M39a9. Misunderstood instructions: a play on words.
(.11.16.19.21.23.24.26.-.28.41.42.43.52.53.)
The character asks a member of his family to bring vegetable products, cook food, and feed someone. He understands words as if he must kill a child (dog, etc.) and serve his meat. [section incomplete]
Congo, Bretons, Germans (Upper Palatinate), Kamoro, Bining, Tolai, Yap, Oraons, Minahasa, Lisu, Russians (Moscow), Bukhara Arabs, Koyukon, Tlingits, Haida, Puget Sound, ne Perse, Totonaki, Mountain Rocks, Mopan, Bribri.
Bantu-speaking Africa. Congo [Moni-Mambu came to brothers who never quarreled; one was a fisherman, the other was getting palm wine; MM placed fish on palm trees, calebasses and wine in the river; the brothers got into a fight; a woman told MM that he could go to her house to eat baked peanuts with her children; he ate peanuts and children; the chief tells MM to shoot anything they chase him (during a driven hunt); he kills hunting dogs, hunters, the chief's wife; they want to kill him, he says that bullets and knives do not take him, let them take him to the top; porters go to the river to look for drinking water; MM speaks to passers-by merchants who appoint chiefs; the merchant is put in a net, MM takes his property, the merchant is drowned; MM shoots an antelope, it jumps out of its skin, runs away; MM blows out, the dog takes away the snot, MM throws she smut into her, she enters the house, the house burns down; he is told to build a new one, he cuts a tree, a machete falls into the water, the crocodile grabs MM, but the osprey snatches it out of the crocodile's mouth; MM meets the speaker skull, talks about it; people go to check, the skull is silent; the chief orders MM to be killed, pierced with a spear]: Belcher 2005, No. 15:82-87.
Western Europe. French (Haute-Brittany) [mother tells a stupid daughter named Hanne to cook soup for the groom's arrival, put lard and so on in the cauldron, and then stew the cabbage; H. puts a dog in the cauldron, which the name was Other; the mother explains the mistake, tells me to keep the broth on fire so that it thickens ("contacts"); the daughter puts hemp fibers in the cauldron for the ligament; after the groom arrives, the mother sends H. to the cellar for apple wine; she opens the tap in the barrel, puts up the mug and begins to think: when she starts giving birth to children, what should I call them, because all the names have already been sorted out; the wine continues to pour; the mother goes down to the cellar, then father, begin to think with his daughter; when they see what is going on, the groom promises to return if he finds three of the same fools; the reapers cut off a spikelet, take them home, then run back to the field; the young man gave them sickle; one took him by the blade, cut himself, thought that the animal was biting, he began to beat him; a woman carries sunlight in a wheelbarrow to warm the baby's house, but the light disappears in the shade; the young man advises to take him to the child's wheelbarrow in the sun; in the castle, the servants do not know what to do with the crap left by the wolf, the owner suffers from the smell; the young man teaches to throw away the crap; returns to the bride and marries her; everything is fine]: Soupault 1959, No. 45:299-302; Bretons [mother tells Jeanne to cook soup for her fiance Jean, tells her to put everything she needs (Péadra); she throws a puppy with that name into the cauldron; mother sends her daughter to fetch water; taking a jug, she begins to think about what to call her future children, because all the names have already been sorted out; it means that she will not be able to baptize the children; she began to cry at the well; the mother came and began cry with her; Jean decides to go elsewhere; sees a girl trying to row peas with a pitchfork; elsewhere, another girl explains that the horse's wounds were ordered to be treated with soot, so she they drag them on ropes to the pipe on the roof, then lower and then lift; elsewhere he sees a woman cutting meat from the baby's buttocks to fit into his pants; after that, Jean returned to Jeanne, thinking that she far from being the dumbest; Jean once said that they have three good pieces of bacon: for Christmas, for Carnival and for Easter; people with these names come one after another and Jeanne gives them everything; Jean tells his wife to take the door behind her (in the sense of closing it), she takes it off her hinges and carries it; both come to the forest, climbed a tree; robbers have gathered under the tree; Jeanne peed herself, they think it's raining; then they fell along with the door; took the treasures of the robbers and lived well]: Luzel 1887 (3), No. 1:381-399; the Germans (Upper Palatinate) [the peasant has three sons; the eldest asked for his part of the inheritance, went to look for a job, hired a priest; noticing that the employee had money with him, he offered to conclude an agreement: whoever gets angry first will give the property to another; the owner gave the employee worthless the oxen, who became angry, lost money; the same happened to the middle brother; the younger one lets the oxen go wherever they wanted; sold the cows to the merchant, only the worst was left, told the owner that they had run away; He also sold the pigs, and cut off the tails and stuck them into the swamp; told the owner that the pigs had failed; then the owner told the guy to guard the garden at night; if something was lost, he would lose all his money; sent the cook that steal something; the guy beat her; the next day the cook is lying down and guests should come; the owner told the worker to boil water while he is in church, put leek and parsley; the guy threw it into the cauldron a dog named Leek and a cat named Petrushka; after that, the owner got angry, the guy took all the money and returned home]: Schönwerth 1981:29-30.
Melanesia. Kamoro [women swim in the river, the snake hides one of them's loincloth, marries her; after taking off his snakeskin, he becomes a man; the husband told the mother to feed her son if he sticks out his tongue; she I realized that in this case it should be killed and cooked; my husband cut off my mother's arms and ears, turning it into a turtle]: Drabbe 1948-1949:77-78 in Lessa 196:129; bining (Gazelle Peninsula) [To Kabinana asked To Karvuvu go take care of their mother; he realized that his mother should be killed, cooked her in an earthen oven; That Kabinana said their descendants would now eat human beings]: Meier 1909, No. 4:27-29 ( retelling in Dixon 1916:122-123); tolay [like mining] Janssen et al. 2012, No. 6:37.
Micronesia-Polynesia. Yap: Mitchell 1973, No. 54 [mother tells her daughter to cook for her return; she realizes that her little brother should be cooked; she cooked him with vegetables; her mother broke her arms and legs with a stick, threw her into the river; the girl goes with the flow, tells her story, but no one helped her; she swam into the sea and drowned]: 156-158; Müller 1918, No. 51 [mother tells her daughter to watch her little sister ; she promises to cook it; the mother corrects it, but then agrees and leaves, not thinking that the daughter is answering seriously; when she returns, the sister is cooked; the mother cut off the eldest daughter's leg with a shoulder blade; daughter she jumped and shouted that her mother and father had broken her leg, and she cooked her sister; threw herself into the sea, turned into stone]: 553-554.
South Asia. Oraons [Kana and Kuja are brothers; Kane was told to herd goats, and if they climbed into the vetch, beat them with a stick; Kuja was told to watch the baby - wash it if he got dirty; Kana beat the goats to death with a stick, Kuja beat him He killed the baby with a stone like a laundress; they decided to take the goat's meat, leave; shared it with the tiger; then they climbed a tree; the king stopped under the tree; at night they dropped the goat's intestines; the servants thought that the king had his stomach burst, ran away; Kana took a drum, put bees there, Kuja a sword; the king attacked, they released bees, the king made peace, gave the brothers several villages]: Hahn 1906, No. 34:64-66.
Malaysia-Indonesia. Minahasa [a girl misunderstands her mother's words, kills and cooks her little sister; runs away from her mother, asks the rock to open, hides in it]: Graafland 1867-1869 (1): 164-165 in Lessa 1961:337.
China - Korea. Fox [wife tells Tchompïp to cook beans; the word sounds like their daughter's name; C. chases his daughter, trying to throw her into the cauldron; his wife hits him, puts a hot head in his mouth; his lips are a continuous ulcer; his wife throws a cow cake in his face; C. praises the medicine, makes a supply, brings it to the house; his wife is furious]: Dessaint, Ngwâma 1994:548-551.
Central Europe. Russians [Luka and Petrushka (a fool kills them by lunchtime)]: SUS 1979; Russians (Moscow) [parents tell Ivanushka to feed their children by crumbling onions and parsley into soup; I. chases children named Luka and Petrushka; to get rid of I., his parents sent him for an English cow; this is a bear; I. brought a bear, put him in the barn, he picked up the cows; the parents decide to run away, collected a bag of pies, I. hid in it; parents lost hope]: Vedernikova, Samorodova 1998, No. 94:235-237.
Iran - Central Asia. Bukhara Arabs [bai kept a farmhand, fed him freshmen for a year; the farmhand died; bai took his brother as a laborer; he also died; took his third brother, whose name was Hamadak, as a laborer; gave him too Presnyaki; H. got wet alone, ate it and saw that the water turned yellow; realized that bai had killed his brothers to death; when bai went to the bazaar, H. ordered: "Sweep the yard so that you can have oil on it lick; cattle so that they do not raise their heads from the nursery; the bird does not tear its beak off the grain; so that you do not take your back away from the gate!" ; H. swept the yard, spilled four jugs of butter on it; slaughtered all the cattle, put their heads in a nursery with food; slaughtered the chickens, put their heads on grains; broke the gate, tied them to his back; who returned the bay asked, "Didn't you order it yourself?" ; bay's mother died; when she was carried to the cemetery, they forgot her shovel; bai told H. to bring it; he went to the gate, pretended to be a stutter, shouted: "BBC!" (bibi 'mistress'; ber instead of bil 'shovel'); buy shouted: "Carry a shovel!" ; H.: "The hostess does not give a shovel!" ; buy: "Go hit her on the head - let her die! The shovel is under the chest, take it!" ; H. took a shovel from under the chest and hit bay's eldest wife on the head; she died; bai asked H. why he hadn't brought the shovel for so long; H.: "I went, there was a shovel under the chest, I took it; then the eldest I hit the hostess on the head, she died!" ; buy: "May you die young! Oh my god! Why did you kill her?" ; H.: "Didn't you order it yourself?" ; after the funeral of his mother and elder wife, bai H. hid near the suffa; bai told his wife to run, otherwise the farmhand would kill them; ordered them to put their things in the chest; his wife offered to sleep, they fell asleep; H. climbed into chest; buy and his wife woke up, put their things in the chest, took it with them, went; stopped on the riverbank under a mulberry tree; the wife said that if H. were, he would shake the berries; H. responded, got out of the chest, shook the berries; the three of them returned home; at night H. killed bay; married his wife]: Vinnikov 1969, No. 55:315-316.
Subarctic. Koyukon [the young man Ggaadoookk is just sleeping; his mother drives him to throw snare at the rabbits, he goes, throws them into the trees; his mother tells him to put them normally, he catches rabbits in them; the same from the top for fish (first she just throws her into the hole); the mother tells me to bring something crooked, he brings crooked sticks; the mother explains what porcupines meant, he brings porcupines; every time he brings again goes to bed; mother tells me to cut wood for the hearth; he cuts and roasts his younger siblings; {it is not clear from the text why; apparently an unexplained play on words}; mother says trees should have been cut down; he cuts, tries to hack the woodpecker, he flies off, G. finds himself in heaven, comes to the old woman; she tells him not to touch the stone; he moves it, sees his crying mother below on the ground; the old woman lowers it on rope, tells you not to cut off the end, otherwise people will hang themselves on a rope; he cuts off; comes to his mother]: Alaska Native Writers 1986:42-45.
NW Coast. The Tlingits [little sister cries; mom to boy: Bake an oyster in the fire and give it to it; he hears: Make a hole in the fire and put your sister there; the girl is burned]: Swanton 1909, No. 17:47; haida [Your little brother (sister) is crying, give him/her a big oyster left for him/her; Where is your brother? - I don't know, I killed him as told; (oyster and I destroyed - homonyms]: Swanton 1905:362.
The coast is the Plateau. Puget Sound: Adamson 1934 (White River) [The crow tells his son to fry oysters for his little sister; he hears his sister's ass to fry; the charred corpse hides in the bushes; mother revives her daughter]: 361-362; Thompson, Egesdal 2008 (Southern Lushootseed) [When leaving to collect oysters, the Raven tells her son to fry oysters for his sister; he hears "fry his sister's ass"; roasts his sister alive, hides the corpse in the bushes; confesses, brings the corpse, the Raven revives his daughter]: 267-269; ne perse [Laska takes care of the farm while his older brother is hunting; marries a sunflower girl; the older brother is surprised that the house is now more in order; Laska gives him his wife; she gives birth to a son; the boy is dirty, the mother asks Laska to throw him into the river (=wash him); Laska cries, but drowns the child; brother beats him; Laska commits suicide by sitting in an anthill; brother resurrects him from his bones]: Phinney 1934:201-204.
Mesoamerica Totonaki [a man escapes from a flood in a boat; sends a dove to see if there is land; one day she returns with feet stained with clay; after the flood, a dog comes to man; he finds tortillas cooked in the house; finds a woman throwing dog skin into the fire; wife gives birth to a boy; husband asks her to make tender bread; means tender pumpkins, she kills their son; husband finds a finger in bread; continues to eat]: Oropeza 1947:269-275; mountain food [woman tells her little brother to cook pumpkins for herself and her young son; he cooks pumpkins and her young son; the child's father leaves the boy in the forest; he turns into a partridge]: Foster 1945a, No. 7:199-200; mopan [woman asks daughter to cook cassava; girl kills her younger brother]: Ulruch, Ulrich 1982: xviii.
Honduras-Panama. Bribri [woman asks her son to fetch seeds; he kills his little sister]: Bozzoli, Cubero Venegas 1989, No. 12:19.