L125. Werewolf wife, ATU 411.

.13.14.-.17.23.26.28.-.30.32.-.35.37.38.

When a man meets a beauty, he finds her in a position where her inhuman nature appears. After that, the marriage falls apart.

Somalis, Berbers of Morocco, Basques, Dutch, Walloons, French, Germans (Upper Palatinate), Arabic written tradition, Kashmiris, Uttar Pradesh, Malayals, Yami, Lisu, Koreans, Chinese (Qinghai, Guangdong, Hubei, Zhejiang, Jiangsu), Chuan Miao, Russians (Vologda), Nogais, Armenians, Azerbaijanis, Turkmens, Uzbeks in Khorezm, Uzbeks, Mountain Tajiks, Persians, Komi, Kazan Tatars, Bashkirs , Kazakhs, Karakalpaks, Kyrgyz, Yellow Uighurs, Dungans, Siberian Tatars, Altaians, Telengits, Kumandins, Tuvans, South Altai Tuvans, Eastern Khanty, Southern and Northern Selkups, Nanais, Manchus, the Japanese.

Sudan - East Africa. Somalis [a man saw a beautiful girl; she agreed to marry him if he did not look at her during the day; one day he decided to return home in the afternoon, did not find a wife, saw her go out of a hole Aischa tail peeks out {some kind of snake?} ; poked her in the eye with a stick; when he returned in the evening, his wife was ill; replied that no one but himself offended her; said that she was that Aischa; the man ran away in horror]: Reinish 1900, No. 116:247-248.

North Africa. The Berbers of Morocco (Reef; recorded in Orleansville) [the king does not give his son the key to the garden; the prince told the maid to steal the key; he almost fell asleep in the garden; Mes'aouda, the daughter of good spirit and guli, appeared; exchanged rings with the prince; they began to meet; one day the dove brought a letter from her: she agrees to marry the prince if he builds a palace of gold and silver bricks, with ivory doors bones, with a glass roof; and will give it one hundred thousand dinars and one hundred thousand rams; the king did everything for his son, the king of good spirits appeared and they signed a contract; soon the king died and the prince himself became king; M. mixed her husband with sleeping pills, at night she became a ghoul and ate corpses; her mother came to her and they ate carrion together; one day the king's sister came to visit; M. put her to sleep with her mother strangled her and they ate her; after that, M. constantly asked her husband to invite relatives and friends, and no one else saw them; the fortuneteller advised the king to slowly pour out what his wife would be in the evening offer a drink; the king watched and heard that the Guli were going to eat him the next night, because the rest were all eaten; the fortuneteller advises ordering him to dig a hole, make a fire in it, and cover it with a carpet ; let someone tell M. that her husband is dying; she will throw herself and fall into a hole; so it happened; after all, the king of good spirits gave the king his other daughter, good and beautiful]: Desparmet 1910:374-394.

Southern Europe. Basques: Zelikov 2016:93 [Portuguese Libro do conde dpn Pedro das linhages antuguas talks about Diego Lopez, a native of Biscay; he married a woman he met in the woods while hunting ; she made it a condition not to be baptized in her presence; the woman was beautiful, but one leg was like a goat; one day the husband forgot his promise; the wife ran to the mountains and never returned], 94-95 [when the boy walked into the forest, a girl came out to him and escorted him to the village; the boy's father advised him to look at the girl's legs; they turned out to be like chicken legs; the guy was frightened, the girl understood and said that he was no longer with him will come back].

Western Europe. Dutch, Walloons, French (also Scots?) [the origin of dynastic lines from marriage to Meluzina]: (Wikipedia; references to sources are needed, but the authenticity of the plot is beyond doubt); Germans (Upper Palatinate) [after the death of his father, the forester's son went to a foreign land to look for work; he saw a beautiful woman at the well, she offered to stay with her; told her not to look at her if there was a thunderstorm; they have 7 children; in the 14th year of marriage, her husband looked into the lock a hole and saw his wife in the bathtub, she was a fish below the waist; she said that he did not wait until he was 14 years old, then he would have remained a woman; she flew away with her children; the howling of the wind is their voices]: Schönwerth 1858:194-195.

Western Asia. Arabic written tradition (One Thousand and One Nights) [the vizier points the prince to the beast, the prince chases, loses his way, misses the beast, sees a girl crying; the girl says she is Indian the princess is lost when she falls off her horse; the prince takes her with her, the girl asks her to stop, goes into the ruins, supposedly out of need; the prince spies and, seeing that she is a ghoul, promises her children that they they will soon be full; the prince returns to the horse, answers the girl that he is trembling because he is afraid of an enemy; the girl says that the enemy can be defeated by prayer; the prince reads a prayer, the ghoul left; The prince tells his father about the act of the vizier, the vizier is executed]: Salle 2010, night 5:44-50.

South Asia. Kashmiris [the king is chasing a deer, he ran away, on the way back the king saw a girl crying; she said that she was the daughter of a padishah of China, enemies attacked, she fled; the king married her; feels he is getting worse; the yoga disciple flew over the palace, went down, fell asleep on the king's bed; grateful to the king for not taking away his box; he returns with his rishi; he explains that the king's wife is snake; let the king give it salty food and hide the water; at night it will turn into a snake, crawl for water; the king sees it all; rishi: if no one looks at the snake for a hundred years, it becomes jahmar; in the next hundred years, ashdar; if 300 years old, vihá; viha can stretch any distance, take on any form; rishi tells you to push his wife into the oven to bake bread; the ash will turn out to be a stone, it turns all metals into gold; did the Rishi also have special properties]: Knowles 1888:233-239 (about the same in Steel, Temple 1884:189-195; Malayals [ a man lived by bringing wood from the forest and selling it; one night he returned home to meet a beautiful woman; she cried and said she was lost; a man brought her home, they began to live together; the wife gave birth to a child; he was large in size beyond her years; one day a man asked his wife to get salt from the shelf; she reached for salt, and her fingers became incredibly long and then normal again ; the wife admitted that she was yakshi and asked to be taken at night to the same place in the forest where the man met her; the husband returned safely; their son grew up; he and his descendants had a massive body]: Beck et al. 1987, No. 10:31-32; (cf. Kashmiris [the girl did not scoop water with her hand, but began to drink directly from the lake; a snake crawled into her unnoticed, remained inside unnoticed by the girl; she got married; at night the snake crawled out, bit her husband and crawled back, her husband died; Ali Mardan Khan, the Mughal ruler, stayed to watch at night, saw a snake; ordered the woman to be toned; when she burned down, there was a stone that turned any metals into gold; after his death, A. ordered the stone to be thrown into the Indus; only the youngest of four sons agreed to do so]: Knowles 1885:184-186); Uttar Pradesh, Faizabad, Hindi [say that the founder of the Palwár Chhattris in Faizabad was married to a fairy or witch; one day she was baking cakes and her baby was a few meters away from her and began to cry; to calm the baby and prevent him from burning cakes, the woman became huge; at this time her husband saw her; the wife disappeared, but the child remained]: Crooke 1895, No. 355:126; (cf. Bengalis (Sylhet) [relatives came late in the evening; the wife asked her husband to cut the sycamore leaves for plates; he refused: where would I go in the dark; then she reached out and took it out from afar leaves; the husband was horrified; the next day he said that he had heard from his father that they needed to come to him urgently; he, his wife and child sailed in the boat; the husband asked his wife to wait on the island while he was fishing will catch; wife: I understand your plan and only out of love for my son will keep you alive; but anyone who lives in your home will be left without offspring; no one still lives there]: Grierson 1903a: 223- 224).

China - Korea. Lisa [a man married a girl from a distant village, not knowing that she was a spirit; at night her head left her body to devour the dead; her husband covered her neck with a cloth, her head screams, he threw off the cloth, her head grew up, the wife woke up; the husband told his parents about this; they told him to leave his wife: if he lived with her for three years, he would become a spirit; the husband returned for his things; the wife's relatives chased him; he climbed a tree with small leaves; by the end of the day, the spirits cut him down, he climbed onto a banana; the spirits decided that it would be more difficult to cut down a tree with large leaves than with small leaves, left; the man hid in porcupine burrow; spirits began to poke a vine to find out if the hole was deep; the man wrapped the vine into a ball; the spirits thought the hole was deep; they set a trap at the entrance, left their boy as a watchman; man offered him honey; the boy came up and fell into the trap; the man went out and climbed the tree again; each of the spirits came up screams which part of the victim's body he would eat; ate his own; the man screamed in a voice birds that the spirits fear; they choked on their bones in fear, all died]: Dessaint, Ngwâma 1994:615-617; Chuan Miao [the merchant sees a woman sitting by the river, marrying her; she reluctantly goes with him to a theatrical performance, sits away; the actors tell her husband to watch his wife; he sees her taking off her head to comb her hair; how her fangs grow; the husband asks the actors to give him black dog blood splashes around the house; actors beat gongs and drums, woman runs to the mountains, turns into a tiger]: Graham 1954:157; Chinese (Qinghai) [wife gives birth the day after weddings; the husband's childless sister pierces the umbilical cord out of envy, the woman in labor and the child die; the husband goes to look for his wife on the banks of the river of the dead; she does not immediately recognize him (the dead forget everything), she has another husband; he tells us why the woman died; on a black donkey, the husband returns to earth; on the way, a woman joins him; gives birth to three children; the bonza advises to follow his wife; the husband sees that the wife is an inhuman creature; with the help of bonzes she is expelled, her children turn into piles of garbage]: Frick 1954, No. 31:537; Koreans: Choi 1979, No. 106 [man wrote on skeleton (human bones) in roads, he chased him; the man hid in a liquor store, slipped through the back door; a few years later he returned, saw a new shop in front of him, beautiful in it; the man began to talk about his adventure; the beauty turned into a fox with nine tails, said she was the skeleton, ate the man (=Ząng 1952, No. 22:38); var.: the man picked up his shoulder blade, said he had one; in an old woman in a liquor shop; said she was that shovel, ate a man]: 32; Cho 2001, No. 87 [every day, walking past the hill, a young man meets a girl; she brings him into the house, presses her face against him puts a bead in his mouth with his tongue and takes it back; the young man turns pale, weakens; the teacher tells him to swallow a bead while looking at the sky; the young man swallows but looks at the ground; the girl turns into a fox, dies ; she took 99 people's strength with a bead; if she took the hundredth, she would remain a woman; if the young man looked at the sky, he would know everything about him]: 146-147; Ionova 2011 [the young man, lost in the mountains, found a hut, where a beautiful woman lived; an enchanted young man stayed with her; one day a woman went to the mountains and the young man followed her; he saw her turn into a bear to catch a deer; when he found out that her the mystery was solved, the bear began to chase the young man; he rushed into the river; the bear could not swim; the village where the young man swam ashore was called "Bear Bank", and the river was called "Bear River"]: 107; Garin-Mikhailovsky 1898 [poor Kim-non-chi carried his grandfather's bones to a happy mountain, had a wake, got drunk and went to town; the beauty brought him to her place; asked for three months not to come to her uninvited and not look into her room; K. broke the ban, saw a beast on the floor; when she entered, the woman explained that she had been turned into a thousand years as a punishment; in three months before her term, she has the right to take the form of a woman; at this time someone must love her; there is only one day left; now she has to wait a thousand years again; when K. returned home, he found out that his only son died; when he fell asleep, a thousand legs crawled, wanted to kiss, bit, K. died without waking up]: 85; Chinese (Guangdong, Zhejiang, Hubei, Jiangsu) [{V. Eberhard considers all versions of narratives about a person's contact with an inhuman being who has taken human form; our motive L125 highlights only references to a man's marriage to a werewolf wife; It is impossible to restore specific stories from Eberhard's schematic description, but, as he himself writes, this includes all the stories about a man meeting a werewolf fox}]: Eberhard 1937:167-171.

Central Europe. Russians (Vologda) [the guy went to see a girl in another village; one day he looked out the window and saw her take off her head, comb her hair, braid her braid, and then put her head back; he did not come to her again; she fell ill and asked her father: when he dies, let Ivan (this guy) take her to bury her; on the advice of the old woman, Ivan asks the girl's father to put 6 hoops on his daughter's coffin; on the way the hoops burst one by one; when he was alone, Ivan climbed onto the spruce tree; the girl came out of the coffin, became a fox, found a spruce, began to nibble on it; when the spruce was ready to fall, the post office arrived; the fox became again as a girl, she lay down in a coffin; postal people helped: together with Ivan, they took the deceased to the cemetery and buried her]: Kuzmina 2008, No. 38:100-102.

Caucasus - Asia Minor. Nogais: Kapayev 2012 [(excerpt from an epic song); when Tokhtamys Khan's falcon was less dexterous than Shah Timur's, the khan drove his falconer Kytly-Kaya away; he went to the forest met a woman; she did not allow her to look under her arms; one day she was swimming and KK saw a hole above her ribs through which her insides could be seen; the woman said he broke the agreement, promised bring a child when he gives birth; once KK saw people in the village run in horror; he came there and saw a baby in the field; he was fed by a dog; the boy grew up]: 7-9; Nogai 1979, No. 25 [Khan Altintai gives every poor man a gold coin; vizier: you give once, and the padishah woman as many times as the poor man comes to her; after changing clothes, A. comes to that woman; she promises to reveal a secret if A. finds out, 1 ) why does a blind man go to the bazaar and give a gold coin to everyone who hits him; the blind man's story: when he was sighted, Molla called him, showed him the man who threw gold coins; Molla did not pick them up; and then picked up something else that that man had thrown; Molla refused to explain; then blinded the questioner; this thing makes blind people sighted; walk around the bazaar, get punched in the neck and wait for me when I I will make you sighted; 2) then the mall goes up to the minaret 40 times a day and goes down 40 times; molla: I grabbed a bird, it brought me to another village; a rich woman took her husband, told me to sell, for how much I bought; he began to sell more; she drove him away, the bird took him back; now I'm climbing the minaret - did the bird come back; 3) why does the shoemaker sing before lunch and then cry; shoemaker: we lived It's good with my wife, but she did not eat with him; friends advised me to follow; the wife became a bull, dug the dead, ate her heart; the husband told her what he saw; the wife: I will kill if you stay in our village; the shoemaker is glad that he got rid of the witch, but regrets the good life with her; the padishah woman: I give gold to the poor, wanting to find a husband among them; the padishah married her, and handed over his kingdom to the vizier]: 132-135; Armenians [a poor man with many children leaves home, his wife does not care; in the city, a rich young woman invites him to her place, makes him a husband; she does not eat meat; refuses to wear the silk one she bought by her husband a shirt embroidered with pearls; the seller explains that the wife is a snake, kills her husbands after 6 years; she must be persuaded to eat meat, hide water; at night she will start looking for water as a snake, then come back and again will become a woman; it is; the seller tells her husband to ask his wife to bake cakes, push it into the tonir, close it with a lid; then get two burnt pieces of dough, bring one to him; the man became wash his hands in the basin with which he took a piece of dough, the water became gold; he brought only half a piece to the merchant; moved his former family to him]: Nazinyan 1969:159-162 (=2014:76-81); Azerbaijanis ( Nukha District, 1899) [the prince sees a beautiful woman in the forest, marries her; withers; the dervish explains to his father that his daughter-in-law is a forty-year-old snake; advises feeding her salty pilaf and locking her bedroom doors; the prince pretends to be sleeping; the wife turns into a snake, crawls into the crack, drinks, returns; the dervish advises her to bake bread, let the servant push her into the oven; the prince recovers, the dervish is made vizier]: Bagriy 1930 (1): 46-48 (approximately the same in Nabiev 1988:259-260); (cf. Kalmyks [a Kalmyk met a woman in the desert who asked him to take her with him; he guessed who she was, but did not refuse; when they stayed for the night, the Kalmyk moved quietly so that where he used to have a head, his legs found himself and pretended to be asleep; the woman rushed to where his head used to be, trying to strangle him; a struggle began, during which the Kalmyk managed to snatch from the woman's hair; after that she became completely exhausted and began to ask for mercy; the Kalmyk did not return her hair and, when she came home, hid it with the Burkhans; the woman could not reach it, for the sanctity of the icon kept her away; she lived with a Kalmyk for three years doing hard work; one day she took out her hair with the help of his three-year-old son; after receiving her hair, she threw the baby into boiling milk and left;" unclean forces" do not go anywhere without your hair, because all power lies in your hair; there is a saying: "Why do you stick like an evil spirit from which you took your hair?"] : Dusan 1976:81-82).

Iran - Central Asia. Persians (Khorasan): Nikolsky 1886 [=Romaskevich 1934a, No. 67:379-380; after living as a snake for 40 years, Snake South always turns into a beautiful girl; a man married her; began to wither away; dervish told him that his wife was a snake; let him feed her salted lamb, take water out of the house at night and ban the door; the husband saw his wife become a snake, crawled out of the house to drink, then returned; the husband trembled and explained that he had a fever; the dervish advised him to push his wife into a hot tone; when he was opened, there was only a handful of snake-shaped ash; the dervish took a handful, rubbed the copperware with it, and she became gold]: 50; Marzolph 1984, № 411 [prince sees a naked girl in the desert, marries her; she demands that her husband not force her to light the fire herself, put firewood in the fire, stay near stove; the prince feels worse; the dervish advises him to follow his wife, the prince sees that it is a snake; the dervish tells her to tone; ash in tonur turns into gold]: 83; mountain Tajiks (Vanch) [the young man sees wagers bathing; one agrees to marry him if he does not watch her, does not watch her wash her hair, how she cooks; he breaks prohibitions, sees that the bet is walking , without touching the ground, takes off his head, and after washing it, puts it in place, puts oil in his food, which he pulls out from under his arm; the bet flies away]: Gornensky 2000:165-167; Turkmens [Yuvha is beautiful a girl who has lived an ajdarkha dragon who has lived for many years; marries a man with a number of prerequisites: do not watch her comb her hair, do not stroke her back, to take a bath after intimacy; after breaking the conditions, the husband finds snake scales on her back, sees her take off her head to comb her hair; if Yu is not killed, she will eat her husband but kill her only possible in a waterless place]: Basilov 1982c: 676; Uzbeks in Khorezma [a person sees three su-paris by the river; one agrees to marry him on the condition that he does not look at her stomach when she gets pregnant; watch her brush her hair; on her heels when she walks; the husband breaks the condition and sees that the fetus is on her side, that she removes her head by combing her hair, that she has duck paws instead of legs; the wife flies away as a bird; descends on a sycamore tree in the middle of the sea, gives birth to a child, wraps herself in scraps of her dress, throws herself into the water, becomes a sous-pari again; the husband notices a shadow looks at the plane tree, finds a child, he becomes a prophet]: Snesarev 1973:56-57; Uzbeks [the tsar hunted, saw a beautiful woman under the tree, brought her to the palace; after the wedding he began to wither away; the vizier advises to feed his wife with salted pilaf; at night, the king sees a snake next to him, her head in the yard is drinking from the house; the vizier advises to build an iron house and lure his wife into it; the servants piled up around the house firewood, set on fire, snake burned]: Afzalov et al. 1972 (1): 252-256.

Volga - Perm. Komi: Novikov 1938, No. 7 [as in Rochev; P. kills V.'s household members, one girl says she was kidnapped by V.; P. marries her; kills when she sees her scalp off her head]: 54; Rochev 1984, No. 24 [Pera and Leshy (Vörsa) measure their strength by pulling his belt; P. tied him to a stump, says V., that his veins are cracking; that he sleeps without moving his arm or leg; puts him instead a birch chock himself, at night V. comes to kill him, he kills him himself; takes his wife; sees her scalp off her scalp, bites her teeth with lice; P. is angry, his wife ran, he caught up with her in the swamp, killed her]: 38-39; Bashkirs: Barag 1987, No. 126 [the leader of a school of horses comes back black with sweat every time; Kamykai smears him with resin, shurale's daughter sticks to the horse, sitting face to tail; her claws have been cut off, presented as a servant, the Vyatka family began from them; the shuralikha asks her husband to grumble before entering her room; he enters, sees his wife combing her hair with her head off her shoulders; the wife dies], 128 [= Roudenko 1908, No. 1:50-51; the old man met Satan, who first pretended to be human; at night, the old man noticed that Satan's mouth was burning; the old man covered a pile of brushwood with his Armenian and walked away; Satan an Armenian man burned; the old man shot; Satan ran and disappeared into the cave; when he entered the cave, the old man asked two women where the owner was; they replied that he was ill; the old man promised to cure him; he did not recognize him, agreed give his youngest wife for treatment; the old man strangled Satan, told the eldest wife not to wake her husband, and took the youngest to him; he had another wife; the new one always asked her husband to let her know about his arrival and not looked under his arm; one day he came in unexpectedly and saw his wife take off her hair and, holding it in her hands, looked at it; when the wife fell asleep, her husband looked under her arm, there was a hole; he put his hand in the hole and tore out his heart]: 112-113, 114-115; Bessonov 1941, No. 34 [the tsar saw a girl under the tree, married him; began to lose weight; the sorcerer ordered to check if his wife had a navel; no navel; ordered to feed salty fried meat, but do not give water; at night, the wife became a snake, the tail in bed, and her head reached the ice-hole; sorceress: pretend to be attacked by enemies, you must hide in the egg-shaped iron house; a fire was made around; Azhdakha hissed, all the pregnant women and mares were thrown away; the sorcerer ordered to look in ash, there were one and a half pounds of gold; the tsar brought the old woman closer, allowed her to live in the palace]: 191-193; Nadrshina 1985, No. 63 [one of The old man's sons, Azau noticed that the immense stallion returns every time in the morning in a black sweat; smears his back with resin, a shurale girl sticks to her; he marries her, they have five sons; she tells her husband to warn him of his arrival when she is washing in the bath; he enters suddenly, sees that the wife is holding the upper part of her skull in her hands, examines; the wife falls dead, sons grow up horsemen]: 55; Tatars [at night, a beautiful girl meets a poor young man at the ice-hole; after the wedding he withers; neighbors advise him to hide the water and spy; the husband sees that his wife does not have a navel; at night the wife lying, stretching out her tongue, licking the window panes; in the morning he told her about it; she promised to kill him if he remembered it again; the uncle promises to help; the young man's wife was pushed into an iron bath; when a roar stopped and the bathhouse was opened, there was a sintered snake, the tongue was wrapped around the door handle]: Zamaletdinov 2008a, No. 55:250-254.

Turkestan. Kazakhs, Karakalpaks [in the epic "Edigei" among Kazakhs, Karakalpaks, semi-nomadic Uzbeks, Bashkirs, Siberian Tatars, etc., the youngest of the virgins flying in the form of swans agrees to become the wife of St. Baba Tuklas, provided that he does not look at her head when she combs, under her arms when she takes off her shirt, at her legs when she takes off her shoes; BT violates the ban, sees a transparent skull, lungs, translucent under the arms, bird paws or hooves; the wife flies away, telling me where she will leave the baby; BT finds Edigea there]: Abramzon 1977:159-160; A hundredth of Kazakh folklore (in Kazakh, translation Ruslan Doutaliyeva), vol. 78 [the dzhigit was walking along the steppe and met a girl; she said that she was behind her nomadic, the dzhigit brought her home, married; began to wither away; fortuneteller: two people live in your house ( horseman and his mother) and an animal; the horseman did not sleep at night, saw how his wife turned into a dragon, stuck her head through the upper opening of the yurt to the river on the outskirts of the village, began to drink; the fortuneteller advised build an iron house and hide in it, and feed his wife salty meat, hide the water, close the house and set it on fire; the dragon tried to enter the house where the horseman had disappeared, but died; the wife was a dragon, who have lived two hundred years; if a snake does not see a hundred years old, it turns into a dragon, and if two hundred, its forehead splits (or becomes the size of two fingers) and it gains the ability to take on any guise (girls, young women, different animals); if no one had solved it, it would eat everyone in the village]: 117; Melioransky 1905 [note the marriage of the legendary father Edigei Baba T & #252; ktü with a girl from the underwater kingdom with goat legs and a body with translucent insides that her husband should not look at when she takes off her boots or shirt in fear that she should will leave him]: 14; Karakalpaks [three horsemen went hawkish hunting; they did not get anything in a day, spent the night in the steppe; one had a dream: their hawks were eaten by a wild cat; he woke up: something really weaned the heads of all three of their hawks; their horses were also gone; in the morning they found horses in their footsteps; it was a shame to return home, decided to go to another land to buy new hawks; they entered the city, it is empty; only in the ruler's palace there is a beautiful girl on the throne: recently everyone was swallowed up by the aydarkha, the ruler too, I, his daughter, had a hard time hiding; the city will be filled with people again if one of you takes me to wives; the elder horseman took her and became the ruler of an empty city; his comrades became viziers; gradually people returned; but suddenly cattle began to disappear; an old man found a letter in the ruins of houses: "This city It was built seven hundred years ago. But as soon as the city was filled with residents, Aydarkha devoured everyone, this has already happened three times. Aydarkha, who eats the city, is located in the city itself, she is the ruler's wife. Whoever is in town, she marries him, eats something every day and determines for herself when the city will be filled with residents. There are three ways to recognize her: you need to stroke her stomach, she has her navel; when you get into bed, it gets cold; she does not get pregnant; the ruler is scared; the wife is like ice, the navel is not there; closer to At midnight, the wife got up and went out into the field; the ruler followed; the wife climbed the hill and took off all her clothes; undressed in the guise of a snake; stretched out, leaning on the tip of her tail, and, looking at the city, said: the city seems to have filled up, you can swallow it; swallowed a donkey and a dog, then returned to human form; in the morning, the ruler gathered young chiefs, they gave advice: let's announce that it has begun war, let's go on a campaign; the ruler and his wife must also go; people must be taken to the waterless steppe; leave the foals at home, riding only mares; take with us 40 arbs with wood, 40 with salt, 40 with reeds, 40 with lime, 40 with water; harness mares that left foals at home into these arbs; aydarkha on the way will begin to suffer from thirst, beg for water, but water; will become angry, enraged, jump off horses; then everyone run back, leaving her alone; she will turn into an aydarkha, swallow 30 trees, salt, reeds, lime and water; until it gets to the city, lime will mix with water and it will burst; happened]: Aimbetov 2014a: 39-41; Kyrgyz: Abramzon 1977 [hunters killed a deer; a girl ran up to him and began to mourn like a brother; the hunters took the girl away, she has small horns on her head; her married; she made it a condition that her husband should not look at her body, allow her to swim alone, not hit her on the head; the husband entered the yurt while his wife was swimming, saw her rinsing her lungs; after that Muyuzduu ene (Horned Mother) or M. Baibiche (Horned Mistress) leaves or dies; one day a cradle appears in the yurt; according to another version, Alseyit (the woman's husband) spies and sees not his wife in the yurt, but a deer ; wife disappears]: 159; Kebekova, Tokombaeva 2002 (Western 1969, Issyk-Kul District) [Khan went hunting, his golden eagle did not return; one of the horsemen went looking for him; when he returned, he said that on the way a huge stone came across, next to it a girl of unprecedented beauty; the khan went to the girl; she sets the condition for marriage: only the khan himself can enter the house where she will live; after marrying, the khan became wither away; a doctor named Adem sees a dragon that dammed the river flowing across the headquarters; then he became a woman, she went to the khan's yurt; when she came to the khan, the doctor advised me to go hunting; when Khan returned, said that his wife was a dragon; Khan demanded proof; A. offered to bring a living partridge into the house - it would die immediately, like all living things at the sight of a dragon; then we must let the river go flowing through the rate, in a different direction, let not even a drop of water be in the bet; in the evening, give your wife salty food, remove the water vessels; at night, the wife's neck lengthened, the head began to look into all the vessels in looking for water; the wife asked the khan to go get water; he came back and said that the river was dry; told the horsemen to return the river to its original course; saw his wife become a dragon and got drunk from the river; A. explained that in 80 days his wife will finally become a dragon and eat everyone; you need to make a windowless house out of iron, trick a monster there, close the door, cover the house with fuel on all sides, dilute fire; a dragon screamed tearing his ears apart from the house; the next day, there was a lot of ash inside; Khan brought A. closer to him]: 77-79; Sabyr uulu 2008 [1) the horseman dreamed of a beautiful woman; at the source of the river he saw a young woman, married; his friend sees a dragon instead of a beautiful woman; the dzhigit decided that the friend is jealous; he advises to feel his wife's belly; it turned out that she does not have a navel; a friend tells me to recover on business and return in 9 months, 9 days, 9 hours and 9 minutes - the wife will just give birth; at this point, the mother must cut off her head so that blood does not drip on the baby; however, two drops have dripped; the son has grown up, incredibly strong; a friend calls to him, locks the young man in an iron house, kept him starved; then they shackled and placed in front of him mare fat, 7 loaves and 7 hoes; the young man jerked, two snakes came out of his mouth, went through bread and fat, stuck in hoes; the young man lost consciousness, then recovered; those two snakes arose from drops of his mother's blood; 2) an ox died in the steppe, his worms ate him, then one worm ate the others, became a dragon; he ate the inhabitants of the city; the khan and his entourage drove into the deserted city, saw the girl, married her; began to wither away; the vizier advises to pour salt into his wife's food, hide the water; the wife became a dragon and got out through the chimney, then returned; the khan saw it; the vizier built a cast-iron house, lured a werewolf into it, covered it with fire; the dragon fought but burned down; otherwise he would have eaten everyone]; yellow Uighurs [on the way to the idol to A woman comes up to the young man; he finds her, stays for three days, in fact, a month has passed; she comes to him as a wife; the elder says that this is the spirit of the deceased, tells him to spy on her through the window; the wife takes off his head, scratches his hair; the old man tells him not to be afraid; shoots at the woman, the arrow bounces off; the young man comes to her, asks for the release of the old man who is tormented by the woman; she sends the young man home with a whirlwind; if cover the whirlwind with a basket, she appears; the neighbor smashed the whirlwind with a broom, the woman did not appear again, the young man died]: Malov 1967, No. 118:121-124; Dungans [Susar falls to demons, is forced to marry daughters of their master; his wife brings good luck to his home; they come to visit S.'s brothers; there the lama tells S. to spy on his wife; at night her head separates and returns through the chimney in the morning; wife says that she is ready to give birth, asks to raise a son; after giving birth, she kills a llama, hides in the grave; when her son is 18, he comes to the grave, his mother comes to him as a 17-year-old woman, not in spirit]: Riftin et al. 1977, NO. 35:188-194.

Southern Siberia - Mongolia. The Baraba Tatars [bichen is a beautiful woman with a white face and long white hair; when she met a hunter in the forest, she tried to lure him into cohabitation; if a person stayed, he did not trade, but there was plenty of food; when he approached the house, he had to make himself felt; one day the hunter suddenly came in, saw bichen making soup with lice extracted from the head or armpits; then the hostess disappeared, the hunter was in for illness or death]: Seleznev 1994:109 in Yarzutkina 2012:98; South Altai Tuvans [the hunter sees a beautiful woman, stays in her yurt, forgetting about his wife and children; the wife asks he gave a sign when he drove up to the yurt; he comes up unnoticed, sees a shulmusikha with a copper nose and an eye in her forehead; she cut the meat from her caviar and cooked; the hunter does not show; asks the llama for advice, he tells pull out his wife's hair; it's impossible; then he advises asking his wife to bring green lamb skin; the wife was lying in ash, became a wolf, broke into the herd, brought lamb, his skin was green; llama advises to ask for a golden tirchik hat from thousands of Burgans; the wife promises to return in three months with red fire, a bunch of dog droppings should be lit; the llama tells you to put together a pile of not dog droppings, but juniper bushes; wife rushes into this fire, dies; the hunter returned to his wife and children]: Taube 1994, No. 35:245-248; Tuvans: Alekseev, Dongak 2006, No. 11 [the hunter met a beautiful girl, brought her to the aal, a son was born; one day he saw her lying in the ash, becoming a fox; he galloped the other way, putting his son on a horse; the fox caught up with him, became a girl again; next time he did not catch up; The yurt was surrounded by foxes, began to ask for the return of his son; the hunter called the shaman, the fox did not appear again; the son grew up safely]: 13; Alekseev et al. 2010, No. 65 [the hungry hunter returns to his hut; there his wife meets him; feeds him, but he does not eat enough; one day he came up unnoticed; in a shulbusikha's hut: an old woman with copper claws, a copper nose, one eye, two teeth, a belly like a bag, meat from her rib cuts off, expresses milk from her breast, fed it; fire interferes with a copper nose; the hunter shot, the shulbusikha turned into yellow felt, he burned it; his wife is alive and well at home]: 165-167; Dyakonova 1976 [in Kara-Hole has spread stories about hunters cohabiting with Albanists; they give good luck hunting, feed hunters milk from their long breasts thrown over their shoulders, and meat cut off from their own ribs]: 284; Altaians [(zap. V.F. Khokholkov, 1987); when the hunter returns, his wife always puts bread, milk, and boiled meat in front of him; her husband spies on her, sees her cut off pieces of nails, pieces of flesh from her legs, heels, turns it into meat; hair from armpits into bread, milk from breasts into real milk; the hunter tells others about it, who explain that his wife is Almys, she turns into a goat, runs away]: Anokhin 1997:37; Oinotkinova et al. 2011, No. 91 [returning to his camp, the hunter finds the meat cooked every time, but does not eat it, but throws it away; watched a woman come down from the cedar, cut off the meat from her hips, put it to cook, returned to the cedar; the hunter poured out the meat, returned home], 93 [a girl came to the hunter's camp, became his wife, did not allow her to touch her back; the shaman said that it was Almysk, she has hair on her back, she has to be shot; the hunter saw the girl become a red puppy, began to eat parts of old leather shoes, and after eating she became human again; ripped her chest apart, took out ribs, etc., began to cook for food; the hunter shot her; Almysky smelly]: 215-217,. 219-221; telangites: Yadanova 2013, No. 29 [the man found out that his wife was Almys; at night he put rotten a tree, put his fur coat and hat on it, hid himself; the wife wanted to eat her husband, her iron claws were stuck in the tree, he killed her], 30 [a man met a beautiful girl while hunting, married; she is delicious cooks; one day he saw him dump his insides into the cauldron, became a white goat, jumped over the cauldron; he shot, she became a black piece of felt], 31 [a girl entered the hunter's forest hut, he forgot his wife; she does not let him touch his back (Almys has wool there); the shaman tells her to be shot; the hunter spies: the wife has become a red puppy, eats old shoes; ripped her chest apart, cooks her ribs; a man shot her]: 183, 183, 184; Kumandins [three brothers were fishing near the mountain on the river. Biya; he went into the cave alone, there was a girl, he met her, stayed; he did not fish for two years, there was always meat for lunch; she gave birth to him two sons; the hunter decided to spy on where his wife got the meat from - she carves it from he puts himself in his bosom, then puts himself in the cauldron; he screamed, his wife fell in fear, ordered her sons to be taken and left, died herself; she was the mistress of the mountain]: Potapov 1929:129.

Western Siberia. Eastern Khanty (b. Vah): Soldatova 2008, No. 1 [the older brother has a wife and several children, the youngest has just been born first; the brothers left, telling them not to make noise; the eldest wife with the children is playing noisy games; an evil spirit came up, who is tired of the noise; the younger daughter-in-law asked for permission to throw away the garbage, took the child and ran away; the eldest and her children were eaten by the spirit, put their heads on stakes; returning, the older brother thinks that he is meeting him family; the spirit feels sorry for him, gave him his daughter, that year should be silent; the older brother knocked over the hot pot on her, she ran away; the older brother went to live with the younger brother], 15 [the older brother has a wife and several children, the youngest had just been born first; the brothers left, telling them not to make noise; the eldest's wife and children are playing noisy games, shaking her breasts; Lunh came up, his head was tied with bird cherry twigs from the noise; the younger daughter-in-law asked for permission to throw away the garbage, took the child and ran away; Lunh ate the eldest and the children, hung their heads by the road; the eldest first thought that the whole family was meeting him; the youngest came to his wife for something else camp, they stayed there; the elder lived alone in the former plague; a woman came to him, became a wife and mistress, but kept silent; he hid the ladle, she began to stir the boiling soup with her hand, screamed; the man lost consciousness, and when he woke up, he followed huge footsteps to Lunha's house; the man guessed that Lunh felt sorry for him, sent his daughter to marry him; did not dare to enter; lunh: if you do not enter, but go to another camp, you'll choke on the third piece; the man went to his brother, choked on the third piece and died]: 117-118, 123-124; Northern Selkups: Sangi 1989 [the youngest has one child, the eldest has three; the elder's wife splashes her milk, everyone laughs; the youngest's wife tells me to sit quietly; an evil spirit comes; the youngest's wife asks for permission to throw it away after the child, secretly takes the child with her, runs away, swims away in the boat; the elder finds the heads of his children on stakes around the hearth; the daughter of the spirit comes, the man hides the ladle, she interferes with the boiling soup with her hand, steams, runs away; the man follows the footsteps to the stone underground house of spirit; kills the owner and his daughters on hot foot]: 129-132; Southern Selkups: Pelikh 1972:330-331 [two brothers go hunting, their wives remain in the plague; the first has two children, one cried, she teased him; vines came, the second woman said she would go out to throw away the dust, hid the baby under her arm, took the cauldron, swam away in the boat; the first and her child ate the vines, tearing off her heads and after hanging his guts; began to catch up with the second one, she threw out the cauldron, thought it was a child, began to look for it at the bottom; the husband promised the daughter he had eaten, ordered her not to talk to her until the child was born; the husband lifted her up rope out of the hole; to get his wife to talk, he hid the ladle, she began to interfere in the boiling cauldron with her hand, was offended, returned to the pit, gave birth there, did not return], 339-340 [two brothers go hunting, their wives remain in the plague; one child is tied by the throat, yelling; the second came and reproached her; the vines came in, allowed her to go out, she sailed away in the boat, taking the cauldron; the vines eat the first woman and her child, She hangs her intestines; the daughter promises to her husband eaten; she began to cook, her husband hid the ladle, she put her hand in the cauldron, disappeared; her moans, the cry of the newborn can be heard from the pit; the daughter did not give any more vines].

Amur - Sakhalin. Manchus [Udjir lives with his mother, his father is long dead; he is already 30 years old but single; one day he sees a house in the forest with a big woman wearing white clothes and a green cape; she invites him in; he falls asleep, wakes up in the morning under a huge birch tree; on the way back she meets this woman again; agrees that she follow his horse, then puts her behind her; the mother is glad that her daughter-in-law has appeared; The mother's brother comes, feels that the daughter-in-law is not human, but the sister does not believe it; one day she comes to her daughter-in-law in the morning, when she combs her hair, sees that she does not have hair, but birch leaves; sends her son for uncle; he explains that the daughter-in-law will suck blood and kill everyone, eat the son she gave birth to; the uncle is in the yard, the daughter-in-law cries; tells her to hang the amulet of her husband's ancestors around her neck - she is not with him may be angry; the uncle continues to shamanize, tells him to dig a hole, pours pork fat, sets fire to it; the daughter-in-law takes the child and flies away; W.'s mother asks her brother to find a new wife for her nephew, but he says that it's none of his business; his mother died of grief; W. went to the forest; he was found dead hugging a big birch tree]: Bäcker 1988, No. 13:94-105; Nanais (recorded in 1914) [In ancient times, kalgama walked along the Amur River, invisible to ordinary people and lit fires on the islands; these fires were visible, but kalgama themselves were not; gold alone went to the island where the fire was burning in the evening; began to fight kalgama; gold did not see him, but felt it with his hands; during the fight he felt for "sileczu" (strength?) , grabbed it, tore it off, hid it in his pocket and ran away; for three years, kalgama whispered in his ear: "Give it back to power," but gold did not give it back; kalgama became the beauty this gold married to; she asked her husband never to take off the hat she always wore on her head; Gold had two giant sons with her; the eldest asked her father why her mother always wears a hat; the father replied that if it was removed, the mother would die; the son did not believe it, and when the mother fell asleep, he took off her hat; there was a big hole in her head under her hat; the mother woke up and died immediately]: Ponyatovsky 2009:131.

Japan. Japanese: Casal 1959 [wife is voracious; husband finds out that she has a mouth on top of her head, drives her away; wife takes on her true form as a huge spider, stalks her husband]: 88; Mescheryakov 1995 (Nihon Ryoiki ", "A Word about a fox and her son") [a man from Mina Province went to look for a bride; he met a beautiful girl in the field; he asked if she wanted to be his wife; she agreed; it took a little while time, the wife became pregnant and gave birth to a son; at the same time their dog also felt; when he saw the owner, the puppy always looked at her angrily, ferocious and exposed his fangs; the hostess told her husband to kill him, but the husband felt sorry for the puppy; one day a puppy barked at the owner and chased her, trying to bite her; in fear she turned into a fox and jumped onto the fence; when he saw this, the owner said: "A son was born between me and you, and therefore I will not be able to forget you. Come often and sleep with me"; she did]: 36-37; Toropygina 2010 [The Tale of the Fox and Her Son from Nihon Ryoiki is used in the Otogi-zoshi Inarizuma no Soshi; poor Heijiro prays to the deity Inari send him a wife so that he can get out of poverty; his wife is a white fox, she brings prosperity to the house; when it becomes clear that a man's wife is a fox, she begins to go to to her husband only at night so as not to be noticed]: 268.