L5B. The head turns into lightning/thunder.

(.11.36.48.60.-.62.67.)

A rolling head turns into lightning/thunder. See motif L83.

Bantu-speaking Africa. Lamba [people of different kinds quarreled and killed Chief Chipimbi; but then they saw him alive and well; killed him again, burned the corpse; but his head is intact; when she rolls, we hear thunder]: Scheub 2000:29-30.

Eastern Siberia. Yakuts [The elder sister's head becomes the wife of Thunder].

California. Maidu.

Ecuador. Colorado [a man escaped from animal demons, killed a fox; his wife cuts a carcass, a fox's head sticks to her thigh; shamans let calebasa along the river; when a woman dives, head rushes after a calebass; now lives by the sea, produces lightning]: Mix 1982:73-75.

Western Amazon. Napo [the loser hunter got lost, the forest spirit of Kukuyu Kuraga cut off his head; she rolled to the other hunters' hut; they run away in a boat, but his head is also in the boat; alone ran to warn the women, but his head settled on a tree above the path the women were walking; sucked between his wife's legs; when she was swimming, she stuck to her headdress; the woman's daughter runs a calebasa along the river; when a woman dives, her head rushes after the calebasa, swims away; turns into lightning]: Mercier 1979:53-55.

NW Amazon. Tariana.

Bolivia - Guaporé. Takana.