M38a1. Imitates relatives or wives, ATU 552B, J2411.3. .13. (.15.) .23.28.31.32.43.49.59.61.63.64.68.

The character imitates the sisters' sons-in-law or husbands, or the wife's brothers (shoshone's) or wives (comox and chalkomel). {ATU combines a motive with another}.

Joluo, (French), Kumaoni, Oraons, Nepali, Kol, Russians (Olonetskaya), Lithuanians, Latvians, Norwegians, Swedes, Udmurts, Komi, Comox, Halkomel, Puget Sound, ne Perse, Nordic shoshoni, makushi, wapishana, kalinya, napo, maue, munduruku, lower Amazon, tenetehara, kayabi.

Sudan-East Africa. Joluo [Abvola divorced the Crocodile, married the Elephant; when it rains, he raises its tail, everyone hides there; to feed people, the Elephant puts its foot in a boiling pot, and fat flows from it; The spider, Brother A., sees this, calls the people, puts his feet in the cauldron, only burns them; during the rain, he raises his ass, screams in pain when they try to climb into it; the Elephant raises its tail, the Spider climbed into the Elephant with everyone else in his belly, pierced his heart with a spear; people ripped his belly apart to go outside; then A. goes beyond the Red Tree; warns not to intervene if the Red Trees fight; the Spider intervenes, gets stuck between branches, tells his sister to divorce; passes him off as Termite; discovers that the termite mound is walled up, he will not return his sisters]: Katznelson 1968:217-220).

(Wed. Western Europe. The French (Nivernay) [a mother is angry with her seven daughters; promises to give one for a dog if it comes in a hat; a dog in a hat comes, a woman gives her daughter; she also consistently gives others for a wolf, fox, hare, wild boar, ram, rooster; later she goes to visit her daughters; each tells us what dangers her husband is exposed to, how difficult it is to get food]: Delarue, Tenèse 1964, No. 552B: 365-366) .

South Asia. Kumaoni [old men gave one daughter to a jackal, the second to a bear, and the third to an eagle; the old man consistently visits his sons-in-law; the bear sits on a hot frying pan, spits (?) freshly eaten peas, moistens the pan with their fat, makes pies; the old man repeats everything at home, barely alive; the jackal throws a goat out of the barn, tells him to drag him, cooks; at home the old man enters the barn on horseback, promises to give the old woman a goat, she drags, it's a horse, the old man falls; the eagle flies, shows the old man the world; the old man leads the old woman up the mountain, puts her on her back, jumps, both crashed to death]: Minaev 1968, No. 23:64-66; Nepali (western Nepal) [old men gave one daughter to a tiger, the second to a bear, the third to a snake, and the fourth to an eagle; the old man consistently visits his sons-in-law; the tiger leads him to hunt, grabs a goat, throws nettles into the thickets; an old man in the dark grabs and leaves his wife, she screams; the bear pours oil on his ass, sits over the pot, oil from the bear's ass drips into the hot pot, his wife cooks cakes; at home, the old man tries to do the same, is terribly burned; the snake puts his father-in-law on his tail, crawls to show the hole; the old man tells his wife to hold his leg, climbs into a hole, gets stuck, the old woman with she pulled it out with difficulty; the eagle puts his father-in-law on his back, brings him to show the world; at home, the old man tied his wicker wings, put the old woman on his back, jumped off a cliff; the river did not collect bones, but the old man's souls and old women flew to heaven]: Heunemann 1980, No. 25:169-173 (=Sakya, Griffith 1980:176-178); Oraons [the father passed his daughter off as a crane and went to visit him; he took him and his wife to the swamp to collect snails; it rained, the crane easily covered both with its wings; at home, the father-in-law took his wife to collect crabs in the rice field; when the downpour approached, the wife offered to hurry home, but the husband replied that it was not necessities; both got wet, hail injured his wife, and then both drowned in the swamp]: Hahn 1906, No. 41:78-79.

Central Europe. Russians: SUS 1979 [Sun, Moon and Raven are sons-in-law; The sun bakes pancakes on himself, the Month shines his finger in the bath, the Raven sleeps on the floors; the old man imitates them unsuccessfully], No. 552B=AA*299:156; Afanasiev 1958 (1), No. 92 [the old man scattered cereals on the road, asks them to warm the Sun, illuminate the Month, Voronovich's Raven to help collect cereals, promises them his three daughters; and so it happened; walks to his sons-in-law; wife of the Sun puts a fritter on his husband's head; the old man's dough is sour; the month illuminates the bath with his finger, the old man's finger does not make it lighter; the raven takes the old man under his wing, they climb to sleep on the seat; the old man fell asleep, both fell and crashed]: 134-135; Karnaukhova 1948 (North) [at night in the forest, the old man promises his eldest daughter Month if he illuminates the road; in the middle cold, to the Sun; in a sailboat fishing youngest Wind; visits each of the daughters; The month illuminates the bath with his finger; at home, the old man sends his wife to the bathhouse on a dark evening, puts his finger in the crack, does not become lighter; the middle daughter bakes pancakes on her husband's head; at home the old man tells his wife to pour dough on his head; the wind blows his wife's handkerchief, transports his father-in-law across the river; the old man goes to roll the old woman, blows on the handkerchief, the wife almost drowned]: 111-115; Nikiforov 1961, No. 37 (Olonetskaya: Shunga) []: 86-87; Russians (Olonetskaya, recorded by I.V. Karnaukhova) [the daughter was passed off as the Sun; the old man came to visit; the daughter bakes pancakes on her husband's head; at home, the old man tells his wife to pour him dough on the head]: Vlasova 2011, No. 40:74.

Baltoscandia. Lithuanians [old people give their eldest daughter in Months, father visits young people, daughter bakes pancakes on her husband's bald head; at home, the old man tells his wife to bake on his bald head, the dough remains raw; the middle daughter goes beyond Winds; visiting the Wind, an old man sleeps on the roof because the wind props him up; at home, the old man tells his wife to lay on the roof, both fall from the roof to the ground; the youngest daughter is married to Frost; the old man takes a steam bath on a visit , shouts that it's hot, Frost puts his finger into the steam room three times, feels good; at home, the old man heats the bathhouse, the old woman screams that it's hot, he sticks his finger; the old woman suffocated from the heat, died]: Lebite 1965: 291-293; Latvians [a person passes his daughters off as a crow, month, wind, sun; when visiting daughters, a person sees pancakes baking on the sun's head, how a month illuminates a bathhouse with a finger, a crow puts his father-in-law to bed on a perch, the wind rolls him across the sea; when he returns home, the man tries to imitate his sons-in-law, but he fails]: Aris, Medne 1977, No. 552B: 300; Norwegians [yes motive J4211.3]: Thompson 1955-1958 (Christiansen, R.Th. Norske Eventyr (Norske Folkeminder II). Kristiania, 1921); Swedes (West 1926, Värmland) [the old man and his wife live in the forest, they have three daughters, all named Kari; no grooms; the old man decides to pass his daughters off as trolls; consistently brings out Big, Middle and Little Kari at the crossroads, announces that she wants to marry; they are taken by Bumblebee, Goat, Seagull; the old man goes to visit his daughters; the Bumblebee sits on the edge of the porridge dish, flavors it with honey { obviously defecating}; at home, the old man tells his wife, suggests repeating the trick, she does not tell {apparently he messed up the mess, but these details are omitted in the translation}; The goat beats his head against the wall, fills a vessel with blood, blood is boiled to prepare blood pudding; at home, the old man beats his head against the wall, lies down for a long time; The seagull dives, gets fish; the old man at home also rushes into the water, his wife barely pulled him out; Bumblebee, Goat, the Seagull became princes, they brought their wives in carriages; they were bewitched by a witch, they remained animals until someone agreed to love them]: Blecher, Blecher 2004:234-238.

Volga - Perm. Udmurts [a bald old man passed his two daughters off as the Sun and the Month; went up the chain to visit the Sun; the daughter bakes cakes, pouring dough on the Sun's head; returning home, the old man tells his wife to bake at he is on his head, covered with dough; visiting the Month, the old man goes with him to the cellar; the month raises his finger to illuminate the room; at home, the old man tells his wife not to take a candle with him to the cellar; in the dark, both fall into pit]: Vereshchagin 1886:139; Komi ["in Perm's fairy tales, Sun, Month and Thunder Eagle become the son-in-law of an old man with three daughters" {apparently like the Udmurts}]: Ulyashev 2011:69.

The coast is the Plateau. Comox [Norka consistently marries women who warn him that he will not be able to act like them and will get into trouble; he insists fails; 1) Mist; wife and her sisters they dance, he joins them, falls to the ground; 2) Eagle; gets clothes from feathers; warned to dive carefully when fishing for salmon; dives sharply, breaks to the ground; 3) Resin; it melts on the sun, he sticks to the bed, runs to the forest to tear it off, some old man helps him do it; 4) Algae; at high tide he holds on to his wife, seaweed moves with the water, the mink almost drowns; 5) A shell; hits her in the face, but only hurts his hand; 6) a white woman; 7) an otter's wife; 8) a grizzly bear; does not prepare food and is not fed in winter; he says that enemies are coming, we must translate supplies elsewhere; swims away with boxes of salmon and caviar; the wife sees leftovers floating in the water, chases, kills the mink brother; he asks the tree to fall, run over it, but it only scratches his face; so asks for many trees, but each one, falling, only scratches without killing]: Boas 1895, No. VIII.4:71 (=2002:189-191); chalkomel [mink wants to marry water grass (Equisetum hiemale, horsetail wintering, but maybe different); the grass says that when the log floats, it will bend, but the mink will not be able to; he replies that it will also bend; and when is the knotty log? the mink marries the grass, the smooth log swims, but the knotty one takes it away; he wants to marry a rotten pine tree; she warns that it will sweat warm (i.e. it will have resin), he will not like it; mink says it doesn't matter; the resin protrudes, the mink sticks, hits the pine tree with one paw and the other with its head, sticks completely; at noon the resin has completely melted, the mink has swam away; wants to marry an osprey {" eagle"}; she warns that it will not be able to catch salmon; dives, mink rushes after her from the tree, hangs on branches, intestines outside]: Boas 1895, No. III.9:44 (=2002:130-131; Puget Sound [The children of Raven and another character are married; the Raven goes to visit his relatives]: Ballard 1929:98-99 [The bear holds its paws above the fire, from which fat drips into the oyster shells; the Raven's paws are dry and cracked], 99 [Dipper dives, brings a basket of caviar; The raven only catches a cold in cold water], 99-100 [Pheasant spits salmon; The raven sits aft but demands every second fish for himself; Pheasant turns salmon into herring]; ne perse [Coyote's four daughters are married to Moose, Mountain Sheep, Otter, Osprey; taking a young son, Coyote goes to his sons-in-law; 1) The elk bakes a stick, it turns into sausage; stabs himself in the ass, camas tubers fall out; Coyote wounds his wife with a stick, stabbed himself; 2) The ram cuts off a piece of his wife's dress, turns it into meat; the Coyote spoils the dress; 3) The otter brings from under the ice fish, Coyote almost sinks; 4) Osprey dives into the ice-hole, returns with fish; Coyote jumps off a tree, breaks his head on the ice]: Spinden 1917, No. 2:181-184.

Big Pool. The Northern Shoshones [Does the Coyote visit his wife's brothers (or sisters' husbands?) ; The owl pokes its awl in the eye, the fat flows; the Coyote does the same, cuts off pieces of meat from him; the owl does not eat; the Widotc bird kills birds with arrows; the Coyote cannot lure them so easily, but then kills them too ; A rabbit roasts a rotten tree, makes a fried rabbit; the Coyote fails; The beaver kills his sons, cooks; bones thrown into the water turn into beavers again; the Coyote kills his sons, Beaver does not eat; The otter dives, brings salmon; the Coyote feeds him stale salmon, the Otter does not eat; the deer fires an arrow, it falls on him, he feeds the Coyote with his meat and fat; the Coyote repeats the trick; secretly Kills a Deer, advises his relatives to throw a corpse into the river; catches and eats]: Lowie 1909b, No. 17:265-266.

Guiana. Macushi: Mayer 1951, No. 1 [human sons-in-law Dove, Otter, Mosquito, Tick]: 76-79; Soares Diniz 1971, No. 16 [sons-in-law Nightingale Opossum, Otter, Drake]: 92; Wapishana: Wirth 1950:205-208 [1) The kingfisher defecates into the river sitting on a branch; the fish falls off, it catches it; the possum falls into the river, is swallowed by fish; the stork kills it, saves its father-in-law; 2) The tick collects fruit, descends from the tree on the falling one leaf; Opossum falls, hurts painfully; 3) The otter catches fish; tells him to beat himself on the nose; fire from the nose, the firewood lights up; the Opossum catches tadpoles, freezes; blood pours from the broken nose; 4) Pigeon ( Leptotila rufaxilla) strings leaves on a vine, throws them into water, leaves turn into fish; in Opossum they turn into crustaceans, tadpoles; 5) The chameleon tied a vine, climbed into hot coals; his wife threw him into the water, he swam out, fish are strung on the vine; Opossum drowned after dying of burns], 208-210 [1) The tick sucks honey, tells his wife to pierce his stomach, honey pours into the pot; blood flows from the abdomen of the Opossum; 2) Woodpecker Hollows out a wooden object from a standing tree; the possum falls, hurts; 3) The pigeon tells his wife to split his head with a stick; cassava cakes are inside; the opossum is killed, his son-in-law revived]; kalinya [1) Opossum marries Jaguar's daughter; swallowed by fish, Jaguar takes him out of her belly; wife says he smells bad; Opossum replies that her vaginas are even worse; wife asks father punish the Possum; The Opossum hides in the hole, the Jaguar rips off his tail; 2) on the Pig's daughter; Wild boars go to the plantation to eat pineapples; the Opossum comes when everything has already been eaten; 3) on the Crane's daughter; imitating father-in-law, defecates from the boat into the water, but his excrement does not lure him, but scares off the fish; the wife explains that there must be diarrhea; the next time he is swallowed by fish; the crane pulls him away, but the wife drives him away, because it looks awful]: Magaña 1987, no. 29-31:241-242 (this story is briefly mentioned in Ahlbrinck 1924:222).

Western Amazon. Napo [Possum consistently takes different sons-in-law into the house; after each unsuccessful attempt to imitate his son-in-law, he expels him, takes the next one; 1) The kingfisher, sitting on a branch, defecates into the lake; fish fall, Kingfisher shoots them with a bow; Opossum falls into the water, the fish swallows it; the son-in-law kills the fish, saves the father-in-law; 2) The Iguana sets fire to the vegetation, tying the burning leaves to the tail, running around plot; the tail of the Possum is burnt, now bald; 3) The tick sheds its fruit, descends from the tree, planning on the leaf; the Opossum falls; 4) The wasp calmly picks up its meat when people cut the wild boar; The opossum is beaten, he is said to be a thief]: Mercier 1979:207-214.

Central Amazon. Maue: Pereira 1954:110-115; 1980 (2): 723-727; munduruku [1) The pigeon pulls out honey by crawling into the hollow, the Opossum cannot; 2) The hummingbird collects honey from the flowers, the Opossum cannot; 3) The deer fills weeds with its urine; they continue to grow in Opossum; 4) Tick (like vapishan, p.205); 5) Kingfisher (like vapishan); 6) Otter (like a chameleon in vapishan; Opossum and his wife turn into possums )]: Kruse 1946, No. 22:628-630; Murphy 1958, No. 39:118-120.

Eastern Amazon. Lower Amazon [Opossum Otter's son-in-law]: Barbosa Rodrigues 1890:194; tenetekhara [1) Woodpecker cuts trees with its beak; Opossum has a swollen face from blows; 2) A hawk rushes to prey with wood; The possum fell to the ground; 3) The otter takes the bag, rushes into the fire, from there into the river, it is full of fish; the possum is burnt; 4) The pigeon drank the lake, collected fish from the bottom; Opossum can't drink, he feels bad; 5) The kingfisher dives into the river, grabs the swimming fish; the Opossum falls into the water; 6) The tick (like a wapishan, p.205); 7) the Jacamine bird is beautiful, does nothing, has been a son-in-law for a long time; 8) The monkey sucks honey, does in a hole in the throat, drains it into the pot; the Opossum dies]: Wagley, Galvão 1949, No. 26:152-154.

Southern Amazon. Kayabi [taking the form of different birds and animals, Janerup marries the same girl; father-in-law imitates his son-in-law in ways of obtaining food, dies every time; his son-in-law revives him; in the form of The woodpecker stabs firewood with its nose; in the form of juriti-vermelha (Leptotilla sp.) he drinks the lake, the wife collects fish from the bottom; in the form of a Crane, she rushes from the tree into the water, grabs the fish (father-in-law drowns); Zhanerup cuts his stomach with an ax, takes out honey; when his father-in-law revives him this time, he drives him away]: Pereira 1995, No. 8:57-60.