E9i4. The Magic Wife – Crane. .21.26.36.38.40.

Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife, assistant) has the image of a crane.

Tibetans, Ancient China, Dolgans, northeastern Yakuts, Evens (Tomponsky region of Yakutia), Japanese, Bering Strait Inupiat.

Tibet - Northeast India. Tibetans [the ruler of the southern country is told that things will go well if dragons from the northern country are settled here; a sorcerer throws mud into a lake, the dragons must go away, but a hunter kills the sorcerer; the dragon gives a treasure as a reward, which ensures wealth; he goes to a hermit, sees seven heavenly maidens bathing in the lake, flying away "like white cranes"; the hermit teaches him to ask the dragon for a magic rope; the sorcerer gives the treasure, receives the rope, catches the eldest of the seven sisters, takes her necklace that allows him to fly; gives the maiden to the prince; he forgets about his 500 concubines; the courtier and concubines persuade the king to send the prince to war, to kill his wife; the prince's mother returns the necklace to her; flying away, she teaches her where her husband should look for her; overcoming obstacles with the help of the ring given by the hermit, the prince gets to heaven; throws his wife's ring into the maidservants' vessel; the wife recognizes him; her father does not want to give her to a mortal; demands that he win in archery; and let the arrow shot into the sky fall at the maiden's feet; the prince wins, gets his wife, returns with her to earth]: Yao 1986: 42-72.

China - Korea. Ancient China (Tun-huang Pien-wen Chi 1957: 882-885; 9th century CE manuscript from the Dunhuang cave complex, Gansu, near the border with Xinjiang, discovered 1899-1900) [a poor man T'ien K'un-lun saw three crane girls bathing in a pond; two flew away, the third lingered in the pond, he took her clothes; she agreed to come out when he gave her his shirt to cover her nakedness; she bore him a son T'ien Chang; K. was sent to serve in the West, his wife persuaded her mother-in-law to show her her clothes, she flew away; when the son is five years old, the mother and her sisters again descend to the pond, take the boy to heaven; after 15 years God sends him to earth, giving him an eight-volume book; the emperor called him, but sent him to the West for adultery; returns when T. finds explanations for unusual things; 1) a living dwarf warrior was found in the mouth of a dead crane (this is someone Li Tzu-ao, he was swallowed by the crane); 2) a giant's tooth was found (this is someone Ku Yen, his tooth was knocked out in a battle with the people of Lu); 4) the loudest sound is thunder, the quietest is when the whisper of one of three walking nearby is not heard by the others; 6) the largest bird is the Roc, the smallest is the Chao-liao, its seven chicks fit on the antenna of a fly; the emperor makes T. the head of the chancery (High Chamberlain)]: Waley 1959: 1-5.

Eastern Siberia. Dolgany [a horse gave birth to a boy, Atalamii - a hero; she ordered to flay her skin, whip her, the skin became a horse, the young man galloped on it; seven sterkh (white crane) girls from the upper world are bathing, A. steals the clothes of one, her friends lift the one left naked; A. arrives where the top of the sky rests; the three daughters of the Big Dipper try in vain to lasso him, their belts break; the three daughters of the Pleiades try to show the wrong way; abaasy takes that girl, A. comes in the guise of a beauty, kills abaasy, but his soul fluttered away like a bird from a cut heart; A. brings his wife to the middle world, after a long struggle defeats the abaasy that jumped out from under the hearth]: Efremov 2000, No. 1: 49-79; north-eastern (Verkhoyansk) Yakuts : Ergis 1967, No. 173 (summary of Khudyakov's entry and an archival text of unknown dialect affiliation) [the older brothers are smart, the younger is a fool; the older one married a Siberian crane girl whom he caught when she was swimming (or dancing); the younger one finds and returns her feathers to her; she flies away; the older one comes to the upper world for her; burns her feathers, she dies; with the help of heavenly shamans - the daughters of the Sun, Moon and Pleiades - he revives his wife; returns home, lives happily; the younger brother becomes a hero], 174 (the place of recording is not specified; since it is about the Siberian crane, most likely northeastern) [the Siberian crane flies to the lake, takes off its skin; Erdyigan Silik grabs it; she and other girls are hostages of the sea spirit, they live on an island; ES flies with her; seven girls are the daughters of the abaasy, ES chooses the eighth, whom he saved; flies home with her, lives happily]: 204; 1974 [(=Ergis 1964, No. 55: 188-191; recorded in the 1860s by Khudyakov: Verkhoyansky Sbornik 1890: 74-80); The elder brother is a hunter Uchugei Udyuyeen ( Good Yudian ), the younger is a homebody Kuhae'an Khodyugur ( Thin Khodyugur ) ; Seven white cranes (sterkhs) began to fly to them and play with XX; the elder brother caught one of the sterkh birds and married it; soon she found her feathers, turned into a sterkh and flew away; HU flew up onto a cloud, found his wife, plucked out all the feathers and burned them, which is why she, having lost the soul hidden in them, died; then he flew to the heavenly shamans: to the daughter of the Pleiades - the Timid shaman, to the daughter of the Sun - the Kγθgel'ld'in shaman, to the daughter of the Moon - the shaman with the Moonlight; having promised to marry the shaman and having dressed his wife in his clothes, he forced them to revive her; the shamans, having seen the resurrected woman and taking her for HU himself, flew away into the sky; HU returned home with his wife, lived richly; XX became a strong hero; (retold in Sivtsev, Efremov 1990: 176-181)]: 224-225; Evens(Tomponsky district of Yakutia, Topolinoye settlement) [Irkenmel is hunting, his younger brother Өyinde is cutting up the catch at home; he sees seven cranes coming down, taking off their wings, turning into girls, playing, repairing the tent, cleaning up, cutting up a deer, promising to return tomorrow; the same the next day; on the third day I. hid, hid the wings of his older sister; she became I.'s wife; asks Ө. to find and give her the wings, promises to make him various items of clothing; he agrees only when she gives him the yala; the girl puts on the wings and flies away; I. went in search, telling the yula not to take Ө. far from home; turned into an ermine to run easier; having become a fish, he swam across the sea; on the other side the cranes are dancing, and the bird tells the baby that his father is I.; tells I. to become a mouse, to grab his wife by the braid when she starts feeding the child; I. grabbed his wife, lives with her, then decides to return home; shoots an arrow across the sea, the sea freezes, they cross with the deer; at home I. cuts the Ө. and the top in half, a handsome boy and girl appear, they get married]: Lavrilje, Matich 2013: 119-158.

Japan. Japanese [in the mountains a poor man saw a crane pinched by a fallen tree; he saved her, and soon a beauty came to live with him; to cook rice, she puts only two grains in the cauldron; she wove an extraordinary fabric and ordered it to be sold for 300 gold; gave birth to a daughter; when she grew up, the wife said that she wove the fabric by plucking her own feathers; she became a crane and flew away]: Markova 1956: 44-47; Japanese [there are many versions of the tale in which a young man saves a crane wounded by an arrow; a few days later a beautiful girl came and offered herself to him as a wife; the young man said that he was too poor; girl: I brought rice for us; the young wife asked that she be given a separate room and never to look in there; she locked herself in the room and a few days later came out holding an expensive fabric in her hands; The young man sold the weaving for a lot of money; wanting to know how his wife weaves without having any thread, the young man began to spy; he saw a crane in the room, plucking her feathers and making fabric from them; the crane immediately flew away, telling the young man to keep the unfinished fabric as a souvenir]: Kumar 2009: 158.

Arctic. Inupiat of the Bering Strait (King Island) [a hunter hides the clothes of five girls bathing in a small lake; returns everything to the fourth, does not return the belt ornament to the fifth, takes her as a wife; the wife cannot stand the smell of a human dwelling, eats only grass; (further Russian tale)]; 254-256 (Cape Prince of Wales) [a man takes in an orphan, who works hard; hides the clothes of four girls bathing; returns to three, they fly away as cranes; the fourth becomes his wife, makes a house apart from the village; they have two children; they come to live in the village; the stepfather wants to take possession of his wife; during a game, the young man is pushed off a cliff, he turns into a weasel, returns alive; during a whale hunt, a line is tied to his leg; he swims to the whale, gets ashore, sees his wife and children in the form of cranes fly out of the house; they bring him into the world of the cranes, his wife's father gives him his crane parka, he stays with the cranes]: Curtis 1976(20): 106.