L29. Fish from the puddle.
.19. (.21.) .26. (.28.) .42.-.45.47.59.61.
People fish where they should not be, usually in a small forest pond isolated from running water; those who eat this fish die, undergo a metamorphosis and/or are being attacked by monsters. See motif L28.
Upper arapesh, (meitei), fox, (Belarusians), bellacula, Puget Sound, menominee, seneca, screams, seminoles, hichiti, yuchi, pomo, kalinya, makushi, kalinya, siona, sekoya.
Melanesia. Upper arapesh [people drained the pond, caught an eel that belonged to the spirit of Rain; left a woman to guard; eels tell her not to eat it; people, including her brother, do not listen to her, they eat it, although meat It does not boil in any way; at night there is a flood, a woman climbs a palm tree, throws nuts to check, and the water is deep; the water has come down, she placed yams in all the depressions of the body, in her fingers, limbs, hair, it's like boils; in This sight goes to the spirits of Rain, everyone rejects her, only the younger brother takes it, but only as a maid; their yams are wood chips; she cooks them for them, eats her yam from her body at night; father and son come back and see that she is beautiful; she teaches them farming, hunting with dogs; bunches of grass set fire to vegetation at night; she tells her husband to take food to axes in silence; he tells them, Hush, hush; axes kill him ]: Fortune in Mead 1940, No. XXV: 387-388.
(Wed. Tibet is the Northeast of India. Meitei [father and son went to get firewood; the son left, and the father cut the fish he had taken with him to cook it; as he did, he turned into a boa constrictor; so as not to remain a boa constrictor half finished slaughtering fish; crawling away, he promised his son to appear every year to protect their field; let them leave him some food]: Oinam et al. s.a.).
China - Korea. The fox [husband and wife went for bamboo; they found two live fish in the knee of the bamboo; they fried them, began to eat; their bodies began to itch; when combed, they turned into tigers; their two sons went them they searched, found the leftovers of the meal, finished eating the fish, and the same thing happened to them; the tigers tried to steal the cows, but the dogs drove them away; the youngest son was hit by a poisoned arrow and died; the tigers began to hunt people; The second son and mother are killed, but the tiger father is invulnerable; finally, they put poison in his cow's carcass; a bracelet left over from when this tiger was human was found on his leg]: Dessaint, Ngwâma 1994:574-575.
(Wed. Central Europe. Belarusians [during a thunderstorm, a man hid under a tree, noticed two fish in the hollow; stepped aside, and the thunderstorm broke the tree; there would be many devils if Perun hadn't chased them]: Romanov 1891 : 7-8 in Razauskas 2009:323).
NW Coast. Bellacula [brothers fish in a river far from the sea; one touches salmon, which jumps ashore himself; the eldest says that salmon do not live in rivers like this, that it is sisiutl ( monstrous salmon/snake with heads on both ends of the body); the youngest believes him, the middle two eat imaginary salmon; their bellies burst, they die]: McIlwraith 1948 (1): 658-659.
The coast is the Plateau. Puget Sound [older brothers catch salmon in a stream flowing out of the pond; the youngest refuses to eat it; those who eat are terribly thirsty; they dive into the water, turn into newts]: Ballard 1927: 73.
The Midwest. Menominee [the hunter finds two raccoons in an empty stump; his companion finds two catfish there; eats them, is terribly thirsty, drinks directly from the river, turns into catfish, starting with his feet; asks for a pass to his relatives to visit him]: Skinner, Satterlee 1915, No. 41:474-475.
Northeast. Seneca [despite a friend's warning, one of the two hunters catches, roasts and eats trout in a hollow; is terribly thirsty, drinks from a stream, turns into a huge fish; says people can come to ask him for fish; turns into a monster, kills fishermen; his ex-friend drives him out of the pond, pursues him; he agrees to leave the country]: Curtin, Hewitt 1918, No. 32:169-172.
Southeast USA. Screams [two men hunt or fish; a human form brings a transformed comrade to the pond; when he brings his relatives there, they have a huge boa constrictor in front of them in a large ]: Swanton 1929, No. 25 [eats fish swimming in a hole with water at the top of the tree; relatives who come are carried away by the stream; probably also turn into horned snakes], 26 [eats fish from a puddle under the tree a uprooted tree], 27 [eats an egg found on the lake shore]: 32-39; Seminoles [at rest, one of the two hunters roasts the deer they killed, the other picks up fish on the lake shore; the first advises to throw it into the water, but he eats it; at night it turns into a huge water snake; asks to call his relatives, tells me not to approach this lake anymore, goes to the bottom]: Gallagher 1994:23-25; hichiti [one of two hunters eats fish caught in a tree hollow; becomes a snake; a companion brings him to the pond; a snake's mother comes to see him]: Swanton 1929, No. 17:97-98; yuchi [ two hunters see perch in the hollow of a tree full of water; contrary to the warning of a friend, one of them cooks and eats them; turns into a snake; young women feed it with the soft tips of corn kernels, He does not want any other food; teaches medicinal spells; crawls into the water, people go into the water with him; one woman ran for a forgotten ridge, stayed on the shore, petrified]: Wagner 1931, No. 16:67-70.
California. Pomo [Thunder people live in the village; they see huge trouts in the stream; one person warns that these fish got there in an unusual way; others do not listen, catch them, eat them; an old woman tells two grandchildren and granddaughters do not eat; in the morning they see that the fish that have eaten have turned into deer]: Barrett 1933, No. 25/1:131-132.
Guiana. Kalinha [all but one eat fish caught in a puddle rather than in a river; they fall asleep; the forest spirit takes their eyes out, blind pigs turn into wild pigs]: Goeje 1943, no. d 35:126; Jara 1986: 171-173; Magaña 1988a, No. 121:216-217; Magaña 1983:16-17 [as in Magaña 1988a], 17-19 [a group of people catch big fish in an enclosed body of water in the forest; one warns not to eat it, because these fish must live in the river; at night, those who eat turn into wild pigs]; Magaña 1988a, No. 118 [father-in-law wants special meat; the forest spirit leads his son-in-law to a tree from which a huge multicolored snake hangs; cuts off pieces from it; they fall, turn into fish; those who eat this fish fall asleep, turn into wild pigs (Dycotiles labiatus) at night]: 214; the tops [everyone except the shaman fish in the forest puddle, not in the river, forest spirits kill sleepers]: Soares Diniz 1971, No. 22:97-98.
Western Amazon. Siona [hunters come to the big lake; the lake owner warns the shaman not to fish; everyone except the shaman catches and eats fish, falls asleep; cougars and jaguars come out of the lake, take them out sleeping eyes; blind people fall into water, turn into frogs]: Chaves 1958:141-142; sekoya [everyone but the shaman and his sister eat fish from the forest pond (not from the river); the shaman sees spirits weaving baskets for fruits (= human eyes); juri-juri spirits take out sleeping eyes, shaman turns blind pigs into wild pigs; people make a fire at the huri-khuri hollow, throw pepper at it; all spirits have died except A one-year-old child in the roots of a tree; he was brought to the village; six years later he sucked the child's brain; the child's mother wanted to kill him, but huri climbed onto the roof, the wind clicked and flew away with him]: Cipolletti 1988, No. 14:103-106.