L127. Dancing ears. 11.-.14.

Once in another world, the character sees dancing body parts, etc. strange creatures. He shouldn't be surprised, laughing, or remembering God.

Sakata, Xhosa, Tenda, Mauritanian Arabs, Malgashi, Tuaregs.

Bantu-speaking Africa. Sakata [twin girls Mvu and Mfia went swimming with friends; Mwu returned to the river for a forgotten necklace; Kenshune-nshune took her to his mother; told her not to laugh if she saw her dancing termites, herbs, trees; mother K. sent Mva to fetch water - no matter what you bring, clean or dirty; Mwu did not laugh, brought clean water, received a box of clothes from K.'s mother and with jewelry, returned home; Mfia also went to get the necklace she had left behind, laughed, brought dirty water, brought home the box given by her mother K., snakes crawled out from there, bit her, she died]: Colldén 1979, No. 10:162-163; scythe [father learns that the chief wants to marry; the eldest daughter demands that she be sent; refuses to go properly with his retinue; despistically rejects the help of a mouse, a frog, a boy, an old woman, a girl (this is the leader's sister); contrary to the advice of an old woman, laughs at laughing trees; drinks yogurt from a wineskin found; drinks water offered to man, carrying his head under his arm; in the village, the chief cooks clumsily and poorly; the chief turns out to be a five-headed snake, swallows what has come; the younger sister goes, accompanied by relatives, gratefully listens to advice from people he meets; cooks delicious food; the snake eats, turns into a handsome man; wedding]: McCall Theal 1882:47-53 (=1910:279-282; =Held 1904:14-20; =Maarnott 2000:189-197).

West Africa. Tenda [a woman has been pregnant for several years; gives birth on the elephant path, one child from her mouth (nose), another from her lower body; an elephant wants to step over her, but stumbles {apparently pressing}; Tyita's sister collects milk from the nipple from the sky, feeds Brother Tyara; he wants more, goes up to the sky to cut off the nipple, falls, breaks into pieces; the turtle teaches the song, the brother is resurrected, kills A turtle; now the sister brings yam, the brother wants more, cuts the root, blood appears; this is the blood of the Fato underground spirit (boa constrictor), it will cause drought; the sister brings a bird to eat, the brother destroys the whole flock; the sister brings some grain from the mouse; the brother breaks the hole, takes everything; the sister goes to marry the chief, the brother goes to the savannah, where the birds nest in his hair; after a few years she goes to her sister (now he is Yanunu, I., sister Kunemi, K.); there are two girls by the pond, the Mabuya lizard and the Frog; only M. gives him a drink; he gives her honey; she eats, throws wax, the Frog swallows it; K. does not recognizes his brother, sends him to the chicken coop, because he has bird nests in his hair; K.'s husband finds out, receives his son-in-law with dignity; he cleans himself up; M. and the Frog come, Y. chooses M., she gives birth to a son with him; The frog is considered the second wife; swallows his frog grandmother to seem pregnant; pushes M. into the pond, takes her child, replaces her in front of her husband; at the bottom of the reservoir, the blind asks suck pus out of his eyes, eat the scab; she does it; the parents of a blind man come, a goat and a ram are hung from their bodies instead of clothes; M. does not laugh; is not afraid of a snake; she is given a grain different cultivated plants, everyone can feed the whole village; M. returns to her husband, feeds everyone; The frog tells her to push her into the pond; does not sink, then press it down with a stone; refuses to suck it out pus; laughs at the sight of a blind man's parents; afraid of a snake; she is given fonio, she says it's not enough; they don't pay attention to her at home]: Ferry 1983, No. 48:269-285.

Sudan - East Africa. Malgashi [fourth son, Faralahi, does not listen to his parents, his father drives him away; now his name is Besurungula; he only rides down the mountain and waits for death; the woman Zawatra tells him to set a trap; He finds her clothes, rice, bulls, slaves, money, wife; refused to come home when his mother and then father died; his brothers came to him, gave him a drink, he told him about the trap; immediately everything disappeared; Z. returned he is missing on the condition that he will not tell anyone else about it; B. wants a second wife; Z. teaches him to put a horsefly in a bamboo stick; not to eat the bananas he sees on the way, not to touch sugar cane; a head without a body will throw nets, a leg will turn millstones; when you see them, you can neither laugh nor turn off the road; cross the river not by a good one, but by a rotten bridge; do not drive away or turn off the road Beating a dog in the village is a father-in-law; take a girl on whom the released horsefly will sit; to answer the father-in-law's question, which end of the stick is the lower end, you need to throw it up, it will fall at the lower end; B. everything performed; the brothers began to ask B. how he got his wife; B. said they went and broke all prohibitions; the girl's father turned them into dogs (dog origin)]: Rodman 1965:176-185.

North Africa. Mauritanian Arabs [in the evenings a girl goes to a dune; two young men come to see her; her mother advises to see if they have five fingers, but they do not show their hands; one of the boys asks the girl as a wife; the mother demands gold worth her daughter's weight; the young man leaves gold at the tent; the mother tells her daughter to migrate, but the demon catches up with them and stops them; the daughter agrees to leave with the young man; before the narrow aisle, he commands close your wife's eyes; they find themselves in a city where everyone is having fun; there they dance separately from the bodies of the belly, guts, donkey head, etc. ; the husband forbids his wife to say the name of God; when she sees her ears dancing, she says, "In the name of God, the Merciful, the Merciful!" ; everything disappears, she is back on the dunes; the husband says that she killed his people; she gives birth to a boy; he overturns milk, water, kills a camel, etc.; when he reaches two years old, explains that in these creatures and objects were demons that would kill mother and daughter; leaves, promising to help in case of need; robbers took everything; mother calls boy, cattle and property are returned]: Tauzin 1993:55-59; Tuaregs (central Niger) [a person wanted to see something amazing; came to a stream of oil, then to the buttocks, then to the eyes that were fighting with each other; djinnija ( genie woman) asked if this was surprising, the man replied that nothing special; Ginnia became a woman, invited her, she had many children; she fed the traveler, he went to bed, she began to sharpen a knife, but the rooster sang; when he saw that the man had left on a camel, Ginnia rushed in pursuit; she was a giantess to heaven; he threw the rooster, she ate it; then she began to bite off and devour the camel's legs - alone; when she ate the last leg and the whole camel, the man climbed the tree; she tore off his penis, turned it into an ax, began to cut down a tree; the Chameleon (considered a wise and good animal) asked let him chop him, told him to cut down, the tree was the same as before; the man called the dogs; one wife wanted to let them off the leash, the other said they should not; finally they let the dogs down, they ran they tore the woman apart; to go down, the tree had to be made below {it is not clear who did it}; the man divorced his wife, who prevented the dogs from letting down]: Rasmussen 1998:269-270 (retelling), 279-284 (subline).