M103. Children in pretty specks.21. (.43.44.46.) .48.50.65.

One character asks another how her (his) children acquired valuable qualities (became beautiful, obedient, etc.). One or the other replies that children should be baked in ash, kept on fire, burned, etc. The former does it or his children are killed or maimed.

Minyong, (Sanpual, Ojibwa, Yankton), Cahuilla, Havasupai, Navajo, Jicarilla, Mezcalero, Chirikahua, Hopi, Tiwa, Tewa, Ceres Oriental (Cochiti), Quechua, and Aymara (Junin Dep. Huancavelica; mountainous Bolivia), chipaya.

Tibet is the Northeast of India. Minyong [Rabbo and Nibu brothers agreed to bury a stone; whose stone turns into a pengum bird will get good land, and whoever peku-peku is bad; R. lost, but N. invited him live with him; R. replaces prey at the top, N.'s trap with garbage that fell into its top, a trap; threw a stone on N. from a tree (people have chest pain since then); N.'s son is handsome, R.'s son is ugly; N. replies that he locked his son in a basket, poured boiling water over him; R. does this to his own; while N. is sleeping, R. lowers him down the river in a boat, covered him with another boat and tied him up, picks up his wife; the Siggo-Pareng bird tore up ropes; N. returns to his wife, chases R.; both defeat the female spirit Nippong Wiyu together; they carry her meat, N. sees that R. is eating meat raw; says they must break up, everyone will go blindly; R. closed his eyes with leaves with holes and N. with dense leaves; spirits are descendants of R., they see people, and people, descendants of N., do not see spirits]: Elwin 1958b, No. 12:188-191.

(Wed. The coast is the Plateau. Sanpual [Rabbit (K.) tells her granddaughter Chipmunk (B.) to pick berries, says that Owl (S.) is not dangerous during the day; S. pretends to be K., asks B. to go down from the bush; she does not believe, tells her hide under the basket, S. peeks, manages to scratch B. with his claws, the trail still remains; K. hides B. in the basket, under the pillow, the Lark in the shell; S. threatens to eat K., she has to give B., she asks for the bones back; S. wants to be white like K., she replies that she fried herself on hot stones; S. goes for resin, K. revives B. from bones, they burn S.; at night, the owl's eye bursts, hooting is heard, K. says that S. will be an owl; S.'s three sisters tear her grave, eat meat, recognize her sister; the youngest did not eat; the Coyote fools them, runs; asks his feces what to do; he says that will become a house with the dancers, let the Owls dance with their eyes closed; the Coyote sets fire to the house; the youngest S. does not enter the house, screams to the elders; Coyote asks for permission to kiss her, bites off his tongue, runs, hides in a hole; The feces turn into a noisy camp, S. goes to look for Coyote there, he runs away]: Ray 1933, No. 18:165-167).

(Wed. The Midwest. Parry Island [Nenebuc was walking, saw deer, asked why they had beautiful white spots on their skin; they advised them to lie in the fire; N. was badly burned]: Johnson 1929:208).

(Wed. Plains. Yankton [Iktomi asks Pheasant to turn him into a Pheasant; he does so on the condition that I. does not fly, I. immediately violates the ban, becomes himself; the same with the Arrow (Arrow tells them to fly only in a straight line, I. turns to the Deer, loses the appearance of an arrow); The deer reply that their mother burned them with hot coal, so they have specks on their faces; leave I. in an earthen furnace, run away ]: Zitkala-Å a 1985:47-57).

California. Cahuilla [Coyote comes to Wild Cat; 1) asks how his children got beautiful spots; the cat replies that he sang a shamanic song and burned them with a burning stem of hard grass (arrowweed); The coyote burns his children, their wounds fester, the Wild Cat heals them (Coyote's children are injured, Bobcat cures them); 2) in late summer, the Wild Cat feeds the Coyote with baked caterpillars that only appear in the spring; explains that he ripped his stomach, they fell down from there; at home, the Coyote rips open his stomach, his entrails fall out, the Cat heals him; 3) The cat feeds the Coyote with mesquite bread; explains that his wife split his forehead with a stone pestle, and flour fell from there; Coyote asks his wife to do the same, killed]: Modesto, Monut 1986:58-63.

The Great Southwest. Havasupai [Oleniha has children in specks, Coyoticha wants to make her own children just as beautiful; Oleniha explains that she locked the children in a cave, made a fire in front of the entrance; Coyoticha's children suffocated]: Spier 1946:144; Navajo: Haile 1984, No. 2 [Coyote (iha?) asks Oleniha what she did to keep her children in beautiful spots; they should be trapped, a fire should be lit at the entrance; the Coyote's children died of the heat; the Coyote shoots Deer in an ambush, says that people shot, offers a cure; but made the wound swollen, Olenikha died]: 31; Parsons 1923, No. 7 [Coyoticha asks Oleniha how her children became beautiful; Olenikha explains that she baked them in hole; Coyoticha burns her children]: 371; hicarilla [(the gender of the participants is not clear, perhaps masculine); The fox asks Olenich how her deer became spotted; she replies that she planted them by the fire the falling sparks have left specks; the fox plants foxes by the fire; because the color does not change, it buries them in hot ash, they die; the fox howls with grief, and people have been doing so ever]: Russel 1898:265; mescalero [Coyote asks Partridge why her children follow her exactly one after another; she replies that she tied them with a rope; Coyote ties her children by the throat, pulls, they suffocated]: Hoijer 1938, No. 6:182; chiricahua [Coyote (iha?) asks Oleniha how her two deer became spotted; she replies that the children should be placed in a cave, a hot fire should be lit at the entrance; Coyote's children died]: Opler 1942, No. 56:70-71; Hopi [Coyoticha wants to know why Olenikha has children in beautiful spots; she advises her to bake her kids in the oven; taking them out dead, Coyoticha kills Deer; one deer runs; adult deer kills Coyoticha]: Wallis 1936, No. 12:44-46; oriental ceres (Cochiti) [Coyoticha sees Partridge singing and her children dancing; asks how they got beautiful tufts on their heads; Partridge says she hammered them into sticks; Coyotich drives chopsticks to her children, they die]: Benedict 1931:145-146; (cf. Western Keres (Laguna): Boas 1928a [The she-wolf (she has a son and daughter) calls Olenikha (she has two twins; it is not clear whether two sisters or brother and sister) collect pignon nuts; asks how her children became spotted; Olenikha says she locked them in the room, making a fire in it; collecting nuts, Bear tore Olenikha to pieces, brought home her meat, gave the reindeer her udder, said that her mother would come later; a man told them that their mother had been killed, advised them to kill the cubs, flee to Wu'nimatse, where now their mother; deer were offered to make two cubs in the spotted way that Olenikha told the Wolf; Deer lock the Cubs in the house, suffocate them with smoke; place the corpses as if the wolf cub was going Archery your sister, who has swept the floor; run west; an old turtle carries them on his back across the river; the she-wolf pushes her son, the corpse falls, she realizes that the children are dead; the turtle and her transports; in Wu'nimatse, the Deer invites the Wolf to go down and take the deer; the Moose kills her with horns]: 180-183, 274 [summary]); Tiva: Parsons 1932c, No. 16 (Isleta) [The she-wolf kills the Deer, offering comb her hair; brings meat home; Reindeer roast it, it tells them it's their mother; Deer strangle Cubs, promising to make their eyes as beautiful as theirs; Blackbirds hide the Deer in the ball, they play football, the Wolf runs past; the Beaver transports the Deer across the river first, then the Wolf; the Big Deer kill the Wolf, cook it; one Deer drops a drop of broth; many come out of it wolves]: 403-404; 1940a [The Coyote asks the deer why they have beautiful spots on their skin; the elder replies that their mother locked them in the house, made a smoke fire; the Coyotich does this to her children, those suffocating, barely alive]: 108-109; teva: Espinosa 1936a, No. 30 (San Juan) [like ceres; Wolf invites Olenikha to look in her head; cubs lure her into a burning house, promising that they will spotted; the she-wolf is boiled, the deer drops a drop of broth; the she-wolf revives, devours many deer]: 97; Parsons 1926, No. 60 (Taos) [Coyoticha (hereinafter: The Wolf) asks Deer how to make her four children have beautiful spots on their skin; believes that children should be smoked, they die; Wolf invites Olenikha to look in her head, bites her neck, brings meat home; pieces of meat tell Olenikha's two sons not to eat them, run; the Beaver carries the Deer across the river; throws the Wolf into the water, she swims out; the older brother carries the younger brother, runs to his father; two Deer kill the Wolf; her meat is boiled; drops of broth fall on earth, the Wolf is reborn; since then, wolves have been killing deer]: 155-157; 1940, No. 52 (Taos) [Bear and Deer hunt together; Bear suggests looking in each other's heads; Olenikha realizes that she is going to eat it, teaches her son and daughter what they will have to do; when asked by the Bear, she says that children should be smoked to have beautiful spots; the Bear smokes the Cubs to death; bites Deer in the neck, brings her meat to her children; they don't eat, run away; Beaver promises to transport them across the river if they look for them in his head; there are frogs; the girl clicks, biting her brother's necklace from bear fangs; children are transported across another river by a horned serpent (?) Pakealaana; children resort to adult Deer; they tear the Bear to pieces with their horns]: 109-111.

The Central Andes. Tarma (dep. Junin): Farfan 1949, No. 38 [The fox asks Duck where her children got their red legs; I baked them in the stove; The fox bakes her children, they die; The duck swims in the middle of the lake, the Fox drinks water to dry it; water pours out of her ass, she plugs it with a stone, bursts; Duck dances]: 123; Metraux 1935b [The duck tells Lisa that she baked her children to make their paws red; the fox agrees advice, her children are dying; Duck and ducklings move to the other side of the river or to the middle of the lake; Fox drinks water to drain the pond; stumbles upon a blade of grass piercing her belly, bursts]: 413-415; Santa -Barbara, dep. Huancavelica [Lisa asks Duck where her children got red legs; I baked them in the stove; The fox bakes her children, they die; Duck swims in the middle of the lake, Lisa drinks water to drain it; water pours out of her ass, she plugs it with a corn cob, bursts]: Farfan 1947: No. 19:115; Aymara, Quechua of Mountain Bolivia [like Tarma in Farfan and Metraux; one Fox or all foxes are trying drink water]: Paredes Candia 1953:32-34; Aymara [Chaika replies to Lisa that her children became so white after she baked them in the oven; when she saw the corpses of the children, she ran after Seagull; she became swim on the lake; the fox tried to drink it, burst]: La Barre 1966, No. 2:134; chipaya [The fox wants his children to be as beautiful as the Duck's children; the Duck tells them to burn them in the oven and dance around; sending the Fox for a new portion of firewood, runs away and swims on the river; seeing dead children, the Fox tries to drink the river; tells the straws not to prick the yango in the stomach; one sharp one pierced him, the Fox burst, the water spilled out]: Metraux 1935a: 77-79.