M71. Selected piece of wood. (.13.40.) .42.43.48.55.65.66.
A character (usually carried away by a river or fallen from a height) turns into a piece of wood. Someone is picking it up. The character then takes on his true form, usually in the absence of the hosts.
(Wed. Sudan - East Africa. Joluo [The spider decides to marry the girl in heaven; invites the Hare to accompany him; the Hare stipulates that everything served to the "guests" will go to him, and the "owners" (in-laws) to the Spider; first all the food gets to the Hare; Then the Spider asks to say that this and that is intended for the owners; now the Hare is starving; the Spider returns to earth, throwing the Hare; he jumps from heaven to earth, turning into a piece of meat ; the old woman finds it, carries it in the basket; her child says that a piece of meat ate what is in the basket, the mother does not believe it; cooks meat, calls guests; pieces of meat gather, become a Hare, he runs away, knocking over broth]: K'Okiri 1970:116-126).
(Wed. The Arctic. Northern Alaska Inupiate (tareumiut) [the girl does not marry; the boy turns into a pot, falls into her dugout, she puts him on the fire, he pretends to be boiling; at night he takes the appearance of a man, takes over the mistress; turns into a bird, tells him to sit on his back, brings her to the mountain; a woman cries, her hair has fallen out; a little spider woman gives her tendons, ties them around her, tells you to close your eyes, descends from the mountain, shows the way home]: Spencer 1959:386).
NW Coast. Quaqiutl (tlatlasicoala neveti) [the world is dark, O'Meatl (raven) turns into a piece of wood; the owner of the sun sends his daughter to bring it; taking her, she immediately becomes pregnant; the boy born asks to play, a box with the sun, takes it with him into the boat; cuts the rope, sails away, opens the box; first an eternal day; the former owner of the sun also makes the night]: Boas 1895, № XVIII.1:173-174 (=2002:382).
The coast is the Plateau. Shuswap [see motif F58; The coyote turns into a piece of wood, swims to the top where the two sisters have blocked the river; they make a dish out of wood; it swallows all the food, the sisters throw it away; The coyote turns into a baby, the sisters adopt him; at night he copulates with them; when they carry it on his back, he slides lower and lower, copulates again; breaks the top, leads the salmon up the rivers Thompson & Fraser]: Teit 1909a: 629-630; Thompson: Boas 1895, No. II.5 (ntlakyapamuk) [=2002:87-88; Coyote's son has two wives, Coyote wants one for himself; sends a son to a tree for a bird; the tree grows; when the son jumps into the sky, the Coyote makes the tree low again; the young man wants to pull out the roots; it turns out that these are holes in the sky = stars; turns two old women into birds; the spider spouses bring it down to the ground in a basket; wife and son meet him; he kills a deer, sends a Coyote after him; the Coyote sinks in the river; turns into a piece of wood; two women make a plate out of it; she eats food; they throw it into the fire; she becomes a baby; they make him a servant; they keep fog and wasps in their vessels; left alone, the Coyote opens the vessels, releasing fog and wasps into the world]: 17-18; Teit 1898, No. 2 [two sisters holding fish behind the pond; The coyote turns into a wooden bowl; eats the fish that the sisters put on it; they throw the bowl into the fire, it turns into a baby; left alone, the Coyote takes on its former form, breaks dam, fish rushes into rivers]: 27; lillouette [like Thompson; women's brother finds a bowl]: Teit 1912b, No. 7:303-304; sechelt (sisiatl) [the young man has two wives; he shot an antelope, sent bring meat to his father; his strap bursts at the crossing, he is carried away by the river, he turns into a piece of wood, the woman picks it up, uses it as a plate, the food disappears from it; the woman throws the plate away, she turns into a baby; a woman raises him, four days later he grows up, leaves; turns his excrement into birds, talks about it to her son, he climbs a tree, the father tells the tree to grow; there is a son in heaven He comes to two blind women, slowly takes their food; makes them sighted; catches salmon for them; they open a hole in the floor, they lower it in the basket; he opens his eyes ahead of time, the basket returns; the second time he goes down, his little son recognizes him; he and his mother say that his second wife left with the boy's father]: Hill-Tout 1904a: 43-45 (retelling in Lévi-Strauss 1971, No. 676:338); snohomish [like Thompson; Fox instead of Coyote; bowl thrown to the ground]: Haeberlin 1924, No. 20:403-405; Skagit [Coyote's son is married to Turtledove and Sawbill; Coyote wants them himself; creates a woodpecker, sends son after him to the tree; woodpecker soars higher; Coyote waves his penis, everything drowns in the fog; puts on his son's clothes, marries Sawbill; Turtledove rejects him; The spider lowers his son from heaven to earth; he comes to to a faithful wife, an infidel leaves the Coyote; creates a river; the Coyote crosses her, carries him away by the current; he turns into a wooden bowl; two women Magpie and Snipe pick her up; the food left in her disappears; they break the bowl; the Coyote turns into a baby, women raise him; in their absence, he eats food; they guess they want to punish him]: Hilbert 1985:66-72; cowlitz [Coyote carries the river, it turns into a wooden spoon; a woman picks it up, takes food with it, the food disappears; the same episode with a bowl, a horn spoon, a pot; five girls hold the fish behind the pond; K. turns into a baby, one of his sisters picks him up; he breaks the dam]: Adamson 1934:245-247; Vasco: Curtin 1909b, No. 5 [Coyote makes eagle chicks out of his giblets; sends his grandson Eagle to get feathers; makes the rock tall; takes the form of a grandson, puts on his clothes, sleeps with his two wives Mouse and Woodpecker; Thunder splits the rock, the Eagle descends, catches up with the family, his wives welcome him; the Coyote is washed away by the rain in the river, he turns into a piece of wood; two sisters pick it up; he turns into a baby; when they are not there, he takes on their true form, eats their fish; destroys the dam, releasing salmon into rivers; showers his sisters with ash, turning them into birds]: 264-267; Hines 1996, No. 5A [two sisters keep salmon behind the dam; the Coyote turns into an alder log, swims, the youngest picks it up, the eldest tells them to throw it away; turns into a child in the youngest picks up the cradles; while the sisters dig up the roots, he breaks the dam for five days, turns back into a baby at night; releases salmon up Colombia, sisters turn into birds (like swallows ); in the Vancouver area, Coyote met people without mouths, they talked food, sniffed, threw them away; he cut their mouths; the chief offered him a daughter as his wife, he refused (I take women whenever I want! )]: 51-53; sanpual [four sisters keep salmon in the pond; the Coyote turns first into a wooden bowl, then into a baby; his sisters pick him up, the youngest suspects deception; he is done again man, breaks the dam]: Clark 1953:91-95; Okanagon: Teit 1917c, No. 3a [Coyote sails down Colombia in the form of a small inverted boat; at the mouth of the river, two sisters blocked it with a pond, not letting the salmon go up; they find a boat at the top, use it as a trough; the fish in it disappears; they hit the trough, it turns into a boy; it grows fast; while the sisters are away, it breaks a dam, frees the way for fish; turns sisters into sandstone birds; leads salmon up the river; lets him go where he is given wives, blocks the channel with rapids where they are not given]: 67-70; Hill-Tout 1911 [ Once in a hurricane, Coyote wants it to be even stronger, thrown by the wind into the river, swims like a wooden bowl to a fish dam owned by two sisters (birds); they pick up a bowl and put it in it salmon meat, meat is eaten in their absence; the youngest throws the bowl into the fire, it turns into a baby, the youngest decides to raise it; when the sisters leave, the Coyote gets out of the cradle, breaks the dam; sisters They rush to beat him with digging sticks, but he puts a bone spoon over his head; leads salmon up Colombia, marries Wolverine's daughter, puts rapids in this place so that the fish do not go higher; leads salmon along tributaries of Colombia; People-Mountain Sheep on the Simulkameen River abandoned salmon, now there are no fish]: 146-147; coutenay [Coyote swims down the river; turns into a wooden bowl; Night girls The hawk and the Snipe pick it up; the meat left in it for the night disappears; in the morning they find the bowl in their beds; throw it away, it turns into a little boy; while the girls are picking berries, Coyote releases salmon and deer, which they kept behind the pond and in the pen; both give birth to a child]: Boas 1918, No. 60:165-171.
California. Yurok [Coyote tells Trout he sees flies on the mountain; Trout agrees to change eyes with him; Coyote gets good eyes, Trout is bad; Coyote drinks Lizard berry juice, she wants him failures; he eats grasshoppers, they fall out of his ass; he covers his ass with resin, the resin accidentally lights up, he runs to the river, burns; when the water rises, the remains of the Coyote turn into a piece of wood, swimming to the sea; a woman collects fuel, starts splitting a piece of wood; Coyote jumps up, wakes up, a woman runs away]: Curtis 1976 (13): 189-190; Karok [Coyote goes for money- with shells to Lake Klamath; drinks berry juice The Lizard wants the Coyote to be thirsty; the grass lights up, the Coyote sees scorched grasshoppers, eats them, but they fall out of his ass; he covers his ass with resin; the resin lights up, his ass burns; the Coyote tries to drink water, but all rivers and streams become dry as soon as he approaches them; eventually falls into the water, goes with the flow; When he sees two girls, he turns into a piece of wood; they pull it out, they like it, they throw it away; then they decide it could be a Coyote and throw it away; both became pregnant; the Coyote sailed to the mouth of the river and stayed lying down; wasps and other insects ate it, leaving only bones and testicles; when the wasp reached the testicles, the Coyote jumped up and hit it with a stick; since then, the wasps have a narrow waist; regaining their image man, Coyote came to people celebrating the girls' growing up; got pregnant, chased after him; he hid in the steam room and pretended to be a Yurok Indian; then swam across the river in a boat, telling the mice gnaw holes in the rest of the boats; the pursuers realized it was a Coyote, wanted to swim across the river, but the boats were full of holes]: Bright 1954:3-8 (=Bright 1957, No. 1:163-167).
The Northern Andes. Paez [Chauté turned into a comb, lay down on the road, the woman picked it up, put it in her bag; went, looked - the bag was empty; after walking, she met a little boy, he asked to give it to him sugarcane from her bag; she refused, he turned it into stone, it was Chauté; he came as a little boy to the party to ask for meat; he was told that they did not have enough, he turned people into stones]: Nachtigall 1953, No. 8:300.
Central Andes. Quechua (dep. San Martin) [The Condor lifts the Puma into the air, drops it, the Puma falls, turns into a piece of wood; the man picks it up, is going to burn it; the Puma takes on his true form, runs away into the forest]: Park 1981:66; The central coast (near Lima) [The vulture carries the Fox to the sky, throws it to the ground; he screams, Stone, wood, stone, wood, etc.; falls when he says, Wood, turns into a piece of wood; a peasant brings it home; at night, the Fox takes on his usual form, steals food; a peasant throws a piece of wood into the fire; the fox runs away, since then he has a dark brown tail and back]: Jimenez Borja 1937, [No. 2, no pagination].
Montagna - Jurua. Machigenga [The vulture lifts the Jaguar into the air, throws it, falls, turns into a piece of wood; the man brings it home; at night, the Jaguar regains its normal appearance, hunts; one day a man puts a piece of wood into the fire; it turns into a jaguar, he runs away]: Elkins de Snell 1976:87.