M1A. Cayman transports the Pleiades. .62.66.70.

Cayman transports one of the brothers or a group of brothers, who then turn into the Pleiades. He usually bites off the younger one's leg. Cf. motive K13B.

Siona, Sekoya, Napo, Canelo, Shipibo, Conibo, Cracho, Sherente.

Western Amazon. A male or female caiman transports three or two brothers across a river or sea. Siona, Sekoya: Chaves 1958 [Three brothers went hunting, killed a tapir; on the way back they asked Cayman to transport them across the lake; jumping ashore, the latter shouted that Cayman was not theirs a girl, but only a Cayman, Cayman bit off his leg; shamans began to drink yazhe, making the Sun shine and dry the lake; Cayman's stomach was ripped open, the young man was alive but without a leg; all three brothers became to drink the drug, they flew away; the sister refused to drink, the brothers left her at the top of the tree; there she cries, calling her brothers; the caiman's jaw turned into the Pleiades]: 146-147; Vickers 1989 [Tapir wanted to be god ; caught worms, thought they were fish; Baina took out splinters to Tapira, he became a tapir, B. killed him; B. taught the tapir what to eat; cut it in half, the back made a manatee ("water tapir"), from the back blood was a demon; the Turtle had water in the tree to the sky; the squirrel cut off the branches, B. knocked down the tree, formed a river; gave people bananas, went to heaven; the Pleiades told the nephews to chase the tapir; they find increasingly fresh piles of tapir droppings, asking them when the tapir was passing; when crossing the river in Cayman, the older brother calls him grandmother; the younger says he wasn't; they killed a caiman, took out a leg; went up to heaven, became the Pleiades (Usebobãi); the jaw of the caiman-Hyada; the axe handle with which the caiman was hacked is the Orion Belt; the Milky Way is the tapir road]: 160-167; for example: Foletti Castegnaro 1985 [sea]: 57-58; Mercier 1979:28-39 [(the episode with her leg bitten off on p.36-37); the wife is pregnant, her month-old husband is missing somewhere; she goes looking for him, asking about the twins' journey to her belly; she picks flowers for the twins, she is bitten by a wasp, she claps her stomach saying they are to blame; the twins fall silent; she comes to the Jaguar grandmother; she hides her under the roof, the woman spits; Murupuma, Puka-Puma can't reach it, Wimba-puma jumps; they eat it, grandma asks for giblets, takes it out, hides twins in a pot; they grow up, call her to the plot where they quickly grew up corn; she almost got lost in it; she tells them to bring water, they bring a lot, the grandmother almost drowned; she asks for firewood, they bring a lot, they fill it up with firewood; they eat wood-grown mushrooms, it turned out that the grandmother's ears were still alive; the brothers' name was Kuillurkuna ("Stars"); they lured her into a cave with musical instruments, asked her to dance, she sat on a glued bench, stuck; her closed, it will come out at the end of time; the brothers lured the jaguars to the bridge over the abyss they had dug, brought them down; hid in two rubber bags, let themselves be carried away by the cannibal eagle Anga, who brought them to the nest on rock; when he fell asleep, the eldest killed the male, the youngest did not finish off the female, she flew away to sunset; the duck replied that she could not transport the brothers across the river; Cayman drove, asked what it smelled like; the elder said that he does not feel anything, younger, that he smells like caiman; the eldest managed to turn into a fast Suwisuwi bird, and the youngest into a sluggish Partridge, Cayman bit off his leg; the eldest dried the pond, found that caiman, tore off his jaw, took his leg out, put it back; climbed the vine into the sky, the eldest became the Evening Star, the Younger became the Morning Star, took his jaw with them (Hyades)]; Wavrin 1979 [two The brothers are killed by their mother's monstrous Penis, their mother's lover; they go towards the Morning Star; Cayman takes them across the river, bites off their youngest's leg; they kill Cayman with an ax, reach out their leg they do it back; they follow Tapir for several years, find more and more fresh droppings; the elder kills Tapir with a spear (the spear is now visible in the sky); the brothers chop Tapir; the back turns into a manatee , front into a tapir; later the brothers turn into a constellation (Pleiades?)] : 64-65; canelo [two brothers swim across the river in a boat; one opens his eyes, sees that the boat is a caiman; he bites off his right leg; his soul is in his right shin; the caiman is found, killed, leg return; crippled comes to life]: Whitten 1976:53.

Montagna - Jurua. Shipibo [a group of brothers who bite off one's leg]: Gebhaert-Sayer 1987 [a single boy uses calebasa instead of his wife; she becomes a woman, gives birth to three sons; they sit in a tree and they eat fruits; Tapir constantly comes and asks for fruit for themselves; they throw unripe fruit at his head; he knocks on the trunk, making it fat; brothers go down as ants; follow the tapir's trail; they ask his excrement or the trees that grew out of them when the tapir passed; a year, six months, a month, ten days ago; he is here; the eldest turns into an ant, climbs into the tapir's anus, it hurts the heart; the brothers fresh the carcass; everyone tries to become a pot to cook meat; only the elder can withstand the heat for a long time; they ask the Duck to transport them across the river; she replies that her boat is small; Cayman asks not to step on his head; his younger brother steps, Cayman grabs his leg, drags him under water; the Sloth drains the river, the brothers take the youngest's corpse out of the caiman's womb; the leg is not enough; they shoot at the sky, make a chain of arrows; Termite and Little Squirrel are afraid to climb, Big Squirrel comes back, says the sky is good; the turtle turns the chain into a ladder; the brothers take Cayman's head and brother's corpse, go up to heaven]: 350-351; Roe 1982, No. 7, 8 [despite the warning, the younger brother steps on the bow of the boat, which turns into a caiman and bites off its leg]: 62-63, 65; conibo [ swallows his younger brother, bites off his leg; other brothers make a boat out of caiman's ribs]: Castaneda 1923:405.

Eastern Brazil. Cracho [after leaving home, six Pleiades wade across the river; the youngest seventh sails on the Cayman, first sinking to the bottom with him]: Wilbert 1978, No. 18:83-86; line [while father is on Hunting, his sons send younger Asaré to bring their mother to the men's home to cut their hair; raped their mother, A. told his father about it; the brothers set fire to their parents' hut, they became falcons, flew away; brothers left, A. followed, they left him water in walnut shells, it was not enough; one dug a well, water poured in, filled the sea; A. swam to the other side for a forgotten arrow; on the way back he asked the caiman refused to transport him, A. scolded him, managed to swim ashore, Cayman was pursuing him, A. asked Dyatlov to hide it, they hid it under pieces of bark; the same when crossing the second, third the river, it was hidden from the pursuer under the skins of a partridge, then a monkey; A. hid at Skunk, who killed the caiman with his jet; the brothers turn into Seven Stars (probably the Pleiades), still love to swim in the sea]: Wilbert, Simoneau 1984a, No. 10:40-41