L84. Bad axes. (.13.) .38.46.56.58.-.61.66.68.

The character tries to cut down a tree with an ax made of obviously unusable material.

(Tigre), Sakhalin Ainu, Osage, Iowa, Pawnee, Sicuani, Warrau, Guyanese Carinha, Waiwai, Trio, Colorado, Napo or Canelo, Kashinahua, Rickbacza.

(Wed. Sudan - East Africa. Tigre [the white hawk has bred the chicks; the fox made an ax out of clay, tells the chick to be thrown down, threatens to cut down the tree; when the last chick is left, the raven explains that with a clay ax, the tree is not cut down; the fox's clay axe crashed; when he learned that it was the raven that the hawk had learned, the fox pretended to be dead; the raven came down, she grabbed it; he offered to throw it into the burning fire; the fox threw it, the raven flew away]: Littmann 1910, No. 11:12-13).

Japan. Aina Sakhalin [two older sisters bring the youngest baby they find; the youngest spies, sees that the baby has become a devil, eats food; the older ones do not believe at first, stay in turn, they see the same thing; throw the baby into the fire, run away; the middle one comes back for forgotten beads; they are put on the line shoveling the fire; the girl turns into a spider, goes down, picks up the beads, runs away; hell pursues; the youngest pulls out her tooth, throws it, it turns into a rock, they climb it; hell calls other devils, some have axes made of wood resin; first the devils dive for the reflection of women; then they cut down a rock, it presses them all; women live well]: Pilsudski 2001, No. 9:43-44 (same 2002, No. 9:39-41).

(Wed. The Midwest. Menominee [The raccoon promises women that their babies will grow up right away if they are put in an ice-hole; one grows up; the others lie down, the children die; the raccoon hides in a tree above the river; women hit with axes at his reflection, they blunt them against stones; when they notice a Raccoon, they cannot cut down a tree with blunt axes; they leave]: Skinner, Satterlee 1915, No. II36:416-420).

Plains. Osage [The wolf invites the Raccoon to copulate; he agrees if it is his turn first; when finished, he runs away to the tree; the wolf makes an ax out of clay to cut the trunk; the axe breaks, to the Wolf can't get the Raccoon]: Dorsey 1904c, No. 10:14; iowa [Coyote offers the Raccoon to copulate; he agrees if it's his turn first; when finished, runs away to a tree; Coyote makes an ax out of clay , can't cut down a tree; meets boys, asks for news; A raccoon used a Coyote and deceived him]: Skinner 1925, No. 13:477; Pawnee (skidi) [Coyote offers Raccoon to play her husband and wife; after copulating, the Raccoon climbs a tree; the Coyote's anus bleeds; the Coyote makes a clay ax, tries to cut a tree; the axe splits, the Coyote cries, leaves]: Dorsey 1904b, No. 69:269-270.

Llanos. Sicuani [neighbors notice pieces of pineapple on kinkaju's teeth; Paka followed him to the Kaliawiri tree; he dropped a pineapple, Paka brought it to the village; the next day Kinkaju took him to the village cut people to K., on which bananas, pineapples, sugar cane, cassava, peach palm fruits, all cultivated plants, branches of different trees grow; people took axes - fish bones; they immediately broke ; the Woodpecker almost cut the trunk with an ax, went to bed, cut down the thicket in the morning; working continuously, they achieved success, but the tree was suspended from the sky on the vine; the Mockingbird could not cut it, the juice splashed into it eyes; the squirrel cut; the fallen tree became a mountain range; people planted cassava; the flood destroyed all cultivated plants; Tsuwawirinë slapped another man on the stomach, who gave birth to a boy who grew cassava again]: Wilbert, Simoneau 1992, No. 47:219-220.

Guiana. Axes made from turtle shells. Warrau [Kororomanna killed a monkey, got lost in the forest; at night, hebu spirits began to hit the trunks with sticks; K. hit the monkey's stomach like a drum; one of the x. asked him show his hand, leg, face; K. shows parts of the monkey's body; blows the winds; x. hears a sound, asks him to pierce his anus; K. pierced him with a bow; x. promises that other x. will avenge him, disappears; K. hides on the Euterpe palm tree; x. beat the corpse of a monkey, thinking it was K.; he laughs; big eyebrows x. prevent them from looking up; one stood on his head, saw K.; x. trying to cut down a tree; their axes from turtle shells, pod knives, break; the biggest x. climbs the tree with his feet forward; K. pushes him down, shouting the words that x. promised to shout, the other x. kill him thinking they are killing him K.; K. runs away; hid in a hollow, where the woman says that her snake husband will come; but in the morning a hawk sang, K. said it was his uncle, the Snake was frightened, let him go; K. found a fallen tree on the path with a baby in a hollow; it was child H., K. killed him, hid him; the woman. wrapped the ground in a bundle with K.'s trail, walked away; K. replaced it with earth with her own trail; the woman threw the bundle into the fire, herself burned down; K. went on the path, his leg stuck, it was trap x; they put him in the basket, moved away, K. ran away; threw an arrow into his skull; he ordered him to be worn for it (in coryum tape, as women carry a load) and feed; the skull became fat, the bark was torn from weight; K. asked to wait for him to find another bast, ran away; the skull mistakenly rushed after the deer, killed him, began to count his fingers - two, not five! The man laughs from the other side of the river; the skull jumped into the water, drowned, all the ants came out of it; the other x scoops the pond with his scrotum; K. poked him with an arrow, x. thought it was gadflies, then stuffed K. into deck; K. gave x. tobacco, became friends with him, he gave him a small package of fish, he brought it to his mother, there were a lot of fish; on the way, various animals told K. about his mother, carrying different fruits that K.'s mother gave them (rat - yam, aguti - cassava, paka - yam, deer - cassava leaf, tapiriha - pineapple]: Wilbert 1970, No. 187:424-430 (episode with axes, p. 424-426); carinha (Guyana): Gillin 1936, No. 7 [man hit trapped by a demon; smeared himself with crap; the demon still put it in the basket, carried it; on the way, the man ran away, climbed a tree; the demons began to cut the trunk with axes from the turtle shells; sent ants the man threw them off; one of the demons climbed his feet forward; the man pierced him, threw him off, the demons ate him, mistaking him for a man; the man goes on, falls into the hollow, there are snakes, the man smears crap again; kills snakes with the help of a hawk, returns home]: 196-198; Magaña 1987, No. 65 [a man hides from Kurupi (forest spirit) in a tree; he unsuccessfully tries to cut down a tree with a turtle axe; sends on a man of ants, he drives them away with a stream of urine; a man runs, hides in a hollow; K. tells snakes to guard him, leaves himself; when he hears the cry of an eagle, a person calls the eagle an uncle; snakes crawl away in fear]: 249; waiwai [man pastes himself and his son with harpy eagle feathers; both turn into cannibal eagles; people wrap a woman in bast cloth, give her flower petals; the eagle grabs her, carries her to the nest; she throws petals along the way; people find a nest; the eagle says that only his nephew will kill him; he hits the Eagles with arrows, the Eagles disappear; the nephew asks one person to leave him fried food on the trail meat; Eagles turn into meat themselves; people find it, eat it, the nephew does not get it; at night he cannot wake the sleepers; the eagles kill them, the killed turn into coati; the nephew and his companions climb on the tree; yaimo yahua spirits come, cut the trunk with axes from turtle shells; axes break, the spirits go away in the morning]: Roe 1991b, No. 4:94-96; trio [hunter sleeps under the roots of a tree; forest spirit wants to eat it; he gives him the liver and hand of a dead monkey instead of his own; wounds him with a poisoned arrow; runs, hides in a tree; other spirits try to cut the trunk with turtle axes; Owl drives away spirits]: Magaña 1987, No. 47:140.

Ecuador. Colorado [a man hides from the forest spirits in a tree; they climb after him, he pushes one of them down, others think it is a man, then they recognize his friend; they try to cut down a tree, but their axes are fish bones; the spirits go away in the morning]: Mix 1982:71-72.

Western Amazon. Napo or Canelo [the shaman sees a demon woman with a baby; she tells him to throw fruit from the tree, collects it immediately; he deliberately throws a heavy fruit at her baby, killing him; she sends muraiev, the man knocks them down with a branch; she calls Tican-Uchu, who cannot cut down a tree because his axe is made of wood fungus; calls Mullu; he knocks down a tree, but the person moves to another, runs away ; meets a Deer in kushma; he tells a person to close his eyes, takes him to demons, hiding it in kushma; demons shout that a doctor has come; a woman senses a man, they do not believe her; she calls her lovers to revive baby, it fails; she scolds them; they bury her alive with the baby]: Ortíz de Villalba 1989, No. 41:76-79.

Montagna - Jurua. Kashinaua [shomani forest dwarfs steal prey from a hunter; he invites them to dance before eating, pours hot broth over them; paints his head, says that in order to become just as beautiful, you have to scalp yourself; scalps off one of the tracks; the hunter's arrow gets stuck in a tree, he climbs after it; they see him, cut the tree with their axes from crab shells, then with a turtle shell ax; they cut down a tree, but a person moves to a palm tree; its trunk is stronger, cannot be cut; sh. climb the palm forward, the person pushes them down with a stick; falling comrades w. they mistake them for a person, kill them and devour them; at dawn, a person descends, runs away; sh. take a deer trail as his trail, but a deer also leaves them; a man hides in an battleship's hole; they breed at the entrance fire - two leaves are set on fire; they put a log in the hole - a vine that a person can easily break; a flying bird screams yuha, yuhoo; sh. think that help has come to a person, they run away; man returns to his wife, goes hunting with her brother; brother ambushes parrots and monkeys in a tree; sh. get there earlier, cut off the man's head, throw his wife's brother; people cut off the head wood, w. turn into white monkeys (the origin of white monkeys)]: d'Ans 1975:266-275; (cf. sharanaua [the man went to the forest for the fruits of the genipa; the forest spirit led him to a tree, offered to climb a tree; spirits gathered, climbed forward with his feet; the man killed them one at a time, stabbing them in the ass a stick; spirits brought axes from the shoulder blades of deer and battleships, began to cut down; the tree fell, the man hid in the battleship's hole; a deer ran by, the spirits rushed after him; but the man stuck out his head and his spirits saw, grabbed and ate; the deceased's elder brother also went to the forest; when the tree fell, he moved to another, where the wild turkey's nest is; he ate meat and fruit there, tears in the morning, his spirits grabbed him; the tree fell, the turkeys scattered, the spirits rushed to grab them; the man escaped]: Siskind 1973:152-153).

Southern Amazon. Rickbackza [the warrior returns from the campaign with the head of the enemy; climbs a tree for the night; turtles cut the trunk with stone axes, but the fragile stone pricks; their uncle Serpent climbs a tree; man growls like a jaguar; The serpent falls in fear, crashes; the man continues his journey, comes home]: Pereira 1994, No. 3:51.