L74. The returned hand .40.-.43.46.52.

A bear or other powerful character tears off and carries another's hand. The third character steals the hand, returns it to the one from whom it was torn off.

Chugach, Upper Kuskoquim, Kuchin, Tanana, Upper Tanana, Chipewayan, Haida, Comox, Teton (Oglala), Quiche, Isapa, Copan (?) , Teotihuacan (?).

The Arctic. Chugach [A bear bites off a person's hand, hangs a smoke hole at home; a man suffers; a raven steals a hand, brings it back, heals the victim]: Birket-Smith 1953:165-166 [The raven asks The bear takes advantage of this to put smoky bark into the fire; since the arm is bent, people now bend their arms], 170 [(=Johnson 1984:71-73); The Raven teaches the Bears how to bite off a person's hand when people lure bears during the salmon run; tells them to hang them in the chimney to cause more suffering; people ask the Raven for help; he tells the Bear that if you tie your hand with grass , rather than tree roots, the owner's pain will increase; takes his hand; putting it back, asks people to keep their eyes closed; one person opened their eyes, so people's arms bend; see motive K52 further] .

Subarctic. Upper pieces [Wolves and Bears come from the upper reaches to play with people from the lower reaches; they tear off Kunitsa's hand, carry them away; people ask the Raven for help; he agrees, having received a well-fed baked dog; his nephew Owl swims with him; having relieved himself of fir branches, the Raven turns them into clothes for himself and for the woman; he is mistaken for a rich man, given a woman; he goes to bed where above him a severed hand hangs; pokes his hand, an alarm sounds, but those who come running every time do not notice anything suspicious; one day he flies away with his hand; the owl pushes the boat into the river, they sail away; The raven puts a hand on Marten; she doesn't move well enough, so martens have asymmetrical tracks]: Deaphon et al. s.a.: 27-31 (=Ruppert, Bernet 2001:285-287); Kuchin [playing, the Fox family worries sleeping Bear; he tears off the Fox's hand; the Fox asks the Raven for help; the Raven comes to the Bear, tells stories, the Bear begins to doze, the Raven grabs the Fox's hand from under his head, brings the Fox; fox hair still shows the wound mark]: McKennan 1965:96; tanana [Bears tear off the Marten Girl's hand, make a rattle out of it; the Raven comes to the Bears disguised as a poor old man; dances; takes his hand away at night; sails away in a boat with Owl's nephew, returns Kunitsa's hand]: De Laguna, Dearmond 1995, No. 16:163-167; upper tanana [Marten people played grass ball; Bear tore off Kunice took his hand to him, hung it under the roof; all the animals tried unsuccessfully to get their hand back; the Lynx came in while the Bear was sleeping, cut off the rattle {not entirely clear; see the text tanan}, cut off the rope that was Marten's hand is tied, brought it to him, it has grown; therefore, the marten has one hand shorter than the other; the Bear threatens to kill the Lynx, but he scratches the poplar with its claws; the Bear retreats]: Kari 1996:35-37; chipewayan [The Black Bear is White's nephew; White pulls out the Fox's shoulder, hangs it in his house; the fox asks the Raven for help; his shoulder hangs with a bunch of claws, they ring when touched; the Raven seems to accidentally touch several times; the Polar Bear falls asleep, the Raven grabs his shoulder, returns the Fox; the Polar Bear chases Black Bear away for telling everyone what happened; hides the sun; it goes dark; the daughter of White A bear swallows something dark with water; a boy born requires the sun to play; turns into a crow, carries it away; polar bears have been ferocious ever since]: Bell 1903, No. 2:79 (Quail in Edmonds, Clark 1989: 116-118).

NW Coast. Hyda (Skidgate) [the chief's son has a stronger hand than everyone else; a small pale hand sticks into the smoke hole; the chief's son grabs it, she tears off his hand; the raven flies into someone else's village; an old man he meets says that his hand is kept behind a partition in the local chief's house; the raven puts on the old man's skin, steals his hand in the morning; touches the partition, it sounds like a tambourine; the raven carries hand, it grows to the young man]: Swanton 1905:136-137.

The coast is the Plateau. Comox [in his father's absence, the boy cooks fish, the Grizzly steals the fish; the father comes back, shoots the Grizzly, but he tears off his hand and takes him away; the raven comes to the Grizzly, feeds him, he falls asleep, The raven takes his hand hanging over the fire, brings it to the person, the snail helps to attach it back to the body]: Boas 1916:821.

Plains. Teton (oglala) [two girls look at the stars, one wants her husband bright, the other dim; two men appear, girls agree to marry them; in the sky, a bright star turns out to be old chief; asks the pregnant wife not to press the digger hard to get roots; she presses, falls through the sky, crashes, the child remains alive; birds argue who will raise the Falling Star (PZ), this honor goes to Lark; the young man grows up, goes to a camp, where Vaziya (a source of snow) takes all the prey from people; the PZ cuts off his head, kills his relatives, one child is hiding; so there is winter; the White Raven scares away the buffalo, people are starving; the PZ turns into a dead bison, the Raven goes down to peck at it, the PZ grabs it, smokes it in the chimney; the Raven comes down to peck at it, the PZ grabs it, turns black, flies away, losing strength; PZ turns into a boy, lives with an old woman; Thunder took the leader's hand, he promises a daughter to the one who returns his hand; in the form of the PZ king, flies into a tipi, where his hand hangs ; overturns the cauldron on Iktomi (Spider) and others, takes his hand, returns it to the chief, marries]: Neuhardt, Brown 1997:496-513.

Mesoamerica Quiche ("Popol-Wuh") [there was no sun, only Vicub-Caquix ("seven mako parrots"); he said he was the sun, the light and the moon, that his eyes and teeth were sparkling; Hunahpú and Ixbalanqué were really gods; when VK was sitting on a tree eating fruit, Hun-Hunahpú (mistake: Hunahpú) hit him in the jaw with a blowpipe; he fell off the tree, but tore off H.'s hand and carried him away; at home he hung him in the hearth above by fire; told his wife Chimalmat that his teeth now hurt (due to hitting a dart); H. and I. agreed with old man and old woman Zaqui-Nim-Ac and Zaqui-Nimá-Tsiís (Big White Pig ( or rather, Bakers, jabalí), and Big White Coati) that they would go to VK and take them with them as if they were their little nephews whose parents were dead; old people told VK they could cure his teeth, replace them with new ones made of crushed bone; but they were teeth from corn kernels and did not heal his teeth, but crushed them, took his treasures; VK and C. died, and H. regained his hand; the old man and the old woman returned her, attached to H., it grew]: Popol Vuh 1972, cap. IV-VI: 17-25 (episode reviewed in Bassie-Sweet 2008:279; in Chinchilla Mazariegos 2010a: 122-128); Copan (relief from a painted thing) [from the belly of a parrot (guacamayo) protrudes the mouth of a feathered a snake with a bitten hand (probably Hunahpu's hand, cf. Popol Vuh 1959:18-23); in addition to the main head, there are 4 more parrot heads on each side]: Chinchilla Mazariegos 2010a, fig. 5-6; Teotihuacan: Chinchilla Mazariegos 2010a [temple incense burner, on top of which a parrot (guacamayo) with additional heads on the sides of the main one, and severed hands hang in front of the temple]: 127-128, fig. 8, 9; Neilsen, Helmke 2014 [painting in the Atetelco complex in Teotihuacane; a bird with additional heads on its wings, holding a severed human hand in its beak, from which blood flows]; Isapa, stele 25 [in the belly of a parrot sitting on a tree (guacamayo) teeth are depicted]: Chinchilla Mazariegos 2010a, fig. 2-4; Nielsen, Helmke 2014 [an anthropomorphic character holding this tree/pole with his right hand has his left hand torn off and bleeding; although iconographic materials from Izapa, Copan, Teotihuacan and others do not directly indicate that the hero has regained his hand; they clearly illustrate the story described in Popol Vuh].