bandage her stomach, swallows pumpkin; since then, the wasp has a narrow waist]: Anpetkova-Sharova 1966, No. 7:13-16 (=2010:11-13); herself [the man planted pumpkins; people walked try to see if they are ripe; one day pumpkins sang "buruberere" ("you tap the line" and rolled after the man; he asks the workers in the field to protect him, but when they see pumpkins approaching, they told him run on; so did another peasant; the blacksmith told the man to stay and cut pumpkins; they contained kauris that people had not seen before]: Paulme 1976:296-297; jukun [the woman swallowed her own children; Adi-bu-ma ("Adi is the son of Ma") was born, holding a bow and arrow, from a tumor on his thigh, did not fall on a plate, but went into the forest; breaking an egg, created a city surrounded by a wall, people and animals in it, became king; everything went to the fields, the eldest wife was unwell, went to the forest to buy herbs, met her husband's mother, who gave her herbs, she exclaimed that this was not enough, remembering her husband's name; the cannibal understood who was in front of her, she came to town with her, swallowed everyone; A. consistently throws 60 kopecks at her mother, she throws one of her 60 teeth each time, both miss; the bird advises A. only to pretend to throw a spear , the mother throws her last tooth in response, the son kills her; swallowed ones fell out of her cut abdomen, A. revived them with herbs; those in her stomach became white for a long time, less with reddish skin, and for a short time blacks ; A. did not revive his wife; the cannibal's body was burned, the ashes were thrown into the river, some of the ash fell ashore, a pumpkin grew, pumpkins began to swallow people; A. fed the goat, it slaughtered pumpkins, burned them, A. revived swallowed with herbs, some of the ash came ashore again, on the woman's clothes, she became a witch (the origin of witches)]: Meek 1931:193-196 (retelling in Belcher 2005:292-296); eve [against advice sage, Fale plants only Calebass trees in the field; the only calebas pumpkin has grown up; every time F. knocks on her with a knife to see if she is ripe, the pumpkin takes his knife and knocks on F.; he she cuts a pumpkin, she sings a song, swallows it, then everyone in the village, in other villages; the ram sings himself, puts out its horns, the pumpkin splits, swallowed except F., comes out; since then, the Kaletas trees are planted only among other cultivated plants]: Pozdnyakov 1990:218-223; akposo [The spider planted calebasses; each time he says that calebas grows (blooms, ripens, etc.) for him; Calebas replies that it is the Spider growing, etc. for him; the Spider scratches Calebas with his fingernail and he scratches him; the Spider sharpened the knife so that it would cut the fly that fell on the blade, cut off Calebas; he chased him; the Spider asks Dwarf Antelope, Pig, Buffalo, Elephant for help, calling each "mother's elder brother"; when everyone sees Calebas, everyone tells him to run on; the Atša bird protected him; Calebas left the gold, jewelry as well as low-value items; The spider took the valuables for himself, and when he brought them home, they turned into crap]: Wolf 1909, No. 5:654-657; guro [the boy picked up a pumpkin seed; seed: me picked up a boy; he planted him in the field, it sprouted; boy: the seed sprouted; pumpkin: the boy sprouted; etc.; when the boy said that the pumpkin was ripe, then in response: the boy was ripe; rolled after him, swallowing all humans and animals along the way; only one pregnant sheep hid in the crevices of the rock and it closed behind it; a lamb was born, went out, refused to return; the pumpkin answers him, rolled up, he broke with her horns, all the people and animals swallowed came out; the ram still has this God-given power]: Tououi Bi 2014:97-100; baule: Paulme 1976:280-281 [a peasant planted a pumpkin seed; a vine it grew fast, but there was only one pumpkin on it - a huge one day; one day a farmer knocked on a pumpkin with a knife and said: my pumpkin is not yet ripe; the pumpkin took his knife, knocked on it and said: my man is not yet ripened; the same for the second time; on the third, the pumpkin swallowed the peasant, and then all the people and animals in the village; then in other villages; towards the goat; the third blow of the horns split the pumpkin in half; from one came the ocean, and from the other, a land of valleys and mountains], 291-282 [the old woman found a pumpkin seed and planted it; the pumpkin grew; the old lady: the pumpkin grew; the pumpkin: the old woman grew; the pumpkin is ripe; old lady: it's time to cut it; pumpkin: it's time to chase the old lady; the old woman is running, weavers are sitting on the outskirts of the village, the old woman is calling for help, the weavers are also running; the old woman sees a goat, calls for help; a goat I broke the pumpkin with horns; the seeds fell apart, people picked them up; since then they have been planting pumpkins, but the pumpkins don't roll on their own]; beta [the burnt hut has grown a calebas pumpkin; boy: my father's seed has sprouted; pumpkin: it's my mother who sprouted; the boy goes to talk to the pumpkin; she is ripe and swallowed it; children and adults are beginning to disappear; the pumpkin has swallowed everyone in the village, devastates the country; a woman with baby; pumpkin swallows baby, woman runs; old woman teaches how to make a sticky mixture of siako grains, mushrooms, salt and pepper, do not try to try, grease the rock, they will open; woman tries, rock does not opens; an old woman walks with her, prepares the mixture, lubricates the rock, she opens; a woman walks through a country where there is no vegetation, but streams flow; finds a white goat, leads to an old woman; when With the sound of thunder and the sparkling of lightning, the goat rips open the pumpkin with its horn, blood floods the ground; the people smeared in it turned red, and those who swam in rotten water after heavy rains turn black]: Paulme 1976:278-279; neyo [a little calebasa in the village swallowed all the people and animals; a pregnant goat ran away and gave birth to a goat in the rock grotto; he grew up and asked to go outside; the goat asked him to break with his horns, he only scratched it; he also grew up and shattered the rock to pieces; Kalebes: I thought I had swallowed them all; they grabbed and the goat smashed the calebas with horns; everyone swallowed came out, so people live everywhere]: Paulme 1976:281-282; wobe: Paulme 1976:293 [the boy and girl don't have a father; the girl planted a pumpkin, and when she wanted to cut it, the pumpkin swallowed it; then swallowed her brother and everyone family members; a small child talked about it in the village; people can't break the pumpkin, but the goat smashed it; everyone swallowed came out, but their skin turned white (the origin of white people)], 293-295 [everyone's pumpkin swallowed; one woman escaped; gave birth to twins named the Famous Warrior and Soldier of God; the woman told them that the pumpkin had swallowed their father, grandfather, grandmother, and all relatives; they came to the hillside, at which the pumpkin rolled up and down and screamed that it had swallowed everyone; one shot from below, the other hit with a spear from above; the pumpkin split, swallowed out; they lay in four layers (black below everyone, then red, yellow, white; therefore, people of different races of different colors]; hausa [the girl, the chief's only daughter, wants to pick a small pumpkin, not the big one nearby; the chief agrees; pumpkin says it should eat meat, first devours goats, rams, cows, camels; then slaves, free and, finally, the leader himself; chases the girl; towards the goat (a ram); jumps, hits pumpkin with horns, all swallowed go out]: Rattray 1913:304-310 in Paulme 1976:291-292; mukulu [all a woman's children die shortly after birth; she decides to die herself if the baby dies again; gave birth to a girl, she grew up healthy, and then died for no apparent reason; the woman put her body and all her possessions on an ox, wanted to go; the floor of the hut does not let her in, says that it will happen scream; she threw him a piece of cloth; then the same door, the courtyard, the area in front of the yard, various sections along the way and the ground says she does not eat people, let the woman move on; the woman throws a piece every time fabrics are of better quality; finally, it comes to the place where it begins to fall into the ground; fell with the dead girl and the ox; from the skull of the ox and the girl's body grew calebasses of various kinds; from a woman's bodies are calebasses of many kinds; each is used for specific purposes; the smallest is a calebasa spoon; one woman went there, collected calebasses, brought them home; filled a large vat with water, to make beer, she went to work in the field; the Calebasses came to life, took out the water and the vat and poured them out; so several times; the ant advised the woman to hide and look; she rushed to the calebasses, beat them in pieces, and the spoon ran into the pond that appeared at the place where the Calebasses grew; there was no way to grab it; the man went into the woman's house, picked up those calebasses that were intact, brought them to him; the spoon appeared there; the man is amazed to see that the Calebasses are alive; wanted to hit the big one, it split, the beer poured out of it, flooded the village and all the people died]: Jungraithmayr 1981, No. 11:49-58.
Sudan - East Africa. Sarah (mbai): Fortier 1967, No. 7a [Sou has 10 dogs; he went to cut reeds by the river; a witch lived there; he asked for a meal worthy of a guest; she cooked a child; Su noticed in brewed your head, poured food under the bed, and chewed a dry cake himself; witch: I gave you food as a guest, now you must be my lover; took your pest, chased Su; for the night they went in the hut, the witch released her teeth to eat Su, but the dogs began to bark; the witch calmed down, threw a pestle into the fire and said that tomorrow Su should go across 4 rivers and bring her a new one; in the morning asked lock the dogs in the hut, they're angry; they went across four rivers, Su had an axe to make a new pestle; the witch told Su to climb the tree: cut it above and I'll be below; then: you poured out my food and now you're going to die! my teeth become an ax, my child's teeth become an ax! and Su began to sing, calling the dogs; they escaped from the hut, but the big dogs could not swim across the river; the smallest swam across, came back and carried the others; they tore them apart by the sorceress; Su went down with a tree, cut it down, made a fire and burned her remains; a woman collected ash to make salt, brought it to her; her daughter tells her mother that ash sings: I am ash (from the burned) witch, and my name is ash (for cooking) salt; the mother only replies that she will give this salt to her daughter when she has her wedding; but still scattered ash; she has grown a pumpkin vine; a huge pumpkin has come off the stem, rolled around the village, devouring everyone; the pregnant woman asked the lion to hide it: if you have twins, you can eat one; when she gave birth, she asked the lion to wait: let the boys grow up; the woman caught on the stump, which teaches to feed the lion with food and sleeping pills; when the lion woke up, the lion caught up with them, the woman pretended not to run away; stump: feed the lion to the dump so as not to wake up; they they ran to the blacksmith, the young men made throwing knives, climbed a tree, called the pumpkin sorcerer; the thrush screams, naming two vines; the young men smeared the knives with the juice of these vines; cut the pumpkin, all swallowed came out; therefore, there are many people on earth now], 7b [Luba (aka Loa, the creator god) created all people, including the sorceress Ki-ngué-té-gueu; she destroyed all people, the last two young men and two girls; a pregnant woman remained, gave birth to twins of different sexes; the girl found ash, brought it to make salt; ash sings that she is ash from a witch, and she is mistaken for ash to make salt {why The witch burned down and where did people come from again is not said}; the ash was thrown away, a pumpkin vine grew out of it, it had a huge calebass, it came off, began to roll and devour people; the thrush speaks of twins that Calebas was swallowed by their mother and continues to swallow people; brother and sister climbed a tree, called Calebasa, split her with throwing knives, but she grew together again; thrush: grease vines juice; they smeared the halves, the calebass could not grow together; on the advice of the thrush, brother and sister began to grind one of the pieces with a pestle; after the first blow, white came out, after the second, black, after the third - Manja (Adamawa-Ubangi language), after the fourth - villagers, including the mother of twins]: 177-183, 184-187; sandave: Arnold 1984:161-165 [Xyari refuses men; one turned into hawk, took her clothes, she ran after him to his village, to his house, where he became human; she gave birth to a son; her husband's relatives told him to shave the child with a piece of bark, not an iron razor; H. not she listened, the child died; she told her husband that she would go visit her parents, did not say that the child was dead; her mother buried the baby in the sand by the river; the mother cooked the broth, H. said she would eat later, she went to the grave herself, summoned the child from it, gave her food; the mother called H., the child immediately returned to the grave; so for a few days; the mother found out, dug a hole, closed it with something, boiled water; H. came, fell into a hole, her mother and her friends filled it with boiling water and covered it with earth; millet, corn, beans, peanuts, pumpkins grew in this place; people found it in hunger, put it in baskets, carried it, but they could not at home tear the baskets off their heads; they took them back and left them, everything rotted there, and people returned hungry], 178-181 [Nsaru rejects the men; went swimming with the girls; on the way back I noticed that I forgot by the stream a pendant from the sink; the girls refused to return; N. went alone, carried her away in a bag by the leader of the perfume; released her, telling her to climb the tree and collect the fruit; carried it again; came to the village where Aunt N. left the bag in her house, went to the men; N. says: aunt, you will fry me; the aunt's child hears, the aunt opens the bag, puts the dog in it instead of N. wasps and bees; tells the dog to answer the questions of the leader of the spirit; when the spirit takes the bag to him and opens it, wasps and bees sting it, it falls into a lit fire, burns; the dog comes running, talking; does not know that pumpkins (as well as corn, cucumbers) have grown from the ashes of the spirit ); when they are hungry, people come there, carry pumpkins to their village; they can't take the baskets off their heads, the pumpkins are told to carry them back; then back to the village; people are barely alive; they managed to throw off the baskets, but the wounds remain] ; to Iraq: Kohl-Larsen 1963:16-29 [People went for honey, the huge Harário snake surrounded them with its body and ate them; only one jumped over it and returned home; planted a pumpkin, and took it for fertilizer snake droppings; the pumpkin began to grow; the man wanted to cut it with an ax, hit himself in the leg, died soon; another threw a spear, it bounced into it; the pumpkin demanded that Ama'irmi (the cannibal) be brought in; And . said she would eat 50 people and the other 50 by her sister; but she came; the pumpkin began to negotiate with her how to destroy all people; one man smeared himself with crap, went up to them, found out what was witchcraft the product, received it, ate it himself and gave it to 10 people to eat; they killed pumpkin and A.; that man became the chief; the sister of the victim took the form of a woman, came to the chief's house under the guise of a relative; disappears every night cattle; the leader turns to the sorcerer, who each time asks to slaughter cattle, A. eats with pleasure; the children hear an imaginary relative sing that she is A.; the neighbor's child understood and told; the leader killed A. with a spear and arrows], 112-117 [Ama'irmi came to Zagate's house, demanded food; he killed her with arrows, burned her corpse, and a pumpkin grew; when Z. left, Pumpkin-A. asks the children where their father is, he wants food, they give her a goat; Z. came back and finally killed A., cut off his fingers; cattle came out of one, someone's wife from the other, a hyena from the third, two bulls from the fourth, and his goats from the fifth; Z. got rich].
(Wed. Mesoamerica Itza [(apparently an African borrowing, but the final episode is Mesoamerican); the mother does not tell the boy to sit on a pumpkin; he sits down, the pumpkin chases him; the Jaguar can't stop her runs with the boy; the old woman cuts her in half; our whole world is inside]: Schumann 1964:350-351).