M114b2. How many steps did your horse take? .21.22.29.34.38.
A man (a powerful character) asks a girl (subordinate) a question about the number of routine actions she has performed (or small items available) that no one knows thinks. She asked a counter question about the number of similar acts committed by the questioner.
Meitei, Viets, Kalmyks, Kumyks, Mari, Tuvans, South Altai Tuvans, Trans-Baikal Buryats, Japanese.
Tibet is the Northeast of India. Meitei [father sent two daughters to work in the rice field; the Sun rode up on a horse and asked how many times the girls had dug with a shovel; if they didn't answer or if the Sun didn't answer their question, they would be under his command; the girls were asked to wait a week; their father advised the Sun to ask the Sun how many steps his horse took on the way to the rice field; the Sun admitted defeat, but then noticed in the girls' father's bushes; he turned him into a crab with a hoof mark on its shell]: Singh 1985:239-241.
Burma - Indochina. Vieta [the king orders to bring him the wisest man; the nobleman to the plowman: how many times a day will your buffalo cross the field; the son of a ploughman: how many steps does your horse take in a day? The king sent the boy three baskets of rice and three male buffaloes: let there be an offspring of six buffaloes in a year; the boy tells his father to arrange a feast for the village; comes to the king and cries: the mother is dead, and the father does not want to give birth to him a brother; the king tells the boy to divide the sparrow into three parts to feed three people; the boy tells the king to forge a knife out of a needle to cut the sparrow; the neighboring king tells thread the thread through the twisted shell; the boy orders to tie it to an ant; the king orders that the boy be placed in adjacent chambers and given the rank of Highly Scientist]: Nikulin 1976:62-66.
Caucasus - Asia Minor. Kalmyks [khan wants to find an intelligent wife for a fool's son; it rained, two girls ran home, the third covered the dung with beshmet and drove the calves away from the cows (so that they would not suck milk); beshmet got wet, but I'll dry it by the fire; Khan: how many dung are there in the bag? girl: as long as your horse stepped from the palace to our kibitka; the khan orders you to make koumiss from bovine milk, sew the kibitka with ashes; the girl covered the kibitka with matting and burned it, put up a pole ( it means that someone is giving birth in the house); Khan: How can a man give birth? girl: in the khanate, where koumiss is made from bovine milk, maybe; the khan orders to ride a two-headed horse not along the road or along the steppe, upon arrival, sit not inside the kibitka or outside; daughter tells her father to come on a stallion mare, ride along the side of the road, sit outside at the doorstep with kibitki felt over his back; the khan ordered him to come next time with a bag for gold and an arcana for horses; the bag will not be filled in any way, You can catch as many horses as you want with an arcana; girl: a bag of human eyes, you have to add sand to fill it; a lasso from a human vein; to shrink it, you have to burn one end; khan married son on this girl; fell ill; told his son to catch up with the tumbleweed, ask him where he would spend the day and night; the wife ordered to answer: we must ask the ravine and the wind; the khan tells his son to bring a horse with two heads that look in different directions; wife: bring the stallion mare, the foal's head is pointing back; the khan died quietly]: Dzhimbinov 1962:149-152 (=Vardugin 1996:471-473); Kumyks [foreman Tokai: If you don't skin off the banks of the Koysu River in three days, I will take off your skin; Peimakhan's girlfriend tells T.: first cut the shore, then we'll take off the skin; T. sends her threshing boards - sew they are a fur coat; P. sends him silkworm cocoons: first make threads out of them; his father left P. to cut the oak; T.: how many times did she hit him and how many chips flew off? P.: How many steps did your horse take, how many revolutions did the wheel turn? T. did not bother her anymore]: Aliyeva 2013, No. 22:99-101 (the same text in another translation in Kapiyeva 1994:108-110; it is said to remove the skin "from a cliff on the banks of the Koysu River").
Volga - Perm. Marie [the king is blind, the queen has a lover; the son from the mother's belly speaks of this; the king saw the light; when the queen gave birth, she ordered the maid to kill and bring the son's heart and liver; the baby tells me to bring the queen is the heart and liver of a dog, and put him on straw in the forge; the boy has grown up, strong, beats others if they touch him; they complain about him; the king gives the blacksmith 100 boiled eggs, tells him to be tomorrow chickens; the boy advises you to go to the middle of the street and cook rye; tell the king what to sow; if rye does not grow from boiled seeds, then there will be no chickens from boiled eggs; the king sends 100 rams, let by morning everyone will give birth to a lamb; the boy teaches his father to lie on the stove, and let the mother answer the king when he comes that her husband is giving birth; if a man cannot give birth, then neither can the sheep; the sheep must be slaughtered leave only one; tell the king that the rams ate each other, the last one is left; the king tells us to chop firewood and count how many chips have flown off; the boy tells me to ask: how many times the wheel has turned your carriage before you got to us? The king tells the blacksmith to come neither on horseback nor on foot, naked or dressed; bring what you love and don't love, stay neither in the yard nor on the street; the boy tells you to ride a goat wrapped in a net; take with you a dog you trust and a wife you don't trust; stop with one foot in the yard and the other on the street; the blacksmith whipped his wife and dog in front of the king; the wife ran away, and the dog ran away and returned; the king promised to come for the boy in the morning; he left; sat down out of great need, eats and presses lice himself; answers the king's servants that he releases the old, renews others, kills the people; what does the carriage cost? the last piece of bread; the servants give everything to the king; he explains that it was that boy, tells him to be brought; he is building a king, and moss is already on it; king: again they did not recognize him; next time he digs a pond; tells you to tell the king: you want to kill me, and I am your son]: Beke 1938, No. 41:362-375.
Southern Siberia - Mongolia. Tuvans: Orus-ool 1997 (Syut-Kholsky District, 1962) [part of an epic tale; Khan tells the old man to find out how old a black bear from the Kara-Khem River and a white hare from the Ak-Khem River; his adopted daughter advises attaching two skulls to his shoulders and sprinkling salt; bear came and saw an old man; bear: I have been living for 50 years, I have never seen such a nasty old man; hare: I have been living for 60 years, I have not eaten such delicious salt; they caught a bear and a hare, they began to try, the old man's words were confirmed ; now the khan orders to bring a whole baked ox so that there is no sewage inside and wool outside; the girl: give the ox salt water to drink, drive for a long time; then bake it in hot sand; then the khan orders make tarak from bovine milk; when the khan comes, the girl says that you can't enter - the father gives birth; khan: how much hair do you comb on your head? girl: How many steps did your horse take? Khan married a girl; tells her not to say a lot of ordinary words; she is expressed in allegories]: 449-461; Samdan 1994, No. 9 (Toja) [old man SMeldey tells his daughter that he will go to Ai-han for a drink milk; she teaches what to do and how to answer; A.: 1) "In the middle of a blue lake, a sandalwood without a top, 15 branches are raw, 15 are dry"); if S. does not guess, A. tells him to cut off his arm and head (moon in first and second half); 2) count the years of a polar bear with a black head (the daughter sewed three dried human skulls to her father's clothes on the right and left; the bear says he is 110 years old, and this I did not see a seven-headed creature); 3) weave a rope of ash (weave it from a sedge, pull it between the poles, set it on fire, it will be covered with ash, but will remain tight); A. tells S. to drive home 6 oxen, milk, cook tarak; daughter tells me to drive them into the pen, sits down in the morning to comb her hair; A. comes and asks how much hair she has; she: how many steps your horse has taken; forbids entering the yurt - there her father gives birth; if the father cannot give birth, then how to get milk from oxen; A. tells S. to come with his daughter; writes the names of all living beings on the pole, and deliberately misses the falcon and the kite; S. I did not notice this, the daughter noticed; A. married daughter S. to his son; he came to Saryg Khan, who put gold and silver under his pillow, accused him of theft, crucified him on four stakes; sent him to his camp four soldiers; crucified A. asks to convey obscure words; daughter-in-law understands, orders to kill three soldiers, let one be a guide, go with the army; they release A., Saryg Khan was captured]: 307-321; South Altai Tuvans [Haraat Khaan and Jechen Haan hate each other; DH has an unfit son; he left a sign on the ovaa with the inscription; the poor girl read it and said: If an eagle is painted, why write "kite" if a woman is drawn, why write "man"; khan decided that she is fit for daughter-in-law; khan: how many times did she stretch out her skin under a leather stick? girl: how many steps did your horse take? khan orders to latch a rope from the ashes; the girl burned the rope; khan: make tarak from bull's milk; girl: the father is now having labor pains; since a man cannot give birth, then the bull does not milk; khan: let the father will come and be neither inside nor outside, naked or dressed; the girl tells her father to wear pants, shirt and stockings and climb between the wooden lattice wall and the felt of the yurt; the khan tells the girl's father to count years of a bear's life; daughter tells me to bring her two skulls that have turned white in the sun; painted them red and tied them to her father's shoulders; bear: there are 75,000 trees on the mountain, and I'm 75 years old, but I've never seen one; find out hare age; daughter: smear honey and sugar on trees in a hare meadow; hare: 60,000 trees on the mountain, and I am 60 years old, but I have never tried such sweets; XX married my son to a girl; was captured; two heroes and XX was tied to iron stakes, XX was given one louse a day, heroes two lice; XX said that his people were belligerent; to take prisoners, you must send his son a letter: you need to gather people with the lower reaches of a large river and from the upper reaches of a small river; the droppings of a sheep and a neutered goat are a value, it cannot be left; daughters-in-law say: let sheep and goats with horns go ahead, and without horns follow them; in front 4 iron poplars with my doors; let two cut down and uproot two and bring them here; I win, I lie on 9 blue silk carpets, lean on 4 iron backs on all four sides of the world and eat every day sheep soup; son is going to saw poplars; daube: gather warriors, they will need weapons sent to kill two at once, take two with them; the soldiers freed the khan and brought the loot]: Taube 1978, No. 50: 254-259 (=Taube 1994, No. 39:255-258); Trans-Baikal Buryats (Selenginsky, Borgoi Ulus of the Dzhidinsky District of Buryatia, 1969) [Bagsha met girls playing on the road, asked why they were building a house on it; one of the girls told him not to break it; bagsha came to her old father; he plowed the land; bagsha: "Old man, how many Did you take steps in the furrow in a day?" ; old man: "I didn't count"; bagsha: "I'll come in the morning, count it"; the old man was upset, his daughter reassured him: "Bagsha will come on horseback. You asked him, "How many steps did your horse take to this point?" ; the old man did so; bagsha: "By tomorrow morning, milk two bulls and make fresh yogurt. I'll come and eat it"; the daughter told her father not to go out and said that she would meet him herself; Bagsha, who arrived in the morning: "Did your father milk the bulls? Is yogurt ready?" ; daughter: "I didn't have time. He's giving birth right now"; Bagsha: "Don't be stupid! Do men give birth?" ; daughter: "Do bulls milk? How can you get yogurt from them?" ; Bagsha thought, "Which one of us is the real teacher - me or this wise girl?"] : Tugutov, Tugutov 1992, No. 100:262-263.
Japan. The Japanese (all of Japan, including northern Ryukyu, but it is not clear whether all the episodes are everywhere) [the owner of the province tells the man to pick berries in winter; his little son comes to the owner instead of his father; he says that my father could not come, he was bitten by a snake; - But there are no snakes in winter! "Berries too; or the samurai asks the peasant how many times he hit the ground with a hoe." How many steps did you take? Among the tasks in different versions are: Bringing Mr. a pregnant bull; the son says that the father cannot come, he has just relieved himself of the burden; or bring a drum that makes sounds without touching drumstick; bring a rope of ash; which half of the cake is sweeter? which hand made a sound when clapping your hands?] : Ikeda 1971, No. 922:206.