L69. The puma defeats the monster .44.45.47.52.
A person is attacked by a monster; a puma, jaguar, or dog fights, kills or chases a monster; the person returns home.
The Midwest. Chippewa (Michigan) [The chief with 12 warriors goes to war; they notice a hollow; the chief warns that it may not be a bear, but a monster; one of the warriors climbs a tree to look at; a monster gets out, consistently catches, kills and brings all warriors to the lair; while running after the last one to run the furthest, the one who climbs the tree gets down and runs away; the cougar is called to help him; fights with as a monster, both die; a man sacrifices six white dogs, Puma comes to life]: Smith 1907:324-325.
Northeast. Hurons [warriors return home; think there is a bear in the hollow; a monstrous gopher kills warriors one at a time; the latter sees Puma; she asks to spray water on herself, fights a gopher, kills him; people kill baby gopher, burn bodies; make amulets out of ashes]: Barbeau 1960, No. 20:22-23; Tuscarora [during the teal war, 11 warriors decide to hunt; find a hollow, think that inside a bear; a huge toothy lizard comes out from there; consistently catches up and grabs 10 warriors; when the eleventh sees that she has rushed for the tenth, he runs himself; "Leo" says that it will fight the monster, but the person must hold the torn dicks with a stick, otherwise they will reconnect to the lizard's body; he does; "Leo" tells the warriors to come and finish off the cubs]: Rudes, Crouse 1987, #32:532-540; delaware [twelve hunters with a dog meet a dinosaur; he kills eleven; the last, a teenager, tells the dog to throw the monster into its mouth hot ash from campfire; the monster dies; this ash later serves as a love potion]: Bierhorst 1995, No. 191:72.
Southeast USA. Usually, instead of a bear, hunters run into the zothbwe monster; it kills dogs and/or other people first, then chases the last one left, carries it to its lair; a cougar or a jaguar fight a monster, kill it or drive it away; the person returns home. Caddo [three hunters think they found a bear's lair in a hollow (they don't have dogs); an unknown animal comes out, catches two, takes them to the lair; when chasing a third, it attacks him Puma; kills him, hunter comes home; people find and bury the dead]: Dorsey 1905, No. 31:57-58; teal [three people in the forest saw a big stump; a bald man climbed and looked into the hollow, there was a giant lizard; it first caught up and brought one bald friend, then another, then ran after him; he managed to run to people; bullets bounced off the monster's skin, but he was shot in the mouth; dry brown spots in the monster's mouth were used as talismans, like Uk'ten dragon scales]: Kilpatrick, Kilpatrick 1964:69-70; screams [kills dogs; jaguar heals a person, asks from now on not kill small cats]: Swanton 1929, No. 20 [chases the lizard away], 21 [lizard killed]: 27-29; hichiti [lizard kills other hunters; lizard and puma seriously injure each other]: Swanton 1929, No. 15 : 96-97; Alabama [a lizard kills hunters, one escapes down the river; Shawnee Indians kill a lizard]: Swanton 1929, No. 40:153; koasati [like Alabama]: Swanton 1929, No. 36:196; alabama , koasati [as in Swanton]: Martin 1977:62-64.
Mesoamerica Tricky [the peasant fell asleep in a hut in his field; the cougar came in and lay down by the fire; duj ran in screaming to eat the man, but the cougar began to fight him, drove him away]: Hollenbach 1980, No. 8. 12:459.