M62C. Tug of war, ATU 291. .11.12. (.14.47.64.)

A weak character takes turns negotiating with two strong ones to compete in a tug of war. They don't know they're pulling each other's rope or that they're tied to a tree.

{In America, the motive comes from Africa after Columbus}.

Luchazi (ngangela), laadi, ganda, zombo, sakata, bavunga, ila, kanyoka, bemba, nyanja, mpongwe, aka, douala, basa, bafia, bene, nsenga, yoruba, banen, hausa, igbo, ijo, tangale, mosi, dagomba, guro, manjak, mankanya, bambara, soninke, Fan {fang?} , eve, crane (putu), dark, fulbe, mandingo, Cape Verde, (Egyptians, Screams, Hichiti, Lower Amazon).

Bantu-speaking Africa. Zombo [Korolek invites the Elephant, then the Behemoth, to compete in pulling the vine; gives everyone the end of one vine unnoticed from the other; having exhausted their strength, cuts the vine, both fall; later find out that they competed with each other; animals choose the smart King as leader]: Anpetkova-Sharova 1975:43-45 (=2010:260-262); laadi (laari) [The hare brings corn seeds, suggests sowing them on the island; let the Elephant work in the morning and the Hippopotamus in the evening, and he, the Hare, at night; the Elephant and the Hippopotamus work, the Hare do not; says that he has become strong during his work; offers the Elephant first, then the Behemoth compete in tug of war; while they're pulling from each other, eating corn; they go to see, they see the Hare, he runs away, they fight each other]: Koutekissa, Koutekissa 2003:112-113; silt [The hare suggests pulling war with him first to the hippopotamus, then to the rhino; they pull, realize that they have been competing with each other; they reconcile, so that the rhino drinks from the river where the hippopotamus lives, and he goes out to graze where the rhino lives]: Smith, Dale 1920, No. 2:377; yao [the hare agrees to pull the war with the elephant and the hippopotamus; they pull the rope from each other, everyone thinks there is a hare at the other end; not can win, both have to pay the hare]: Arewa 1961, no. 1134:72; (cf. Congo (the border between Cabinda and Congo-Brazzaville) [a person cannot get enough meat to feed his wives; brings nuts first to the Leopard, then to the Crocodile, both supply him with meat without knowing About each other; tired of nuts, they ask for a dog; the person makes their appointment so that the Leopard mistakes the Crocodile for the dog and the Leopard; they fight, both die; people celebrate]: Dennett 1898:98-100); sakata [The turtle brags of strength, offers the Elephant to pull the war first, then the Behemoth; they pull the rope from each other; they believe that the Turtle is strong, he replies that he has powerful amulet]: Colldén 1979, No. 159:326-327; canioca [Marten suggests pulling the war to Behemoth, then Buffalo; the winner will get a woman; they pull the rope together with each other with varying success, Marten gets a woman from each]: Frobenius 1983:297-298; bemba [The Hare offers Elephant and Behemoth to compete with him, gives both different ends of the same rope]: Smith, Dale 1920:377; nsenga [The hare suggests that the hippopotamus, then the rhinoceros compete with him in strength; gives them different strength first to the hippopotamus, then the rhinos of the same rope on both sides island; exhausted, both discover deception, reconcile forever]: Werner 1933:268-269; bafia [The turtle offers the Elephant first, then the Behemoth, to pull the kana, they pull each other, both admit that the Turtle is stronger]: Dong'aroga 2010, No. 14:203; Bene (Cameroon): Abega 2002:111-112 (cf. [Boehme sees two Elephants pulling a rope, wants to compete too; the Elephant pulls him through the forest; B.'s mother comes running to his scream, ties a rope to a tree, the Elephant can no longer pull, admits that B. strong]), 113-115 [Boehme (carpal pig, river pig - Potamochoerus porcus) agrees with the Elephant to pull the vine; his mother goes to Nyiabibod, tells him about it; that son Turtle agrees with another elephant that Bene will challenge him to a competition; two elephants pull a vine, each thinks they are competing with Boehme, both recognize his strength]; luchazi [Rabbit offers to pull the rope first to the Behemoth, then to the Elephant, gives them different ends of the same rope; both fell from fatigue, recognized the Rabbit's strength]: Nekrasova 1975:16-17; duala: Lederbogen 1901, No. 9 [turtle suggests first the hippopotamus, then the elephant pull the rope with it; they pull each other; both are convinced that the turtle is really strong; the lion doubts]: 170-173; Smith, Dale 1920 [The hare suggests competing with him in the power of the Elephant and the Behemoth, gives both different ends of the same rope]: 378; bass [The turtle invites the Elephant and then the Behemoth to pull the vine; they do not see each other, they pull with all their might; after 24 hours The turtle tells everyone to stop; since then, both have respected it]: Binam Bikoï 197:17-19; nyanja [The hare provokes Elephant and Behemoth to pull the war; both are exhausted, the Hare approaches each in turn gets his own win]: 269; bavunga [The turtle agrees separately with the Elephant and the Behemoth to pull the war; they pull together; as a result, the Elephant has stretched out tusks, and the hippopotamus has since had a split nose]: Raponda-Walker 1967:142-145; the ganda [The hare borrowed a cow from Elephant, then another from Buffalo; unable to repay the debt, told everyone that The cow he bought for return is very big and strong; let him pull it by the rope; the Elephant and Buffalo pull the rope from each other, believing that they are pulling a cow; both decide not to suffer, but to give their own the cow to the Hare]: Kizza 2010:168-170; the mpongwe [the turtle accused the leopard of killing the goat, he was executed, the leopards were left; the turtle said that now there are three strong ones left: she, the elephant and the hippopotamus; each of them is asked to pull the vine; they pull from each other, they are completely exhausted, the turtle quietly cuts the vine, both fall; recognize the turtle as their equal]: Nassau 1912, No. 5:37-41; aka [ the hippopotamus invites the turtle to measure its strength by pulling the rope; the turtle agrees and offers the same to the elephant; for three hours the elephant and the hippopotamus pull the rope; the turtle: once the forces are equal, let's finish the competition; Seeing the elephant's tracks, the hippopotamus threw the turtle into the water, where it has been living ever since]: Motte-Florac 2004, No. 6:51-53.

West Africa. Fulbe: Hampâté Bâ 1994 [The hare tells Behemoth that he was in heaven and the god Allawalam gave him strength; offers to cultivate the plot together, harvest; let the Behemoth work at night, and he, the Hare, during the day; for this A. will make the body of Behemoth more beautiful; he says the same to the Elephant (let him work during the day); the Hippopotamus and the Elephant work, everyone thinks that the Hare is working for the other half of the day; the harvest is harvested, The hare invites everyone to pull the rope, the winner will take the entire crop; while the Elephant and the Behemoth are pulling the rope, finding each other, going to kill the Hare; he wears the rotten skin of a dead leopard, tells Elephant and Behemoth that the Hare has damaged him, the Gazelle, and he can do the same to them; they give the harvest to the Hare just so that he does not bewitch them]: 42-62: Moreira 1948 [The hare negotiates first with the Elephant, then with the Behemoth to cultivate the field every other day; the Elephant and the Hippopotamus each do their job on their own and think that the Hare is working the next day; the Hare collects the ripe harvest himself, hides ; invites the Elephant, then the Behemoth to pull the war, the winner will get the whole harvest; The Elephant and the Hippopotamus pull the rope for several days, meet each other halfway, understand deception; The hare hides under half-decayed antelope corpse; replies on her behalf that the Hare made her so his witchcraft; Elephant and Hippopotamus are afraid, decide not to take revenge on the Hare]: 238-241; Hausa: Olderogge 1959 [Spider invites the Elephant to pull the rope; the same suggests to the Behemoth; they pull the rope, believing that they are competing with the Spider; after finding out what is going on, they promise not to give him food in the forest and in the water; the Spider wears sheep the skin, the imaginary Sheep eats business, they promise not to give him food in the forest and in the water; the Spider puts on sheepskin, says they are competing with the Spider; finds out that he kicked the Spider, now her legs are numb; the same with Behemoth; asks both if they want to fight him, they say they want to be friends]: 217-219; Rattray 1913 (2), No. 30 [perhaps Olderogge translated from this text; but an antelope, not a sheep; and did not kick , but shoved]: 124-146; Tyutryumova 1991 [The spider tells the Elephant that the Hippopotamus asks him for a hundred baskets of grain, and the Hippopotamus that the Elephant asks for a hundred baskets of fish, both will allegedly be sent as payment later the best horse; each time the Spider lets the porters go and tells his wife and children to take everything to him; gives one end of the rope to elephants, the other to the hippos, each pulls towards him, believing that he is pulling the rope the promised horse; finally they find out that they were deceived; the Spider put on the skin of a dead antelope; on behalf of Antelope, he tells the Elephant, then the Hippopotamus, what became like this after the Spider pointed at her with his paw; Elephant and The hippopotamus began to avoid meeting the Spider]: 82-89; Tremearne 1910, No. 1 [as in Olderogg; Oribi skin (antelopes?) instead of sheep skin; imaginary Oribi says she got into a fight with the Spider and he mutilated it; The elephant decides not to look at the Spider anymore]: 203-204; guro [the antelope agrees with the elephant to process field and grow a fonio; let the elephant work at night and she during the day; then with the hippopotamus: let him work during the day and she at night; they work and the antelope lie in the hammock; to share the harvest, the antelope suggests first the elephant, and then the hippopotamus, pull the rope: whoever is stronger will receive a fonio; at this time, the antelope harvested and carried it to its village; the elephant and the hippopotamus saw each other, go with the village and everyone is taken away]: Tououi Bi 2014:239-241; Igbo [the turtle offers the buffalo to pull the rope; offers the same to the elephant; they pull the rope thinking they are competing with a turtle, both died from tensions; while cutting carcasses, the turtle hears the whistle of the wind in the branches, thinks that people are approaching, fell on the knife in confusion, died]: Basden 1921:277; tangale: Jungraithmayr 2002:75-83 [Hare invites the Antelope to sharpen its horns on the baobab; puts its ears in the baobab; the Antelope sticks its horns, gets stuck, the Hare kills her; invites the Elephant, then the hippopotamus to pull the rope, they pull each other; realizing the deception, agree to prevent the Hare from reaching the leaves and water; The hare sings: let the Hare's finger chase him (Elephant, Behemoth); both run away, the Hare eats, drinks], 309-314 [The Hare invites the Elephant to pull the rope, quietly ties the other end to the tree; The elephant pulls, the Hare whistles, screams that hunters are coming; The elephant breaks the tusks (to which the rope was tied), runs away]; mosi [The hare asks the Elephant to give him raising a daughter; eats her, regularly tells Elephant how well she is growing; the same with Behemoth's child; tells both that the child has outgrown his parent, does not want to leave the shelter, gives everyone different ends one rope, a child is supposedly tied to the other; by evening the Elephant overcomes the Behemoth, both intend to take revenge on the Hare; he hires to nurse seven crocodiles, cooks beans for them, cooks crocodiles; She takes the uncooked to feed the mother; because there are no longer seven of them, she wears them twice; explains that they are so used to beans that they no longer want mother's milk; feeds the Crocodile beans and the meat of her children, puts their clay figures on the sand; runs away, saying that the Crocodile ate; climbs into the corpse of an antelope, tells Elephant first, then Behemoth and Crocodile that it was the Hare, saying kafo, forced her rot alive; now animals run away in horror when the Hare approaches]: Frobenius 1986:43-47 (=1922b, No. 98:224-228); Dagomba [the hare borrowed a cow first from an elephant, then from a hippopotamus; then he arranged them to pull the velevka; realizing that they were deceived, they decided only to have access to water and grass; the hare put on horns and said that he had a terrible disease, his saliva was poisonous; the elephant and the hippopotamus got away from him]: Cardinall 1931:207; banen [the turtle negotiates with the elephant to pull the rope, then negotiates with the hippopotamus, they pull each other; in the evening, the turtle cut the rope in the middle; they never found out they were deceived]: Dugast 1975:64-66; Yoruba [The Turtle offers the Behemoth, then the Elephant, to pull the rope; they pull the rope from each other, then understand they've been fooled]: Walker, Walker 1980:59-60; ijo (kalabari) [the turtle tells the elephant and hippopotamus that neither of them can pull it out of the water by the rope; wagers; unnoticed ties a rope to a rock; an elephant admits defeat, pays a lot of money to the turtle; the turtle repeats the same hippopotamus trick, tying a rope to a palm tree trunk; an elephant and a hippopotamus each invite a turtle live with him; she decides to stay in the water and sends her son to live on land; water turtles are larger than land turtles because they always have food and land turtles often go hungry]: Datrell 1910, No. 29:104-106; background [ The turtle brags that it is equal in strength to the Elephant and the Behemoth; invites the Elephant first, then the Behemoth to pull the vine with it; they, without seeing each other, pull the two ends of the same vine; the Turtle unnoticed cuts the vine, Elephant and Hippopotamus fall; both recognize the Turtle as an equal partner]: Jablow 196:95-98; Eve [The Hare tells Elephant and Behemoth that they are stronger than each of them, suggests pulling the rope; realizing that they are pulling each other, they decide to keep silent about it so that they do not laugh at them]: Anpetkova-Sharova 2010:169-170; bambara [The hare offers Behemoth, then pull the Elephant out of the swamp for rope his cow; they pull the ends of the same rope; they go to find out, scold each other, pull again, the rope breaks, they fall; the hare laughs]: Zhukov, Kotlyar 1976, No. 81:200-202; soninke [Hare borrowed money from Elephant and Behemoth, does not return it; the Elephant promises not to let him into the forest, the Hippopotamus to the river; the Hare brings a rope to the Behemoth, tells him to drag him, a bull paid off the debt is tied to him; another the end of the rope The hare gives the same offer to the Elephant; both pull, see each other; The hare puts on the rotten animal skin, comes to the watering hole, answers the Behemoth that it was the Hare who mutilated him after how he asked him to return the money; then the Hare comes to the Elephant; both ask him to tell the Hare that they forgive him his debt]: Daniel 1910:45-46; crane (putu) [the hare offers the elephant to face off by force, pulling the rope; the hippopotamus offers the same thing; the elephant and the hippopotamus pull the rope at both ends, believing they are competing with the hare; finally, the hare cut the rope; the elephant gave him a month's supply of bananas, and hippopotamus - fish]: Pinney 1973:259-261; dark [Spider adjusts Elephant and Hippopotamus to pull the war]: Smith, Dale 1920:378; manjak [The hare offers the Elephant first, then the Hippopotamus tug of war; gives both ends; the next day Elephant and Behemoth meet, realize that they have been deceived; The hare puts on an old goat skin, pretending to be a Goat complains to the Behemoth, the Elephant, about the Hare -a sorcerer who throws worms at the offender; both are so afraid of the Hare that they pay a hundred escudos as losers in a tug of war]: Mendelssohn 1971:20-22; mancanha [The hare asks the elephant to lend him a bull, a hippopotamus is a horse; both give slightly alive cattle, the bull and the horse die, the Elephant and the Hippopotamus threaten to keep the Hare from the river, into the forest; the hare says that his strength is in his ears, invites both to pull the rope; the Elephant and The hippopotamus pulls the rope together, everyone thinks that there is a Hare at the other end; both are exhausted, no longer lifted the Hare]: Nikolnikov 1976:105-109; mandingo [The hare should have given a slave to the Elephant and Hippopotamus; gives both ends of the same rope, says the slave is tied to the other end]: Smith, Dale 1920:378; Cape Verde [The rabbit offers the Elephant, then Keith to pull the rope; they pull each other's rope]: Walker, Walker 1980:101.

(Wed. North Africa. Egyptians (published in the Cairo magazine Sinbad, 1959, No. 29, but it's hard to say where it comes from) [The hare asks Keith to help pull out a cow stuck in the mud, ties it to its tail rope; Elephant asks the same thing, ties the other end to his trunk; Keith and Elephant pull for a long time, the rope breaks; the hares rejoice]: Bystrov 1962:29-32).

(Wed. Southeast USA. See African materials. The motive is clearly borrowed. The rabbit offers two strong rivals separately a tug of rope competition; they do not see each other, everyone thinks they are competing with a rabbit. Shouts: Swanton 1929, No. 49-51 [two boas], 52 [boa constrictor and cannibal], 53 [two bison]: 48-51; hichiti [two boas]: Swanton 1929, No. 27:105-106).

(Wed. Eastern Amazon. African borrowing. Lower Amazon (Santarem District, West Lingua Geral): Hartt 1875:20-22 [the turtle says pirá asú, "big fish" {manatee? see J22D motif}) what will pull him out of the water; goes after a large vine, tells the tapir that he will drag him into the water; they pull the vine off each other, admit that the turtle is strong], 23-25 [once in the water, the turtle tells the anaconda that it is weak in the water but strong on the shore; tells the jaguar that it is strong in the water; the jaguar and the anaconda pull the vine, everyone believes that the enemy is a turtle; because the bet is life, both, tired, hurry to hide]).