L82. He burns his leg in the fire. (.19.) .59.61.67.68.70.72.

A person intentionally or accidentally burns his leg in the fire or burns himself entirely; he becomes a demonic creature. See the L9 motif (a person with a sharp leg).

Varrau, Kofan, Trumai, Rikbacza, Kayapo, Kraho, Ramkakamekra, Apiniekra, Apinaye, Tupina (?) , chamacoco, chorote, nivakle.

(Wed. Melanesia. Bukavak [the family goes to the field to work; when there are no people, the spirit living in the tree does the work; the father tells his daughter to see if she has the courage, she is a handsome man; an old man with skin disease says that he worked; at the wedding of his daughter and the spirit, he attacks the girl's father, but he kills him; after the birth of a son, the spirit wants to go dancing; the wife wants too, the spirit agrees to stay at home with the child; putting half a coconut on her feet and hands, sets them on fire, burns her limbs to the bone; at this time, his wife is bitten by a gadfly; she sees a sign in that, returns home with her mother, sees her dead husband]: Lehner 1931a, No. 4:44-46).

Guiana. Varrau [after attending a festival in the village of toads, the elder brother deliberately burns his leg in the fire while hunting; chasing his younger brother, he kills a deer instead of him; people come to the forest, kill the elder, they cut the flesh into pieces; they give rise to harmful creatures]: Wilbert 1970, No. 41 [burns both legs, sharpens one; without chasing the deer], 156 [anneals and sharpens both legs; hummingbirds first, then squirrel they lure the monster into an open place where people kill it; without turning into harmful creatures], 157, 158 [burns in his sleep]: 110-112, 332-339.

Western Amazon. Cofan: Barriga Lopez 1988b [wife scolds a loser hunter; he goes hunting with her brother; when he freezes, he climbs into the fire; burns, his head rolls to his wife; falls into the river, lives for a long time with dolphins; one day he rolls into the house, falls asleep; his wife's relatives set fire to the house; the skull remains, kills his wife, hides in the river]: 200; Borman, Criollo 1990, No. 19 [a man goes hunting monkeys with the husband of his older sister; at night he sees him put his feet in the fire; in the morning he finds that there is only one head left; the head makes a parcel of monkey fried meat small, tells him to carry it home in the same basket; when his wife comes up, her head sticks her mouth to her vulva; it cannot be torn off; one day a woman promises to give her head a fish, her head sticks off, the woman rushes into the water, lets a calebass through the water; the head takes her for the wife's head, swims away on it; when it comes to people living below the river, it becomes a fat man again; comes with them to his wife's village; the wife comes up, that man kills her; when the river has an annual flood, this head floats downstream; (Sirius is not visible at this time)]: 287-317; Calífano, Gonzalo 1995, No. 59 [man and his wife's brother hunt monkeys; smokes, shakes for a while consciousness; falls asleep by the fire; at night, his wife's brother shouts to him several times that his leg is burning; he replies that no; by morning there is only one head left; his wife's brother carries it in the basket; his head tells him to leave it, send a wife saying that her husband shot a lot of game; sticks between his wife's legs, sucks her vagina; one day a woman crosses the river, her head peels off, leaves by sunrise; during the holiday, the head returns in human form; turns into a head again, sticks to his wife; she dies; her head is half rotted, shamans break it to pieces]: 110-111.

Bolivia - Guaporé. Surui [the spirit of the Moradei tree smears the loser hunter with tree sap, making him lucky; tells him to bring his wife in the morning; the spirits also smear her, copulate with her; the husband and wife bring her to the village many monkeys have been killed; the wife breaks the prohibition to talk about what happened, and when the husband falls asleep, he puts his foot on the coals and she burns off; he eats all the meat he brings (it's just fried); thinks what turn to frighten people; 1) into a bird that foreshadows war; 2) into another similar bird; 3) into an arrowhead; 4) becomes lightning and thunder]: Mindlin 1995, No. 3:10-13.

Southern Amazon. Trumai [one of the two hunters intentionally burns his leg in the fire; his companion runs, hides in the house; the stalker's pointed bone gets stuck in a log]: Monod-Becquelin 1975, No. 24:130 ; Rickback: Pereira 1973, No. 13 [the husband of an unfaithful wife burns his leg alone in the woods; kills an opponent]: 47-48; 1994, No. 27 [two cunhados went hunting night monkeys; one found a potion (remedy, leaves - remedio-do-mato) of the Forest Spirit (he walks on one leg); put it to his leg; put it in the fire at night; the satellite noticed, put a deck in his hammock, climbed a tree; the first cut off meat, leg became like a deer's horn, hit a hammock, left, became the Forest Spirit himself, left; turned into a forest spirit; the spider returned home; people could not find and kill the Forest Spirit]: 178-180.

Eastern Brazil. Kayapo (pau d'arco) [(Nimuendaju MS); the fisherman stepped on the stingray, his leg rotted, he asked him to be left in the hut with enough food; he burned his leg in the fire, sharpened his bone; his wife came for him, put her back for him to climb, he pierced it with his sharp leg; kills many people; when a man climbs a tree, he climbs his head upside down, pierces him with his foot; asks two women, has he already made it to the top; they all say no; one of them pierces him with a piece of bark, he falls dead]: Wilbert, Simoneau 1984a, No. 133:408-409; crash [man with his sister's husband spends the night hunting in the forest; pretends to fall asleep; sees a companion putting his foot in the fire; for the third time he does not respond to a request for help to remove his leg; the companion burns his foot, throws him into the forest, asks him to go pick up a fallen fruit; sharpens the bone with a sharp shell; is going to pierce a person with a sharp leg, he turns into an opossum, hides in a termite mound; returns to his sister; Hitewa kills hunting companions with their foot; people make a doll out of thick bark, H. pierces his leg into it, gets stuck, he gets killed]: Wilbert 1978, No. 164:413-416; frame camera [man went hunting with her husband wife; noticed him putting his foot in the fire, shoved it off twice, but he put it back in; burned his foot, threw it into the forest, told him to look for the fallen fruit; sharpened the bone with a scraper from the shell, attacked; the man turned into a rat, hid in a hollow; Tečware lit dry leaves and tail in the hollow, but the rat slipped away; (text breaks off)]: Wilbert 1978, No. 167:419-420; apaniecra [Têttxuá invited Pó txête, his sister's husband, hunt Cariama cristata birds; set fire to the bush but got nothing; P. pretended to be sleeping, T. put his foot in the fire, then burned the second one, threw his foot into the forest, shouted that the fruit was falling; he sharpened the bones on his legs with a shell, tried to pierce P., he dodged; became a rat, hid in a hollow; T. lit a fire there, but P. turned into a lizard, ran away; T. turned into a bee sat on a branch above the path to the village, killed passers-by with a sharp leg; the boy covered his back with a piece of thick bark, told others to walk a distance away; a sharp leg got stuck in the bark, T. was killed]: Wilbert 1978, No. 168:420-422 ; apinaye [Tečware's wife's brother goes with him to the forest; at night T. puts his foot in the fire, breaks off his foot, throws him into the thickets, tells his companion to go after the fruit that has just fallen; at this time he sharpens the bone ; tries to kill a companion, he runs away to the village; T. kills people with a sharp foot; people disguise the tree trunk as a human figure, T.'s leg gets stuck in it, he is killed; the severed head rolls; attacks people, grabbing their heads with their teeth; people dig a hole, their heads fall into it, they burn it there; this is where the Hancornia speciosa tree grows; men use its latex to make balls and body paint]: Wilbert 1978, No. 169:422-423; Tupina ["I found this motive in Aldea Santa Rosa residents in Bahia, probably Tupinaki descendants"]: Nmuendaju MS in Wilbert, Simoneau 1984a: 408 (note 8).

Chaco. Chamacoco [burns his leg while hunting rodents with fire; taking daredevils as bait, people kill him; a severed spear leg is brought to the village]: Wilbert, Simoneau 1987a, No. 108, 109: 426-432; Chorote: Wilbert, Simoneau 1985, No. 89 [handsome Kiésta (mockingbird) sang well, attracting girls and irritating men; decided to argue with Káhopo (the cuckoo) to sing all night; falling asleep, burned his right leg in the fire; people left, leaving him alone; he was hungry, ate meat from burnt leg to bone, sharpened the bone, began to kill animals and then animals with it; the Hawk pretended to pulls honey out of the bottle tree, provoked K. to strike, the bone got stuck in the tree; the Hawk burned it, a mockingbird flew out of the fire; the first time he became an ogre again, the second time he finally became a bird] 90 [Kiestáj and Likiku argue about who will spend the night without sleep; K. falls asleep, accidentally burns his leg in the fire; people leave him alone; he eats meat from his leg, sharpens bones, kills, eats people; A hawk provokes him to hit, his leg breaks against a tree; a hawk burns him, a mockingbird appears from the fire]: 164-167, 168-171; nivakle [like a chorote; Cuckoo and Mockingbird compete singing]: Wilbert, Simoneau 1987b, No. 184 [The cuckoo puts the foot of a asleep Mockingbird in the fire], 185 [The Cuckoo and the Mockingbird compete to sing all night; the Mockingbird falls asleep, the Cuckoo sings but actually sleeps , only his lungs sing; at dawn, the Cuckoo put the sleeping Mockingbird's leg into the fire; Ovenbird killed and fried Mockingbird; he came to life, became an ogre; sharpened his burnt leg, killed people with it; Fitsakajich called him to look for honey; climbed a tree; I had eyes on the back of my head, saw Mockingbird about to hit him, broke off a branch; he shredded his sharp leg against the tree, people killed him; he became a mockingbird ], 186:448-450, 451-455.