L42g2. The bird erases the trail .12.14.-.16.26.27.31.

A person leaves a trail, throwing seeds, pebbles, etc. or leaving drops of blood. Birds destroy the trail.

Somrai, Moroccan Arabs, Kabyles, Portuguese, Catalans, Germans (Grimms), Alsatians, Walloons, Townyos, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Latvians.

West Africa. Somrai [during hunger, the wife tells her husband to leave their three children in the forest; the youngest takes millet with him, sprinkles it along the way; the father left quietly, but the youngest took the brothers home; the next day, But the youngest threw peanuts behind them, and the raven pecked them; the brothers came to the house of the bird sorcerer; his wife fed them and told them to leave; the sorcerer caught up with them, but they hid in a hole and the younger one picked up the birds from their feet bracelet; brothers came to another country; the king died there; his daughter cannot find fabric for the shroud, does not want to wrap her father in bull's clothing; the younger brother tells his bracelet to move it to a country where he eats fabrics, brings it to the princess, she buries her father, the younger brother becomes king; parents come to him, they do not recognize him; he has benefited his older brother; the parents did not recognize the elder, he confessed; says he now wants to see his father on the throne; the younger does not agree to give up power; the elder fights him, the youngest kills him, then stabbed himself; their father became king]: Jungraithmayr 1981, No. 20:98-103.

North Africa. Arabs of Morocco [a woman always tells the Moon that there is no other beautiful woman like her and the Moon; the moon replies that the woman is carrying is more beautiful; the woman tells the midwife to throw it away newborn, replace with a puppy; husband throws the puppy away; the midwife raises the girl, her name is Lalla; the mother suspects the truth, gives L. a ball, tells me to go and unwind; she gets to the gulas; mother circumcises thread so that L. does not find her way back; L. hides on the roof, found by the maid of seven gulas; hides it at night, L. helps her cook during the day; they agree to divide everything in half; the brothers notice that the food got better; the youngest hides, finds the girl, others agree to their marriage; the maid is jealous; L. wants to share the bean she found with her, she deliberately pretends to be sleeping; the spulbob disappears; the maid fills the fire with water, sends L. for fire; a ghoul named Uncle Yazit gives fire for the right to cut her forehead; the pigeon tries to dry the blood with flaps of its wings, but L. thinks he's interfering with it, chasing it; On a bloody trail, the ghoul finds L.'s house, tells him to put his finger in the keyhole, sucks blood from it; L. is losing weight; the younger brother spies; the brothers dig a hole, tell L. to answer the gulya rude; he breaks in, falls into a hole; the maid was burned in her with him; L. asks a Jewish merchant to say hello to her mother Fulana; she asks to give her daughter a ring; L. put it under her tongue, fell into a coma; the guli put it a stretcher with her on a camel who replied that she would not wear it for a year, not 10 years, but always; the camel's name was "shoe"; the sultan's servants could not catch her, but the old woman loses her shoe, shouts "my shoe" the camel stops; the ring is taken out of her mouth, L. comes to life, the sultan marries her; she sits on her camel, returns to the ghoul brothers]: El Koudia 2003, No. 9:53-63; kabila [at the rich the brother has 7 sons, the poor has 7 daughters; the poor man's wife died; the rich agreed to send food to the poor's daughters in the morning and evening; a few days later he met the poor man - he did not receive anything; it turned out that the maid poured everything on the grave in the cemetery, because she understood Tombe-รก-Souper (as her mistress allegorically put it) literally; the poor decided to leave his daughters and go to earn money; on the way, an old man, a man standing next to him and the other lying head down; old man: the first is the fate of your rich brother, the second is your fate; the poor has come to the castle; noise is heard; 7 cannibal giants came out of the gate, each with the same child was on his shoulders; when the cannibals disappeared, the poor man went to the castle, passing seven doors; there were 7 plates of couscous, partridges, mugs of water, spoons on the table; he ate and drank a small piece of everything, a sip; put a handful of seven piles of gold in his bag; went out, went back; to try on the gold, sent one of the daughters to his brother for a measure; the brother's wife smeared the bottom with glue; when she got back, she saw a gold coin; sent her husband to find out everything, he went to the castle; on the way he met that old man and his brother next to his fate; he began to eat greedily in the castle, then put gold in the bag; he could not be picked up; they came cannibals, the man hid in the back room among the corpses; he was found when they began to touch the soles of all the dead with a hot iron; he told everything; they ask where to start eating it; man: first the head (brought here), then the legs (came), the stomach (all for him), the arms (could not resist the temptation); he was eaten with one leg left; the brother will come, see, take it, we will find the way by drops of blood; brother goes looking for the missing person; old man: standing is your destiny, and the one lying upside down is your brother's fate; in the cannibal castle, a man noticed his brother's hanging leg; thinks they left it to eat later; carried it away without noticing that blood was dripping; the wagtail covered the drops with earth, but the man drove her away; then she scraped off the ground, exposing the drops; the man invited his brother's widow to marry her and marry her their sons and daughters; she agreed; cannibals found the brothers' house by drops of blood; their children pretended to be oil merchants, asked to spend the night; the man placed them in a room with straw, advised lock the doors; in the dark, the maid went to buy oil, ran into someone; he: is it time to go eat them? maid: it's not time yet; a man and his household set fire to straw, all cannibals died except one child; the man decided not to kill him; heard him talk out loud how delicious pink should be father's ears; killed him by hitting the wall; all is well]: Mammeri 1996, No. 7:116-132.

Southern Europe. The Portuguese [mother or stepmother persuaded the father to leave the children in the forest; the boy overheard the conversation, collected pebbles, the children returned; next time, lupine seeds, they were pecked by birds; children steal eating with a blind cannibal, who accuses the cat, the children laugh, the cannibal caught them; she fattens them, they slip a stick or bone instead of a finger; on the advice of St. Virgo or St. Antonia, a cannibal, is being pushed into the oven; two dogs jumped out of her eyes and began to serve children; children return home bringing treasures]: Cardigos 2006, No. 327A: 78-79; Catalans [boy and girl they hear their parents agree to leave them in the forest; they throw pebbles along the way, come back; next time, crumbs pecked by birds; children come to the house made of sugar and chocolate; the cannibal plants the boy in a cage, fattens her; he puts her not a finger, but a chicken bone; she tells the girl to melt the stove to fry her brother; she pushes her into the fire herself; the children are saved]: Oriol, Pujol 2008, No. 327A: 77-78.

Western Europe. The Germans [under threat of hunger, the woodcutter agrees to the second wife's offer to take their children named Hansel and Gretel to the forest; the children heard the conversation; Hansel picked up white stones, threw at on the road; father tied a block of wood to knock in the wind - like the sound of an ax); the children returned home; next time Hansel threw crumbs and birds pecked them; the children came to the bread hut, gingerbread, candy; the half-blind old woman began to feed Hansel, but each time he held out her not a finger, but a bone; then the old woman tells Gretel to climb into the stove, but she pretends not to know how; the old woman began to show, Gretel pushed her into the oven, she burned down; the children collected treasures, the duck carried them across the river; they returned home and healed well]: Grimm, Grimm 2002, No. 15:53-58 (=Grimm, Grimm 1987:48-54); Alsatians [stepmother loves her elder stepdaughter Anna, wants to get rid of her younger Margarita; together with Anna she takes her to the forest three times; M. overhears each time, throws her on the advice of the old woman behind seeds, sawdust, chaff, hemp; the third time they were pecked by birds; she came to the cow's house (Vache de la Terre); she tells her to stay with her, not to let anyone in, not to tell anyone; gives milk, gives wool and silk to sew dresses; A. comes, persuades her to let her go, returns to her stepmother, they decide to slaughter the cow; she tells M. to plant her tail, horn and hoof; a tree grows; the nobleman carries the sick son, he says that the fruits of the tree will cure him; when A. and stepmother want to pick the fruits, the branches rise; go down to M.; the son of the nobleman takes her as his wife]: Lefftz 2006, No. 9:185-193; walloons [stepmother tells her husband to take his three children from his first wife to the forest; the elder unravels the ball behind him, the children have returned; then sprinkles ash; the third time he sprinkles peas, the crows pecked him; the children are lost, the elder comes to the house of an ogre and a witch, the maid hides it, the ogre finds it; the maid frees him from the bag, puts plates there, runs with the boy; they turn into a woman baking bread, and there is a boy next to him , the cannibal did not recognize them; the witch chased, they turned into a reed and a pond; the witch tried to grab the reeds, drowned; the maid married the young man]: Laport 1932, No. 327:46-47.

China - Korea. Taunyo [the mother is dead, the father has taken another wife, who tells me to get rid of his stepson and stepdaughter; the father left them in the fox, but the boy threw pieces of sugar cane stalk along the way and the children returned home; next time, pieces of cake, but birds pecked them; the children came to the witch; she ate the boy, buried the bones; the young witches tried to take away the old magic potion; she drove them away took out the potion, revived the boy; the girl remembered where the drug was hidden; the witch ordered the water to boil, the girl pushed her into boiling water; she came with her brother to the king, whose daughter had died; they revived princess, her brother married her, received half the kingdom; her sister began to live in an emerald palace]: Zapadova 1977:293-296.

The Balkans. Hungarians: Jones, Kropf 1889 [the poor king's wife is dead, three daughters are left; the father has taken his stepmother; the youngest hears that the stepmother is about to take them to the forest; she galloped to the godmother, she is a sorceress, she let cotton wool throw behind her; but the girl should not take the sisters home - they are very angry; but the sisters asked them to take them out too; next time the godmother gave a bag of ash; the third time the girl did not go to godmother, but decided to take the peas and pour them behind her; but the birds pecked it; the sisters planted an acorn, during the night it grew an oak as high as a tower; the youngest climbed, saw nothing; then like two towers; on The third day - three towers, the girl saw a light in the window; on the way there, the sisters dressed her in rags and told her to say that they came from a wealthy family and she was a maid; there was a one-eyed giantess in the castle; they persuaded her They are not eaten; she hid them from her husband; he also did not eat them if they were cooking; in fact, both husband and wife each wanted to eat the girls in the absence of the other; the youngest asked the giant to try it, was the lard good, pushed her into the oven; the giantess promised to comb her hair, killed her with an iron comb; the sisters went to town, and the youngest found a golden key, opened a chest with beautiful clothes and jewelry; came to a silver dress for a party to the castle, where the sisters were already staying, and then quietly left and dressed in rags again; next time in a gold dress; then in a diamond dress; dropped her slipper, his prince picked it up, the king ordered all the girls to try on; the heroine rode in the best outfit, put on both shoes; the wedding; the heroine ordered the king to restore her father's rights to the kingdom taken from him, sent sisters to father]: 144-149 (retelling in Cox 1893, No. 111:45); Stier 1850, No. 5 [the youngest of the poor king's three daughters hears her stepmother telling her father to take them to the forest; her godmother gives a ball of thread to go back, but tells the evil elders not to sleep; the stepmother took the stepdaughters to the forest, left when they fell asleep; the sisters asked the youngest to take them out of the forest; next time the godmother is angry, but gives a bag of ash; for the third time, the girl is ashamed to ask her godmother again, she takes a bag of grain, but birds peck it; sisters find an acorn, pour water, bringing it in her mouth, in the morning an oak tree is like a tower; on the second or third day is even higher; from this height, the younger sister notices a light in the distance; they come to the giantess's palace with one eye in her forehead; the youngest promises to make her a dress, she hides her sisters in the closet; the giant Sniffs them out, but keeps them alive because she wants to eat them alone; the giantess also does not want to share with her husband; the youngest asks the giant to see if the stove is hot enough, pushes him into the oven; asks the giantess is allowed to comb her hair, kills with a hammer on the head; older sisters hold the youngest by the maid; she found the key, opened a pantry with luxurious clothes, comes to the party in silver dress; sisters are jealous without recognizing her; next time in a gold dress, the third in a diamond dress; the queen follows her, she runs away after losing her shoe; the queen is sick of love, the king commands try on the shoe for all the girls; the younger sister cut off the older fingers to make the shoe fit them; she galloped by, splashing mud at them; the guns are shooting, the wedding; the sisters return to their father, who is His {obviously lost} kingdom was returned]: 34-35 in Cox 1893, No. 111:398-399; Bulgarians [at the insistence of their stepmother or because of poverty, the father leaves the children in the mountains; they return for the first time because they return. they threw pebbles or poured ash along the way; the second time they sprinkled crumbs, the birds pecked them; the children came to a house with sugar walls, a roof of rolls; the witch locked them, fattens the boy, he shows a bone instead of a finger; the witch is asked to show how to get into the oven, push it there; the children took her wealth and returned home]: Daskalova-Perkovska et al. 1994, No. 327A: 126; (cf. Slovenes [the king loses his throne, goes to the forest; stepmother leaves Popelusha (Cinderella and her sisters in the forest; the first time they return along a thread from a loose ball; the second time P. leaves ash the trail, but the wind scattered it; the one-eyed man tells him to take the girls to his castle; P. manages to destroy him; older sisters come to the palace, where the king must choose a wife; P. finds the golden keys, opens rooms with magic dresses; when he runs away from the palace for the second time, he loses his shoe; the king tells the girls to try it on; the wedding; P. brings his father to live in the palace]: Cox 1893, No. 32:15).

Baltoscandia. Latvians [The witch's brother and sister. At the instigation of the stepmother, the father takes the children to the forest. They return home twice along a pebble trail. On the third evening, abandoned peas (breadcrumbs) are pecked by birds. Children come to the hut with an edible roof. A witch lives there, she takes the children: she puts the boy in a fence for fattening, and makes the girl work around the house. The witch makes sure that the boy is well fed, tells him to show his finger, the boy shows his wand. When the witch is finally going to fry the boy, she shows how to lie on the shovel. The boy pushes it into the oven. The witch's son is chasing children. Birds and animals help them]: Arys, Medne 1977, No. 327A: 277.