L32. A voracious stone. .11.12.22.48.50.52.55.58.62.
The stone swallows, bites, hits or transforms people.
Bantu-speaking Africa. Suto [Rahlabakoane and his wife work in the fields, their son Hlabakoane grazes cattle, daughter Thakane stays at home; when hit with an ax, milk flows from the trunk; children are not allowed to touch them themselves; H. refuses to herd the cattle if his sister does not give them milk from the tree; she has to hit him with an ax, the milk flows in a stream, R. comes running, decides to take her daughter to be eaten by the ogre; along the way T. tells his story to three types of antelopes, each antelope replies that her father should be given to the ogre; only the cannibal's son Masilo is at home; he marries T., gives her father to the ogre, he fried him and ate him ; T. gives birth to a girl; according to the law, girls are given to the cannibal, only boys are kept; T. asked permission to drown her daughter; an old woman comes out of the water, takes the baby; T. comes to visit her daughter, she quickly grows up; M. followed, saw a beautiful woman, gave the old woman cattle, she let the girl go; M. sends his wife and daughter, accompanied by people and cattle, to visit mother and brother T.; the path was blocked by a rock, it turned into her Father T.'s heart; the rock wants to eat T.; swallows people, cattle, then T. and his daughter; inside the cave, where a young man cut his way out; the cannibal rock died, everyone went out, only swallowed long ago died; mother T. Rada]: Abrahams 1983, No. 91:326-333; (cf. Herero [a group of girls stayed to make huts when everyone migrated; the mountain damars found and captured them, each chose a wife; the eldest was noticed by an old man, but the chief said she was for him; the old man they left the girls to guard; when he fell asleep, they crushed his head with a stone, rushed to run; when she reached the cliff, the older girl told her to open up; forbid scolding the rock if it pinched; one younger the girl began to object; the damara followed the cliff; left their weapons on her to come back and see if the girls took him; the older girl told the rock to open; but that younger rock she did not let go; the girls took up their arms and ran to their own; when the lion approached the rock, it opened; the youngest girl ran, but near the kraal the lion caught up with her and killed her]: St. Lys 1916:166-169).
West Africa. Kono [The spider refuses to go with Francolinus (Francolinus bird) to work in the field; the spider finds his field, decides it's a draw, builds a bins, collects rice; sees a stone with a beard; as soon as Says Beard Stone! he hits him, but the Spider remains alive; the Stone explains that it will kill anyone who calls him that; the Spider brings Hyena, who utters a forbidden exclamation, is killed by the Stone, the Spider eats her; so leads to the death of many animals; Francolin discovers that half of the rice is missing, sends an insect like Cricket to guard; he frightens the Spider and his wife, turning into a human or falling dead; the Spider remains in the forest like a spider, francolin bites rice in the plots, believing that this is his harvest]: Holas 1975:287-271; manjak [The jackal sees a stone with a beard; Hyena comes up, exclaims, "A stone with a beard!" , falls dead; so with everyone who says "with a beard"; The Jackal builds a hut nearby, feeds on the dead; animals begin to bypass this place; the Jackal calls the Hare, tries to provoke him turn to the stone; The hare stubbornly says "Stone with hair"; The Jackal could not stand it, said it properly, fell dead himself]: Nikolnikov 1976:94-98; dark [The spider sees a stone with a beard, speaks out loud, loses consciousness; in the evening he recovered; leads to the stone on purpose, the Deer says "with a beard!" , loses consciousness, the Spider kills him; the same with the gazelle; with other animals; brings the Rabbit; he shies away from saying these words, the Spider says it himself; {the end is not entirely clear, the text is on pidgin}]: Cronise, Ward 1903:167-171
Burma - Indochina. Bulang [some noise at night; a young man Mixi comes out with a spear, two monsters approach him, one almost ran over but stopped; these are two huge boulders; a female boulder says she forgot close the door in the house, leaves, the male boulder remains waiting for her; from the conversation of the boulders, M. learns that they are going to fill the river with stones to flood the village, but they will stop moving with the first roosters; M. screams with a rooster, others pick up, stones freeze and remain stones]: Miller 1994:119-121.
California. Salinan [grabs a rock, kills people, birds eat them; Hawk, Raven beats his head; this rock is still visible]: Mason 1912:192-193.
The Great Southwest. Hicarilla [the stone presses and then swallows people; you can see it now (you can see an open mouth and the arrows with which the hero killed him)]: Goddard 1911, No. 10, 13:204, 206; Mooney 1898a: 208.
Mesoamerica Nahuatl (San Luis Potosí) [anyone who approaches a specific stone that resembles a person turns black]: Croft 1957:322-323; Nahua (Huasteca region) [at night stones can turn into predatory animals, stars shoot meteor arrows at them and kill them; stones with holes are the ones hit by arrows, they are considered amulets]: Sandstrom. Effrein Sandstrom 1986:76; otomi: Galinier 1990:526 [Female stars, they're attached to the sky, they're the flowers of the world; at night, rocks try to stand up and attack people, but shooting stars kill them]; Manrique 1969 [a man sees a shop in place of a cliff and goes inside; a rock swallows it; a friend frees it]: 716; Veracruz Nahuatl: González Cruz 1984 [stones don't bite after the hero of one of them kills]: 219; Law 1957 [see motif J25; Tamakasti lives with her grandmother; her husband offered her to eat it; T. told the bat to kill his grandfather; blood dripped from the attic, the grandmother decided that this is her grandson's blood, she started drinking; called her husband, found him dead; T. brought water, said that he did not kill his grandfather, because he went to get water; the grandmother wanted to cook T., he threw it into the cauldron himself; he burned the bones along with the corpse Grandfather, the ashes told Toad to throw on the other side of the sea; the Toad reached the shore, threw a deck with ashes, it burst, mosquitoes, flies and mosquitoes appeared from the ashes; the lizard also only said that it had taken the deck with ashes; carried by Skunk overseas; T. (or someone else?) split the lizard's tongue in half; T. told his mother that he would go to his father; on the way he sat on a stone, he swallowed it; he cut the heart of the stone with a sword; T. came to his father, brought Fox and the musicians; then European a tale of matchmaking and marriage trials; T.'s rival - South Wind]: Law 1957:345-355; Polka, Veracruz Nahuatl [stones used to swallow people (no details)]: Munch 1983a: 155.
The Northern Andes. Yupa [woman is painted with red stone powder, the stone swallows it]: Wilbert 1974, No. 12:97
Guiana. Varrau: García 1993, No. 15 [the mother does not tell the boy to sit on a rock; he sits down, swallows the stone slowly; his parents try to pull it out, but he is petrified, then disappears inside stone; people tried to break the stone, but blood splashed from there; people danced in honor of Chebu, sacrificed palm starch to him; when they returned to the stone, it was huge; there are many big stones because they swallowed someone]: 75-76; Wilbert 1970, No. 174 [parents don't tell the boy to sit on a rock; he sits down, he swallows it; people try to break the stone, blood splashes from there; an evil spirit tells you to dance in his honor; after that, the stone first grows in size, then disappears]: 382-383.
NW Amazon. Maku [on the way of souls in the afterlife a stone with a mouth (no details)]: Münzel 1974:301.