L86. A mother stalks her children. 39.41.43.-.46.50.72.

Having become a demon, a woman stalks her children. See J35 motif.

Maori, Chukchi, Kuchin, Quarry, Kalapuya, Klikitat, Menominee, Western Forest Cree, Western Swamp Cree, Ojibwa, Northern Solto, Northern Ojibwa (Sandy Lake), Steppe Cree, Steppe Ojibwa, Tuscarora, Sarsi, Blackfoot, Assiniboine, Teton, Sheena, Pawnee, Kiowa, Tiwa (Taos), Guajiro, Toba, Pilaga, Mokovi.

Micronesia-Polynesia. Maori [Uta is fishing; his wife Houmea secretly eats it raw, tramples on the ground as if someone came and stole the catch; W. sends their two sons to spy on their mother, who say that saw; H. denies everything; while W. is not, swallows children; W. witchcraft makes her regurgitate; sending H. to get water, sails away with the children in a boat, telling objects and trees to answer for them; W. in He pursues the appearance of a cormorant; W. hides at the bottom of the boat; children throw fish into their mother's mouth, tell them to open it wider, throw a hot stone, it dies]: Dixon 1916:84-86.

SV Asia. Chukchi [a man has a wife and five children; he comes to a distant shore, stays with Mountain Echo; she is young and beautiful; the first wife comes to her, lulls her to sleep, kills her by pouring boiling broth into her ear; puts her body as if she is scraping her skin and smiling; her husband comes to his first wife to kill her; she turns into a bear, kills him; she stalks her children; they run away, they turn into a wagtail, silly, awl tail, wolf, wolverine; bear has been wandering in the tundra ever since]: Bogoras 1928, No. 32:392-394.

Subarctic. Kuchin [while her husband is hunting, the wife in the forest gets meat from ceftree (probably copulates with him; the word means insects, snakes, worms, eels); Jateakuoit is the eldest of the two sons; tells the father about the mother's behavior; he cuts off her head; the body pursues him, the head pursues his sons; D. throws a stone, awl, knife, beaver tooth received from the father on the run; they turn into mountain, thorny thickets, mountain range, river; accidentally a tooth falls in front, not behind the fugitives; the Swan transports them across the river; the head calls the Swan husband, asks to transport her; The Swan throws it into the water, it turns into a big fish; the brothers play ball, he falls into the boat; the owner of the boat invites D. to take the ball: takes it away; the younger brother left on the shore turns into a wolf; The owner's eldest daughter refuses to marry D.; the youngest goes out, makes him handsome; see the K27 motive]: McKennan 1965:98-100.

The coast is the Plateau. Quarry [without details; a woman takes a snake as a lover; her husband cuts off her head; her head chases her children; they throw objects behind them that turn into obstacles]: Morice in Waterman 1914: 46; kalapuya [Puma hunts, Minka catches fish and collects roots; Puma marries a Grizzly; her four sisters come one after another, he fights with them, kills them; the wife finds out the truth in her sleep, puts them on grizzly skin, devours her husband, carries his penis in her teeth; revives sisters, returns to father; gives birth to a boy and a girl; they hear a mother cry, see a penis in her teeth; they come to Norka, he tells them about their father's murder; they tie up the sleeping Grizzly sisters and their father in the house, set him on fire, run away; the mother chases them; the boy creates a berry meadow behind them, a turtle teasing a stalker; she loses her time picking berries, catching a turtle; the children make a swing on an oak branch; the mother asks for permission to swing; when they rock her, they break the swing, she falls far to the north, disappears; boy turns Norka into a hole, sister into a grizzly, himself a cougar]: Gatschet et al. 1945, No. 8:261-272; clickitate [Luca's wife turns into a Grizzly, kills husband and others, stalks son and daughter; they run away, marry each other, they have a boy; a Grizzly meets and kills a son, comes to her daughter; she pushes her into a ravine, she dies; a Coyote appears, a woman throws her own things, then burns by herself; the Coyote raises the boy; this is the Eagle, he grows up, marries three Mice, Gorlinka, Cricket; the Coyote puts willow branches in the fire, the flame flashes, the women lift their legs; The coyote sees that the Mice are white, the other two have black genitals; he likes white ones; he turns his excrement into eagles; sends the Eagle to the rock to get feathers; makes the rock tall; takes shape son, puts on his clothes, takes his wives Mice, mistreats Cricket and Gorlinka; the Spider lowers the Eagle off the cliff; Gorlinka's son recognizes his father; the Eagle kills the deer, tells the Coyote to carry it, it rains, The coyote is washed into the river, swims downstream, turns into a dead deer; a girl picks him up; her grandmother knows it's a Coyote, wants to hit, he swims on, turns into an old man, stops at five unmarried duck sisters; they own a salmon lake; he makes them digging sticks, digs a drain from the lake himself; his sisters hit him, breaking five bone spoons he used to cover his head, but he lets him out water and fish; catches fish in the river, bakes, falls asleep, Wolves eat it; Wolves fall asleep, Coyote steals bird eggs from them; makes rapids on the river above which salmon should not rise]: Jacobs 1934, No. 31:79- 91 (paraphrase in Lévi-Strauss 1971, no. 606a: 233-234).

The Midwest. Menominee [see motive F34; a woman has a bear lover; her husband kills her, buries her under the hearth; goes to the ground, tells her sons to run, take a sharpener and an awl; a dead mother chases her sons, screams, that he wants to breastfeed the youngest; an abandoned sharpener turns into a mountain, an awl into many awls; a crane asks to remove his lice; these are toads; a young man bites through cranberries; two Cranes pull necks like a bridge; mother disgusted refuses to bite through toads; cranes remove necks, she sinks; see motif K27]: Skinner, Satterlee 1915, No. II14:364-366; Ojibwa: Jones 1916, No. 33 [returning from hunting, the husband finds the children abandoned, the wife is just starting to cook; the eldest son says that the mother dresses up in the morning and leaves; the husband watches her, sees her copulating with snakes; puts the cradle with the youngest son on the elder's back, tells him to run west; pierces his wife with an arrow, throws her into the fire; when she falls silent, he runs east; the children consistently reach two old women; the first gives an awl and a comb, a second flint and tinder; thrown behind, they turn into a mountain of shilles, a mountain of ridges, a flint ridge, fire from end to end of the world; Toadstool transports children across the river; the pursuer tells not step on him while sitting on his back; she steps, thrown off, sinking]: 379-380; Radin, Reagan 1928, No. 40 (Southeast Ontario) [the hunter returns empty-handed; his wife's lover supplies her meat; one day her daughter brings meat to her father; he cuts off his wife's head, gives her son and daughter an awl and flint, rises to the sky; the mother's head chases the children; they throw an awl and flint, creating a forest that is large fire; Kingfisher agrees to transport children across the lake if they remove his lice; when he carries his head, he pushes it into the water; the sky turns red, the children understand that their father is dead], 41 [starting as in (40); lover - Black Bear; the hunter watches his wife, kills the Bear with an arrow; shoves a bear meat into his wife's throat, she dies; her brother comes, finds her body in ash; the hunter rises to the sky fight with his wife's six brothers; kills five, then kills himself; daughter carries a baby brother, running away from her dead mother; a man agrees to transport fugitives across the lake if the girl collects him lice and bite through them; instead of lice, she bites through cranberries]: 142-145; ojibwa? (The origin of the text is not specified, but it mentions Lake. Upper) [two brothers finally decide to tell their father that a lover has been coming to their mother for many years; the father kills her, buries her in the ashes of the hearth; the mother's skull pursues her sons; the crane puts its neck like bridge over the waterfall; tells you not to step on a sore spot at the back of his head; young men cross, the Skull steps on the back of the Crane's head, which dumps the Skull into the water; the brains turn into sturgeon caviar ( the origin of sturgeon)]: Schoolcraft 1999:237-239; Northern Solto [see motive L5; wife cheats on her husband, he cuts off her head, leaves; head chases sons; elder throws a needle, comb; head lingers at the needle, the comb turns into a mountain; the Swan transports the brothers across the river, warns him not to sit on his neck, there is an ulcer; the head promises Swan to be his sexual partner if he will transport her; she grabs him by the neck, he dumps it into the water; she sinks, turns into a sturgeon]: Skinner 1911:168-169; Western Forest Cree [husband notices that wife wears beaded from the shells are clothes, and when he returns, she wears simple clothes; he watches, sees her coming to the tree, knocking on the bark, calling her "husband", snakes crawl out to her; at home, the hunter sends his wife to fetch the prey, puts on her dress and jewelry, calls the snake with the same signal, cuts off her head, cooks meat; gives her two sons amulets that can be used to create obstacles in the path of the pursuer; wife returns without finding the prey left; the husband says he cooks her lover's meat, cuts off her head, rises into the sky, turns into a star; the children are hiding in the underworld; the wife's head asks objects where the children took refuge; a knife, a cape, a pot, a bison skin are silent, a pebble from under the skin shows where the children have run; the elder carries the youngest, throws the first pebble (fire, the head is burned, but passes), then a thorny bush (a monstrous serpent paves the way under the thorns), rocks (a monstrous beaver gnaws); the fourth amulet falls in front of it, a stormy river appears, another snake transports boys to the opposite bank; when he carries his head, he throws it into the water; the eldest son tells it to become a sturgeon; {the end of the text is either connected to the main part by the missionary who made the recording, or himself the informant forgot everything, trying to add Christian mythology}; the older brother is Wesakitchak; he was taken away by a giant; his younger brother was left alone, turned into a half-wolf, killed by a monstrous sturgeon - his ex mother; V. married the giant's daughter; he and his daughter could not destroy him; Kisemanitou sent a flood because people went bad, saved V.; created a new pair of people out of clay]: Vandersteene 1969:44-48; western swamp crees (stone crees) [the hunter's wife leaves all day, telling the children to cut wood; housework has not been done by the husband's return; the sons answer that the mother meets snakes; the husband goes, cuts off the snake's head, brings it into the house; runs away; gives his sons an awl, flint, a towel (?) , tells me to run; the wife finds the head of a snake, goes to the forest, finds the body of a snake; chases her husband, they go up to the sky, she kills him, he turns into the Big Dipper (that's the way she killed him up in the air, that's where the Dipper now); the husband managed to cut off his wife's head; the head is chasing the children; they throw an awl, thorny thickets appear; the head asks two snake-like creatures, worms to become them wife, if they make a move underground; makes her way, pursues sons again, they throw flint, fire behind; she promises marriage again, overcomes the barrier; Wisahkicahk throws a third the object, it falls in front, turns into a river; the Swan carries them, tells them not to touch her neck; the head touches her neck, the Swan throws it off, she turns into a sturgeon]: Brightman 1989:9-13; northern Ojibwa (Sandy Lake) [a hunter meets a woman in the forest, gets married; she goes to the stump, undresses, calls Machi-manita; snakes crawl into all holes in her body; her husband watches her, sends her to bring her prey, kills snakes with an ax, gives them their blood instead of bear blood; tells their two sons that if the sky turns red, he dies; gives them a bone awl, a sharp stone, flint, a beaver tooth, a stone chisel, tells run; the wife runs to the stump; when she returns, her husband cuts off her head, cuts her body, throws half into the sky, they can be seen now (constellations?) ; her Skull kills and devours him, pursues her sons; the sky turns red; the elder carries the youngest on the back; throws objects, they turn into thorny thickets, a rock, a wall of fire, a pile of poplar stumps, a river ; The Beaver makes a passage through the thickets when the Skull promises to allow it to have sex with itself in the eye sockets and nostrils; the lost soul leads the Skull through the crack through the rock; The Toadstool agrees to transport the Skull through the river, tells you not to touch the sore spot on the neck; the skull touches, dumped into the water; sons break it with a stone, it drowns; see motif K27]: Ray, Stevens 1971:48-52; Steppe Cree: Ahenakew 1929 [see motif L5; the wife cheats on her husband, he cuts off her head; tells the eldest son to take the youngest on his back and run; gives them an awl, flint, a beaver tooth; runs away to heaven, her body pursues him; the head pursues sons, running west; the objects they throw turn into a barbed fence, a mountain (a huge worm gnaws through the gorge for the Head), a wall of fire, a river; two old bitches stretch their necks like a bridge, brothers in They cross him; Head steps, causing pain to the Pyyam, they throw it into the river; the older brother throws a stone at her, the head turns into a sturgeon]: 309-313; Bloomfield 1930, No. 1 [the wife adorns herself every time when my husband goes hunting; he watches her; she goes to the forest, hits the tree, says Husband, I've come; the Serpent crawls out, they copulate; the husband puts on his wife's skirt, calls the Snake the same with a signal; cuts off her head, cooks the meat, gives the broth to his wife; says what the soup is made of; the wife runs to the tree, sees that her lover is killed; returns, the husband cuts off her head; hides her two sons under earth, tells utensils not to answer questions from the Head, flies away, turns into a star; The head asks where her children are, the stone answers; the elder brother Visakechi carries (first?) under the ground, the youngest is on the back; they throw objects (not named), they turn into fire, a thorny forest, a mountain; the Serpent makes a passage for the Head through the forest; a beaver with iron teeth gnaws through the mountain; the fourth object falls in front of the brothers, turns into a river; the Serpent carries them; when it carries the Head, it says it swims too slowly; he dumps it into the water, it turns into a sturgeon]: 14 -16; steppe ojibwa [dressed up, a woman goes to the forest, knocks on wood; a man comes out of the trunk, they copulate; the husband finds them, kills his lover, cuts off his wife's head; gives the eldest son An awl, a needle, a piece of thread, a knife; says that if the sunset is red, he is dead; the body pursues the husband, the head of the sons; the elder carries the youngest on the back; abandoned objects turn into a mountain (Head finds a gorge), prickly thickets (The head is entangled with hair; the worm gnaws at them, for which the Head allows it to copulate with it through the occipital foramen), the Horned Serpent (he passes the Head when he gets that the same fee), the river; the Head asks the Pelican to transport her for the same fee; the Pelican warns not to touch a certain place on his neck; the ban is broken, he throws his Head into the river; the eldest son breaks The head is like a stone; the sky turns red in the west that evening]: Skinner 1919, No. 2:291-292.

Northeast. Tuscarora [mother asks her daughter to look for insects; she finds a strange louse, shows her father; he replies that it is an owl louse; daughter and son tell father that the mother is leaving home for his absence; he goes to the forest, turns into a turkey, invites other turkeys to let them down the mountain in the basket; they are happy; offers to close their eyes, closes the basket, brings the turkeys home, the children turn their necks; he hangs a caress skin from the ceiling; if blood flows, he is killed; puts calebasses with water in the corners; does not tell them to open the door; Bear, Lynx, Wolf consistently come, everyone pretends that the father of the children has come, the children do not unlock; the giant breaks the door, the brother and sister go underground under the hearth; before that they see blood dripping from the face of the caress; the giant spends time rushing to Calebasses who make a sound follow the children underground; they go out, climb a tree, find themselves in the upper world where the Owls live; their mother is there; their father killed her lover, she told the Owls they killed father; the mother refuses the children, says that she did not give birth to anyone; they are placed in a basket, hung on a tree that bends over the river; they are found by a hunter, brought to him; the boy grows up, destroys the Owl race ]: Rudes, Crouse 1987, No. 27:414-428

Plains. Sarsi [the man has a wife and two sons; he combs his wife, paints her face, but every time she goes for brushwood and comes back, her hair is tangled, the paint is blurred, the clothes are dirty; he watches, sees her approach a rotten tree, knocks, says that she has come, snakes crawl out, wrap around her body; the husband tells his sons about this, tells them to run, goes to the tree, calls the snakes in the same way with a signal, kills with a stick, throws her bodies into the ravine, one escaped, but lost her tail; the wife finds only one snake, comes back, her husband cuts off her head, she falls into a tipi, her body outside, her husband runs away to in the opposite direction than the sons; they ran to the river, asked the water monster to transport them; he invited them to eat its parasites; they were frogs; the brothers snapped the seeds from which they had necklaces, the monster is happy, lay down like a bridge, the brothers crossed to the other side; the mother's head chased, saw through the frog, spat in disgust, the monster invited her to cross the river, threw her head into the water drowned; the brothers saw the raft, put a board from there, offered to take food, the elder stepped, threw him on the fruit, sailed; he shouted to the youngest not to go anywhere, wait for him; he returned, but the brother turned into wolf; they hunt together; the wolf rushed after the deer into the river, something dragged him under the water; the old man brought his older brother to the river, where there are fish on the shore; they started shooting at them, injuring the leader; the shaman frog goes, saying that she was called to treat the wounded fish chief; the old man killed him, dressed like him, went down to the fish, found the wolf's skin, revived it, he returned to the shore; the old man told everyone to close their eyes until he was heal the leader, killed everyone, returned to shore; other fish caused a flood; the old man on the raft tells the animals to dive; only the Muskrat dived, surfaced dead; the old man took grains of earth from under his claws and teeth, revived the Muskrat; this is how she dived four times; the old man invited the animals to run around a lump of earth, only the Wolf and the Otter agreed; the earth grew, they came back old, the Old Man rejuvenated them; so three times, after the fourth they did not return, the land is great]: Dzana-gu 1921, No. 4:6-8; blacklegs: Grinnell 1893a (blood) [husband gets a web to catch animals; his wife belittles himself with incense, goes to A snake lover; her husband watches her, burns a lair of snakes; tells his two sons to eat, gives them a stick, a stone, wet moss; hangs a web above the entrance to the house; the wife is entangled in her, he cuts off her head; her body overtakes him; they turn into the Moon and the Sun; if the Moon catches up with the Sun, eternal night will fall; the Head pursues her sons; they throw away the objects they have received, a thicket, a mountain, a pond form; first mountain sheep, then ants make a passage in the mountain; for this, the Head promises to marry their leaders; falls into the waters, drowns; one brother goes north, the other south; one becomes the ancestor of the whites; the other, Napi, creator of blacklegs]: 44-47; Spence 1985 [=Grinnell]: 205-208; Wissler, Duvall 1908, No. 10 [the head continues to do its housework when it is not looked at; one boy peeks she chases him, kills him with her digging stick; people run across the river, her head sinks]: 153; assiniboine [husband sees his wife knocking on a stump, calling a snake lover; kills all snakes, cooks them blood soup, feeds his wife; she finds dead snakes; the husband cuts off her head; the head chases his six sons and daughter; they throw an awl, flint, stone - they turn into many awls, into fire, into mountain; two Cranes lay their necks like a bridge over a river; children cross; Cranes head collide into water; children turn into Ursa Major; the head cannot jump to the sky]: Lowie 1909a, No. 22:177- 178; teton (oglala) [a woman summons bears from the hollows, hitting a tree with an ax; copulates with bears, then kills, feeds meat to her three children; her husband feeds his wife bear meat to death ; her head chases children; they throw a whetstone, it turns into mountains; she asks the snake to make a gorge; children hide in a tree; she breaks it, they go down to the ground, sitting in a bird's nest; man carries them across the river in a boat; his head climbs the oar, he hits her with an oar, drowns her]: Wissler 1907, No. 6:195-196; Sheena [every morning the husband paints his wife from head to toe with red paint; returning from hunting, finds no traces of paint; watches his wife; she undresses on the lake shore, says: I'm here; the water serpent crawls out, licks her paint; the husband cuts lovers to pieces, throws his head , arms, legs of the wife into the water; brings meat from the ribs to children under the guise of antelope meat; leaves; the mother's head chases the children because they ate her flesh; the daughter draws a furrow on the ground, she turns into a deep gorge; the head cannot overcome it]: Grinnell 1903 [son and daughter; son tastes like mother's meat; daughter throws yellow, white, red porcupine needles; they successively turn into three types of prickly bushes; puts the digger like a bridge over a gorge; when the Head crosses it, the daughter shoves the digger; The head falls, the chasm closes behind her; see motif K43; the girl creates bears, they kill her father] : 108-115; Kroeber 1900, No. 22 [two daughters; the eldest tells bears and cougars to kill her father]: 184-186; throw off pawnee [the hunter wants to marry another; cuts off his wife's head, roasts meat, puts her head on a tree; gives meat to son and daughter under the guise of venison; the head promises to kill them for eating their mother; two Cranes stretch their legs like a bridge over a pond; children run across to the other side; the head of the Crane they push them into the water, it drowns; children come to the village; the old man helps them, kills their evil father]: Dorsey 1904b, No. 32:115-124; kiowa [during hunger, the husband kills his wife in the forest, roasts, eats, gives meat to their three sons; the mother's meat or skull asks: Why are you eating me; sons (and husband?) run away, the skull chases them; var.1: the dead bison (skin and bones) gives them various giblets; thrown back, they turn into mountains, rocks, gorges; var.2: the old man hides the boys in his hair; beats the skull with an onion, breaking it into pieces; the bow gives it to the boys]: Parsons 1929a, No. 34:71-74.

The Great Southwest. Taos Tiwa: Parsons 1940a, No. 24 [Apache hunter takes his wife hunting, kills a bison; wife cries, he shoots at her too, bakes her head; sends son and daughter to eat bison head; Head hisses: Children, don't eat me; stalks them; brother carries sister on the back; snakes (?) Päköleana transports them across the river, they sit by his horns; P. invites the Head to look for lice; these are frogs; The head rudenly replies that it does not eat lice; P. dives, the head sinks; the Opossum reports children that their father married Coyoticha; she forces their older sister to babysit little Coyotes; brother kills Coyoticha and her children, spits, his father falls through the ground; Opossumicha throws him rope; he breaks the ban on opening his eyes, falls back], 24 var.1 [the Apache chief's wife has a snake lover; she feeds him the best meat; the chief watches her, kills both with arrows, places her head wives on a tree, roasts ribs; sends son and daughter to eat bison meat; Head tells the mother not to eat; pursues children; the chief marries Coyoticha, the tribe migrates; Beaver asks the children to look for it's in his head; there are frogs; the girl bites through the beads from her brother's bracelet, and the frogs fall into the water; the Beaver carries the children across the river; The head tells Beaver it has no arms; Grab the lice with your mouth! - Dirty creature! The head throws the frogs into the water; the Beaver drowns her; the children come to the father; he forces the daughter to babysit the Coyoticha's children, sends her son to hunt; the old woman tells her brother how the sister suffers; the father pushes his son into a hole, an old woman throws him a rope; he kills the Coyotes; brother and sister sing, the ground lights up; two people escape, from them Apaches come]: 70-73, 74-76.

The Northern Andes. Guajiro: Wilbert, Simoneau 1986 (2), No. 23 [When traveling, a person meets One-legged; he gives him leaves that protect him from predators (jaguar, snake does not pay attention to humans); sends to to his sister, beautiful Pulovi; she lives inside a cliff; a man visits his parents for a while, returns to P., marries her], 24 [one-legged Waneetünai goes out to meet the man again and again and asks him to give him cactus fruit; when he had only one fruit left, they began to fight, the man won; let him go; the one-legged promised to help; the next time the man met him, he asked what it is necessary; Deer; a deer immediately appeared, a man shot him]: 539-541, 542.

Chaco. Toba [woman goes with her husband to the forest; he throws parrots off her tree; she eats them raw, eats them raw, eats her husband, brings home his meat; kills people, persecutes her sons; they are with others people hide in a tree trunk; a cannibal's claws get stuck in it]: Wilbert, Simoneau 1982b, No. 163 [brings her husband's head home; Carancho's hawk kills a cannibal, burns the body; ash grows tobacco]: 309- 311; 1989a [a cannibal cannot be killed with a weapon; she dies when her claws are cut off], No. 141 [a woman is menstruating; her body is burned, tobacco grows from the ashes], 142-143 [as in No. 141; husband's head], 148 : 205-210, 218-219; Pilaga [Kakadelachii warns that menstruating women should not eat fish; she eats alone, goes with her husband to pick up the parrot's chicks; the husband dumps them when he climbs a tree, she eats raw; he goes down, runs, she catches up and devours him; hides her head in a bag, brings him home; her two sons find their father's head, tell her mother (their grandmother) that their mother has become Nose; people run, hide inside a tree trunk; N. sticks his long nail inside to grab someone; K. cuts it off, she dies; the corpse is burned, tobacco and pumpkin grow in this place, which shamans use]: Idoyago Molina 1985:2-3; mokowi [a menstruating woman goes with her husband for parrots; he throws them off the tree, she eats them raw; devours her husband, brings home his head; unable to eat her husband's mother, she only licks her; stalks her children; people dig a hole, she falls into it; the cannibal is burned, she turns into a jaguar; people also burn a jaguar]: Wilbert, Simoneau 1988, no. 200:245-246.