N4. Fused ribs .26.28.29.31.33.34.

Fused ribs are a sign of heroic strength. {The motive was highlighted and the material was collected by Kostyantin Rahno}.

Ancient China, Belarusians, Northern Ukrainians, Kalmyks, Dargins, Georgians, Svans, Lithuanians, Kazakhs, Altaians, Shors, Chulym Turks, Tuvans (all groups), Buryats (including Mongolian ), Darkhats, Oirats, Khalkha Mongols.

China - Korea. Ancient China: Rifting 1979:100-102 [The Hainei Jing section of the ancient Book of Mountains and Seas (late 3rd century BC - early 1st century AD) says about Huang Di's other grandson: "Han Liu had outstretched head (option: head with a long neck), sensitive ears, human face, pig snout, cilin unicorn body, fused hips (?) , piggy feet (hooves)." The expression "qu gu", which is supposedly translated as "fused hips", is extremely difficult to understand and translate, and is associated with the expression "pianse" - "fused ribs"], 103-105 [Cultural hero and wise ruler Chuan-xu, grandson of Huang Di. In the treatise at the turn of the era "He tu. Wo ju Ji" says that "Zhuan-xu has a ditch head, fused ribs, fused eyebrows, and a belt in the form of a u sign at noon." The 6th-century philologist Liu Xie also says in his treatise New Reasons that Chuan-xu "had fused ribs (bin gan)"]; Sima Qian 1987 [In the Zuo Commentaries (Zuo Zhuan) (turn of the 4th-3rd centuries BC). ) It is said that Prince Gong-gun heard from someone that Chung-er, Crown Prince of the Jin Kingdom (697-628 BC), had grown together and wanted to see for himself. While swimming, he was able to see the naked prince]: 276.

Central Europe. Belarusians (p. (Bokhovo Slutsoky district) [Modern people shredded and drained like mosquitoes. Old people say that people used to be stronger than a bear, but no one could defeat a bear, ancient asilkas. People used to have damn ribs like hoops all around, and that was so powerful. But, as they say, if God gave a pig horns, it would also turn the world upside down. When the asilki felt powerful, they began to fight, take risks, and threaten God himself. For this, God took their minds away, so they began to break stone mountains with their foreheads. The asilok will accelerate like a ram, and as he rushes his forehead against a stone, his brains will flow, and he himself bah bang to the ground, twitches his legs a little, and the spirit is out. Thus, asilki passed out en masse, but there were nowhere else who had one or two ribs, those who were only slightly stronger than ordinary people. Even now, there are asylks that have a whole damn rib. Nobody will defeat those asilkas, because they do not feel their strength. They say that there was such an asilok not far away: this is how he twisted a thick deck in his hands, an elephant stick]: Serzhputoski 2009:447-448; northern Ukrainians (Volyn Polesye) [- Goat, but they tell the truth that Buzyga has double ribs? - Vasil asked thoughtfully. - What if he can never be killed? Is that true? - True truth. How could it be otherwise? All his ribs have grown together, all the way to his navel. At least you want to hit someone like Buzyga, and you can't beat him off his liver, brother... you can't beat him off. Because his livers are attached to his ribs. And in humans, livers are the first thing. If a person's liver is broken off, that person won't live anymore. He will become weak, he will start grumbling blood: he cannot eat or drink, and then he will give an oak tree...]: Kuprin 1984:196 p.

Caucasus - Asia Minor. Kalmyks: Bitkeev 1990 [A number of other songs by Kalmyk Dzhangariada reveal moments that characterize the invulnerability of negative heroes... the enemy hero "has no space between his ribs "]: 97-98; Jimbinov 1962 [fairy tale episode: "At a glorious hour, the good Bator Ovshe was born on earth. His father was Yenke Menke and his mother was Erdeni Jirgal. They stroked the child's back and did not find a vertebra that could bend, felt the ribs - solid ribs, there was nowhere for an evil person to put a knife"]: Jimbinov 1962:50 (cf. ["Aranzal, a wonderful horse, was born at the same time as Ovshe. The horse does not have a bending vertebra on its back, the villain cannot find a knife gap between the ribs"]: 51; Georgians, Svans [A special category of people (svans have buatl, Georgians have bitao). Bitao's ribs and entire chest are merged into one solid bone shield, they are endowed with extraordinary physical strength, a tall, beautiful body and good health. Buatl/bitao are invincible; after death, their bones buried in the ground do not collapse. Bitao dies as soon as someone else's eye sees a shining sign between his shoulder blades]: Bardavelidze 2006:98; Georgians [theater monk Cristoforo di Castelli (17th century) about Tsar Alexander of Iberia: by According to his subjects, all his ribs consist of a single bone]: Block 1998:365; Dargins (p. Alikhanmakhi, Akushinsky District, Dagestan) [Especially strong people are called sledges. And no outsider should know about such a person that he has a solid bone instead of ribs. Because they don't live long afterwards. The child was 40 days old, and he, tightly tied in a cradle, miraculously untied himself and sat down. And at 60 days he couldn't fit in a cradle. And when a neighbor accidentally found out about a solid bone, the child did not live long]: Kostyantin Rakhno, personal message on July 10, 2017, recording by Spartak Dzanaev.

Baltoscandia. Lithuanians [devils (velniai, necessarily associated with the kingdom of the dead) fertilized girls who, having suffered from them, gave birth to children. Such children were very strong men and had hoops (lankus) on their bellies: they became great strongmen (giants)]: Vasilkov, Razauskas 2003:37.

Turkestan. Kazakhs: Zhirmunsky 1974 [The heroic fairy tale "Kan-Shentey": "Your rib is without notches, your spine is without joints"]: 244; Syzdykova 1989 [The fairy tale "Kanshentey". The main character is called "Batyr Karys-Kara's son, cast ribs, steel spine"]: 63-64, 70.

Southern Siberia - Mongolia. Altaians [A sign of a miraculous heroic build is that "there are no joints in the vertebrae and ribs (Bogono seok)"]: Nikiforov 1915:50; Shors ["The Shaygyn-Mergen child has at the base of the ribs, where they are divide, there is no place to make a hole in the ridge - there is no place. Like pure steel, like solid cast iron, the boy created"]: Dyrenkova 1940:23; Chulym Turks [Shumilovsky's "one-rib" hero who cannot be killed because he has solid ribs, who have merged into one monolithic shield that covers his chest]: Solovyov 1987:58; Tuvans: Alekseev et al. 2010 [There are widespread legends about strongmen with unusual abilities and a special body structure that is different from others, physical qualities that are not characteristic of an ordinary person. For example, one legend says that after the death of Silach-Chavaadai, people found that all Chavaadai's ribs were fused together. According to Tuvans, fused bones testify to the incredible physical strength of a person. Russian Tuvans also have the same ideas about strongmen: "After death, people discovered that all Kuvaanda's ribs were fused together"]: 185; Grebnev 1960 ["Artylan-Mergen with the horse Arzylan- Kyskylom": "Your horse will be Arzylan-Kyskyl, who has survived three owners and during whose life three quivers have worn out. This mighty horse has no cracks between its ribs, stegna bones without joints; it is so fast that {everyone} who has hair and hooves will not be able to jump over it on the ground, with feathers and wings, will not be able to jump above the ground will be able to overtake him"]: 24; South Altai Tuvans (Xinjiang) [after the death of Silach-Chavaadai, people found that all his ribs were fused together]: Yusha 2016:130; Buryats [V Buryat folklore one of the indicators of the strength and power of a hero is a chest consisting of a solid bone (huzhe yahatay). This is how Babzha Baatar appears in Buryat legends]: Bardakhanova 1992:43; Mongolian Buryats (Kharkhorin somon, Uverkhangai aimag; narrator - Zhamtsyn Tsogbadrah, born in 1944, originally from Bulgan aimag, parents moved to Kharkhorin) [there is a pass near Orkhon, where a wrestler is buried, whose ribs have no gaps; the she-wolf used these bones as a hole and gave birth to three years in a row in they are cubs]: Duvakin 2011; darhats (Khatgal, Somon Alag-Erdene of Huvsgel aimag; narrator Puntsagyn Battor, born in 1945, born in Ranchinlhumbe somon of the same aimak) [was a strong and big man Sarttul; he had no cracks between his ribs, they were whole; he took a cow from someone, took its insides out of it and threw them to the top]: Duvakin 2011; Oirats [epic tale episode:" When he was born from his mother's yellow womb, he held {Egil-Mergen} a diamond black sword in his mouth; this is how he was born, they say. He was born, they say, holding a piece of caked black blood the size of a liver in his hand. They began to say that there was no good man on eight continents of sunflower who could surpass him; they said they fumbled on his back and did not find a vertebra that could bend, they looked for him, they say they did not find a space in his ribs where black damask could be inserted"]: Vladimirtsov 2003:493 (cf. [horse descriptions: "He was born such that there is no gap between his ribs, there is no weakness in his black heart"; "Then they saddle, deftly adjusting everything, wearing jewelry painted harness, salt bald Narkhan-Zandan (Thin Sandalwood), a Tyuk-Tyumen-Solongo pacer, who did not have a gap in his tibia"; "she sat on her horse with a leaf star, a pacer with eight tibia there was no interval, and went to her homeland, accompanied by her eight servants"; "For the beautiful Khara-Nyudyun, they saddled, deftly adjusted, a saddle with a bridle and jewelry, a horse jewel, a pacer, which was not spaced in eight tibia, where the beautiful woman grew up riding"; "That horse's back did not have, they say, bent vertebrae, and there was no gap in the ribs where it could be stick the tip of black damask; the air horse was, they say, premature Egil-Mergen"]: Vladimirtsov 2003:374, 389, 420, 491, 494); Khalkha-Mongols: Duvakin 2011 (Kharkhorin, Somon Kharkhorin Uverhangay aimag; narrator - Dondogyin Emeel, born in 1944, from the same somon) [was a rib fighter without cracks; when he died, they left him in the steppe (ground burial); people from another area stole these bones - they have good fighters]: Duvakin 2011; Skorodumova, Solovyova 2014:52 [In epic tales, heroes, usually heroes and their horses, are often used as characteristics of heroes and their horses the expression: "in the ribs without a slit, in the lower back without a gap." In modern tradition, this has become a belief associated with wrestlers, the strongest and most famous of them. It is believed that such outstanding people also have "fused" ribs, solid, without a gap, and a chest of such size that the she-wolf chooses the remains of a famous wrestler as a safe haven for her offspring. "Old people said that strong man Dambral lived in this area. Sometime in the middle of the 20th century. He died a natural death. After his body was placed in the steppe, the wolf brought the cubs into his chest. The ribs of the chest were fused together. There were a lot of wolves at that time. Wolf puppies are in a secluded place, so she loved the chest as a cave. He was such a big man"], 53 ["Chultem-Avarga had no hole between his ribs. The she-wolf brought cubs in his chest. A she-wolf is a sign of a hero's greatness"; At the same time, there is a saying: "in bones without a gap - in actions without harmony." This often expresses the violent character of a person (which is also a common characteristic of epic heroes)]; Khalha Mongols [Khan Kharangui did not have a gap in the ribs, but in the back parts - the joint; the arrow bounced off him; his betrothed dagini (heavenly maiden) Toli Goa, daughter of Khan Agi-Bural, lives in the east 99 years ago; can eliminate disasters 12 years ago and 12 years in the future; resurrects the dead, extracts water where it is not available; when they sleep face back, people on the back (i.e. northwest) side think that the sun has risen, carry ash and milk cows; when facing forward, front people open the yurt chimney and milk the cows, thinking that dawn has come; (hereinafter, pp. 286-287, a retelling of the entire text]: Sanzheev 1947 to Zhirmunsky 1974:286.