M19. The bait man. (.35.) .42.-.45.63.72.

The character ties another (usually a child) to the end of the forest, using him as bait or forcing him to fish with his hands.

(Yugi), Nootka, Makah, Thompson, Quinolt, Quileout, Lower Chehalis, Ojibwa, Montagnier, Nascapi, Parintintin, Chamacoco.

(Wed. Western Siberia. Yugi: Werner 1997, No. 13 [the forest spirit says this is his hunting ground, and Hassynget replies that it is; puts his grandmother in a large birch bark vessel, hangs it on a tree, tells him to answer what he will come, do not answer if the forest spirit comes; throws his grandmother into the river; all the fish take turns, 11 species, offer to pull her ashore, she refuses, X. left her, let the stream carry her; when Sturgeon asks, she breaks his head with a stick, eats him, H. comes, eats caviar; people notice eggs on his lips], 19 [same, short version; forest spirit not mentioned, 4 species of fish]: 256-258, 266; Kets: Dulzon 1966, No. 12 [Casket pretends to be dying, asks his grandmother to bury him across the river; when he comes to see K., his grandmother sees that his lips are "red as caviar"; it turns out , K. is alive; when she returns home, her grandmother dies; K. throws her into the river; the current brings her to the fish chicken; yazi, sturgeon, sterlet arrive sequentially, invite her grandmother to pull her out with her fins on shore; she first refuses, and when there are a lot of fish, she hits it, collects the "catch", returns to her plague, reports K. that it "came to life"]: 39 (retelling and analysis in Toporov 1987:19; Osharov 1936a [ Hasynget steals capercaillies from the trap of the devil; says that the mountain and his traps, suggests asking God; puts his grandmother in a tuyaska on a spruce tree, she is responsible for God; hell believes, leaves; H. leaves his grandmother in a tuyaska into the river; she refuses the little fish, agrees that the sturgeons push them ashore; hits them on the ground with a stick, lives alone in the plague; H. is starving, for the devil has taken the capercaillies away; apologizes to his grandmother, promises not to take other people's capercaillies anymore]: 139-142).

NW Coast. Nootka [ugly Quatyat is a slave to the Woodpecker Chief; uses the master's daughter as bait when fishing for sharks; the girl almost drowns, complains to her father; he tells K. ; K. gets to the Shark, heals him, taking out his harpoon stuck in his body; marries his two daughters; they cook him in boiling water, making him handsome; he visits the Woodpecker; loses all strength and becomes the same freak when he admits that he is K. ; Woodpecker kills him]: Boas 1916, No. 7:915-919; Makah [chief sends his slave Kwati for fish; he uses the boy as bait to catch sharks; one wounded Shark leaves; boy complains to the chief about his mistreatment; the chief drowns K. ; at sea K. heals Shark, gets two of his daughters; visits his village with one of them; he is mistaken for a chief, accommodated in a luxurious house; then his wife returns to sea, K. becomes a slave again]: Densmore 1939:205-206.

The coast is the Plateau. Thompson [two Converters, Cesulian and Seculia, travel down the river. Fraser; they teach people how to work; the person who insulted them and his people are turned into stone; another person tied a boy to the forest, demanding that he fish with his hands; transducers teach how to fish for real]: Teit 1917b, No. 2:13-14; quinolt [Eagle: around quinolt prairie, where edible roots grow, the river flows both ways, salmon milk is fat, the dead are reborn; Raven: You have to go far for roots, rivers only flow down, milk is of little use; Eagle's son dies; Raven says he should not revive; Eagle catches salmon using his young son as bait; to imitate the Eagle, the Raven uses his daughter; the girl is drowning, the Raven would like to revive her, but the Eagle refuses to change his mind]: Farrand 1902, No. 7:111 (roughly the same in Clark 1953:87); Quileout: Andrade 1931, No. 6 [The eagle wants the dead to be reborn; The Raven: Then the Earth will overflow; the Eagle tells the Raven that his own son serves as his fish bait; the Raven uses his son is drowning like bait; now the Raven wants the dead to be reborn, the Eagle refuses to change his mind], 7 [as in (6), but Drake instead of the Eagle], 33 [as in (6), but first the Eagle's son dies]: 21-27, 99-101; Farrand, Mayer 1919 [Katie asks her son to be bait; ties a sinker, pushes him overboard; when the Shark is about to swallow it, K. pulls his son back, stabs the Shark prison; Shark is looking for a shaman at home; K. promises to cure her if she gives him her two daughters; gets wives, extracts a prison invisible to Sharks; comes to Woodpecker with his wives under the guise of an unknown leader; The woodpecker tells the boy to laugh; then the wives, then K. himself, begin to laugh; the woodpecker sees that K. has no tooth, recognizes his slave; advises K.'s wives to go home to their father]: 259-260; lower chehalis (hamptulip) [Eagle's son dies, Raven says this death is final; the Eagle suggests that the Raven use his son as bait when fishing; the Raven's son drowns; the Raven cannot revive; cries, his snot turns into white moss on trees]: Adamson 1934:305-306.

The Midwest. Western Ojibwa: Jones 1916, No. 13 (=1917, No. 39:331-341) [Nyanabushu made Eagle starve; someone invited Eagle to the party - it's not clear where; the Eagle ran after him, found himself among animals that the Otter treated; from him, the Eagle learned how to catch by tying a child by the leg and dropping him into an ice-hole; the eagle pulled too many fish, the forest cut off; he dived after him and found his child captured by the fish leader Sturgeon in a settlement on the seashore; the Eagle took the boy back; killed the Stalker Sturgeon when he went out on the ice; thanked Otter, made N. starve]: 370; Josselin de Jong 1913, No. 4 [the fisherman cannot catch anything; the voice advises him to let one of his children down the ice-hole in the forest; the fisherman pulls out a lot of fish; violates the ban on fishing after sunset; fish take the child away; that But a voice tells you to dive into the ice-hole; a man finds a child; fish chase him, but his wife pulls him out of the ice-hole with the rescued child]: 3-4.

Northeast. Montagnier [a man uses his son as bait; a pike gnaws through the forest, takes the boy away; a man dives under the ice, finds a son, they come back through the ice-hole; the fish chase them, they hit them and fry]: Desbarats 1969:64-65; naskapi [man uses his son as bait; by evening, biting began, but the forests were cut off; the man dived into the ice-hole, came to the fish park, took his son; fish set off in pursuit, jumped onto the ice, the man killed them with a truncheon]: Millman 1993:115-116.

Central Amazon. Parintintin [two people had no arrows to shoot fish; one tied the other instead of bait; he was swallowed by a fish, he cut it, went out; the larger fish swallowed it and swam away, he died]: Pereira 1980 (2): 623.

Chaco. Chamacoco [The sun wraps its son in reeds or leaves, uses it as bait when fishing for piranhas; a month tries to repeat the trick, piranhas eat his son]: Wilbert, Simoneau 1987a, No. 9, 10:43, 45.