I22G. Crushed Rocks. .14.-.16.(.17.).20.-.25.27.-.34.36.37.39.40.43.45.48.-.52.63.63.65.66.68.

Mountains (rocks) are mentioned that continually collide and move apart, or a gap or mouth in a vertical rock opens and closes. Cf. motif I22g1, Colliding rocks.

Arabs of Mauritania, Western Sahara, Algeria, Berbers of Morocco, Kabyles, Arabs of Tunisia, Latins, Spaniards, Bretons, French (Upper Brittany), (Phoenicians), Vanuatu (Shepherd Islands), Gilbert Islands, Marquesas, Tibetans (?), Tibetans (Amdo), Lepchas, Karen, Pao, Khmu, Thai, White Thai of Vietnam, Ancient India (Konkani), Malays, Toraja, Manobo, Ancient Greece, Greeks, Greek Cypriots, Romanians, Albanians, Bosnians, Russians (Tersky Coast, Olonetskaya {??}, Moscow, Oryol, Voronezh, Perm), Ukrainians (Transcarpathia, Boykivshchyna, Galicia, Kharkov, Yekaterinoslav), Slovaks, Abkhazians, Adyghe, Ossetians, Balkars, Ingush, Avars, Lezgins, Georgians, Armenians, Burishi (Uzbeks), Scandinavians, Lithuanians, Bashkirs, Kazakhs, Altaians, Mongols, Mongors, Shirongols, Dolgans, Baikal and Far Eastern Evenks, Orochs, Chukchi, Asian Eskimos, St. Lawrence Island, Nunivak, Central Yupik, Northern Alaska Inupiat, Netsilik(?), Igloolik, Baffin Island, West Greenland, Tsimshian, Quarry, Shuswap, Klallam, Pugit Sound, Snookualli, Seneca, Mi'kmaq, Maliseet, Passamaquoddy, Pomo, Coast and Mountain Miwok, Yokuts, Chumash, Northern Shoshone, Navajo, Jicarilla, Western Apache, Hopi, Tewa, Havasupai, Yavapa, Huichol, Aztec, Otomi, Chinantec, Yupa, Barasana, Urubu, Tupinambá, Quechua (Ancash, NW Argentina), Shipibo-Conibo, Tacana, Guarayu, Chiriguano, Cayabi.

North Africa. Western Sahara [two sisters are married to two brothers; when they leave, they tell them that if children of different sexes are born, one family must go east and the other west; one sister has a boy, Nehry Bugam, and they decide to dress him as a girl; NB grows up, the truth is revealed; NB grows up, and goes off to look for his cousin Dayesmus, with him an ostrich, a riding camel and horse, a young camel and she-camel, a dog and a raven; the snakes that crush the mountains allow him to pass, the mountains only cut off the tip of the young camel's tail ; NB gives the shepherd a ring to throw into a bowl of milk, which the chieftain's daughter (i.e. D.) will take; the shepherd says that the seven-headed serpent demands girls, and the only one left is the chieftain's daughter; NB tells the serpent that he has come to see such a glorious creature, and asks to be allowed to take one of its heads as a keepsake; then the second; the other five he cuts off in battle, hides under a huge stone; no one else can lift it, NB gets D. as a wife; foreign warriors wound NB, take his wife; animals nurse him back to health; he defeats the enemies, gets his wife back, the crushing mountains and snakes let them through again; all is well]: Aris, Cladellas 1999: 65-73; Arabs of Mauritania [a woman gives birth to boys, but each of the newborns is carried away by the wind; a medicine man promises her a talisman on the condition that when the first surviving child learns the Koran, she will give it to him; the mother deliberately leaves her son's sabre at the old camp and sends for it; the she-camel says that a ghoul is hiding near the sabre - it must be seized and the she-camel will quickly carry away the rider; orders it to be killed, there is a foal in it - half gold, half silver; orders to sit on it; they stopped under a tree where a green bird brought people; the jewels of those eaten are scattered on the ground; after eating, the bird sings; the young man took the jewels; the sultan will give his daughter to the one who spits from below to her face high in the window, only the young man succeeds; he receives the sultan's daughter, but hides in the guise of a poor bastard; in the guise of a beautiful warrior he defeats the enemies; the wife bandages her wound with a handkerchief; learns that her lousy husband is a handsome man, but keeps quiet about it; the sultana is pregnant, wants to hear the green bird sing; the sultan's elder sons-in-law do not know how to do this; the young man promises them to get the bird, in exchange for which he cuts off a phalanx of the little finger of each son-in-law; the foal teaches how to lure the bird into the chest where the meat is; the bird tells the sultan that it will not sing until he gets Bzougue's daughter; the sons-in-law again do not know how to do this; the young man promises to get them a girl, in exchange for which he cuts off an earlobe of each; the bird demands the milk of a lioness who has given birth for the first time, and with her other such lionesses; this time the young man cuts off the little fingers of the legs of the contenders; the young man fed and decorated the lioness's cubs, she fulfilled all the demands; now Bzougue's daughter asks to get water from behind the crushing mountains; the young man cuts off a piece of the sons-in-law's nose; the foal orders that the ants guarding the path be given grain, the girls pearls, the dogs meat; to tell the mountains that are pounding that the other mountains move further apart before a collision – one towards the sunrise, the other towards the sunset; the youth gets water, runs away, the mountains cut off only the tip of the foal's tail ; the bird sings, Bzougue's daughter is happy, everyone praises the sons-in-law; the wife tells the youth that she knows his secret; the youth appears in all his glory, shows the Sultan his cut off little fingers, etc.]: Tauzin 1993: 127-142; Berbers of southern Morocco [a poor wood-seller has two sons; he caught a beautiful bird in the forest and brought it home; his wife did not let the children play with it, but hid it; every day the bird lays an egg, the Jew buys each one for a hundred calicoes; the husband went on a pilgrimage, and the Jew became his wife's lover; he asked to slaughter and cook the bird; returning in the absence of their mother, the boys opened the lid of the cauldron, the younger Hammed ate the head, and the elder Muhammed the heart of the bird; not finding the head and heart, the Jew orders the woman to slaughter the children and take out the contents of their stomachs; she orders a servant to do this; she let the children go, brought the head and heart of some killed bird; Jew: that's not it; the woman drove the servant away and married the Jew; M. went to the right from the fork, came to the locked gates of the city; the king died there, the inhabitants will choose as the new king the one who comes to the gates first in the morning; M. became king; X. went to the left, hired himself out to a bagel baker; brought happiness to the house; he has a magic ring; when you turn it, a palace appears; the youngest of the king's seven daughters saw this, asked their father to give them in marriage; the king called all the men, gave each of the daughters an apple to throw at the chosen one; they all threw, the youngest waits; when they brought the baker's lousy worker, she threw the apple at him; the king fell ill; vizier: let the sons-in-law bring lion's milk in a lion's skin, the lion will carry it, and the other will walk in front; the lousy one turned the ring, ordered the servant to give him a white stallion, weapons, etc.; promises the other sons-in-law to get what they demand in exchange for the apples received from the princesses; brought slaughtered bulls to the king of lions, he gave what was required; vizier: one more medicine is needed - water taken from between the rocks that open once a year; the same (red stallion; H. demands that the sons-in-law cut off their earlobes); H. managed to take water, the rocks only cut off the horse's tail ; third medicine: an apple from the garden of Rhalia Bint Manssor, who lives beyond the seven seas; a black stallion; cut off the phalanges of the little fingers; a servant from the ring: only an elderly spirit, almost deprived of feathers, will take it there; he asks to take 7 vessels of blood and 7 pieces of meat on the road; when he flies, he asks what kind of land H. sees; he answers (less and less); the seventh piece slipped out of his hands, H. cut off the flesh from his hand; having flown, the spirit teaches how to pass through the three gates to the sleeping RBM; H. took the apple, left a note that he was here; H. says to the king that he has got everything, orders the sons-in-law to present the apples; the king executed 6 sons-in-law, arranged a wedding for H. with the youngest daughter; the brothers' father returned, but his wife, who had become the wife of a Jew, refused to recognize him; he asked the king Sidi Muhammad (i.e. his son) to judge between them; he called his brother Hammed, each told everything; the mother and the Jew were burned]: Stumme 1895, No. 15: 119-131; Kabyles [the king has three wives, one from Kabylia, another from Europe, the third an Arab, each with a son; the brothers, headed by the son of a woman from Kabylia, bring their father the beautiful feathers of seven birds; he orders the birds themselves to be brought; the son of a woman from Kabylia kills a man-eater, a lion, passes between the crushed mountains , gets living water; promises his brothers to return in a year and a day; a magic cat teaches him to get birds, gives him a magic sword, the young man gets a wife, returns; his brothers want to kill him, the magic sword kills them; at home the father is frightened by the return of his son, kills him; his wife revives him with living water, he kills his father, ascends to the throne]: Arezki 2010: 113-114; Arabs of eastern Algeria : Belamri 1982 [both wives of the sultan are childless; he accidentally overheard a conversation between three girls; the baker's daughter: if the sultan took me as his wife, I would make couscous for everyone from one grain of wheat; the carpenter's daughter: I would weave burnouses from a scrap of wool; the blacksmith's daughter: would have given birth to two sons (one with one silver temple, the other gold; the second with teeth of pearls and diamonds) and a daughter who would have sparkled brighter than the sun; the sultan married the blacksmith's daughter; when she was pregnant, the two previous wives made a deal with the midwife Settoute, she replaced the boy with a puppy and released him into the sea in a box; the same a year later with the second boy; another year later with a girl; after this the sultan ordered to keep his wife on a chain with the dogs, to feed her like a dog; the children were picked up by a poor fisherman; Gabriel appeared to him and said that God would take care of their food; dying, the fisherman left a powerful amulet to his grown children: the golden bit of Baba-Morjan; one must address him, "You, who are both spirit and wind"; he carried them to the city of their father; the evil wives guessed everything, asked S. to help; she came to the girl and said that she lacked a mare with 10 foals; amulet: she is beyond the 7 seas, her front legs are lightning, her back legs are winds; you need to drive a golden pile (pieu) into the yard, in the morning there will be a mare with foals; S.: lacks Hadd-Ezzine (ideal of beauty); amulet: she is among the seven mountains under the protection of seven ghouls; you need to mount one of those foals and slip between the crowded mountains ; each ghoul must have his beard shaved, his hair combed, and be shown to a mirror, then they will become your friends; HE first knocked the young man off his horse and he lay there for 40 days, but then agreed to go with him; wedding, feast; the amulet created all kinds of delicacies in abundance; the sultan invited the brothers and sister and HE to his place; HE: we will not touch the food until you have called all your wives; the sultan has to bring the one kept with the dogs, she is washed and dressed; HE tells her to tell everything; the sultan is happy; the wives were burned, S. was torn apart by two camels]: 52-64; Scelles-Millie 1963 (Souf) [the king keeps his seven sons in the palace, wanting to protect them from everything bad that is in the world; They are given boneless meat, shelled almonds, skinless watermelons; one day a black servant forgot to take out the dice; the young men began to play, throwing the dice at each other, broke a window and saw the outside world; they told the servant to tell them everything - about birth, love, death; they sent to their father with a request to let them go; the king married his sons; his daughters-in-law irritated him, he decided to get rid of them; a Jew advised them to pretend to be sick, let the sons bring the blood of their wives; six wives were killed, and the youngest Ali brought the blood of a gazelle, ran away with his wife; they came to the house of 40 blind ghouls; they prepared 40 flatbreads and 40 portions of meat; Ali quietly took one; the ghouls fought, Ali killed them and threw them into a well; the wife heard a groan, pulled out and hid one ghoul, who was only wounded; the ghoul advised sending Ali for golden rejuvenating apples; The old woman teaches Ali: he must slip between the crushing mountains; manage to jump over the garden fence (as soon as the wall sees Ali's horse, it will begin to grow); having picked apples, gallop away without turning back; Ali turned slightly at the voice, the horse's tail was cut off ; the old woman orders that the rejuvenating apples be given to her, and that the ordinary ones be brought to his wife; the ghoul advised him to invite Ali to play chess for life; Ali let his wife win, believing that it was a joke, but she killed him, put the pieces of his body in a sack, attached it to the saddle of his horse and ordered the horse to gallop back where he came from; the old woman joined the pieces, but the heart and liver are missing; she sent a cat to the ghoul, who brought the heart and liver; the old woman revived Ali with the juice of the rejuvenating apples; he came to the ghoul disguised as a dervish, hacked him to death at night, stabbed his wife, and returned to the old woman; she turned the cat into a beauty, Ali married her, returned to his father, who passed the throne to him]: 313-316; Arabs of Tunisia [a young man must obtain “the blood of gazelles that irrigates the apple trees, on whose fruit the singing bird feeds”; to do this he must pass between rapidly converging and diverging rocks]: Ben Hassan, Charnay 1997: 52 in La Quellec, Sergent 2017: 1235.

Southern Europe. Latins : Hyg. Fab. 19 ["Myths" attributed to Gaius Julius Hyginus, who lived at the turn of the eras, but most likely dating from the 1st-2nd centuries: "Phineus, son of Agenor, a Thracian, had two sons by Cleopatra. They were blinded by their father through the fault of their stepmother. And to this Phineus, they say, Apollo gave the gift of prophecy, and because he divulged the plans of the gods, Jupiter blinded him and assigned to him the Harpies, who are called the dogs of Jupiter. They snatched the food from his mouth. When the Argonauts arrived there and asked him to show them the way, he said that he would show them if they freed him from punishment. Then Zethus and Calais, the sons of the wind Aquilon and Orithyia, who were said to have wings on their heads and feet, drove the Harpies away to the Strophades and freed Phineus from punishment. He showed them how to pass through the Symplegades: let them launch a dove, and when the rocks come together ...... {corrupted place in the manuscript} let them swim back. Thanks to Phineus the Argonauts passed through the Symplegades" (trans. D. O. Torshilov)]; Sen. Med. 610 [the tragedy "Medea" by Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 B. C. - A. D. 65): mention of the Argonauts sailing between moving rocks ("quisquis intravit scopulos vagantes")]; Sen. Her. fur. 1210-1215 [the tragedy "Hercules in Madness" by Lucius Annaeus Seneca (4 BC - 65 AD); Hercules, in a fit of grief, exclaims: "Let the Symplegades, who have locked the Scythian Pontus / Stretch out my body, tied to them by the hands; but when / The cliffs shall move in their turn and the wave from their descent shall rise to the sky, let me lie as a sorrowful obstacle / Among them" (translated by S.A. Osherov)]; Val. Fl. Arg. IV. 561-702 ["Argonautica" by Valerius Flaccus (1st century AD): the Argonauts sailed between the Cyanean Cliffs colliding with each other; the rocks managed to crush only part of the stern of their ship]; Spaniards (Murcia) [three sons of a poor widow leave home one after another; an old man gives each one a letter to leave where the horse stops; the older ones do not dare to cross a river and leave the letter on its bank; upon returning, they tell the old man that they have fulfilled his request; he gives each one gold, but they do not share it with their mother; the youngest crosses the river, then crosses a river of blood and leaves a letter at the crushing mountains where the horse stops; the old man explains that the first river is made of the tears of the Virgin Mary, shed during the crucifixion of Christ; the second is made of the blood of Christ; and the crushing mountains are the older brothers fighting over money]: Hernández Fernández 2013, no. 471: 105; Sardinians [a young man sets out in search of the Beauty of the World; his father lets him go; he enters the palace; there the old man explains how to get to the beauty: praise the gates that are sometimes closed, sometimes opened , as well as steps and doors; a youth comes to the king; he promises a daughter if the youth will get (him) the Beauty of the World; the Beauty of the World is in the third of the oranges; she stays with the youth, since he immediately gave her wine; refuses the king and stays with the youth; the king dies of grief]: Aprile 2000: 273; Sicilians [someone steals apples from the king's orchard; the eldest son guards, falls asleep; the same with the middle one; the youngest cuts off the hand that reached over the fence; in the morning the brothers see a well, only the youngest dared to go down; killed the sleeping giant, freeing the three princesses; the brothers lift them up on a rope; when the youth is about to rise, they cut the rope, but he has tied a stone; the youngest princess must wait for him for a year, a month and a day; the old king has gone blind from grief, the water of Fata Morgana will cure him; the brothers went to look, did not find it; in the lower world, the horse (this is FM's brother) teaches his younger brother to put an iron rod into a gate that sometimes swings open, sometimes slams shut ; a roll of wet paper - into moving scissors; throw half a goat to each of the two lions; FM's water is her sweat pouring from a spring; there is a pomegranate nearby, you need to pick three fruits; the young man did everything, and also went into the castle, kissed the sleeping FM; FM and the lions pursue, but the horse orders to throw the pomegranates; they turn into a river, a mountain, a mountain of fire; FM returns; the young man meets the brothers, they take away the bottle of water, the king regains his sight, divides the kingdom between the eldest sons; the younger is imprisoned with the horse; he orders to beat and cut him up; a young man appears - FM's brother; the younger defeats the enemies, forgives the brothers, but takes the kingdom for himself; is FM, recognizes the youth as the one who kissed her, takes him as her husband, marries the brother to the youth's sister]: Gonzenbach 2004a [1870], No. 36: 234-242; Sicilians [A poor shoemaker has three daughters; he sits down on a stone, exclaims, Oh!; a youth appears, asks why he was called, takes him to an underground castle, gives him gold, orders him to give his youngest daughter in marriage; she agrees; it was King Cardiddu; a witch cast a spell on him because he refused to take her daughter; he forbids his wife to unlock one room; the sisters come, advise her to unlock it; at night she lights a candle, wax drips on K., she finds herself in the forest; the king says that now she must go to the witch; she demands that she sweep and not sweep, make and not make a fire, prepare and not prepare a bed; every time K. appears, teaches how to do half of it; teaches to ask the birds to wash a pile of laundry; the witch sends a girl with a letter to her sister; K. teaches that one must praise the river, where the water is mixed with blood, it will calm down; take the bones from the donkey, give them to the dog, and from the dog to the donkey hay; praise the door, it will stop opening and closing ; you must not open the box on the way; run as soon as the witch starts reading the letter, it says that the one who brought the letter must be eaten; the girl opens the box, it starts ringing, K. comes for the last time to set things right; the witch orders the door, the dog, etc. to hold the fugitive, but they answer that the girl was kind to them; the river is angry with the witch, when she runs up, it drowns her; the witch gives her daughter in marriage to K.; the girl is standing at the foot of the bed, the witch's daughter is in bed; K. asks to change places for a while; the witch collapses the floor, her daughter, not the girl, dies; K. and his wife run away, he turns into a vegetable garden, she into a gardener; a church and a sexton; a pond and an eel; the witch cannot catch it; at home he crosses his hands on his head until he opens them, K.'s wife does not give birth; K. orders the funeral bells to be rung, the witch believes that he is dead, takes off her hands, K.'s wife gives birth to a son; the bells ring for health, the witch smashes her head against the wall]: Gonzenbach 2004a [1870], no. 49: 324-332.

Western Europe. The French (Upper Brittany) [the soldier Jean returned to his mother and they went wandering together; Jean saw and took a knife stuck in a tree with the inscription: my owner will always win; robbers came towards him; Jean killed them all, but spared the life of the chieftain, who pleased his mother; they began to live in the robbers' house; the mother asks her lover how to get rid of Jean; the robber: pretend to be ill and send his son for an apple from the apple tree owned by giants; Jean killed the robbers with a knife, brought an apple; bring water from a spring beyond three rivers: frozen, boiling and teeming with predatory creatures; Jean somehow crossed the rivers, but ahead there were crushing rocks ; but on the ground lies a whip with the inscription: hit with it, and the rocks will stop; Jean brought water to his mother; bring lion's milk; Jean killed a lioness, brought milk; then the robber suggested persuading Jean to sleep in his mother's room; while he was sleeping, a robber saw a knife around his neck, gouged out his eyes, tied a little dog to him and let him go; he came to Paris, the princess fell in love with him; he stumbled, fell face down in a spring and regained his sight; he married the princess; he came to his mother, they did not recognize him; at night he took possession of the knife, gouged out the eyes of his mother and the robber and returned to his wife]: Sébillot 1882b, no. 21: 201-207; French (Upper Brittany) [a prince of heroic height and strength, and with him a small but brave soldier; across the river a castle, and in front of it either windmills or razors rise and fall ; the soldier puts the prince on his back, goes around the obstacle; in the castle there is a woman, and up the stairs a sleeping giant; the prince stabs him three times with his sword, but the giant thinks that fleas are biting; seeing people, threatens to burn them with his breath; then wants to swallow the prince, but the soldier hits him with his magic knife, and he is cut into small pieces; {further about their adventures in America; thanks to the little soldier, the prince becomes king}]: Sébillot 1882b, no. 17: 172-179.

( Cf. Western Asia. Phoenicians [“The Acts of Dionysus” by Nonnus of Panopolis (5th century AD): in Tyre, Dionysus addresses Hercules Astrochiton in the temple; he appears to him in a starry robe; D. asks who founded Tyre; Astrochiton’s story: the tribe of the earth-born, coevals of the world, are immersed in sleep; A. tells them to find the moving rocks, sacrifice an eagle on them, after which the rocks will stop, and found a city there; the earth-born do all this; in parting, A. gives D. his starry robe; D. continues on his way; (summary in Zakharova, Torshilov 2003: 247)]: Nonn. Dion. XL. 369-580).

Melanesia. Vanuatu ( Shepherd Islands ) [Sina and Saliaumbea (S.) met, decided to live together; S. built a hut with two rooms; Sina wanted to sleep together, but S. stayed in his room; his penis was wrapped around his waist several times; at night S. sent the penis to Sina, but she pushed him away, and in the morning asked what it was; took S. to the seashore, took the penis by the tip and began to cut off pieces until the penis was short enough; the cut pieces turned into holothurians; Sina gave birth to an eldest son Karisupuna, a younger Tafaki and a daughter Leiouaoua; one day S. returned home when only the children were there; L. left excrement at the entrance; S. beat the children; when Sina returned, the children were crying; they said that the father called the mother tuarerere (fruit bat? see below) and showed her wings hidden under the roof; Sina put on her wings and flew up to a tree branch; the branch broke; so with 10 branches; S. hears a crack like thunder; finally, she flew away, telling her sons: if you hear fruit bats (large bats) in the banana grove, do not go hunting them; pinch your sister to make her cry, tell your father that you cannot go out now; when S. went himself, Sina and her sisters pounced on him, they tore out all his flesh piece by piece, leaving only bones and skin; Sina returned to the children, and they buried their father's remains; everyone goes to the memorial ceremony, and K. sits in the hut; the door is curtained with 10 mats; Nyutawroa, Neutawtorua ... pass by in succession and so on 10 to Nyutawangafuru; everyone takes a mat; when the last one takes off the last one, K. agrees to go, but it is too late; but the brothers are bathing, ask their sister how they look; L.: if you were not my brothers, I would become your wife; then the same L. in relation to the brothers; the brothers leave their sister, go to a festival, where Leysamori must choose a husband; "If we do not return with everyone, it means we have been killed"; Leysamori sends a servant Fitivarevare to the brothers; she sees in the water the reflection of the brothers sitting on the tree; dives; finally, they throw her a fruit with traces of their nails on it; F. notices the tracks, sees the brothers, leads them to the festival; the pole is covered with ants; whoever climbs up will become Leysamori's husband; none of the chiefs can climb up; T. climbed up, threw off the fruits, Leysamori calls him husband; the chiefs disperse; the brothers' sister sees that the brothers are not with them; thinks they are killed; turns into a pandanus flower; the brothers appear; the sister: it is too late; the brothers go to Vayloa; Leysamori is the wife of both, but they are jealous of each other; now the groom is chosen by Leysapay, who lives in heaven; K. wants to try, but none of the ancestors knows how to rise; an ancestor in the 12th generation: if you blow into a horn from a shell so that it splits, and then make the shell whole - you will rise; K. glued it with his urine; leaving, K. takes out his brother's eyes and hides them in the house; T. remains blind; There are crushing rocks on the way; K. pretends to run between them; the rocks collide, and when they part, K. has run; the same with two poisonous bushes on the sides of the path; with two coconut palms as high as the sky; with two wild boars; tuarerere are swimming in the pond; K. asks one to let him sail in his boat; the others rush to eat him, but the owner of the boat does not allow it; then he grabs a tree and it grows; K. successively calls on the 4 winds, but only the north one bends the tree to the sky; K. jumped through the hole, it closed behind him; there in the village is K.'s mother Sina; she is surprised that her son made it; K. marries Leisapai; Sina lowers them on a rope, placing them on a mat tied to it; T.'s eyes have dried out during this time; he changed them with a caranx fish; therefore the eyes of this fish are not allowed to be eaten; Leisamori and Leisapay quarrel, Leisamori wants to be the leader; then Leisapay pulls the rope and returns to the sky; now Karisupunga and Tafaki are two stones, and not far away is a third; this is their ancestor, who helped them climb to the sky]: Guiart 1962: 118-121.

Micronesia - Polynesia. Gilbert Islands [the sorcerer Tabakea is the most powerful on the island, and the shark Bakoa is in the sea; B. went to the island, saw an old woman who had daughters Nei Winaba and Nei Wiriki (the eldest); B. chose the eldest as his wife; T. also came to that woman and took the youngest daughter as his wife; the eldest has many children in the sea, and the youngest is childless; goes to ask his sister for the eldest son Bakoariki to raise; it was known that this son would bring misfortune, so they did not take care of him; Nei Winaba's path is twice blocked by a palm tree, but the girl says that it is T., the palm tree disappears; Nei Winaba brings the boy to the shore, T. tells the spirits to take care of him, he quickly grows up to be a giant; his real mother came to protect him, because her husband Bakoa and the sharks are going to eat him; Ney Vinaba leads his sister and Bakoariki along a dangerous road so that they die; 1) two huge shells, people opened them, they slammed shut, killing people, Bakoariki breaks the shells; 2) two rocks collide and move apart in the sea , Bakoariki breaks them; 3) a huge squid grabs him, he is powerless, asks Ney Viriki to help, she shouts to T., he sends the beast Kekenu, he defeats the squid; Bakoa tells Bakoariki to eat and drink a lot, otherwise he will kill; the beast Kekenu eats everything in the dark; Bakoa sends a poisonous centipede, Bakoariki kills it; Bakoa suggests that her son dance in order to kill at this time, but he sings, making the beast Kekenu huge with his song, he eats all the predatory fish, eats Bakoariki's mother; Bakoariki spared his father and returned with his foster mother and Kekenu to T.; he is disappointed that Bakoariki did not kill Bakoa, becomes a small insect and makes Kekenu tiny too; sharks still hate people]: Koch 1966: 48-52; Gilbert Islands ["the soul of the deceased, under unfavourable conditions, could be crushed between two rocks"]: Fraser, The Belief in Immortality, vol. 3, 1928, p. 49 in Propp 2000: 249; Marquesas [Kena leaves his wife; she tries to follow him, then throws herself into an abyss; he marries his cousin; she is killed; K.'s mother helps him down to the nether world; at the entrance there are crushing rocks ; K.'s companion, holding on to the end of his loincloth, is crushed; the mistress of the underworld tells K. to wash and dress his wife, put her in a basket, and not open her for 10 days; at first he breaks the ban; the second attempt is successful]: Handy 1930: 117-120 (retold in Blixen 1987: 261-266, in Beckwith 1970: 149, in Poignant 1967: 64).

Tibet - North-East India. Tibetans []: Lorimer 1931: 109-110; Tibetans of Amdo [King Kerker orders the forest to close when Geser rides through it; the gap between the trees narrows, G. rushes through, just pinned the horse's tail; then two stones converge and diverge ; G. advises them to move further apart so that they can converge at a running start; he rushes past, the stones hit each other and break]: Potanin 1893: 30; Lepcha [(a local variant of "Geser"; see motive L15E); having destroyed the mung (evil spirit) Ca Shang Shang, who covered the sun with his wings (see motive C19), gye bu (GB) flew on his steed to the country of Cong, where the beauty su mu mung (SMM) ruled; on the way there are two mountains converging and diverging , almost reaching the sky , many animals and birds are crushed; the steed carries GB over the mountains; su mu ming forces GB to become her husband, otherwise she will eat her; having put GB to sleep, she sends his horse for water, hanging buckets on nails driven into the horse's shoulders; gave birth to a son by GB (GB himself continues to sleep); Sacung (S., GB's wife), who remained at home, wrote in blood on a handkerchief that hor mu mung (HMM) had sent two birds to take her to him; sent a green bird to take the handkerchief to her husband; SMM intercepted the letter, wrote on behalf of GB so that S. would agree to HMM's demand; the same a second, third time; at this time HMM's warriors killed everyone; the bird told S. who was answering the letters; S. ordered that a new one be given only to GB; the bird defecated in GB's mouth, GB woke up, wrote to S.; S. hid among the statues; sand was thrown in their faces, the imaginary statue blinked; S. asked her two heavenly aunts to sew up her vagina; HMM thinks his penis is too big, orders part of it to be cut off, but still not inserted; S. weaves for years; but GB still does not; She fumigates her vulva with smoke from chicken and dog excrement, the threads come apart; becomes HMM's wife; from then on she washes only half her body, weaves cloth from black and white stripes; GB swaps the vessels with the decoction, SMM drinks the sleeping potion herself; GB's horse orders him to be killed, turns into a better one, orders the tendons of SMM's two horses to be cut; not to turn around when SMM calls; SMM flies after on a drum; throws a knife, but it only grazes GB's horse's leg above the hoof, since then horses have a groove there; SMM cuts off her son's head, throws it at GB, carries the body back; further motive L15E]: Siiger 1967, no. 1: 203-214.

Burma - Indochina. Karen [in the west two layers of rocks continuously converge and diverge ; at sunset the sun slips between them]: Mason 1865: 234; pao [Everyone obeys Nat, but does not want rice and fire; Nat suggests that they hide: if he finds them, they must obey; the grain of rice hid at the bottom of the sea behind the crushed mountains , and the fire in the bamboo; Nat did not find them; but a sparrow noticed where the grain had hidden, and a grasshopper noticed where the fire was; the grasshopper looked so intently that his eyes bulged out; told Nat to destroy the bamboo, now people strike fire from bamboo; a sparrow found a fish, which told where exactly the grain of rice was (this fish has a white head, the husk got on its head); the sparrow swam between the crushed mountains; they managed to close, after which the sparrow's stomach moved to its back; since then sparrows believe that they can always peck rice]: Zapadova 1977: 263-266; khmu [a hunter saw seven parrot girls coming down to the pond to bathe; he hid the clothes of the youngest; she agreed to become his wife; after 10 years she asked permission to go to her mother for 7 days, left a ring and a monkey; after 7 days the hunter went to look for his wife; the monkey jumped over the river with him; there were crushing rocks along the edges of the path ; the young man threw sour fruits at them until they stopped; he came when his wife was being given in marriage; he threw her ring, it sat on her finger; she rushed to her husband, fell on a knife, and died]: Wrigglesworth 1991, no. 9: 299-300; Thais [Prince Chau Sutok came to the lake, there were 7 peacock girls, he hid the clothes of the youngest, brought her home as his wife, her name is Namarona; the vizier wanted to give his daughter to ChS, persuaded the neighboring king to attack, ChS went to war; the vizier spread a rumor that the enemies won, and the witch was to blame - N.; before the execution, she asks to let her dance in her clothes, flies away; ChS returned victorious, went to look for his wife; she gave her bracelet to the hermit, told him to give it to her husband and tell him about the road; the hermit gave a tame monkey as a companion; the snake formed a bridge over a hot river, in which even the sword melted; a fired arrow moved apart the crushing mountains , the travelers managed to slip through; they fell into the hollow of man-eating birds, they ate the monkey, ChS did not notice; he hid in the feather of one of them, the bird brought him to the kingdom where the peacock sisters; ChS threw the ring into the bucket of the servant N.; she is happy, but her father proposes tests: 1) to break a stone that dammed the river with an arrow (ChS broke it); 2) to recognize the finger of the wife when 7 sisters stuck their fingers in the holes (a firefly landed on the finger); ChS and N. returned home]: Kornev 1963: 35-51; white tai Vietnam [a poor orphan chops firewood to sell; sees seven heavenly maidens descend to the lake, take off their clothes and wings, and bathe; hides the wings of the youngest; takes her as his wife; a year later she gives birth to a son; in the absence of his wife, the father calms the crying child by giving him his mother's wings to play with; one day the mother is left alone with the child, who cries and points to where the woodcutter hid the wings; the mother finds them, and after a while flies away, giving her son her ring and telling him and his father to come to her if they want; the husband puts his son on his back and goes to look for his wife; a path through a mouth in a rock that sometimes closes and sometimes opens ; a fox advises throwing sour fruits there, which will make your teeth ache, and the mouth will stop moving for a while; the father and son pass by; on the way there is a river with nine channels in which even iron dissolves; a dog with nine tails and nine heads promises to take them across if the riders don't laugh in the middle of the river; in the middle of each channel a dog makes an indecent sound, the father and son laugh, one head and one tail fall off; before the last crossing, a man ties his mouth and his son's mouth with a handkerchief, they reach the shore; since then, all dogs have one head and one tail, before there were nine; the phoenix offers to spend the night under his wing, and in the morning he and his mother will bring them to where they are celebrating the return of the princess from earth; the phoenix's mother carried them to the river bordering the sky; the maids collect water to bathe the princess, the husband throws a ring into the jug; the wife recognizes him, orders to call those who have come; her father suggests 1) to tie each of the 300 buffaloes to the pole to which he is always tied; a firefly shows who to tie where; 2) to sow grain and collect it again; the birds collected, but the king noticed that several grains were missing; one bird swallowed them, the king wrung its neck, since then birds of this species have a crop on the back of their heads; 3) find a princess in a palace of a hundred thousand rooms overnight; a rat promises to bring a dry leaf under the right door, but halfway there a cat eats it; then a firefly leads to the right room; the king arranges a wedding, then sends the young people to earth, where the son-in-law also becomes a king]: Wrigglesworth 1991, No. 11: 311-316.

South Asia. Ancient India [The teacher tells the prince to go northwest until he sees two mountains that are pounding against each other and roaring, dar-dara ; there he must found the fortress of Dardara]: Paribok, Erman 2003, no. 422: 35; (cf. Konkani (Goa; Portuguese borrowing): Rodrigues 2020: 95-101 [the childless rani finally has a son; he grows up, but gets involved with bad company; the most beautiful princess is given to him in marriage, but bad women have cast a spell: he will never look at her face; the prince does not look at his wife, goes out at night to prostitutes; the parents of both spouses are dead; the prince himself has become the rajah; the beggar woman advises her to first put gravel in the rice that the rani will cook for her husband: he will shout at her in anger, but will also look; the husband does not look; prepare too hot a bath: ditto; the rani secretly follows her husband; when the door to the brothel opens, she screams, seeing two dressed up women hurrying to the rajah; the husband turns around and is amazed at the beauty of the woman, whom he sees for the last time; she runs away, sobbing; her tears turn into pearls; the husband follows the pearl trail to his palace, asks his wife for forgiveness; she tells him to look into 5 neighboring rooms; in them 1) two stone pillars collide with each other (the husband's parents, blaming each other for failing to raise their son); 2) two beautiful plane trees (the wife's parents); 3) a pool with two fish (the children who were never born); 4) a beautiful rose bush (the wife); 5) a bush with a single half-rotten pod of hot pepper (the husband); after giving an explanation, the wife died]).

Malaysia - Indonesia. Semangi (?) ("Negrito of Malaya") [Tapern lives in the sky; a huge snake lies on the path to his house; makes ornamental mats for him; inside the snake are beautiful female Chinoi (a category of spirits); the male Chinoi must slip between the mats, which sometimes close and sometimes open; then he must jump into a snuffbox, the lid of which sometimes closes and sometimes opens ; after this he can choose a beauty]: Evans 1937: 145; Java : Kratz 1973, no. 9 [a half-man (vertical) goes to the Sun to ask him to give him a full body; the Sun replies that the cloud is more powerful than he is, let him address it; the cloud sends him to the wind, who to the mountain, to the porcupine digging a hole, to the dog of which the porcupine is afraid, to the man of whom the dog is afraid; the man says that one must ask the Lord; the Half meets a hadji who has sat on a stone all his life and rubbed it; he asks to know where in paradise a place has been prepared for him and how many houris are due to him; he meets a repentant robber, who asks to know what place in hell has been prepared for him; he drives the Half away from the man senselessly chopping bamboo; the Half wants to pick a pomegranate, but all the pomegranates praise themselves in turn, the Half cannot choose, leaves; two ponds are full, and between them there is a dry one, the fish jump from one extreme pond to the other, not noticing the dry one; the Lord shows a place in paradise prepared for the repentant, a place in hell for the hadji; at the entrance there are scissors that cut the one entering hell into pieces ; two ponds – the rich who ignore the poor; the one cutting bamboo is engaged in useless labor; pomegranates – people who serve the rulers; tells him to walk without looking back along the long bridge; Half reaches the ground, gains a full body; tells the robber and the hadji what the Lord showed him]: 57-66; Raats 1970: 87; Malays [in Malay folklore, the motif of the Symplegades – jaws or crushing rocks ]: Raats 1970 [to enter heaven, the god Semar must pass the Symplegades]: 87; Toraja : Adriani 1915 in Bezemer 1904 [(Bare Toraja); when leaving to work in the field, the parents tell their son Tandani and his brother to prepare food for their return; but they play all day every time; finally, the mother did not let the children into the house, pushing T. down the stairs; the brothers ran away; the mother tried to catch up with them and asked them to come back; T. threw peas behind him several times, the mother picked them up, wasting time; T. asked for the "gaping rocks" { g ähnenden Felsen : obviously, the crushing rocks} let them through, the rocks let them through; the mother of the rock was cut in half: one half became a goat, the other a pig; the brothers reached a fruit tree; T. climbed up, began to throw fruits to his brother, to drive away the pig that approached; he did not know that it was his mother; he threw her a fruit with a sharp leaf stalk in it; the pig swallowed it and died; the brothers came to the old man and old woman; T. told about the killed pig, asked to feed his brother; the old man smeared the boy's mouth with blood, took the meat for himself, left the bones for the brothers; on the way to the old man, T. quietly transferred the meat to his basket, and put stones in the old man's basket; at home the old man began to dump the contents into the cauldron - it leaks; the old man thinks that the bone has pierced it; this is with all the cauldrons; then he noticed that there were stones in the basket; in the morning the old men with two dogs rushed after the boys; they climbed a tree above the river; the old man noticed their reflection; climbed a tree, saying to his wife: if it falls "khrums", it is me, and if "plop", it is T., let the dogs out on him; T.: open your mouth, I will throw something; the old man opened his mouth, T. threw a hot stone at him, the old man fell, the wife thought it was T., let the dogs out, they mauled the old man; climbed up herself, hurt herself on the thorns and died]: 348-352; Adriani, Kruyt 1950, no. 42 [(Eastern Toraja; known not everywhere, but only in Meerstreek); on the path of the deceased there are two heavy stones, crashing against each other with a roar ; if they do not want to let the soul through, they emit thunder and lightning; the soul throws sirih-pinang to them, manages to slip through while the stones are moving apart; a barking dog and a scratching cat are waiting on the path; whoever fears them is forced to wait until the heavenly inhabitants drive the animal away]: 470.

Taiwan - Philippines. Sarangani Manobo [Juan Mengengati ("Birdcatcher") went after birds, saw four celestial maidens descending to a pond to bathe, hid the clothes of one of them, she went with him; one day she found the key to the chest in which he had hidden her feather clothes; she put them on and flew away, leaving her daughter; HM went to look for his wife; the north, south, and some other wind, some bird, a crow answered that they could not rise to the sky; he found a philodendron growing to the sky, climbed it to the moon; she said that on the way to her father there was a rock that sometimes closed and sometimes opened ; he slipped past; in the golden palace there was a wife with her elder sisters; her mother told her to go to her husband, advised her to take a skinny horse; on it HM and his wife escaped pursuit; On the seashore the horse turned into a coconut palm, then into a rock, then into grass; they returned home safely]: Wrigglesworth 1991, no. 5: 85-93.

Balkans. Ancient Greece: Hom. Od. XII. 59-72 [“On the first {road} you will meet high cliffs. Furiously before them / The waves of the blue-eyed sea goddess Amphitrite boil. / The all-blessed gods call these cliffs plankton. / Neither birds can fly past those cliffs, nor even / The timid doves – those that bring ambrosia to Zeus. / The smooth cliff kills one among them each time. / However, the father immediately replaces the slain with a new one. / All the ships that approached those cliffs perished with their swimmers; / Only planks remained of them and soulless corpses, / Carried out to sea by a destructive whirlwind of fire and a wave. / Only one seagoing ship passed those cliffs, / The Argo, famous everywhere, returning from King Aeetes. / He would have been dashed to pieces on the high cliffs, / Had not Hera, who loved Jason so much, not deceived him” (translated by V.V. Veresaev)]; Pind. Pyth. IV. 207-211 [“Pythian Songs” by Pindar (c. 522 – c. 443 BC); about the Argonauts: “And from the depths of adversity, – / When they prayed to the lord of ships / For salvation from the insurmountable scale / Of the clashing cliffs, – / Two living, / Two rolling faster than a thunderstorm, – / Then their path lay between them / And became a limit for those moving” (translated by M.L. Gasparov)]; Apoll. Rhod. II. 317-350, 549-618 [“Argonautica” by Apollonius of Rhodes (first half of the 3rd century BC): Phineus warns the Argonauts that they will meet on their way two dark rocks that have no bottom supports; these rocks constantly collide and move apart; Phineus advises to send a dove ahead; if it manages to fly between the rocks, the Argonauts will manage to swim; if not, they should turn back; the Argonauts follow his advice; the dove they send out manages to fly between the shifting rocks; they tear off its tail feathers, then move apart again; the Argonauts press on their oars and rush forward; the rocks begin to shift; Athena nudges Argo with her right hand; he rushes like an arrow; he overcomes the path between the rocks almost unharmed; they, hitting each other, cut off the upper part of his stern; the Argonauts continue their voyage; the rocks remain motionless]; Apollod. Bibl. I. 9. 22, 25 [“The Mythological Library” of Pseudo-Apollodorus (1st-2nd centuries): 1) “Having gotten rid of the Harpies, Phineus showed the Argonauts the sea route and gave them advice about the Symplegades rocks, which were in the sea. These rocks were of enormous size and, moving under the force of the wind, cut off the sailors' path. A thick fog hung over the place where they were and a terrible roar was heard; even birds could not fly between them. Phineus advised the Argonauts to release a wild dove so that it would fly between the rocks, and if it remained intact, then they could safely sail; but if it died, then they would abandon the voyage. Having heard this, they again sailed out to the open sea and, when they were already close to the Symplegades, they released a dove from the bow of the ship. It flew past, and the rocks, closing in, managed to cut off only the tip of its tail. Having waited for the rocks to part again, rowing tensely, supported by the goddess Hera, the Argonauts sailed between them: only the stern figures of the ship were damaged.From that time onwards the Symplegades became motionless, for it was decreed that they would stop forever if a ship sailed between them"; 2) "When they sailed past the Sirens, Orpheus kept the Argonauts on the ship, drowning out the singing of the Sirens with his song. The only one who rushed to them was Butes, whom, however, Aphrodite abducted and settled in Lilybaeum. After the Sirens, the ship sailed to Charybdis, Scylla and the Planctum rocks, over which huge flames and clouds of smoke were visible rising upward. But Thetis, sent by Hera to help the Argonauts, guided the ship through all these obstacles" (translated by V.G. Borukhovich)]; Ath. Deipn. XI. 82 (492c-d) [Athenaeus's "Feast of the Wise Men" (2nd-3rd centuries AD): "That is, only six stars {the Pleiades} are visible to the eye in the sky - it is these, visible, that the artist duly minted {on Nestor's cup}. Some believe that the same is meant when the Poet speaks of Zeus [Od. XII. 62]: near them no bird dares to fly, not even the timid Peleias, / Who with a light flight carry ambrosia to Zeus: each / One of them is lost there, killed against the cliff, / Each time Zeus replaces the one killed with a new one. That is, each time one of the Pleiades perishes from the speed and slipperiness of the Wandering Rocks, but Zeus sends another so that their number remains unchanged. By this Homer allegorically says that although there are only six Pleiades visible in the sky, their real number is not diminished, and we still name and list all seven" (translated by N. T. Golinkevich)]; Arg. Orph. 680-711 [anonymous hexameter poem "Orphic Argonautica" (c. 4th-5th centuries AD), the story is told on behalf of Orpheus; after visiting Phineus, the Argonauts sailed to the Cyaneian rocks, which crashed into each other with a roar; Athena sent a heron (ἐρωδιός) to fly to the cape located behind them; the heron managed to fly between the rocks; they, having collided, cut off only the tip of its tail; the Argonauts were inspired and swam forward; Orpheus bewitched (slowed down?) the rocks; they became motionless when the Argonauts overcame them; (cf. Herodotus. VI. 138 [“History” by Herodotus (c. 484 BC – c. 425 BC): “Darius meanwhile set out from Susa and arrived in the Bosporus in the Calchedon region, where a bridge had been built. Then the king boarded a ship and sailed to the so-called Cyanean rocks (these rocks, according to the legend of the Hellenes, were formerly “wandering”). There, sitting on the cape, Darius surveyed Pontus” (trans. G.A. Stratonovsky; (cf. Nonn. Dion. XL. 369-580 [“Acts of Dionysus” by Nonnus of Panopolis (5th century AD): in Tire, Dionysus addresses Heracles Astrochiton in the temple; he appears to him in a starry robe; D. asks who founded Tire; the story Astrochiton: the tribe of the earth-born, coevals of the world, are immersed in sleep; A. tells them to find the moving rocks, sacrifice an eagle on them, after which the rocks will stop, and found a city there; the earth-born do all this; in parting, A. gives D. his starry robe; D. continues on his way; (summary in Zakharova, Torshilov 2003: 247]); Apollod. Epit. VII.20-21 [Sabbaite Epitome to the "Mythological Library" of Pseudo-Apollodorus: "After this Odysseus came to a place where the paths forked. On one side were the Symplegades, on the other side stood two huge cliffs. On one of these cliffs lived Scylla, the daughter of Crateis and Triene (or Forcus). She had the face and breasts of a woman, and on her sides were six dog heads and twelve dog legs. On the other cliff lived Charybdis, who three times a day swallowed and then three times spewed out the waters of the sea. Following the instructions of Circe, Odysseus was careful not to sail between the Symplegades, and when sailing past the cliff of Scylla, Odysseus stood at the stern of the ship, armed. But Scylla appeared and, seizing six of Odysseus' companions from the ship, devoured them" (trans. V.G. Borukhovich)]);Moldovans [after the death of their parents, three brothers separate; the youngest spends the night in a tree, hears the conversation of devils; one sent a plague on the cattle, the cure is an acacia seed; another sent a drought - you need to stick a spear between two Loboboiki mountains , the water will return to the wells; the third sent an illness to the princess - you need to make a tincture from a worm, give it to drink; the guy cured the cattle, stuck a spear between the crushing mountains, cured the princess, married her and received a reward; told the brothers everything, they climbed a tree, the devils tore them apart]: Moldovan Tales 1968: 361-366; Romanians [the young man Floria did a good deed to the king of storks, he gave him a feather to call him, promised to help; the king orders to get living and dead water; its source is at the foot of the crushing mountains; the king of storks called his people together; only a lame and crooked stork visited the crushing mountains, and that is where he got crippled; he flew there; a swallow told him to wait until noon, when the mountains stop moving for half an hour; the stork filled two bottles, and when he was returning, the mountains cut off his tail feathers ; when the stork returned, the others began to laugh at his appearance; the king of the storks told them all to lose their tails, and since then storks have not had them]: Gaster 1915, no. 86: 263-266; Romanians [the king has three daughters, and he must send his son to serve the Red Tsar; the daughters are called in turn to put on men's clothes and go; in a bear's skin, the father frightens the eldest, she turns back; the same with the middle one; the youngest was not frightened; at court, a supposed youth cooks better than the king's sons and is made a cook; envious sons tell their father that the young man boasted of bringing dates from the bear's garden; the horse helps to do this; they say that the young man promised to bring a stallion from a herd of wild mares in the Sahara; the horse orders to put a buffalo skin on him and give him a noose; fighting with the stallion, he throws the noose on him and brings him; to bring living and dead water from behind the crushing mountains ; the horse says that at midday the mountains stop for a short time; the girl got the water, but hears a voice behind her: whoever does this will change his sex; to get a bull with a star on his forehead; the horse orders to dig a hole, hide in it, jump out, cut off the bull's head and sit in the hole until dawn, until the bull dies; having returned, the former girl, and now the young man, tells the Red Tsar that his sons boasted of sitting in a burning haystack and telling tales; they are burned, and the youth returns to his father and inherits the throne]: Bîrlea 1966: 430-431; Romanians [the queen has three daughters: with the sun on their foreheads; with the moon on their backs; with the Morning Star above their eyebrows; they went swimming, a whirlwind carried them away; the queen swallowed a peppercorn, Fat-Frumos was born; he grew up quickly; out of mischief, he pierced two pumpkins with water that an old woman was carrying with an arrow; she wants the same whirlwind to carry him away; FF forced his mother to tell about her sisters; and about their father: he fought for 9 years with the Fire-breathing Serpent; his weapon is buried under a poplar, his horse is grazing somewhere; the sorcerer orders to swing the bridle in the meadow; a nag dragged herself along, orders to give her milk from 300 cows to drink: a fire-horse came galloping; then 600; snakes ahead; the horse orders to pull the arrow out of his ear, to launch it at the snakes; they missed; FF came to the first sister; the club of her husband-snake flew in; FF threw it back, waits under the bridge, drove the snake into the ground; turned the silver palace into a nut, took it with him; then the golden palace (snake, nut - the same); topaz palace; the snake turned into a yellow flame, FF - into scarlet; both ask the raven to sprinkle them with fat, the enemy - with water; the raven sprinkled FF with fat, because he promised him the bodies of three snakes; the horse warned not to eat fruits, grapes, not to drink from the spring, but to hit them with a saber - these are the transformed wives of the snakes; the mother of the snakes is chasing; the horse with FF manages to fly to Tsvetovik-Silkbeard (TSSh); the snake made a hole, FF threw a red-hot club into its mouth; FF fell in love with the daughter of TSSh; he asks for living water for her from behind the crushing mountains ; FF meets and takes with him a Drinker, an Eater, a Jumper with millstones on his legs; the horse rushed between the mountains, FF got some water; TS tells him to drink a lot; to eat (the Drinker and the Eater obey); to get a carnation that smells fragrant for 9 kingdoms; FF takes the carnation from the glass palace of the snake, he pursues, FF takes it out of the horse's ear and throws soap (slippery road), a brush (forest), a whetstone (mountain); the snake overcame the obstacles; the horse took off and trampled the snake; wedding; the Jumper spent the night in the bedroom; at night a snake crawled out of the mouth of TS's daughter, then two more; the Jumper killed them; all the other husbands died; the Jumper demands half of the wife, swings his sword, the fourth dragon crawls out of his mouth; Jumper: take your wife, leave only one little devil in her, there should be one in every woman; [at home FF turned three nuts into palaces, the father married off his daughters]: Sadetsky 1972: 105-116; Greeks : Hahn 1864(2), No. 69 (Siros) [in the evening while working, the eldest sister says that she would like to marry the tsar's cook, the middle one - the treasurer, the youngest - the tsarevich and bear him three children, the Sun, the Moon and the Morning Star; the tsarevich, in disguise, stood under the window and heard, fulfilled the wishes of the sisters; went off to war, leaving his wife pregnant; the mother-in-law told the midwife to throw the children into the river, replacing them with a puppy, a kitten and a mouse; the midwife put the babies in a basket; the shepherd noticed that one goat returned with an empty udder; found three children, raised them, placed them in a tower; the mother-in-law sent the daughter-in-law to the henhouse, and the tsarevich did not ask about his wife anymore; one day he saw a tower, a girl in the window, two young men taming horses near the tower; The prince thought that his children should be like this; the mother told the prince that he saw elves; she scolded the midwife, ordered to destroy the survivors; she came disguised as a beggar and told the girl that she was missing a branch that makes music; the brothers went to look for it; a monk they met explained that the branch was guarded by two dragons; at midnight they would fall asleep and it was necessary to shoot them in the mouths; the brothers killed the dragons, brought the branch; seeing the youths, the king rejoiced, and the mother again said that they were elves; the midwife persuades the girl to ask the brothers to get an all-seeing mirror; the monk: 40 dragons guard it, they sleep in turns; the brothers killed them all, brought a mirror; the midwife: the Dikjeretto bird is missing; when she looks in the mirror, she says that all people in the world say in any language; the brothers left a shirt for their sister: if they turn black, trouble will happen to them; the monk refused to help - why did the girl send her brothers to their death on a whim; they approached the bird and it turned them into stone; the shirts turned black, the sister went to look for the brothers; the monk: you need to strip naked, approach the bird from behind and grab it by the legs; the captured bird told you to go for living water between the crushed rocks ; the girl slipped through, the rocks tore off only a piece of her dress; the sister revived her brothers, they all returned, the shepherd arranged a feast; the prince came, the girl showed him a branch, a mirror and a bird; the prince called them to him; the bird ordered to take her with him and let the girl offer the prince to try what she had prepared: eggplants, and diamonds inside; the prince: how can there be diamonds in eggplants; the bird: and how can a woman give birth to a puppy, a kitten and a mouse? the bird told everything; the prince returned his wife from the henhouse; the midwife was beheaded, the queen was burned]: 47-58; Megas 1970, No. 33 [the king is sailing on a ship, finds himself on a foreign shore, goes to see a shepherd; baptizes his newborn son; leaves a ring and a note; in it he does not order to take a lame, blind, beardless (baldchin) as companions; the young man goes to look for his godfather; takes the lame, blind, but they hesitate, he leaves them behind; the beardless man offers to lower him into the well for water; he raises him after an oath that he will give him a ring and a note, will be silent until death; the king sends the young man to pasture cows, takes the deceiver for his son; the young man understands the language of birds and animals, laughs at swallows; the deceiver persuades the king to send him to bring 1) the Pipiree bird from India; the servant teaches him to fly on a flying horse, to bypass fire, the young man brings the bird; 2) to bring the Golden-haired; the servant explains what to take with him; the horse wakes the young man, he kills the snake that was devouring the eagle's chicks; at first she thinks that it was the young man who killed the chicks, the chicks explain; The eagle gives a feather; the horse orders not to trample the ants, the young man feeds them grain; the ant gives its wing; the young man saves a fish in the shallows, it gives a bone; he saves bees from the water, feeds them honey, they give a sting; the king promises to give his Golden-haired daughter if the young man 1) gets the ring thrown into the sea (the fish bring it), 2) separates the mixture of different grains (the ants do), 3) brings the water of life; the eagle orders to go to the pounding mountains , fills the young man's golden vessel with water; the king believes, ordering to kill the Moor and reviving him; 4) to identify the bride among 40 girls (a bee sits on her); the young man brings the Golden-haired; the beardless man orders him to get an apple from the very top, the young man falls, breaks, the beardless man buries him; the Golden-haired one revives with living water; the youth is released from his oath; the beardless man is tied to the horse's tail]: 83-93; Greeks (Lemnos) [there are 40 rooms in the king's palace; the king is jealous, the queen is beautiful, he killed her a few days before she was due to give birth; cut the boy out of his mother's womb; not believing that it was his son, he left him in the forest; a female wild animal suckled him; one day 4 doves from the four ends of the world flew to this place; seeing the boy, one said that he was of royal lineage; the second: and will reign; the third: after much suffering; the fourth: the foal will help him achieve his goal; and the king began to regret what he had done; he went hunting; saw a beauty in a cave; he sent people to her, but they fled when 9 dragons came out of the cave; the king ordered a portrait of the girl to be painted and hung in the room where he did not let anyone in and where he spent most of his time; another king attacked, killed him, captured the capital; in the forest he saw a young man, ordered to catch him, baptized him and began to raise him together with his own son; they named him Ivan the Deer; he is incredibly strong and a little older than the prince; after the death of the king, the heir and IO found a portrait; the old servant said that this is a portrait of the sister of dragons; IO realized that his mother was killed by his own father; decided to return to the forest; in the stable, an inconspicuous end ordered to take him and pull out his hair: cut and I will appear; IO came to the cave of dragons; there is a beauty and an old man; he accidentally knocked over a huge cauldron, but IO picked it up with one left hand; in full view of the dragons, he threw a rock; amazed by his strength, the dragons gave him their sister; the young king is jealous; promises to bring closer to himself the one who will bring him IO's head; the old witch promised to kill IO and deliver the sister of dragons to the king; became IO's servant; She said that he boasted of his strength in vain: the heroine was stronger; IO went to look for her; there were crowded mountains ahead; IO called a horse, it rushed past, only the tip of its tail was cut off ; horse: the heroine's strength was in three hairs on her head; if you wrestle with her, pull them out; he did so, the girl fell at his feet; by the road there was a Negro, whose lips weighed 40 centners; he offered to wrestle everyone passing by and killed him; IO wrestled with the Negro; he called a horse; horse: the Negro's strength was in his shadow, hit it with a spear; the Negro became IO's servant; the sorceress to the king: give me a ship with a crew, and I will deliver IO to you; she gave IO an apple, he fell asleep, was carried onto the ship; the king threw IO and the heroine into a pit; she hugged IO, the apple fell out of his hand and he came to; he forgave the king, but killed the sorceress; at a feast the king blinded IO, but a black man licked his eye sockets with his thick lips and restored his sight; IO killed the king and became king himself]: Georgeakis, Pineau 1894, No. 11: 68-800; Greeks [at first the Nereids were ordinary women, the first Nereid Callo was the smartest of all; learned from her grandmother that somewhere far away there was the water of immortality; on the way there were crushing rocks ; K. managed to fly between them, collect water and drink it; she also sprinkled this water on the onion (that is why in the fall only the stem dies, but the bulb remains); she also sprinkled the amaranth, that is why it can grow on bare rocks; she gave drink to the eagle, which grows old, hides in a cave, sheds its feathers, another eagle takes care of it at this time; when the feathers grow back, the eagle is young again; the same with the raven]: Zochios 2023, No. 4: 122-123; the Greeks [having learned about the water of immortality, Alexander on Bucephalus jumps between the crushed rocks , kills the dragons, collects the immortal water in a vessel, returns, falls asleep; his sister, seeing the vessel with water, poured it on the wild onion, that is why it never withers; A. turned his sister into a siren with a fish tail so that she would suffer forever; but she loves her brother; asks the sailors if A. is alive; if he says that he is dead, he will raise a storm out of grief and the ship will sink; he must answer that he is alive and reigns]: Megas 1970, no. 75: 200-202; Albanians [the king spent the night with a rich Wallachian shepherd; that night the hostess gave birth; the king ordered the boy to learn languages ​​and gave him a cross; when the youth turns 15, let him come to him and show the cross; the youth grew up, went to the king, went down to the spring; the servant, threatening to throw a stone at him, forced him to exchange clothes and status; to swear that the youth would not expose him; he promised that he would be freed from the oath only by dying and being resurrected; The king kindly received the deceiver, and the youth found himself among the servants; the deceiver pretended to be ill, asked to send his servant (i.e. the youth) for cabbage, which Lubi guards; an old man appeared to the youth in a dream; he ordered to take 14 measures of honey, 14 milk and come at noon, when Lubi is not at home; on the way the youth met the old man; he teaches: in Lubi's house, clean the walls of the tannery, hide, leave the honey and milk; Lubi will eat and ask the one who brought such a delicacy to show himself; ask for cabbage; eat three heads, and he, the old man, will give a head of cabbage for the deceiver on the way back; and so everything happened; the deceiver pretended to be ill again: it is necessary to get the Beauty of the Earth; the old man orders to ask the king to give him a thousand lambs, rams, a hundred measures of wheat and honey and 10 brooms; You must throw lambs to the eagles, wheat to the ants, honey to the bees, rams to the lions, clean the walls and door to the chambers of the Beauty of the Earth with brooms; the animals will ask what reward the young man would like; ask the lions, bees, ants and the catch for a strand of wool, feather, etc.; if you burn the strand of wool, etc., the animals will come to the rescue; the Beauty of the Earth asks the guards why they did not stop the young man; the guards: you did not feed us like that, did not clean us; she tells the young man to divide the mixture of wheat, barley, rye and earth during the night (the ants divided it); bring living water from behind the crushing mountains (eagles: at midday the mountains stop for half an hour; they brought a young man, he got water and they brought him back); identify her among 12 girls (a bee sat on her); a deceiver asks the king to kill the young man, he did it himself; the Beauty of the Earth sent a servant to bring the dead man, revived him with living water; the young man was able to tell the king everything; the deceiver was torn apart by four trees; the young man went to visit his parents, leaving the king's wife the robe he had bought for the Beauty of the Earth; he ordered not to give it to her until his return; there were dances and the Beauty of the Earth refused to participate without this robe; the king's youngest daughter secretly gave it to her; she orders to tell the young man that he will find her after wearing out three pairs of iron shoes; having worn out the shoes, he stopped at an inn where they feed for free: you just need to tell about what you saw along the way; one man told how he dropped a bottle of water, went down into a ravine and saw 12 girls bathing; the young man went to the ravine, grabbed his wife's clothes and threw them into the fire; the beauty stayed with the young man forever]: Dozon 1991, No. 12: 83-96; Albanians[three brothers have sisters married to the Sun, the Moon and the South; they decide to visit them; they spend the night three times, each time one brother guards the others' sleep; the eldest killed the lamia, without telling his brothers; the same with the middle one; the youngest too, but the lamia managed to put out the fire with her tail; the young man sees a light in the distance, they go there; on the way he meets the mother of the night, asks her to prolong the darkness; she promises to do this, but he does not believe and ties her up; approaching the source of the light, he sees a huge cauldron with 12 ears standing on the fire; he picked it up, lit a torch, and put it back; 12 robbers are amazed by this strength: they can only lift the cauldron together; they lead the young man to rob the king; having broken through the wall, they climbed into the stable; the young man remained outside; raised the alarm, cut off the heads of the robbers as they got out; left his knife there; on the way back he freed the mother of the night; The king found the dead robbers and a knife; he ordered an inn to be set up where they would feed them for free, but each one had to tell about what he had done; the eldest and middle brothers told how each one had killed the lamia, the youngest also about the robbers; the king gave him his daughter in marriage; on the occasion of the royal wedding, the prisoners were released; among them was a man half made of iron; the young man persuaded the king to release him too; as soon as the king broke the shackles, the monster swallowed the princess and flew away; the young man asks the king for iron shoes and a staff, promises to return the princess in a year; he comes to his sister, whose husband is the Sun; she hid her brother, the Sun senses human flesh, but promises not to touch his brother-in-law; she advises him to ask the Moon; he sends him to the South; the South also does not know where the iron man is, directs him to a huge falcon, orders him to approach him from behind and threaten to kill him if he does not tell where the iron man is; the falcon orders to prepare meat and repair his wings - he is too old; they fly to a high mountain, the last piece of meat the young man cut off from his thigh; having flown there, the falcon regurgitated this piece and grew it back; the wife hid the young man, but the iron one found him, drank his blood, and spat out his skin and bones; the falcon saw, flew between the crushed mountains, collected swallow's milk in his beak, revived the young man with it ; he taught the wife to pretend to be dead and ask her husband where his strength is; iron; in a broom; the wife burned the broom, but nothing happened; pretended to be sick again; iron: on the mountain there is a boar, he has a silver tusk, in the tusk a hare, in the hare there are three doves, in them is strength; the young man came to the shepherd, began to ask about the boar, he heard, the young man began to fight with him; boar: I would like to sharpen my tusks with a racine de gouet; youth: I would like some flour, fried fish and wine; the shepherd brought everything, the youth killed the boar, got the doves; having twisted the heads of two, the youth came to the iron man, killed the third, the iron man died; the falcon brought the youth and the princess to the king; everyone is happy]: Dozon 1991, No. 15: 121-134; Bosnians [dying father orders his three sons to give their three sisters to the first ones who come for them; the elders do not go to give their sisters to strangers, the youngest Mula-Mustafa gives them; the brothers go to look for them; they spend the night by the lake, on the first night the eldest brother watches, a dragon crawls out of the lake, the young man chops off its head, cuts off its ears, throws the head and body into the lake; on the second night the same middle brother - a two-headed dragon; on the third MM - three-headed; when he threw the body into the lake, a wave poured out the fire; MM sees fire in the distance, comes to the giants' fire; they will give fire if MM kills the Sultan in Istanbul; the giant carries MM to the Sultan's chambers, but MM kills the giant himself, takes the Sultan's ring, leaves; the awakened Sultan orders to find his savior, for this purpose to set up inns, where to ask those who come about their adventures; three brothers meet in such a courtyard, tell what happened to them, recognize each other; the sultan gives his daughter in marriage to MM; having left, he orders not to unlock the room where Atesch Perischa is; MM unlocks it, AP carries away his wife (i.e. the sultan's daughter); MM goes in search; arrives at the tower where the eldest sister is married to the king of ravens; he sends a raven to the middle sister, she for the king of dragons, he to the youngest - for the king of eagles; the king of eagles calls the eagles, only one old sick man can deliver MM to AP, but first he must bathe in the living water, it is between the rocks that open once a year; MM feeds the eagle with rams, the eagle manages to rejuvenate before the rocks slam shut ; AP arrives on a three-legged horse; in his absence MM makes an agreement with his wife to find out what AP's life is; he says that it is in a broom, in a pipe, in a mug; MM tells his wife to decorate them every time; AP admits that it is in a three-legged horse; whoever kills the mare that comes out of the lake once a year and takes her foal will defeat him; he himself did not kill the mare, but wounded the foal, that is why it is three-legged; MM killed, took the foal, his wife gave it cow's milk to drink, it became a powerful horse; MM killed AP, put his wife on the three-legged horse, returned with her to the sultan]: Schütz 1960, No. 4: 31-48; Bosnians [in Istanbul the sultan forbade lighting fires for a month; servants noticed a small flame; in a hut three sisters were spinning by candlelight; they asked each other what they could do to make the sultan forgive them; the eldest: I will cook mamaliga for the whole army; the middle one: a hundred square meters of fabric to dress the whole army; the youngest: I will give birth to a daughter with golden hair and pearl teeth and a son with a golden hand; the sultan ordered the sisters to be brought; the first two could not fulfill their promise and he sent them home, and married the youngest; when she was pregnant, the other wives were afraid that they would be left without attention; the eldest Badscha told the woman in labor that according to custom she should blindfold herself; she replaced the children with puppies; everyone advised to tear the woman in labor apart with horses, but one person advised to wait for the Serbian patriarch; the patriarch: bury her waist-deep in manure and feed her half-starved; they buried her at the crossroads so that everyone passing by would spit in her; B. put the newborns in a chest and lowered them into the river, the miller and his wife found them; a month later they were so beautiful that the pitchforks carried them off to their mountain castle; the children grew up and realized that they themselves were not pitchforks, but people; they ran away and asked a passerby what place on earth was the best; Istanbul; at the sultan's palace they lay down to sleep under a fig tree and God built a palace better than the sultan's over them; B. came and told the girl% on the plain lives an invincible Moor; if your brother kills him, the sultan will reward him; the brother brought his head; B. there are 5 more Moors there; then 9; the same; on Mount Tman there is a horse named Avgar, whom the pitchforks fatten; a giant came towards us: there were 20 of us, but we could not take possession of the horse; Another giant overheard the pitchfork's conversation and told him how to catch the horse: leave a wineskin with water at the watering hole; seeing the wineskin, the horse looked back, the young man grabbed him by the neck and tamed him; he gave him three hairs to summon him; B.: on the Jordan, a wreath of pitchforks hangs between heaven and earth, and the Jordan flows between the mountains Zmaigodiya and Doksana, whose peaks constantly beat against each other ; the young man summoned the horse A., galloped between the mountains, took the wreath, and on the way back the mountains tore a piece of meat from the horse's rump; B. let your brother get the princess from the tower covered with ducats; she turns suitors into stones; A.'s horse brought the young man there; the horse neighed, a roar like thunder, the girl was frightened and did not turn them into stones; greets the young man; asks the pitchfork how quickly they can transfer her tower, her, the young man and the horse to Istanbul; pitchfork: 3 days; other pitchforks: 2 days; third: in a day; chose them; when they flew there, she ordered the youth to wipe the face of a woman buried in manure with a handkerchief of the pitchfork; when the sultan seated the guest at the table, he threw a piece to the dog and it died; the sultan called B., ordered her to eat a piece, she also died; the youth called the sultan to him; on the way home he freed his mother and brought her to him; the sultan came, everything became clear; when the mother stood under a wreath from the Jordan, youth and beauty returned to her, but she died of happiness; at the wedding celebrations, the 7 wives who helped B. were tied to the tails of horses]: Preindlsberger-Mrazovic 1905: 99-116; Greek Cypriots[the king boarded a ship and sailed to an unknown destination with his only companion; landed at Cyprus; they came to a light, there was a shepherd; he had a son and the king became his godson; he gave him a ring and a letter; when the youth grows up, let him come to him; but he does not take a lame, cross-eyed or bald man as a companion; the youth went, imposed himself on the lame man, but fell behind; the same with the cross-eyed man; the bald man suggested that the youth go down into a well to get water; he pulled him out only after he gave the ring and letter and swore until his death to call himself a servant, and the bald man - master; the youth was given cows to graze; he laughs at the conversation of swallows; the deceiver complains to the king that he is being treated; and since the shepherd understands the language of birds, then let him go to India for the Pipiris bird; the old servant warns that hundreds of people tried to get the bird and did not return; you have to wait until two huge fires go out; then grab a bird on a golden tree branch and gallop away; the young man brought the bird; bald: let him get the golden-haired girl; the servant tells him to take a lot of honey, millet and money with him; the young man fell asleep at a halt, his horse woke him up: a snake is crawling to the eagle's nest; the young man hacked it to death; the eagle flew in, the chicks explained that the young man saved them; she gave him a feather to call her; the horse tells him to be careful, not to trample the ants; the young man poured out millet for the ants, feeding them; the queen of the ants gave her a wing to call her; the young man released a fish that found itself on dry land (further a scale) into the sea; he pulled a swarm of bees out of a stream and poured honey for the bees; their queen gave a sting to call her; the father of the golden-haired princess threw a ring into the sea and ordered to get it (the fish got it); during the night, sort out the grain from all over the kingdom, separating it by type of cereal (the ants sorted it out); bring living water; the young man called the eagle; living water is inside the crushed mountains ; the young man gave the eagle a golden cup and she brought water in it; the king cut off the head of the servant and tried the water: the servant came to life; identify the golden-haired one among 39 others (a bee was hovering around her); the young man brought the princess; the bald man: let's climb a tall apple tree and pick apples; a branch broke, the young man fell and crashed to his death; the bald man buried the body; the girl orders to dig up the body, revived the young man with living water; the young man is released from the oath and told everything; the king ordered to tie the bald man to the horse's tail; the young man married the girl and after the death of the king received the throne]: Herreros 2007, no. 40: 103-108 (= Megas 1970, no. 33: 83-93).

Central Europe. Russians (location of recording not specified; the motif of the kerchief, waving which the sister creates a bridge for her demonic lover, is found only in the Russian North and the Pskov region; the execution of the antagonist "by firing squad" - only the Russian North; the text is conditionally attributed by us to the Olonetsk province.) [Ivan Tsarevich and his sister went to live in a state where the people had died out; they come to Baba Yaga; she has a revolving hut on chicken legs; she advises I. not to take his sister with him; gives him a ball of yarn and tells him to follow it; the ball rolls to the second Baba Yaga, she is in the same hut; gives a towel, with a wave of which a bridge will be thrown across the river; wave it again, and the bridge will disappear; also advises not to take his sister; I. ​​hunts with dogs; the Serpent Gorynych arrives, has become a fine fellow; advises Ivan's sister to ask him for a kerchief, supposedly to wash it; then the Serpent will cross the bridge to her; in order to get rid of I., the Serpent advises his sister to pretend to be ill, to ask for wolf's milk; the she-wolf gives milk and a wolf cub; the same with the she-bear; with the lioness; (further insertion, var. 2: 459-460: the Serpent suggests to his mistress to send her brother for living water to the kingdom where two mountains diverge once a day, and come together again after 2-3 minutes; living and healing waters are kept between those mountains; the prince rode on horseback between the mountains, scooped up two bubbles of water, but on the way back the mountains crushed the horse's (hind) legs; the prince sprinkled him with water and he became whole); now the Serpent came up with the idea of ​​sending I. to the mill for flour dust; there are 12 iron doors there, they will slam shut themselves; I. managed to get out, but his hunt remained locked up; I. asks to be allowed to take a steam bath before dying; does everything slowly; the raven reports how many doors the hunt has gnawed through; the animals managed to run up and tore the Serpent apart; I. put his sister in a stone pillar; left an empty vat, a vat of water and a bundle of hay; he will let her go when she eats the hay, drinks the water and cries a vat of tears; I. went on; half the people in the city are crying, half are having fun; an old woman: the 12-headed serpent flies to eat people from different ends; the people of the end where he will not fly today are having fun; it is the princess's turn to be eaten; I. chopped off the snake's heads, cut out the tongues, fell asleep on the princess's lap; the water carrier cut off Ivan's head and ordered him to say that he is the savior; the animals found the body, the lion caught the young raven, made the raven bring living and dead water; first he tore apart and revived the little raven, then he fused Ivan's head with his body and revived him; I. came to the wedding, showed his tongues; the water carrier was shot; the wedding; I. went to his sister; she ate the hay, drank the water, cried a tear in the vat; he forgave her and brought her to live with him]: Afanasyev 1985, No. 204(2): 100-106; Russian (Moscow, Zvenigorod district) [Saint George, while riding, // Affirming the holy faith, // Crashed against those crushing mountains: // Mountain will collide with mountain, // Will converge and not separate; // Saint George will not be able to pass. // Saint George says: // – You mountains, crushing mountains! // Separate, become tottering: // I will cut down a cathedral church on you, // A cathedral, pious church]: Kireevsky 1986: 107; Russian (Orlovskaya) [Saint George, while riding, // He opened the holy faith, // Crashed against the crushing mountains: // Mountain collided with mountain, // Saint George could neither pass nor pass. // Saint George said: // – You mountains, crushing mountains! // Stand, you mountains, as of old, // I will build a cathedral church upon you, // The Lord's service will be in you]: Kireevsky 1986: 170; Russian (Voronezh; spiritual poems about Yegor the Brave) [affirming the holy faith, George travels through Russia and encounters various obstacles. In both the Voronezh and Oryol versions these are crushing mountains, dense forests, a herd of animals, a fiery serpent. "Yagoriy tied up the crushing mountains. // Mountains collided with mountain, // Yegory could neither get there nor ride through. // "All of you, crushing mountains. // Stand, you mountains, as of old. // Believe in the faith of Christ Himself, the heavenly king. I will build a cathedral church upon you!"]: Pukhova 2011: 11-12; Russian: Russians (Perm, Yekaterinburg uyezd, Sorokinskaya pier; from the collection of V.I. Dahl) [in Jerusalem, during the reign of Tsar Feodor, Tsarina Sophia gave birth to three daughters, and the fourth, Yegory the Brave; Tsar Martemyanishche came from the Jewish infidel land and captured Sophia's children; Yegory refused to believe Satan and the devil; an axe, fire, resin, saws, and hot iron do not harm him; then he is put in a cellar; by God's command the winds carried away the cellar, Yegory came to Jerusalem; there is only one church there and Saint Sophia is in it; she tells her son to take a heroic horse and ride into an open field to establish the Christian faith; before him the forests, tree after tree, are twined together, bending to the ground; Yegory tells them to disperse across the earth and not to believe Satan the enemy; he orders the crushing mountains, then the herds of animals, snakes, too, to disperse throughout the land and not to believe in Satan, but to believe in Christ; that herd of animals and snakes was tended by the sisters of Yegor; he orders them to go and bathe in the Jordan to cleanse themselves of the unclean pagan spirit; he arrives at the Caesarean Jerusalem gates; the bird Ostrafil sits on them, holding a sturgeon in its claws; Yegor is not allowed to pass; he orders Ostrafil not to believe in Satan, to fly to the blue sea, to hatch chicks there, to eat and drink as ordered; he arrived to Tsar Martemyanishche, killed him; Jewish blood poured over Yegor up to his knees; he orders mother damp earth to part and devour this blood; living in this world, Yegory suffered and was cleansed of sins]: Afanasyev 1859, No. 9: 32-39; Russian(Tersky Bereg) [a peasant sends his three daughters to Tsarevich Velvet, to Velvet's mother, to pay a debt; the eldest refused, the youngest, Vasilisa the Beautiful, dressed up as a man, cut her hair, and went; she arrived and was given a room; the mother says that she is a woman, but the son is not, he is a man; if in the morning there is a hump under the shoulders on the feather bed and a hollow under the back, then she is a woman, and if the opposite is true, then she is a man; VP hears, shakes out the feather bed; they went to the bathhouse, VS put her horse on it, he did not let B. in, she managed to wash herself; she returned to her father; he asks his daughters what to bring from the city; the eldest: a kerchief, the middle one: a dress, VP: a crib with 4 doves; the father brought it only from his third trip; one day the cooks did not feed two of the doves; at night two doves: let's take VP to Tsarevich Velvet, but the other two do not want to; The next day all the pigeons were not fed; they carried the bed from VP to B.-Tsarevich, left it there, the bed fell apart, the pigeons flew away; B.-Tsarevich took her as his wife; she put a ring in the wall: until it grows under moss, I will not speak to anyone; sometimes she talks to her husband, but not to her mother-in-law; she gives her a basket and scissors, tells her to go shear the sheep; husband: sent her to her death, teaches her what to do; sit on a high stump, leave the basket and scissors, tell the sheep to shear themselves; bears, wolves, foxes and all sorts of animals came running - they sheared; the stump sank, VP brought wool; the mother-in-law sends to her aunt for a reed; the husband teaches what to take with her and what to do; two mountains: let's come together and then separate , let's squeeze the old woman and squeeze the witch! she threw them each a whetstone; gate (the same - resin under the heels); dog in the entryway - meat; broom - tied with a silk belt; broom - the same; cat - threw him two whitefish, he began to eat them; aunt went underground to sharpen her teeth, VP grabbed the reed and ran, leaving the spits to answer for themselves; when the aunt rushed in pursuit, all the guards answer that she did not care about them, but VP took care of them; now the mother-in-law orders to get white clay from the fiery river to whiten the cross; VP asks Noguy-bird with an iron nose to dive; first she gives half of the wine she took with her and one and a half white breads, and when the bird got the clay, she gave the rest; when she returned, the husband is already marrying the Yaga-woman; VA came, they shot the witch-baba at the 7th gate, VP lives with her husband]: Balashov 1970, No. 52: 177-183 ; Ukrainians (Transcarpathia, Mukachevo) [a childless woman asks to give her at least some boy; gave birth to a little one, they christened him Alamik; he grew up, made a cannon and a sabre out of wood, brought animals from hunting every day; came to a castle where there were 12 robbers; beat them at cards, chopped up 11, and on the 12th put them on bread and water; brought his mother to the castle; forbade opening one door; she came to the door, the robber said where the key was, she let him out; in order to ruin her son and stay with her lover, the mother pretends to be ill, asks to bring her wolf, bear, lion's milk; the she-wolf, bear, lioness give milk and a cub each; sends for flour to the devil's mill; then for a piglet from God's pig; he comes on Friday; she orders to leave the animals with her, gives a horse, teaches to grab a piglet without taking his foot out of the stirrup; on the way there, promise the drowned ferrywoman to find out how long it will take her to ferry across the river; on the way back, when she has ferryed her, say that until she drowns an animal; this animal turned out to be God's pig, it drowned; Friday kept God's piglet for herself, replacing it with another; the mother asks for God's wine ; Friday: you will reach two crushing fiery mountains , wave a towel, they will let you through; they will ask to find out until how long they will fight; 12 women will be sleeping, grab one terrible one , without taking your foot out of the stirrup; having passed the crushing mountains, say that they will fight until they crush someone; they crushed 12 women; Friday replaced the wine; A.'s mother suggested that he be bathed and that his little fingers be tied together to test his strength; when she tied them with a silk thread, A. could not break them; a robber jumped out; A. asked before he died to be allowed to squeak his pipe three times and to give the pieces of his body to the animals; the animals came running to the sound of the pipe; the robber chopped up A., hid his heart, and the animals brought the bags with the remains to Friday; she ordered the animals to wash them, folded them, put the heart of God's piglet in them, washed them with God's wineand A. came to life; he cut down the robber; he put 12 barrels in front of his mother: until she cried enough, he would not free her; A. came to a city in mourning; the dragon locked up the water, married him to girls, it was the princess's turn; the tsar would give his daughter and half the kingdom to the savior; A. sent a woman for water: let her tell the dragon that it was for A.; the dragon gave it; on the way the woman drank the water; but the dragon gave it again; when A. fell asleep at the well, the princess pinned her ring to his hair; at first the princess did not move from fear, then she shuddered, A. woke up, cut off 20 heads of the dragon; a gypsy saw this, who had climbed a willow; A. sent the princess to her father, cut out the tongues from the heads; as soon as the dragon was killed, water flowed throughout the city; the gypsy picked up the heads, brought them to the tsar; First a wolf, then a bear, a lion run to the princess, she recognized them and fed them; A. came, put the princess's ring on a plate, she recognized it; A. showed his tongues, the gypsy was torn apart by horses; a wedding; A.'s mother came, put a robber's bone in his bed, he died, they buried him; the animals dug up and brought it to Friday, she revived him with God's wine; A. returned, the bone was found in the bed; his mother was torn apart by four horses; A. inherited the kingdom; maybe they are still alive, if they did not die]: Dei 198: 19-31; Ukrainians (Transcarpathia) [a widower marries a neighbor; she makes it a condition that he get rid of their children - Ivan and Marika; he takes them into the forest, leaving the log to beat against a tree in the wind, as if he were chopping firewood; they returned home; the next time the father took him further, the children remained in the forest; they bake wild horseradish, go to bed with their heads in different directions; a bear and a wolf come, are surprised by the strange beast, and leave; in the morning there is good bread in the ashes; a magic shirt, gun, and sabre are on the sycamore; I. gets them, becomes a strong man; breaks into a robber's den, the princess is there; kills 11 robbers, the 12th pretends to be dead, I. leaves the body, lets the girl go to her father, and leaves; the robber asks M. to bring living water, pour it into the keyhole; he opens the door, the robber's severed ear grows back, M. takes the robber as a husband; in order to destroy his brother, he pretends to be ill, asks for wolf, then bear and other meat; the she-wolf, then the bear and other animals ask not to kill them, gives a wolf cub, a bear cub, etc.; the robber suggests M. to send his brother for water from the spring between the crushed mountains ; at noon they stop, I. got water; to bring flour from the mills that grind human bones, open once every 12 years; I. collects flour, manages to jump out, the doors slam shut, his animals remained inside; M. bathes I. in fresh milk, he grew languid, she tied him with horsehair, the robber took the shirt in which is strength; they gouged out I.'s eyes, threw them into the well; people pulled him out; he wandered through the forest, fell head first into a swamp, there is living water there, he regained his sight; bought good clothes, swapped clothes with his grandfather; he gave him bottles of water, one makes you look younger, the other makes you look older; came to M. and the robber disguised as a beggar; when they fell asleep, he took his shirt, saber, gun; ordered them to give him his flute; he began to play, the animals broke out of the mill, came running, tore the robber to pieces; left M. two barrels for tears, one to cry for him, the other for the robber; in the neighboring kingdom a snake locked up the water; I. ​​killed him, freed the princess whom the gypsy was carrying the snake, cut off the snake's tongues, the gypsy cut off a piece from each tongue, demanded the princess as a wife from the tsar; at home almost all the tears were cried for the robber; I. ​​shows the tsar not the tips of the tongues, but the tongues themselves, the animals tore the gypsy to pieces, I. took the princess; M. came, poisoned I., locked up the animals; they broke free, the Fox brought living water; the next time M. locked the gate again, put a pitchfork in I.'s bed; the same; the animals tore M. to pieces]: Verkhovyna's Tales 1970: 232-243; Ukrainians (Hutsulshchyna) [a stepmother tells her husband to take her stepdaughter and stepson to the forest; the first time the girl scatters ashes; the father hangs a piece of wood on a tree, it knocks in the wind, as if he were chopping wood, and he himself left; the brother and sister returned along the trail; the second time there was not enough ashes, the girl took dust, the wind carried it away; the boy noticed a fire from the tree; the brother and sister came to the fire, there were two loaves of bread and two eggs; then they came to the house; there were 24 robbers, 12 came at night, 12 during the day; the boy cuts off each one's head as they put it in the window; only one was wounded, asked the girl to bandage his head, took him as a wife; to get rid of her brother, the sister pretends to be ill: wolf's milk will help; now living water is needed; an old woman: water beyond the crushing mountains , you have to run and back; the old woman tells you to leave the living water with her, and bring the one she gives you; sister: you need a guinea pig; the old woman: it is also behind the crushing mountains; she leaves that one with her, tells her sister to bring a simple one; sister: let me tie your fingers, see if you can tear it; a robber came in, chopped the young man into pieces, put him in a sack, and threw him into the forest; the old woman's horse picked up the sack and brought it to her; she folded the limbs of the body, revived them with living water; cooked the piglet, gave him to eat, the young man felt great strength; the old woman turned him into a bird, he flew to the robber, sat on a tree; the robber climbed after the bird, leaving his saber on the ground; the bird flew off, became a young man, he chopped up the robber; put a sack on the horse, tied his sister alive behind the horse; the horse dragged her, trampled the remains of the robber]: Zinchuk 2006a, No. 91: 267-272; Ukrainians (Galicia) [two sons of the king got lost, stuck a knife in a sycamore and went their separate ways; the one with blood on him died; the elder came to the mountain, there was a fire under an apple tree, he began to warm himself; an old woman came up: I'm cold too, just tie up the dog; he tied it up, the old woman turned them both into stones; the younger saw blood on the knife; the woman directs him to the crushing mountains, there will be an old man there, he will direct him; the old man: if you slip between the mountains, then climb the mountain, tie up a woman and beat her until she revives the petrified; the woman gave her living water; both brothers continued to beat her until she revived everyone, including the king, the princess and two princes; the elder went on; the city is in mourning, the snake eats everyone, it's the princess's turn; the snake crawls out of the rock, the young man cuts off 6 heads, cuts out tongues, tells everyone to wait for him for 12 weeks; the coachman says he defeated the snake; the young man comes and shows his tongues; the deceiver wants to tie the young man to 4 horses, but they tie him]: Dragomanov 1876, No. 9: 283-286; Ukrainians (Kharkiv) [The princess gives birth to a son, her parents drive her away, cut off her hands, tie the child to their back. She wants to drink at the well, the son asks her to put her hands in the water - she does, her hands grow back. They settle in an empty forest house. Ivan examines the house, finds a 12-headed snake on 12 chains in the barn ("tied with a strip of stripe and smeared with excrement"), the snake asks to give him a drink - there are buckets of water and blood nearby, Ivan refuses, forbids his mother to enter the barn. In his absence, she enters, gives the snake a drink, he becomes a handsome man, convinces her to destroy her son - send him for rings, which can be obtained by traveling between two shifting mountains . On the way, Ivan comes to a hut where a girl is embroidering, she gives him her horse so that Ivan can get to the mountains, at the mountains the horse orders him to climb into his right ear. Ivan takes out a bandura from there, places it between the mountains, the mountains stop from playing the bandura, takes the rings. The mother again pretends to be ill, sends her son for snake fat, he again receives the girl's horse, it tells him to beat the snake when it wakes up (?), it "cowards" for 11 days, and dies on the 12th. Ivan cuts out the fat, brings it to his mother, she demands bear's milk, he again takes the girl's horse, the horse advises him to tie the sabre "to the ears", the she-bear asks not to kill her, milks the milk for Ivan. The horse gallops 12 miles in one jump, in the house Ivan sees his mother with a dove (a snake that has turned into a snake), the bird flies out the window, Ivan chases after it, the mother asks her son to throw down his sabre so as not to get hurt, he obeys, the snake takes its form, kills Ivan, scatters the bones in the field. Three mermaids, the sisters of the girl from the hut, see him, each of them steps over Ivan's bones, he is healed, gets up, then speaks (the ability to speak as a stage of returning to life; then it is not clear - something was cut off and molded into a cake and eaten). He marries the girl from the hut, kills the snake, seats the mother in front of two buckets - his and the snake, to understand who she cries more about - him or the snake. He returns, sees that the bucket is full of snakes, leaves his mother]: Grinchenko 1895, No. 158: 155-159; Ukrainians(Ekaterinoslavskaya, Aleksandrovsky uyezd, Alekseyevka village) [a grandfather had a daughter and an old woman had a daughter; the grandfather's daughter became pregnant, the old woman told her husband to take her to the forest; she found a hut there and gave birth to a boy; a hero arrived, took him to be baptized, and soon returned him; the son grows up quickly; the hero returned, said that he was about to die, and was leaving his horse, a lion, harness, and his strength to his son; the son begged his mother to let him ride the horse; the horse: how should I carry you: half a tree, higher than a tree, or under a cloud?; the young man: higher than a tree; he killed birds, and the lion killed animals, and returned; next time: carry the clouds came out; three people are visible below, laying out a fire, and behind them are chambers; the young man went down: put it out; the people: we can't, the snake will kill us; the young man put it out himself; there are three snakes in the chambers: with one, with two, with three heads; Everyone goes out to find out why the fire went out; the young man kills one, then another, and cuts off both heads of the third and hangs them in the closet by the tongue; he moved his mother to this palace; he does not allow her to enter the closet; the snake turned into a handsome man, hangs not by the tongue, but by the forelock; offers himself as a husband, and to destroy her son; the mother said she was ill: under 12 oak trees there is a sow with piglets, get some piglet; the son went, on the way there is a hut, in it a beauty; they became brother and sister; he killed one piglet, tied the meat in a scarf, left the pigs, spent the night with his sister; she replaced the piglet with dog meat; now the mother demands a golden apple from the garden of Nastasya the Beautiful; the horse jumped over the fence, the young man picked apples, sinned with N.; the horse: now I will not jump over the fence, wash yourself; the third time the horse jumped over, but touched the top, the alarm was raised, N. became fire, rushed after; the sister became a lake, stopped the fire; replaced the apples; the mother: among the crushing mountains - living water, get it; the young man jumped over and made it back, but his lion died on the way back ; the sister replaced the water; seeing that the lion was no longer there, the mother offered her son to tie him up - will he break the bonds; the first time he broke, but the second - no; the snake crawled out from under the pillows, chopped the young man into pieces, put him in a sack, blinded the horse, tied the sack to the horse and let it go; he came to the sister; she returned the horse's sight with living water; she began to rearrange the pieces of the body, some had already rotted; she replaced the missing with pork and apples, sprinkled living water, the young man came to life; [he killed the snake, tied his mother to a plow and put two glasses for tears for the snake and for himself; she cried only into the glass where the tears were for the snake; he tied her to a horse; where he hit his head, there is a grave, and where he hits his forehead, there is a valley; the young man returned to his sister]: Dragomanov 1876, No. 14: 299-303 (variant of the beginning on p. 304: three sisters, one became pregnant, the others drove her away, she gave birth to a son; he began to go hunting, covered the snake with an oak tree; his mother found him and took her as a husband; instead of a lion - cubs given to him by a she-wolf, a bear and a fox); Slovaks [a mother breastfeeds her son three times for seven years; when she is convinced that he is able to uproot a beech tree, she says that it is enough - let him take care of her now and provide her with a home; the son found a dragon's castle in the forest, broke into it, killed the dragons; in the tenth room another one is chained to the wall; he asks to be freed, other dragons have chained him; the young man refuses, brings his mother to live in this castle; forbids entering the tenth room; she goes in, agrees to free the chained one; for this it is necessary to bring wine from the barrel in the basement; after each cup one of the hoops falls off; in order to get rid of her son, the dragon advises the mother to pretend to be ill, to bring a piglet of an earthen pig; the young man came to St. Nedelka; she orders him to mount her horse named Tatoshik, gives her a pike to prick the piglet; it will squeal, the pig will chase it; the second time the piglet will not squeal out of fear of the sow, it can be taken away; the next time the mother, on the advice of the dragon, asks for living and dead water; Nedelka teaches: the water of life is in the right mountain, it will rise at noon; death is in the left, it will rise at midnight; the mountains almost crushed the young man's hands ; Nedelka kept the living and dead water for themselves, and gave the youth some ordinary water; the dragon suggests sending for a pelican; Nedelka: the wind tears out trees from the flapping of the pelican's wings; the youth brought the pelican, Nedelka kept it for herself, and gave the youth a simple eagle for his mother; bring a golden apple from the dragon's garden; Nedelka gives a ring: if you turn it around and think about it, your strength will increase a hundredfold; the horse carried it over the garden wall; the apples are guarded by a princess kidnapped by dragons; if they are stolen, she will be killed; she also gives a ring that multiplies strength a hundredfold; the dragon under the apple tree; they began to fight, the dragon drove the youth into the ground up to his ankles; raven: who will I help? dragon: me, he promises gold; youth: me, he promises the carcasses of all the horses grazing in the meadow; the raven sprinkled the youth with water so that the dragon's heat would not burn him; When the youth turned the second ring, he drove the dragon into the ground up to his shoulders; chopped off his head; the princess herself plucked an apple for the youth; the youth promises to come for her in a year; he brought a golden apple to his mother; she offered to tie him up: is he strong like his father? the youth broke the rope; then she tied him with a silk cord: he did not break it; the dragon chopped him into pieces, they loaded them onto T. and drove him away; T. came to Nedelka, she revived the youth with dead and living water; but there was no heart: his mother took it out and hung it from the ceiling; Nedelka ordered him to dress up as a beggar, come to the castle to play the bagpipes and ask for the heart as a reward; the mother began to dance with the dragon; the piper said that he was too old to take money, but he would like the heart; Nedelka washed the heart with living and dead water and ordered the pelican to put it back in the youth's place; after this she let the pelican go; turned the youth into a dove: let him fly and find out what his mother is doing; to become human again, he must think of her; the mother tells the dragon to shoot the dove, but it turns into a youth and cuts off the dragon's head; he takes the mother out into the yard, throws up a sword; when it falls, it pierces her heart; the youth comes to the king whose daughter he saved and marries her; if they did not die, then they are still alive]: Wenzig 1857: 144-156; Slovaks [a fisherman's daughter was carried away by a 12-headed dragon; the fisherman's son went in search; a witch asks to know when she will be able to carry people across water: during a storm or a calm; crushing rocks : when they stop; a youth divides the carcass of a sheep between a raven, a tiger and a wolf; for this they give him a feather, a hair, a piece of skin, this will help him; in the dragon's castle the sister pulls hairs from her sleeping husband's head {apparently describes situations that she supposedly dreamed} and receives the dragon's answers; the brother eavesdrops; the sister gives him a ring, a jug of wine, a magic horse; he defeats the dragon with 24 heads {kills the hare}, a dove flies out of the hare, the young man takes an egg out of the dove, smashes it on the forehead of the 12-headed dragon, freeing his sister]: Gašparíková 1993, no. 95: 66.

The Caucasus - Asia Minor. The Abkhazians [the vizier grew old, the king asked to send an equally intelligent man in his place; the vizier sends his eldest son, attacks unexpectedly unrecognized, the young man returns; the same with the youngest; the daughter puts on men's clothes, is not afraid, almost kills her father; the imaginary young man breaks down the gates of the adaua; they offer to choose one of their three sisters; he does not sleep with the older ones; the youngest: I know that you are a woman, but you will become a man; orders to choose the worst horse; the king offers the vizier's "son" to get the heart and liver of a wild boar; "he" cut them out of a sleeping boar, it died; bring milk from a wild deer; there are crushing rocks on the way, the girl slipped past, the horse was crushed ; she sees a petrified city; one of the petrified: the queen was offended by her husband, if she says more than three words (in reality - phrases), you will also turn to stone; the girl raised her sword; the queen: let everyone 1) come to life, 2) women become men, 3) men – women; the vizier’s daughter becomes a young man, kills the queen; the horse came to life, the young man brought milk to the king, married the daughter of the adauy, married the other two to his brothers]: Shakryl 1974, no. 37: 184-189; Adyghe : Alieva 1978, no. 30 [a hairy forest man with an axe sticking out of his chest kidnapped three girls; died; three brothers took the girls as wives; the eldest promises to give birth to a son and a daughter every year, the middle one – to give birth to a daughter every year, whose hair is half white, half red gold; the youngest – to give birth to a nard son every year; only the eldest kept her promise; the sisters swapped the children with puppies, lowered them down the river in a chest; the husband locked his wife in a barn; the old people picked up the chest, named the girl Babukh, the boy Cherim; dying, they bequeathed a horse to Ch., a chest with goods to B.; Ch. meets his father and his brothers while hunting, rides to them, their mother recognizes him; the father returns his wife, her sisters were tied to the horses; the witch persuades B. to ask her brother to get 1) a golden accordion, located between crushed rocks; the rocks only tore off the horse's tail ; 2) the sister of the seven brothers and an apple tree from her garden; the brothers grab Ch.; the horse brings B. there, she plays the golden accordion, the brothers give Ch. their sister, one marries B.]: 244-248; Khut 1987 [a lone horseman meets Shauai, not recognizing him, says that he is going to Sh.; he brings him to his place, changes clothes, receives the guest; the rider asks for huge portions of food for him and his horse; covers the horse with a layer of resin and sand; throws himself into the sea; if white foam emerges, Sh. must grab the horse, which jumps out of the water; red foam emerges; Sh. jumps across the sea on his horse; calls; the rider replies that he lies between the crushing mountains ; Sh. chops off the heads of 12 seven-headed Inyzhs, ready to chop off the head of the rider; the Inyzhs' stallion runs away, brings three 12-headed elder brothers of the killed Inyzhs; the rider kills two with arrows; when he fights the last one, his horse cannot bite the rider's horse covered in sand and resin; Sh. kills him; the rider confesses that he is a girl who avenged the brothers killed by the Inyzhs; having washed their eyes with the blood of the Inyzhs, her parents regained their sight; the girl immediately leaves, Sh. goes to look for her; Satanay says that the girl lives beyond the sea, the way there is guarded by the eagle An-Ak; Sh. on a horse in the dark (the beauty covers her face with her hair, it becomes dark) swims across an impassable swamp; the beauty promised to marry the one who can do this; on the way back An-Ak carries her away; Sh. pretends to be asleep, An-Ak brings him to his nest, Sh. kills him with a sword; returns to the sleds with his wife]: 40-54; Balkars (west 1965) [three sons often hear from their father: "Persimmon, ah, persimmon!"; father: you cannot find the desired persimmon; the sons set out for persimmon; at a fork in the road, the eldest brother goes along a road where "the one walking will get hungry", the middle one - "will wear out", the youngest - "will find himself in mortal danger"; the youngest applied himself to the nipples of the emegenshi; her husband came; he teaches: you must pass between the crushing rocks ; cross the river (Kyzyl-Kan-Cherek, "blood-red river"), without looking for a crossing; there is a persimmon; under the persimmon, the emegen sleeps, resting his head on the lap of the beauty; The young man brought a persimmon, his brothers decided to kill him; they threw him into the river, took the persimmon; father: what was there where the persimmon grew; the brothers do not know; father: you did not find it; then the youngest son returned; his father to him: that woman with the emegen is your mother; the brothers went after her; that friendly emegen: the kidnapper of your mother is the strongest emegen; he can only be killed with his own knife; the older brothers are scared, the youngest took a knife from the tree and cut off the emegen's head; mother: there were three captives below with the emegen; the youngest brother went down; the brothers lifted the girls and the treasures, cut the rope, lifting the youngest; but he got out; the girls demand from the suitors the same jewelry that they had; the youngest brother comes to the jeweler, gives him their real jewelry; the youngest understands that the young man is alive; she tells the jeweler to admit that he did not make what he brought; but still everyone made peace]: Malkonduev 2017: 331-340; Balkars (west 1959) [wife died, husband started looking for the same, couldn't find one, decided to take the daughter who was most like her mother; daughter ran away, climbed an apple tree, ate an apple, got pregnant, gave birth to a son, he grew up quickly; deer ordered to kill him, a house will be built from the skin, greyhounds from the kidneys, a bridge from the tail, if necessary; across the river, emegen asks the woman to bring him to her; she doesn't want to take him as a son, agrees to take him as a husband; she put down the deer tail, emegen crossed the river on the bridge; emegens taught the woman to pretend to be sick: you need 1) meat of ram-horned aurochs; the young man got it; 2) water from a rock that opens and closes (one girl helped to get it); 3) to bathe in a cauldron (the Emegens set the table with the second one and began to cook the young man; the aurochs knocked down the upper cauldron, the girl pulled the young man out; the young man killed the Emegens and his mother and married the girl]: Malkonduev 2017: 470-472; Ossetians : Britaev, Kaloev 1959: 59-63 [The wolf lets the boy go but promises to come for him when he gets married; he comes for him, the young man runs away, the women in the towers successively give him a comb (a thicket), two loaves of bread (two dogs), and a hair (a bridge over a lake); the young man goes to bed by the burial mound, from which a fanged woman comes out; he calls her mother, she does not eat him; he hunts for her; the wolf turns into a young man across the river, promises to marry the woman if she gives him that hair; the wolf crosses, they dig a hole for the young man to fall into; the dogs discover it; a woman sends a young man for a dancing fur coat; a path between crowded mountains ; on the way back the young man slipped through, there is no dog; they ran around, tore the Wolf to pieces when he attacked the young man; the young man returns to his wife], 193-204 [a widower marries another; scatters apples over a hole, the girls fall through; their tears wash out the exit; aldar finds them; the eldest promises to sew the people clothes from a piece of metaria, the middle one - to feed everyone with a plate of flour, the youngest - to give birth to a boy with a golden crest, a girl with silver curls; leaving, aldar gives his pregnant wife a bell; the sisters plug the ears of his horse; they put puppies under them, they leave the twins with a bitch at the edge of the forest; aldar orders to sew up his wife and puppies in an ox hide, to wipe their feet on it; the children grow up with the bitch; aunts they persuade the girl to offer her brother to bring the girl from the Copper Tower; the horse carries the young man between the crushing mountains ; having called the mistress of the tower, the young man begins to go into the ground, but seeing his golden crest, the mistress agrees to marry him; the tower flies over the crushing mountains to the young man's house; the aunts offer to get the singing fur coat; the young man drinks water from the sour river, eats sour apples, gives wheat to the crows, meat to the wolves, they let him pass; he takes the Fur Coat, it asks the guards to stop the thief, they refuse; Aldar arrives at his son's castle, everything is explained; Aldar's wife is bathed in a milky lake, her sisters are torn apart by horses]; Dzagurov 1973, No. 33 [the comrades reproach the young man: first find your father, and then quarrel with us; he tells his mother to fry corn and squeezes her hand; she has to say that her father was kidnapped by a giant, and her father's horse is standing up to its ears in manure; does not believe that her son can lift his father's sword; the young man nursed the horse, easily lifted the sword, rides away, the horse shows the way; the young man hit the giant's decomposed corpse with a whip: come to life, but be blind; the revived one says that his wife was kidnapped by the same giant who carried off the young man's father; at night he tries to throw trees and stones at the young man; the young man turns him into a corpse again; the young man found the giant, chopped off 6 heads, ordered him to tell where his father was, then chopped off the seventh head; there are crushing mountains on the way, the horse slipped through, only half of its tail was cut off ; the young man's father is a shepherd, cleaning his fur coat from lice; the young man brought the giant's ears to his wife; she tells her to be wary of the giant's mother; the young man killed her, but she cursed him: he will have no peace until he gets the daughter of the king of the genies; the horse teaches to give millet to the birds, to drink from the spring and praise the water, to throw a ram to the iron-faced wolves; to grease the door hinges; the young man found a girl and lives with her for a month; then they loaded all their belongings onto an all-container felt and galloped away; the young man destroyed the pursuing army, but one warrior killed him with a dagger; the fox cub began to lick the blood, the woman killed him; the fox bathed in the spring, the fox cub came to life; then the woman revived the murdered husband; he says that he was already going to marry the daughter of Barastur - the lord of the underworld; the young man revived the giant with a whip and gave him his wife, kidnapped by the seven-headed giant; the young man returned home with his wife, all is well]: 91-99; Libedinsky 1978 [Satan hides from Batrazd that his father Hamits was killed; Akhsartaggata sends a wind to tell B. that Kh. was killed; he asks Sh. to roast grains for him and give them to him by hand; squeezes his hand; Sh. names the murderers from Borat's clan; he kills the murderers]: 362-371; Libedinsky 1978 [when Aisana enters, Soslan's wife does not get up to greet him; each time she says that she does not do this because he has not accomplished such and such a feat; 1) to get a tree that blossoms from sunset to midnight, and by dawn is hung with fruits; it is behind crushed rocks; A.'s horse orders to whip him powerfully, gallops between the rocks; on the way back the rocks cut off three hairs from his tail ; A. brings a tree; 2) to marry Saumaron-Burdzabakh; the suitors call out to her, but she cannot hear them in her tower, they turn to stone; A. begins to turn to stone, the horse screams louder; S. makes A. former, marries him; at his request, revives the other petrified ones; they attack A., S. turns them to stone again; 3) to bring God's fur coat; A. replies that since the fur coat was not sewn by the hands of Soslan's wife, he will not get it]: 251-252; Ingush [the horse tells the aging warrior to give it to the young horseman; the young man arrives at the tower; the hostess promises to become his wife if he learns the secret of the noseless Silayma; he will reveal it to the one who has accomplished the feat; the horseman wins, takes the young man as a companion; kills the terrible wolf Berzy Kaza ("wolf puppy"); the companion brings the horseman to his castle, where his brother's wife is sick; the horseman goes for medicine, the horse carries him between the crushing rocks ; the horseman takes out a splinter from a lion, who gives the medicine - a jug of milk; the beauty recovered, advised to ask her husband as a reward for a sabre with a broken end and a gray nag; the husband is S.; he says that he and his seven comrades were pursued by a seven-headed snake, threw a stone, killed his comrades, cut off the tip of his nose; the horseman tells the horse to return to its former owner, mounts the nag, it becomes a heroic horse; the horseman arrives to the bride; wedding]: Kibiev, Malsagov 1981: 86-99 (= Malsagov 1983, no. 20: 115-119; a similar version or the same one in another translation in Tankieva 2003: 192-195, the name of the man Sulaim); Avars [the khan built a glass palace for his son and fed him boneless meat and crustless bread; one day, by mistake, they brought meat with bones and bread with a crust; the prince pricked himself on the bone, threw it away and broke the glass; told his parents to let him leave the house; fell asleep in the meadow; the father came, woke him up; the son: why did you interfere with my beautiful dream! ran away; another khan found him in the forest; the prince called himself a Foundling, began to herd pigs; the khan fell in love with him; others are envious; they advise sending N. for a pearl that can illuminate everything around; N. released a fish into the sea, it brought a pearl; his confidants suggested sending N. for living water ; he pulled out a chick of a huge bird stuck in a hollow; the bird took a wineskin and flew between the crushing rocks spewing flames , brought water; the khan and his wife grew younger; the nukers advise sending N. for a shining beauty - the daughter of another khan; on the way N. meets and takes as a companion the Man who cuts plane trees (he replies that it is N. who is strong, not he; having learned that N. is in front of him, he goes with him); the same Man who runs faster than the arrow he himself shot; Man who throws a stick to the sky; Man who listens to underground ants; the princess shows the heads of the suitors on stakes; gives a scarf: with its help, the felt axe, which they will offer to chop the stump, will become steel; the water in the jug, with which they will offer to climb the tower, will freeze without spilling a drop; when the prince lifted the jug, he thought of his parents and shed a tear; but the inspectors were convinced that it was not a drop of water, but something salty; slaughter a huge bull (the giant slaughtered it); overtake a woman; she put the Runner to sleep, the Listener heard snoring, Metal threw his staff, waking up the Runner, who brought a jug of water before the woman; the friends were locked in an iron house, the wood was set on fire around it, Vodokhleb poured water on everything; the Thrower threw the khan into the sky, he is still falling; N. returned to the khan who sent him, who married him to the beauty he had captured; he visited his parents, rejuvenated them with living water; he explained the dream to his father: at the moment when his father woke him up, he saw that the sun and moon had risen nearby, and there were many stars around]: Atayev 1972, No. 89: 140-147; Avars : Bulatova 1985: 59-66 [the eldest sister promises to weave cloth for the royal army, the middle one - to bake bread, the youngest - to give birth to a son with pearl teeth and a golden-haired daughter; the king eavesdrops, takes the youngest; while the king is at war, the sisters throw the children into a nettle gorge, report that the queen gave birth to a puppy and a kitten; the king orders her to be sewn up in a donkey skin, chained to the city gates, and spit on; a doe feeds the children with milk, leaves them in an empty castle, orders the boy to cover his mouth, the girl - her hair; the widow fishes out a golden hair in the river, the evil sisters order this woman to destroy the survivors; she advises the girl to ask her brother 1) to bring a branch of an apple tree that sings and dances; he gallops on horseback between crushed rocks, the tip of his tail is cut off , brings the branch; 2) to marry the beauty Ezenzulhar ; he sees petrified horsemen near her castle, calls E., himself turns to stone; the sister wears out her iron soles and staff; E. looks at her when she bares her hair, the petrified ones come to life, the brother marries E.; the king meets his children, frees his wife, the children take their mother to their castle]; Mazaev, Kasumov 1997(1): 87-91 (= Saidov, Dalgat 1965: 231-239) [approximately the same, the name of the beauty is Azhnaguhar; the khan ties the older sisters, the slave, the widow to the tails of the horses]; Lezgins : Ganieva 2011b, #31 [a shah has three sons from his first wife, she died, the second gave birth to a daughter; someone eats off a horse's legs; the eldest and middle sons guard, do not notice anything; the youngest cut his finger, sprinkled it with salt, shot off the monster's finger, it turned out to be his sister's finger; the shah decided to kill his daughter, the sons do not agree, they leave; the eldest rides along the road "from which they return", the middle one - "I don't know", the youngest - "they do not return"; exchanges his rich clothes for a lion cub; kills a one-, two-, seven-headed azhdah, freeing three princesses, promises to take them on the way back; comes to the mother of the seven azhdahs, makes friends with them; they want to get a golden cockerel and a golden sieve, to get a girl for them; the young man goes to get them; the azhdah brothers give a fat tail, a carpet, cotton wool; The young man gave the lion cub a fat tail and sent him back; he spread a carpet on the bridge that goes up and down; he put cotton wool on the thorns; he jumped over the crushing mountains on a horse, only the hairs from the horse's tail were cut off ; in that country there are only women; the young man stole a cockerel and a sieve, came back, took three princesses, found his brothers; they pushed him into a well; the merchant pulled him out; the queen of the women's kingdom came to the brothers, they said that they had got the cockerel and the sieve, she killed them; she found the young man, made sure that he had got the items, became his wife; the young man goes to visit his father, only his sister is there; he asks if the brother has arrived on a horse with three, two, one horse, on the carcass of a horse; she has already eaten them all; the brother became a dove, the sister a fox, the dove sat on a tree, noticed the lion cub, he tore the fox to pieces; the dove became a young man, noticed a leaf with a drop of his sister's blood, the leaf became a beetle, the young man threw the beetle to the hen, who ate it; the young man returned to his wife; feast]: 301-304; Khalilov 1965, No. 47 [three daughters of King Sultan decide to replace his son; the eldest, the middle one returns from the fields, says that she did not see anything; the youngest answers in more detail, remains in a man's dress; the father sends his "son" to marry the daughter of another king; she agrees, but asks that the groom find out why the city turned to stone; at the fork, the young man chooses the road with the sign "you will not return", and not the one where "you will not return soon"; he comes to the azhdaha, there is a girl who calls the "young man" brother; the azhdaha does not know about the city, sends a letter to the mother of all azhdaha; she says that the city is behind the mountain, comes to life for a few moments at dawn; at that moment the gates rose and fell again, the "young man" managed to slip through, his horse was cut in half ; he sees a man whose lower half had turned to stone; his wife went to the robbers at night, he cut off their heads while they were drunk; for this the wife turned everything to stone, her husband - half; the "young man" finds the woman in the basement, she tells him to change his gender; he, having become a man, demands that she disenchant the city; she does this and the young man immediately kills her; he returned, married the princess]: 119-124; Georgians [the uncle envies the strength of his nephew (this is the son of his elder brother); offers to get the Bozhmi flower; the old woman says that when the beautiful B. lets her hair down from the cliff, there are flowers on the ends; B. braids the young man with her hair, throws him into Kadzheti (the world of spirits-kadzhi); the young man's sister goes to look for him; the father tries to stop her, but allows her to go, having made sure that she is stronger than him; between the sea and the sky is the castle of a woman from Kadzheti; the girl takes her as a companion; they come across a dev, who demands to bring a lamp from Kadzheti, takes the kadzhi girl as a hostage; the gates of Kadzheti {i.e. the cliffs?} converge and diverge, the young man's sister gallops through on a horse, only the tip of the horse's tail is cut off ; in the palace there are petrified people, among them a brother, petrified to the waist; the sister threatens Bozhmi with a sword, she disenchants the petrified; Kazhmi was locked in a tower, the sister took the magic lantern, did not give the girl back, the girl from Kajeti was kidnapped by an earthly girl; the dwarf killed the young man and kidnapped the girl; the young man's sister revived him with living water; the kidnapped woman pretends to be afraid for the life of the dwarf; he replies that his life is in a broom; she promises to take care of the broom; the dwarf laughs: his life is in a fish, which is in the sea between two seas; the kidnapped woman tells her brother and sister who came to her about this; the sister caught a fish, there was a box in it, released three birds, the dwarf died, the brother, sister and girl returned home]: Chikovani 1986: 73-80; Armenians : Nazinyan 1969 [the young man fell in love with the king's daughter, fell ill, recovered, became a hero; a wizard teaches how to find a fiery horse, the young man tamed it, galloped between the crushing mountains , defeated the army of devas; freed the daughter of King Aslan from the cave of Tapagöz; burned out his eye with a spit, I. died; married the freed woman]: 118-125; Yuzbashev 1892 [the wives of six brothers are depraved, but the seventh is chaste; six accused her of inappropriate behavior; the husband did not bother to investigate, went far away, hired himself out as a shepherd to the king; a horse came out of the sea, bit the foal; he explained that the sea king had marked him; the man found a motley feather; the king will reward the one who brings the bird; the man set off after it; ahead are crushing mountains ; the horse knew when they stop and galloped past; on the island there is a three-headed giant, one eye on each head; his ring must be taken out to get the bird; the horse taught him to grab the giant's sword, in which lies his strength; the giant gave him the ring; in the garden the horse told the birds to slaughter the giant's horse, which he had taken with him, and to hide in the carcass; the birds flew in, seeing the feather and the ring; the man grabbed one and brought it to the king; on the way home the horse taught him how to hide from the miller and found the miller hiding; the miller, by agreement, gave him the magic tablecloth; at home, in the man's absence, the unfaithful wives tried to use the tablecloth, but they stuck to it; the owner told her to let the innocent ones go; the unfaithful wives remained stuck, their brothers killed them]: 323-329.

Iran - Central Asia. Burishi [a rich man picked up a baby in the wheat, named him Dungpa Miru, he grew up, they gave him a wife, but she gives birth to 100 sons with the heads of animals; while hunting, DM shot a goat, but someone else's bullet hit the same goat; two people came up and gave him meat for a promise to give him a son or daughter if one was born; the name of the one who came up was Fasan Karaski, and he lives in the country of Yal Butot; the wife gave birth to a boy and a calf; DM brought him to FC; when parting, the son tells his father to wait on the roof with a cauldron in 12 months: he will fall into it as a raindrop, let the wife drink and he will return; she became pregnant; the son speaks to her from her womb; he came out when she was sleeping; then the second boy was born; the first put him in his mouth, the mother screamed; first son: if she had not interfered, his whole body would have become like iron, but now his armpits were left vulnerable; every day the first son Pangchu grows weaker, and the second Bumliftan gains strength; the name of all one hundred sons is Kiseré; the eldest of them Aba Kitung divided the land and property among them, and P. received a cemetery, a ford across the river and a miserable hut; did not allow to bury there; when AK wanted to cross, P. did not allow it, replaced his lion's heart with a fox's; after that P. received as much of everything as all the others together; the king wants to give away seven daughters; P. took the form of a lousy; decided to take the eldest Langa Brumo; planted a donkey's embryo in her sleeping body; she has to agree to marry P. so as not to be disgraced; her father and sisters are shocked by her choice; when the other sons-in-law go hunting for the golden bull, P. goes too; LB and her stepmother secretly follow him, see how he first takes the form of a magnificent king, then hides the horse in his sleeve, again becomes a pitiful freak; mocks his sons-in-law; having climbed into the ear of a bull, feeds him poison; dying, the bull says that it was prophesied that he would die at the hands of Geser (Kiser); orders that the knife be taken out of his ear and cut open; P. takes the golden tail and hooves; the sons-in-law find the skin, bring the king the wool, each says that he killed the bull, the king convicts them of lying; P. does not tell his wife that he killed the bull, but gives a nut with its bone marrow; when the king and the courtiers try it, they feel a magnificent taste; P. gives the king the golden tail, hooves, horns of the bull; asks for a gift of one grain and a drop of oil in return, puts a sack under, the king's granaries are empty; Kiser left LB, conquered another country and took another wife there; at this time the king Pahardang Gaipo took LB away; she told that Bumliftan's armpits were vulnerable; provoked him to raise his hands, the hidden warrior shot, but the arrow did not pierce Bumliftan through and through and he galloped away; but when the arrow was pulled out, he died (it was necessary to pull it through the body forward, then the tip would not remain in the body); Kiser went to return LB, on the way there are crushing rocks ; having ridden up to them, K. shoots an arrow, only the tip of the feather is crushed; gallops on a horse, but its tail is clamped ; K. wants to cut off the tail, but the Rocks promise to release the horse if K. brings each of the heads of two boys that LB gave birth to from the kidnapper; K. comes unrecognized to King H.; there everyone pulls K.'s bow; the unrecognized K. pulls the bow so that it flies into pieces, they kill everyone except King H. himself; having assumed his form, he tears the kidnapper into pieces; takes his treasures, the dev-servant carries them; cuts off the heads of the sons of King H., having driven up to the crushing rocks, gives them the heads of the boys, they let him pass; he reigns with his wife LB]: Lorimer 1935, No. 4: 102-179; (cf. Uzbeks [recorded by Buyuk Karimov, told by Zibog-bibi Sarymsakova; the padishah and the vizier are childless, going on a pilgrimage; the elder gave them an apple each, ordered to name the children Takhir and Zukhra and betroth them in the cradle; a girl was born to the padishah; he wanted an heir, ordered to execute the girl, bring a handkerchief soaked in her blood; then regretted it; the nobles admitted that they did not carry out the order; the vizier, having learned about the birth of a son, galloped home, fell and was killed; the padishah refused to betroth his daughter to an orphan; T. was playing and touched an old woman; she ordered him to extract the name of his intended bride from his mother; T. pretended to be ill, asked his mother to roast wheat, squeezed a handful of hot grains in her palms, the mother agreed to tell everything; T. found Z. and began to talk to her to meet; the padishah found out, ordered T. to be put in a chest, thrown into the river; Z. made sure that the chest was spacious; the daughters of the Rum king noticed it; it went to the youngest by lot; she fell in love with the young man who was inside; the padishah adopted T. and gave him his daughter; she is even more beautiful than Z., but T. does not speak to her and puts a dagger between them on the bed; after 40 years he took pity on his wife, spoke to her; her name is Khadicha; the padishah promises a reward to anyone who makes T. laugh; Z.'s father wants to give her to Prince Kara-batyr; Z. sends caravan drivers to look for T.; he hears their song - the same one he sang in childhood; T. rides with the caravan drivers, his wife H. follows; dies of fatigue; at the last moment T. puts her head on his lap; the caravan constantly returns to her grave; only after T.'s farewell song, a straight path opens up; there are mountains on the path; according to T.'s song, one of the mountains is cut in half; the camel manages to slip through, " only the mountain pinched off the bottom of his tail" »; at the crossroads of three roads, T. chooses the shortest one, where the sign says “if you go, you won’t come back”; in one city they are thrown into prison; a friend recognizes T. by a song, helps him to get out; T. finds Z. in the garden; K.’s sister sees them; the padishah orders T. to be cut in half, and the pieces to be hung on the gate; Z. is in mourning for 50 days; on the way to T.’s grave, she drops her pearls; while the girls accompanying her are picking them up, she comes to T.’s grave and kills herself; the grave opened up and accepted her; having learned of the death of his bride, K. also killed himself; his sister orders him to be buried between the graves of the lovers; “the oppressors did not abandon the lovers even after death, they put a black thorn between them”]: Zhirmunsky, Zarifov 1947: 295-297).

Baltoscandia. Scandinavians ("The Language of Poetry") [as a ransom for their lives, the dwarfs give the giant Suttung the mead of poetry, and he hides it in the rocks of Hnitbjörg, i.e. "Colliding Rocks"; {this property follows only from the name and is not realized in the plot}]: Younger Edda 1970: 58-59; Lithuanians [an old woman tells a retired soldier that he will be hired by a black master in a glass castle; along the way, an apple tree asks to find out why it does not bear fruit (the men want to cut it down), two { pushed } mountains, how long will they stand guard (they let the soldier through), a river - why there are no fish in it (transports the soldier to the other bank); the black master's soldier tends sheep for a year; he says that the river must drown a man, the mountains must crush a man , gold must be dug from under the apple tree; the soldier shouts an answer to the river and the mountains from afar, having passed them; he digs up the gold]: Lyobite 1965: 126-129.

Volga - Perm. Bashkirs [a man sees a dream: the sun is at his head, the moon is at his feet, and a star is on his chest; the man went and met a bull, who interpreted the dream: these are two wives and a son; the man came to the fence and lay down; the girl led out the cattle and told him to follow her; she took the man for the vizier's son, with whom she had agreed to elope; they began to live; they invited the khan to visit; seeing the woman, the khan ordered her husband to be killed and her brought to him; one of the viziers suggested sending a man for a horse that was grazing between the crushing mountains; the journey between the mountains is three days, and the mountains converge every day; the wife gives her horse; as soon as the other horse saw him, he himself ran after him; they managed to leave before the mountains collided ; the khan pretended to be ill, the vizier ordered a man to be sent to bring ashes from the Daughter of the Sun; the wife gives a letter for her; The husband goes to see an old woman, she sends him to her eldest sister, the sister to the eldest, she teaches him to hide in a hole, to lure out a white horse three times; SK gets tired of going out to find out what's going on; she falls asleep, you have to tie her by the hair, beat her with the whip that lies on the left; then she won't eat, you can show her the letter; SK went with the man, became the second wife; the first gave birth to a son; the khan orders to find out where his late father put the treasury; the SK-wife removed him from the fire, and then returned it, giving him a bag of gold; the khan asked to burn it too, and it burned; the man became the khan; the dream came true]: Bessonov 1941, No. 27: 155-159.

Turkestan. Kazakhs : Daurenbekov 1979 [a boy Kazangap is grazing the rich man's lambs, and sees in a dream the sun above his head, the moon below, and two butting lambs at his feet; he rushes to separate them and wakes up; the rich man's son Asaubay asks to sell the dream, K. decides it would be better to leave; the daughters of Khan Tausagor, Gulayim and Gulmakhira, do not want the appointed grooms, and decide to run away with poor Sagit, Gulayim first, and Gulmakhira will join later; by chance, K. appears instead of S.; the vizier advises the local Khan Asauhan to take Gulayim and give K. difficult assignments; 1) to bring the khan "Suleiman's white medicine"; the wife helps to choose a horse, sends him to her father's domain, where there are crushing mountains in front of the palace , Gulmakhira calls the peri, who give him the medicine; A. has already died, a bird sits on K.'s head, the vizier does not allow K. to be elected khan; the wife sends for her father, he makes K. khan, gives him both daughters; each gives birth to a son, K. understands the meaning of the dream; finds Sagit, makes him vizier, marries him]: 215-218; Sidelnikov 1952 [the khan's son overheard at the yurt how the elder sister promises to weave a golden carpet for him, the second to feed the people with one egg, the youngest to give birth to a son with a golden head, a daughter with a silver one; the khan's son gets married, in his absence the elder sisters order the witch to switch the children of the youngest with puppies, to throw the babies in a chest into the river; the khan orders to leave his wife with the puppies in the desert; a fisherman fishes out the chest; the boy is named Kudaibergen ("God gave"), the girl Kunslu ("sunny beauty"); the old people die; Kud. kills saigas, the khan gets nothing; the senior wives send a sorceress to persuade Kunslu to ask her brother to get; 1) a self-playing dombra ( Zhalmauyz-Kempir helps to get it here and below); 2) a mirror that shows everything; one Simurgh chick is crying (the dragon Aidakhar will eat him today), the second one is frowning (tomorrow), the third one is laughing (the last one); Kum. kills the dragon, Simurgh carries him between the crushing mountains, he takes the mirror, on the way back the mountains tore off Simurgh's tail ; 3) the daughter of Tasshilar as a wife; this is Aislu, her late adoptive father, the fisherman Kudaibergen, teaches her underwater; in the house of Kud. A. turns the sorceress into a needle; Kud. became friends with his father the khan; A. orders the demons to build a canal, a bridge; the khan returns his wife, the witch is burned, the older wives are torn apart by horses]: 178-190 (=1971(1): 33-45).

Southern Siberia - Mongolia. Altaians : Surazakov 1979 ["Maadai-Kara", see motif L15D; Kogyudey-Mergen rides to kill Kara-Kula, who has taken his parents and all the people captive, gallops on horseback between crushing rocks and jumps over the boiling sea]: 95-97; 1985 [the people die from an epidemic; the remaining old man and old woman find a cradle on a birch tree; the boy grows up to be the hero Dyaya-Chapkan; he rides with two uncles, overcoming the butting rocks achilar-dyabylar; all three die at the hands of the Children of Myokov; the horse DC brings the newborn baby of his master, who defeats DM, and with the help of the old woman Mother of Altai, resurrects the dead]: 215-216; Baikal Buryats (Alar) [ the sky looks like an inverted cauldron, sometimes rising, sometimes falling ; Altan-Shagai-mergyn manages to stick an arrow under the edge of the sky and penetrate into the outside world]: Gomboev 1890: 18 (transcribed in Holmberg 1927: 308-309); Mongols : Potanin 1893 [one of Geser's two wives was stolen by Rdur'; on the way G. encounters two crushing stones; he says that they do not move apart much; they move apart more, he manages to slip through, the stones only cut off the horse's tail ; G. kills the shepherd R., comes to R.'s house in his clothes, on the way asks the woman how R. drives the cattle; the wife hides G., G. kills R.]: 42-43; Lorimer 1931 [(retelling of German translation of Mongolian "Geser" by I.J. Schmidt); 12-headed giant kidnaps Aralgho Goa; in search of his wife Geser passes between crushing mountains , wife hides him under the floor of her room, asks giant how to kill him; G. listens, kills; AG gives food of oblivion, G. forgets about his other wife, lives with RG for 9 years]: 112; Mongols [The 9-headed demon king devours cattle; the Jade Emperor sends his nephew Erlang (Gesarjiawu) to earth; he is born to an earthly woman; the monster learns of this, sends his general Xiajuaqiang to destroy E.; the grown-up E. tells his mother to ask S. to swallow him whole; turns into a baby; S. grows in his throat, he suffocates, dies; the four brothers of E.'s earthly father give him power, sheep, horses, a mountain of beggar's staffs, he becomes a local ruler, gets married; E. sends his wife along with other women to serve the monster; breaks the bracelet, he and his wife take their other half; E. takes a new wife; the same with her; orders the third to watch the water in the hole in the stone until it dries up, he is alive; takes a heroic horse, rides off to fight the monster; the wife gallops after him; E. turns into a 9-headed monster, tells fortunes, answers his wife that no one has passed; she gives him clothes each time; returns; E. takes his form, shoots three arrows, they turn into birds leading his wife to the house; at night they turn into the clothes that the wife gave to the imaginary monster; she understands the power of her husband; the guardian of the pass is E.'s first wife; he defeats her, she recognizes him, gives him a ring, explains what to do; the ring helps to pass between the crushing mountains ; E. kills a buffalo standing in a pond, the pond dries up, E. passes; despite the warning of his three magic arrows, E. picks up a pebble; it becomes very heavy; E. sees that a servant of the monster has come to his wife's house; the arrows fly to find out, return, lying that everything is in order at home; the monster's wife is E.'s second wife; notices half of the bracelet he threw into a bucket of water; teaches E. to take her form, to approach the monster's mother from the left (she is blind in her left eye), to kill her; the wife hides E.; asks the monster what will happen if E. comes; the monster will hide his wife and son in his belly and mouth; he cannot be defeated without extinguishing the fire on his chest, without depriving him of his iron boots, without taking a special rope, tying him up; E. extinguishes the fire with arrows, the wife sprinkles beans under the monster's feet, E. knocks him down; the severed heads grow back when a mouse defecates on the stumps; the wife orders to rip open the monster's belly, he dies; the monster has two brothers; E. takes the form of the monster, comes to his brother, kills him and his wife; E.'s wife wants to keep her son from the monster alive; E. returns, kills him, he says that he will suck his blood, turns into a mosquito; E. returns, meets his father, who recognizes him, seeing the third eye on his head under his hair; having finished off the demons, E. returns to his mother]: Stuart, Limusishiden 1994: 148-152; shirongoly [{p. 223 missing in scan}; the old man gave the young man a trap to catch the heavenly maiden on the lake for her golden bracelet; he gave her to Prince Yamantaka; the nobleman advises the king to take her; the king orders to kill his son; the maiden put on the crown she was wearing on the lake, left Ya. on the lake, giving her the bracelet, and flew away; Ya. went to look for her; approached to two butting rocks , behind them a spring, where the maid of Y.'s wife came; he threw a bracelet into her jug; the wife recognized him, the father allowed her to live with Y.; out of 20 darihe, this is the real Nogon-darihe]: Potanin 1893, No. 30: 223-224.

Eastern Siberia. Dolgans [see motive L72; in order to have children, an old woman turns to aiyy, an old man turns to abaasy; aiyy gives a boy and a girl, abaasy threatens to swallow the old man, makes him give up what he does not know at home; the spouses hide the children under the hearth; abaasy eats the spouses, does not find the children; they grow up, a horse descends from the sky, carries them away, gives a tinderbox, flint, an axe, they must be thrown at the pursuer-abaasy; they turn into fire, into mountains, into the sea; abaasy remains overseas; the horse orders to kill him by crushing a louse on his head; a city, buildings, property arise from parts of his body; his kidneys turn into a bear-dog and a wolf-dog; in the absence of a brother, abaasy comes, the sister agrees to become his wife, coaxes a kerchief from her brother, gives it to her husband; the brother is in a hurry, the crushing rocks crushed his dogs - a bear and a wolf; the horse brings the brother to the old woman, she gives him a bow; the hawk fights with the yokseku bird; the brother shoots the yokseku in the wing; for a promise to cure him, he helps to open the mountain, freeing the bear and the wolf; they kill the abaasy]: Popov 1937: 208-231; Baikal Evenks (Baikal region) [ Chagalai-Chakulai and Zherdyshan-Dzhugikta jump over the sea on horses; ChCh jumps on horseback through the crushing rocks; ZhD cannot (first his horse's leg is cut off, then the horse is crushed, on the third try, he himself) ; ChCh enters the yurt; the woman in the yurt lies down with him, tells him not to open it at night; he hears a woman's voice demanding that the servant open it; opens, the beauty tears off the head of her maid, copulates with ЧЧ]: Titov 1936, No. 1: 165-166; Far Eastern Evenks (Olekmin) [Torganay has a mother, wife, brother; he hunts; he hears his wife's voice from the sky: Kadanai and Delonoy carried me away; he shot into the air and wanted to run on skis; his horse orders him to enter through one of her ears and exit through the other; then she will give birth to a foal for him; he gallops on it after the kidnappers; the foal does not order him to stop at the girls'; the river, which is covered with human teeth and bones like pebbles, must be praised and called good; it will immediately become shallow; further on there are crushing rocks; a horse: the rocks will cut me in half; on the other side there will be a whirling rock , and on it black and white foam; the remains of the horse must be anointed with white foam, he will come to life; and so it happened, although T. almost took the black one; at another rock the horse orders him to kick, becomes a stump; 5 girls come down, pick berries; T. becomes a pine needle and sticks to the headscarf of one of them; at the top of the rock the three-headed Kadanai asks what smelly thing the girls brought with them; T. cuts off two of K.'s heads, but cannot do the third; the wife gives the skins of three squirrels: throw them into the fire; the skins burn, Kadanai, the rock and the char are gone, T. takes his wife home]: Varlamnova et al. 2021, no. 3: 99-109; Evenki (Far Eastern?) [while Torganai and his brother are hunting, the three-headed Kadanai carries his wife through the air; the mare gives birth to a heroic horse for T.; he takes T. to a river strewn with human teeth and bones, teaches him to say that the river is good, the water is receding; the horse gallops through crushing rocks, is crushed ; T. takes not black, but white foam, smears the bones, the horse comes to life; takes him to a cliff, turns into a berry glade; girls come down, T. sticks a pine needle to the headscarf of one of them; T. chops off two of K.'s heads; the wife orders three squirrels to be burned, K. and his rock-house disappear, T. returns his wife home]: Varlamova 2004, No. 5: 164-174.

Amur - Sakhalin. Orochi : Avrorin, Lebedeva 1966, No. 19: 160-168.

NE Asia. Chukchi : Bogoras 1902: 1 [the passage in the form of crushed rocks is called the "ultimate boundary of heaven" or the "ultimate boundary of birds"], 55 [a young man comes to a rich house to woo a bride; the door slams shut, crushing those entering; the young man quickly rushes through, only a piece of his clothing is cut off]: 608, 666; 1928, no. 24 [The Sun, the Moon, the Sky, the Sea, Dawn, Darkness, the World, as well as Atigitki and his cousin came to woo the girls whose father is the Earth; each shows what he is capable of; the Sea drowns everyone, the Sun burns, but everyone is reborn; the Moon calls forth crushed rocks, crushing those present ; A. and his cousin turn into ermines, hide in the corner of the room; see motif K27]: 369; Bogoras 1939 [(=Bogoras 1907: 332); at the four corners of the world the rocks of the sky meet the rocks of the earth, sometimes striking them , sometimes rising; on the way to their world, migratory birds fly through an opening gap; those flying behind are crushed; the movement of the rocks is created by the wind; beyond the edge of the sky is the place from which all the animals came]: 42; Belikov 1982: 46-51 [the wife disappears, Rorat sails in a boat to the crushing rocks between which birds fly ; further on is the land of kele; R. catches a stone ball, wounds his opponent with it; jumps from a height, retrieves a stone thrown into the sea, wins the race; gets his wife back], 57-65 [the sister of two brothers is kidnapped; the woman looks into the house, tells the elder brother that the kidnapper lives overseas; brothers make a boat, sail between crushed rocks, only the steering oar is shattered ; brothers see a man catching many sea animals with a net; the eldest hides under the carcasses, is brought into the house, reveals himself to his sister; the master tells the brothers to sit on the flooring, he jumps up; animal bones turn into dangerous animals; the brothers do not fall; the master throws the younger brother against a sharp whale shoulder blade, his head is cut off; the eldest bounces back; throws the master against the shoulder blade, killing him; puts the heads on, reviving the master and brother; the master locks the eldest in a stone house, sets it on fire; the brother does not burn; locks the master in the house, he burns; the brothers and sister fly home in the form of seagulls; despite the slave's warning, the younger pecks a navaga on the way, forever remains a seagull]; Sangi 1989 [=Belikov: 57-65]: 430-437.

Arctic. Asian Eskimos (Chaplino) [female mice went for berries; Mayyrakhpak saw them, began to sharpen a knife, collected them in her kukhlyanka, hung them on a tree and ordered it to straighten up; went home; the mice ask the sable to release them; she refuses: they threw stones at her; the same goes for the ermine; the fox (or rather the Arctic fox, but this is a female) agrees; orders the kukhlyanka to be filled with crowberries (bushes with berries); the mice ran away, the fox went home, diluted red paint from alder, smeared it on herself and a chamber pot; M. orders the tree to bend over, at first takes the berries for granted, then realizes the deception, comes to the fox to kill her; believes that she is dying; agrees to take the pot to the edge of the cliff to empty it; the fox follows, pushes M. off the cliff; M. got caught on a bird's nest; began to ask the birds to lift her up, but they were afraid - she was heavy; she decorated a puffin; seeing this, the other puffins also wanted to be decorated; since then they have been like this; they lifted M. up; she went south, and the fox went north; she jumped on an ice floe to cross to the other bank; the Maskinsky children began to shoot at her; the fox asked to first let her go out on dry land, ran away, began to live in a hole; and M. stopped at the crushing rocks ; she settled inside them; she took the son of evil spirits to raise; he, playing with the children, killed them; M. herself took the liver of the walruses they had caught from the hunters; the hunters invited M.'s foster child to hunt, threw the liver onto thin ice, the young man fell through, and when he went after it, they finished him off with harpoons; his liver was given to M.; She recognized her son's liver by the lice falling from it; she began to cry; she sent a wind and the hunters were carried away to the sea; the old man had a raven as a spirit helper; he came to M. and told her to leave the dwelling; the doors closed behind her by themselves; the raven to the doors: just try to open them - I'll crumble them to pieces; M. could not return to the dugout and left]: Rubtsova, Vakhtin 2019, no. 7: 90-106; Asian Eskimos (Sireniks): Menovshchikov 1985, no. 99 [girls and boys play wives and husbands, one did not get a husband, she took an old whale skull; the skull dragged her into the water; her eight brothers swim after her, following the birds; twice the birds overtake them; on the third time the brothers build a kayak, which overtakes the fastest birds - the harlequin ducks; birds fly into the passage between the crushed rocks, the rocks bite them with their points, become covered with the blood of the birds; only the beams on the stern of the kayak are damaged ; in the whales' dwelling the old man suggests a competition; having turned off the light, he throws in a whale blade, but the sister has hidden the brothers in a hole beforehand; the sister creates seagulls from pieces of a jacket of one of the brothers, sewn from seagull skins; while the seagulls attack the old man, the brothers take their sister away; the whale chases their boat; the woman takes off her clothes one by one, throws them to the whale; each time it plays with them, falls behind, stops chasing; the woman gives birth to a whale calf; it regularly brings whales to the people; people from another village kill it]: 238-241; Van Deusen 1999 [girls and boys play wives and husbands on the shore; one did not get a pair, her leg got stuck in a hole in the whale's bone, the bone dragged her into the water; her brothers sailed in a boat; the parents said that if the birds fly by, then they will swim by too; ahead there are crushing rocks, birds flew by, a kayak managed to float past them ; against the wishes of the sister, who is pregnant by Keith, the brothers take her with them, again pass crushing rocks, return; the woman gives birth to a whale calf; it swims in a small lake, a year later it is released into the sea; strangers killed it, its father Keith sank their boat; the mother took her son's bones, slept with them]: 138-140; St. Lawrence Island [boys and girls were playing, each took a pair for himself, one girl was left without a pair, sat on a muzzle skull, said that it would be her pair; the skull carried away her; her older brother Ayvanga began to question everyone; the old man explained that they had to make a boat faster than a duck; A. and his four brothers made boats from different types of wood and broke them when they could not outrun the ducks; finally, they found a suitable tree and sailed; ahead there were crushed rocks, in front of them there were many dead birds and seals ; the boat slipped through, only the very stern of the kayak was cut off ; there is a man on the shore, he was promised a knife as a gift, he said that the chief had brought a new wife; A. killed him so that he would not tell on them; the brothers see the assembled people through the hole in the dugout, their sister is preparing food; they met with their sister; the chief asks what his wife is worried about; she replies that her food is too monotonous, the chief promises to bring different meat; A. went to the old woman, killed her, put on her skin, and the other brothers came to the chief and he offered to wrestle; the local youths followed the old woman, carried her, since she usually cannot walk, they are surprised why she is so heavy; the chief easily wins and kills each of the younger brothers; when he is about to kill the youngest, A. removes the old woman's skin, kills the chief, everyone is happy; A. revives both the brothers and the chief; the competition continues the next day; A. is lowered into a pit, it is covered with burning wood; in a pit A. hid under the shoulder blade of a whale; a rope was lowered to him, he came out; the chief was subjected to the same test, burned; the brothers go to the shore, taking their sister and another girl; an old man and an old woman come towards them, holding human figurines and a stick; as soon as they hit the figurine with the stick, one of the brothers falls dead; A. kills the old men themselves, revives the brothers; in the sea, a whale chases after the boat; the brothers successively throw items of the girl's clothing, the whale lingers each time; when the girl remains naked, they throw her to the whale]: Slwooko 1977: 54-60; Nunivak Island [two brothers are swimming in the hope of finding suitable wives; the two halves of the mountain sometimes diverge, then come together with a roar; first one brother in his kayak, then the second manage to swim through ; in both cases the stern of the kayak is smashed , small round-mouthed people rush to chew the chips; the brothers swim to a village, get married]: Lantis 1946, no. 13: 281-282; Central Yup'ik [migratory birds, especially geese, fly south between two crushing mountains; weak birds die ]: Gillham 1943: 1-16; Inupiat of northern Alaska (Kotzebue) [four brothers disappear one after another; when conceiving a fifth son, the husband strikes sparks that fall into his wife's womb; gives the baby hot stones to swallow, making him invulnerable; the young man Kayartuarungnertok goes to avenge his brothers, meets various strange creatures; sails in a boat with his uncle; two cliffs on either side of a river collide and move apart; K. swims between them, only the end of the stern of the boat is broken ; then the log rises above the river, then falls into the water; the boat manages to slip under it]: Ostermann 1952: 243-244; caribou [Kivioq finds himself on an ice floe, swims to an unknown land; there is an old woman and her daughter, he takes the daughter as his wife; the mother-in-law kills her, searching in her head and piercing her ear, pulls her skin; K. guesses about the substitution, seeing wrinkles on the legs of the imaginary wife; runs away; the mother-in-law puts obstacles in his way; he 1) runs away from the bears; 2) runs between crushed rocks (the hem of his garment is cut off) ; 3) walks along the edge of a boiling cauldron; 4) copulates with the lower part of a woman's body blocking the way, passes; 5) jumps over a belt that kills travelers; 6) spends the night in the house of an old woman, from whose body an iron blade protrudes from behind (he places a flat stone on his chest; the old woman jumps on it, dies, pierced by her own blade); 7) escapes from a huge oyster in a kayak; his parents die of joy at his return]: Rasmussen 1930b: 97-99; netsilik [a shaman hunts seals at an ice-hole; the Moon descends, invites him into its sleigh, brings him to the sky to the village of the dead; the walls of the passage to the Moon's house come together and move apart like a chewing mouth ; the shaman jumps through; in another room sits a Sun woman with a child in her arms, her lamp is hot; the shaman is returning home]: Rassmussen 1931: 231-232; igloolik (Fox Hall) [a man sees naked girls playing; hid their clothes; offered to pull a leather belt, chose the strongest one; she bore him children; in the fall geese fly south, the wife and children flew away with him; the husband followed; came to the house of ravens and seagulls; the ravens offered frozen dog shit, the man did not eat it; the seagulls offered dried fish, the man liked it; he went on, singing about what he saw on the way; on the way a boiling stone vessel; the man crossed, stepping on pieces of meat near the surface; another vessel with boiling fat; to cross it, you have to put the fat in your mouth; the man ate the fat; then two crushing rocks like jaws ; then two brown bears; the man passed both times; in the land of birds the son saw his father, the mother does not believe that he could have come there; the man entered, but the wife flew to the other side of the house; this several times; when he wet the seat with his saliva, the wife stayed with him; they remained to live in the land of birds]: Rasmussen 1929 (=1930a): 265-267; Baffin Island [a hunter hides the clothes of four bathing girls; does not return one, takes her as his wife; the other three put on their jackets, fly away as geese; the Goose wife accidentally gets dirty with the blood of a whale; attaches feathers to herself and her son, flies away with him; the husband goes to look for them; passes between crushed rocks , jumps over a boiling cauldron, over a grease lamp; a human basin misses him after he copulates with it; a man with a hole in his back hews a tree; the hero pretends not to notice the hole; the man sends him to the land of birds in a self-propelled kayak; the son recognizes his father; in the house the hero sees an old man next to his wife; both and the son fly away as birds; the hero manages to rip open his wife's stomach, and bird eggs fall out]: Boas 1901b, no. 14: 179-182; West Greenland [wife pretends to be dead, Giviok buries her; child sees mother with new husband; G. kills her and her lover, abandons child, swims across sea; fights off sea lice (they ate his pole, but he put old mittens on the oar and they did not have time to gnaw the oar); two icebergs come together and diverge; only the tip of the stern of the kayak is scratched ; having sailed to some land, G. spends the night with an old woman and her daughter; notices a sharp protrusion on the old woman's back; imperceptibly places a flat stone on his chest; at night the old woman jumps on it, breaking her tail; her daughter K., leaving, killed with a harpoon; comes to another old woman and daughter, lives with them, helping to catch halibut; many years later returns to his son; he grew up to be a brave hunter]: Rink 1975, no. 15: 257-261 (=Rink 2007: 88-91, =Menovshchikov 1985, no. 258: 473-476).

NW Coast. Tsimshian : Barbeau 1961 [see motif A24; world in darkness; Raven or chieftain's son wearing raven skin flies to sky; penetrates mountain which sometimes closes and sometimes opens ; makes daughter of sky chief pregnant, steals ball of light, world becomes bright]: 78-82; Barbeau, Beynon 1987 [world dark (gloomy), no sun; chief enters and sees wife with lover; thinks it is his nephew; tells wife he knows everything; she is shocked and soon dies; coffin is hung on pole; chief is surprised that nephew shows no signs of grief; tells to watch; people see woodpecker fly to coffin every evening and fly away in morning; hear laughter from coffin; the chief came to see for himself, but corpse worms rained down on him; a woman gave birth in a coffin, the baby crawled out; when the coffin was opened, there was a decomposed corpse; the chief ordered one of the sisters to take care of the baby as if it were his son; she had her own son of the same age; they grew up like brothers; the chief's son got two ducks, skinned them; putting them on, the young men learned to turn into ducks, to fly; they flew to the chief, who had daylight; they had to fly between two mountains that sometimes converge, sometimes diverge; the brothers agreed that whoever flies by will get the chief's two daughters as wives; they fly by and land on the lake in front of the chief's house; each of his daughters took one of the ducks that turned into men at night; both gave birth to a son; the elder Txamsen ("Clever"), the younger Lugabula ("Lazy"); at this time the houses of the missing youths mourn their loss; two babies were seen on the seaweed in the sea; chief: these are the missing ones returned; they grew up, one of them took the form of a raven to steal the sun from the chief of the sky; flew to where the chief's daughter was getting water, turned into a pine needle, she swallowed it with the water; it was still the same Txamsen; the baby cries, wants a ball with light to play with; one day he rolled the ball out of the house, became a grown man, then put on a raven's skin and carried the ball away; saw spirit people fishing by torchlight; they refused to share their fish, T. tore the balloon apart, daylight spread over the world, the sun appeared, the spirits disappeared]: 1-5; Boas 1912 [during a famine, an aristocratic woman and her daughter were left alone; during the night, someone came in and slept with the daughter; after that, whenever she touched the bark of a fir tree, it fell off and underneath were ever larger animals: squirrel, partridge, porcupine, beaver, mountain sheep, black bear, grizzly; the man appeared (he also often appears nearby in the form of a bird whose cry brings good luck), said that he was the one sending the game; then the animals fell down two by two; they built two houses to store the meat; father tells son to name Asdi-wâ'l, he becomes a great hunter; pursues polar bear, it makes passages in rock, A. sticks bow in crack and follows; follows the bear up the ladder to the sky; there is a flowering plain; the bear turns out to be the Evening Star, the daughter of the Sun; she warns that her father has killed many of her suitors; the father-in-law orders 1) to hunt mountain rams; the stars think that A. has frozen in place, but he only left his cloak and hat on a pole; A. entered the house where the mountain rams had gathered; they were beating out a rhythm, and the shaman was performing a shamanic ritual; the shaman and the lamb jumped over his head, and A. killed the rest, bringing a lot of fat; 2) to bring mountain water; it is in a cave, the entrance to which sometimes closes, sometimes opens; the slave was crushed , and A. got water; the Sun told his daughter to step over the bones of the crushed man and he came to life again; 3) bring firewood; wife: as soon as you touch the tree, the bark will fall and crush you; under the tree there is a pile of bones of the dead; the tree fell on the slave, and A. is unharmed; the father-in-law revived the slave again and put the fallen tree back; 4) lie down on hot stones (the Sun wants to bake and eat his son-in-law); A.'s father gave him pieces of ice to put under his armpits, A. is unharmed in the oven; since then the Sun and all his people of the stars have fallen in love with A.; A. wants to return to his mother, together with his wife, who has 4 baskets of meat, berries, etc., rolls down to the ground along the sun's rays; every day the wife orders water to be brought, dips a feather into the bucket - the water is clean; one day A. got together with another girl, the water became covered with slime, the wife returned to her father; he follows her, falls when he has almost reached the sky, breaks up, the Sun revives him; he lives with his wife again; they return to the earth again; then the wife leaves for good, and A. takes the chieftain's daughter as his wife; challenges her four brothers to a dispute, claiming that he is a better hunter of sea animals than they are of land animals; brings four bears, the brothers return empty-handed, take their sister; A. marries another girl, she bears him a son; A. is a better walrus hunter than her four brothers, they leave him on a rock in the middle of the sea; a mouse leads him to the walruses' underground home; he heals a wounded walrus; the walrus owner sends him home in the walrus's stomach; his wife helps him kill her brothers; he goes hunting in the mountains, turns into stone]: 71-146.

Coast - Plateau. Shuswap [Woodchuck (Arctomys monax) lives in a house among the rocks; when a guest enters, the rocks crush him ; Tleesa thrusts a spear between them, enters, kills the owner, turns him into a woodchuck; Bear proposes a contest in climbing a pole; kills three of T.'s brothers when they climb; T. kills Bear; Hare invites people into his house to eat meat; pierces visitors with his (sharp?) foot, hitting them in the chest; T. ties a stone to his chest beforehand; kills Hare, turns him into a hare; Elk stands in the river, swallows boats; T. allows himself to be swallowed, makes a fire in Elk's stomach; cuts off the heart when Elk swims to the shore; tells his brothers not to touch him when they begin to skin the carcass; Eagle carries away people; T. allows himself to be carried away, scatters red and white paint, the Eagle takes them for blood and brains; T. kills the Eagle, descends on the back of the eaglet]: Boas 1895, no. 1: 1-4; quarry [see motif J25; many people died trying to woo Ixmandamlkit and Tsabol , the daughters of the two sky chiefs; the Son of the Dead puts on the skin of a chickadee, his cousin - the skin of a woodpecker, both fly to the sky; the old woman-Mouse teaches how to slip between the crushed rocks where lightning strikes ; the feathers of the Woodpecker are singed; I. and Ts. come to the source; imaginary birds allow themselves to be caught; tell them to forget that the girls hid them under their clothes; at night they turn into men; their parents accept them as sons-in-law; both are good hunters; they return home to earth with their wives; the sky women have much meat in their little purses; the people feast]: Jenness 1934, no. 11: 149-154; komox [an old man has control over fire, the door of his house opens and shuts , killing those who enter; a deer puts a splinter in his hair, jumps into the house when the door opens, sits by the fire to dry; the splinter catches fire, he runs away, brings fire to the people]: Boas 1895, no. 8: 80-81; klallam [see motif K19; two find themselves in heaven married to the stars; a hot fire burns in the sky, the sisters throw seaweed into it, it becomes cooler; the sisters pass between crushed rocks , avoid other dangers; they find an opening in the sky; they weave a rope from cedar branches, they descend to the earth]: Gunther 1925: 135-136; Puget Sound [two sisters dig up fern roots, stay overnight on the prairie; one wants a white star as a husband, the other a red star; when they wake up, they find themselves in the sky; the white star is an old man, the red one is a young one; the husbands do not allow them to dig up deep roots; the older sister becomes pregnant, the younger sits by the smoke hole so that they cannot see her crying because she has an old husband; when the boy grows up, he digs a hole, from there the wind comes, the husbands immediately feel it, but the women manage to close the hole; they braid a rope and go down with the child; while everyone is swinging on the rope, and the old woman-toad is looking after the child, the salmon stole the boy (this is the future Moon); the mother found a rotten tree in the cradle, wet the diaper, wrung it out five times, a second boy appeared (the future Sun); the yellow woodpecker goes to look for the Moon, cannot pass between the crushing rocks ; the same as another woodpecker, raven, osprey; a blue jay flew by; the Moon promised to come later himself; stuck a stick between the rocks so that the blue jay could slip back; the Moon is married to a woman who is one of the salmon; his son does not want to let him go; the Moon: a new generation is coming, and you (i.e. the salmon) will be food; the Moon first made a mistake, told the salmon to go down, only then told them to go up; meets people who are fighting; What are you doing? - We are fighting; he turned them into birds and stones; turned the little slaves into snipes; fishermen and people in the swamp into two kinds of ducks; people on the beach into oysters; people know that the Moon changes the nature of those he meets, they want to kill him; others argue about day and night, some want light and darkness every day, the bear wants day and night to last a year; now the bear sleeps all winter; the deer makes a spearhead; Moon: What are you doing? – I want to kill the Transformer; Moon: If you become a deer, they will eat you; Mink argues with the Moon about who will win; Mink could not change the Moon, and he turned him into a stick; he became a Mink again; The Moon chopped him up – they became the current minks; four women are pulling each other by the hair; – We are practicing drawing a bow; The Moon turned them into 4 types of edible plants; He turned the man on the lake into a beaver; the man carrying salmon – into an otter; The Wild Cat is frying salmon, fell asleep; The Moon ate everything, the remains went into his face, now it has stripes, he became a cat; 5 brothers are playing: Fire, fire! Everything caught fire; The path: Here, my grandson! But the Moon’s quiver was burnt; Old man Echo is across the river; he only repeats: Bring the boat! The Moon swam across himself, began to fight with Echo; bird: take the baskets of Echo's entrails that hang on the wall of the dugout; Echo became an echo; the blue heron uses its head as a hammer, because the stones and sticks are alive; the Moon made them stones and sticks, made the Heron a heron; the Moon gathered everyone to determine who would shine during the day and who at night; the yellow woodpecker tried, but there was little light; raven, coyote, woodpecker - dark; hummingbird - better, but the day is very short; younger brother Sun offered to be the sun to the Moon, but it is too hot, the water is boiling; the Sun began to shine during the day, the Moon - at night; the old woman-toad can now be seen at night on the disk of the Moon; the rope on which they swung reached the sky; Moon: you can climb; but the Rat gnawed it, the Moon turned her into a rat; the stones on the mountain are transformed people; Indians – relatives of the Moon]: Ballard 1929: 68-80: 145; snookualli [salmon women stole Blue Jay's grandson; s/he searches for him/her to the ends of the earth; flies between the crushing rocks, only the back of his/her head is flattened ]: Haeberlin 1924, no. 1 [there is darkness beyond the crushing rocks; the found grandson is now a grown man; teaches how to make nets; tells him/her to put a thick branch between the rocks on the way back; returns to the people himself, leading the salmon; since then the salmon have been going up the rivers], 2 [the back of Blue Jay's head is flattened on the way back when she/he carries her grandson on her back; the grandson makes the rivers], 2a [ behind the crushed rocks there is eternal day ]: 372-375.

Northeast. Seneca [see motif L72; elder brother turns into a cannibal, pursues younger brother and his wife; old woman tells crushing rocks to stop when fugitives pass between them; rocks crush cannibal, he comes to life; spirits destroy cannibal's flesh and bones with turtle-shell hammers]: Curtin, Hewitt 1918, no. 18: 121; Micmac [on their way to the lake where Glooscap lives , two brothers must pass crushing rocks ; younger (see motif J19) breaks rocks with an oar]: Speck 1915b: 63; Maliseet [Thunder kidnaps Glooscap's nephew ; he returns the youth, puts sticks in the mouths of two dogs standing on either side of the path, who are at the same time the converging and diverging mountains ]: Mechling 1914, no. 1: 19-22; Passamaquoddy [two men go to find out what thunder is; before them are pounding rocks ; the first one jumps through, the second is crushed; the first one comes to people playing ball; then they put on wings, fly away; these are Thunderbirds; a man is pounded in a mortar, turning him into a Thunderbird; they are told not to fly low over the trees, lest they die]: Fewkes 1884: 265-266 in Edmonds, Clark 1989: 317-318.

California. Pomo [Coyote, Flower's father, sleeps with Snake, his son's wife; Flower kills him, his wife leaves; Flower marries two Duck sisters; they lead him overseas; there is a hole in the rock with chewing jaws in it ; the Ducks and their husband slip through them, Flower breaks the jaws with a sling; Thunder, the Ducks' father, demands 1) to catch fish (he is unhappy that his son-in-law brought salmon, he needs bigger fish); 2) to cut down a mammoth tree (the son-in-law knocks it down with a sling, the tree crushes the dugout); 3) to bring wood for arrow shafts (the snake is around, Turtle brings it); 4) to bring resin (the grizzly is around, a bird brings it); 5) to shoot at each other (Flower kills his father-in-law, he comes back to life); 6) swing each other on a swing (there are stakes at the bottom, Flower asks them to part, lands unharmed; Thunder dies on the stakes; the people he killed earlier come to life from the bones]: Barrett 1933, #40: 190-193; Williams 1954 [Totolmatha (T.) – Morning Star, her husband Tata, a hawk; they always bathe together in Clear Lake, once they were late, dawn came, people began to tease her, they did not like her, for she was from the heavenly world, where the terrible Gilluk (eagle) is a man-eater and a murderer; T. decided to leave, but Tata followed her; rattlesnakes were on the way, she sang, they disappeared; at the edge of the world – crushing rocks ( Swinging Gates of the Sun ); T. sang, the rocks stopped, they passed; there are mountains around G.’s house from human bones and a lake of blood; T. made her husband smaller and hid him in a hollow twig; G. brought a dead man to dinner; when he fell asleep, T. cut off his head with her fingernail; Bumblebee (Cheeha) praised him and took his grandson Tata from the twig; having taken the shell money and set fire to G.'s village, T. and her husband returned; in the spring the Pomo celebrate the return of Tata, the sun, i.e., a hawk]: 11-14; Coast Miwok [ a moving rock in a passage leading from our world to the south, where migratory birds live ; Falcon and his friend pass the passage; Falcon's wife Duck's feet were crushed, and since then ducks' legs have been short]: Barrett 1919, no. 5: 12; Gifford 1917, no. 5 [no details]: 309; Merriam 1993: 179-189; Coast Miwok [ in the passage from our world to the cold northern world on the other side of the sky there are crushed rocks; ducks and geese fly there for the summer through this passage ]: Merriam 1993: 214; Yokuts ; Gayton, Newman 1940, #6 [wife dies, husband sleeps on grave; on the third night the wife gets up, goes west, disappears during the day; husband waits, in the evening the wife appears again, husband continues to follow her; wife rubs her face with all sorts of nasty things - insects, blood, urine; husband does the same; at the river bank both walk between crushed rocks ; the wife crosses the river over a bridge, the husband cannot; the master of the dead Tipiknits sends his two daughters after him, they have skirts made of rattlesnakes, they carry him across the bridge; they give him something to drink, they give him pine nuts, this is enough to satisfy his hunger; the wife is brought to her husband, T. tells him not to sleep, he falls asleep, wakes up among the embers; these are the dead; at night they are people again, the husband does not sleep; they are allowed to return; almost reaching the house, the husband, breaking the ban, lies down with his wife, she disappears; he tells his parents about what he saw], 146 [the wife died, the husband sleeps on the grave; on the third night the woman gets up, goes west; the husband follows her, safely passes between the crushed rocks ; the woman crosses the reservoir over a shaky bridge; Tipiknitz is the master of the dead, his two daughters accompany the husband of the deceased; he is given an inexhaustible supply of food; a man sees the dead in the form of firebrands; he manages to stay awake; he returns home with his wife, breaks the ban on sleeping with her, the wife disappears; the husband's parents were in mourning, he tells them what happened]: 19-20, 102; chumash [souls go across the sea; first they enter the Land of Widows, who feed on the smell of food and water (see motive I19); then they pass between two moving rocks ; they flatten the living, but are safe for the dead; they pass between two qaq birds, which peck out the eyes of souls; the souls insert poppy heads into their eye sockets, and see again; they cross a river on a log, entering the land of the dead Šimilaqša; there they receive eyes from blue abalone shells; souls of those who have forgotten the customs of their ancestors fall from a bridge, turn into monstrous turtles, frogs, snakes, fish]: Blackburn 1975, no. 12: 99-100; kawaiisu [the entrance to a cave is blocked by stones that sometimes close and sometimes move apart; a man jumps through the opening ; two old deer give him some food, but it is impossible to eat it all; underground, the man sees many deer and other animals; returns after a year by a different route than the one he used to enter the mountain; receives chants to cure an illness; tells his story before three days have passed; is killed by a bear]: Zigmond 1980, no. 53B: 177-178; cahuilla [the souls of the dead go east between moving hills ; the evil ones are crushed, turned into rocks, bats, butterflies]: Hooper 1920: 321, 342.

Great Basin. Northern Shoshoni [coyote asks fox: Uncle, where did you get these beads and ear pendants? fox: From a rock that is always coming together and coming apart , saying Kidzo'ta! you don't go there, it will crush you; coyote went and grabbed the beads, but the rock immediately crushed him; he called to fox for help; the fox told the rock to open, and it let go of coyote]: Lowie 1909b: 264.

Great Southwest. Navajo [cliffs]: Johly, B'yash 1958 [on the way of twins going to their father the Sun]: 18; Coolidge in Edmonds, Clark 1989 [First Woman conceives one son from a sunbeam, another from drops of water; answers that their father is the Sun, sends to him successively in the four cardinal directions; confesses that the Sun God and the Water God live in the ocean; the twins are helped by Spider; the crushing walls of the gorge stop to let them pass; they cross the rainbow bridge into the Grand Canyon, then the sea; they arrive at the Turquoise House; their fathers greet them]: 85-89; Haile 1938 [they stop moving after the hero wedges a flint club between the rocks]: 125; Matthews 1994 [as someone approaches a ravine, its walls move apart, and as he enters, they come together and crush him; the Sun Twins pretend to enter four times, the walls collide; upon recognizing who is before them, the ravine lets the twins pass]: 109-110; O'Bryan 1956 [as in Haile; the older brother inserts an elk antler between the rocks, they stop moving]: 98; Jicarilla [Naiyenesgani must get arrow reeds from a ravine with moving walls ; he pretends to enter the ravine four times; then the walls stop, N. gets the reeds]: Goddard 1911, no. 8: 203; Western Apache (White Mountain): Goddard 1919 [the hero goes to the Sun; caterpillar helps him pass over rocks ]: 116; Goodwin 1994, #3 [grandson successively asks grandma where to get wood for a bow, reeds for arrows, sinew for bowstrings, feathers for arrows; she answers each time that it is far and dangerous; he goes for wood for a bow, says to Bear, Grandmother, I will be your wife ; Bear laughs, allows him to take it; in front of the reeds are crushing rocks ; Gopher digs a passage, brings the reeds to the youth; the terrible male Antelope (Big Horns) lies on the ground; Gopher digs four underground passages, tells Antelope that he needs wool for the freezing children, gnaws off the wool under the heart, the youth plunges a knife there, Antelope furrows passages with a horn, dies; the youth takes sinew, fills his stomach with blood; lets himself be carried away by the Eagle, is thrown onto a rock, blood spurts from the antelope's stomach, the Eagle thinks the youth is dead, does not believe the chicks that he is alive; the youth kills the chicks, except for one; he replies that his brother, then that his sister will fly in with certain kinds of rain; the youth kills those who have flown in; that his father will fly in with a male rain; the same; turns the chick into an owl; the Bat-woman lowers the youth in her basket; he opens his eyes prematurely, she falls, is treated; the youth gives her eagle feathers, tells her not to go under the trees; she goes, the feathers have turned into all kinds of birds; the youth makes arrows; a white feather descends from the sky, turns into a girl, he marries her]: 12-16; Hopi : Fewkes 1895 [a woman conceives twins – Youth ( Tuyu , aka Püüko ñhoya ) from a sunbeam and Echo ( Palu ñhoya ) from a stream of water; the brothers destroy monsters (see motif J60); they go to visit their father the Sun; the rocks at the entrance to heaven sometimes move together , sometimes move apart; an old man sits on a rocky ledge at the abyss to the underworld by the path; he pushes passers-by by straightening his legs; the Twins jump back, magically make him sit quietly; the same with the other guards – Bear, Puma, Snake; the Sun puts the twins in the oven, they are unharmed, he recognizes them as sons]: 132-137; Malotki, Gary 2001, #7 [the young wife dies; The Owl agrees to carry the husband to the border of Maski (the world of the dead); the Old Spider gives him a deer skin to wrap around his feet, and from here on instructs him what to do; he manages to pass through the cacti; he kills a rattlesnake with an arrow that tried to block his way; while crossing the river in a boat, he slips between diverging and converging rocks ; he paralyzes the giant Maasaw, a puma on the roof of a kiva, with a potion; the Spider tells the man not to touch his wife, to watch calmly how the Master of the Dead will come together in her; not to come together with the girl (this was his first girl in his life), who is offered to him; the man does everything, gets his wife back; while crossing the river, he sprinkles a potion on a horned water serpent, which disappears; despite the Spider's prohibition, he comes together with his wife before reaching the house; the wife flies away as an owl]: 55-64; Mullett 1993 [after passing other obstacles, the twins come to a place where the solid walls of the sky alternately close and separate like giant jaws ; the twins throw some nahu potion on them, they hang motionless for a while, the twins pass through safely]: 59; Stephens 1929, no. 8 [to enter the outer world where the Sun lives, the twins pass under (?) a firmament that alternately opens and closes]: 18-19; Teva (Santa Clara) [the hero runs between moving stones and knives ; the knives cut and the stones flatten the witch chasing him]: Espinosa 1936a, no. 35: 106-107; Havasupai : Smithson, Euler 1994: 36-39 [people live underground; one of the two brothers planted a vine by the pond, it grew in a spiral; people climbed one turn in a day, after a long time they came out onto the ground; one girl slept with all the men, but no one took her as a wife; she turned into a tobacco plant; when they smoked, she became a woman again, laughed, left; the women noticed scars on her head; she jumped into the pond, became a frog, the water began to rise; the elder brother created the moon, calling it the sun; the younger sent the real sun to the sky; the sky was low, the sun was moving too fast; the younger brother moved the sky with a pole; by this time the water in the lower world rose, poured onto the earth; people placed a girl, water, food, birds, animals in an empty log; the rest of the people drowned; a woodpecker clung to the sky, the water wet his tail; the water receded, the log sank to the ground at the falls on the Little Colorado; the girl exposed her vagina to the sun, then to the spray at the falls, gave birth to a daughter (var.: she became pregnant by a woodpecker); told her to do as she did, the daughter gave birth to a boy; he grew up; reeds for arrows grew behind the crushed rocks ; the young man managed to slip through, take the reeds, slip back; smeared his clothes with blood, the eagle carried him to its nest; he killed 8 large eagles, 4 eaglets; blew, the rock turned to sand, he went down, bringing feathers for arrows; his father gave him a horse; cut it, put lightning in his son; said that he was water and the sun; his father showed him the world; the young man went to the east, his grandmother to the west], 39-40 [1) the walls of the gorge sometimes converged, sometimes diverged; two young men began to shoot arrows at them, the walls froze; 2) the same; a man entered, having secured a log on his head; the walls of the canyon rested against its ends, stopped; 3) two young men live with an old woman; she says that arrows are needed for hunting; reeds for arrows in the canyon; the young men put juniper logs on their heads, the walls rested against them, stopped], 54; Western Yavapai : Gifford 1933a: 360 [], 402-412 [people live underground; younger brother asks older brother to light the world; he makes a disk, smears it with ocher, hangs it up, but the light is dim; younger brother makes a disk of white lime, smears it with ocher; it becomes light, but too hot; younger brother asks older brother to lift the sky with a reed pole, he does so; at night older brother touches the genitals of his two daughters; they hide on the bank under a willow tree where he relieves himself, and swallow his excrement; he begins to lose strength, orders that he be cremated after death; people send Coyote for fire, at this time they lit a fire, standing around; Badger was shorter than the others, Coyote jumped over him, carried off his heart and ate it; earth should have been put on the burnt heart, cultivated plants would have grown; but as it was, only one stalk of corn grew; the best ears of corn went to the Hopi and Navajo, and the worst to the Yavapai; people decided to get out to the upper world; Hummingbird found a hole in the sky; under the guidance of the younger brother, they planted a pine tree and a vine that twined around it; they climbed up, but the old man with two granddaughters remained; when they got to the ground, water gushed out of the hole; the flood was caused by the two daughters of the elder brother, who turned into frogs; people hollowed out the pine tree, placed the girl and food supplies inside, sealed it; only the girl was saved, the rest drowned; she lay down, exposing her vagina to the rays of the sun and drops of water, conceived, gave birth to a daughter; she grew up, tried to repeat everything, but the Sun and Water recognized their daughter, conception did not occur; then the mother covered her daughter's body with her body, the Sun and Water did not notice the substitution; the daughter gave birth to a son Matinyaupakaamcha; the eagle carried her to his nest and ate her, M. remained with his grandmother; broke the bird's leg with a stone; that one: if you cure it, I'll tell you something; having learned that the old woman was not his mother, but his grandmother, he killed the eagle, on the advice of his grandmother, having heated the tip of the spear; the grandmother sends to kill the bison (ox); a badger and a gopher dug an underground passage under the lying bison; a mouse plucked the fur from the place where the heart was, explaining that her children were freezing; M. pierced the bison from below; it stuck its horn into the underground passage, but M. dodged; made a cape from the skin, and under it was the bison's blood; allowed the eagle to grab him; blood gushed out, the bison decided that M. was killed; the chicks see that the prey is alive, but the eagle does not believe; when she flew away, M. found out where the eagle would fly; having become a lizard, he smeared with resin the places where the male and female land; killed the eagle; told the chicks to be quiet, otherwise he would kill them; Bat let M. down in a basket, telling them to close their eyes; he opened them, they fell, M. broke Bat's bones, but cured her; M. looked into his grandmother's house through a hole in the roof; called her; grandmother: the wind is whistling; seeing her grandson, she began to dance for joy; a bald eagle carried M. to an island on the lake; there are already many captives there; M. told the captives to put crushed flint in the eagles' food and to hide, digging an underground passage; the eagles died; Crane stretches its leg across the lake; people cross it like a bridge; children fall into the water, turn into ducks; M. decides to make a bow; the grandmother warns about the dangers there every time,where to look for materials for bows; wood for bows where the walls of the canyon come together and then move apart ; M. stuck an antler between them, got the material; the reed for the arrows is Owl's property; M.: I propose marriage to my grandmother; Owl is glad, he gave the reed himself; when Owl came, M. told the grandmother to find out where his heart was; in the sole of his foot; M. shot there, killed Owl; the grandmother was straightening the arrow with her vulva; when M. looked, the arrow broke; where is the flint for the arrowheads, sparks are flying out of it; M. covered himself with a tortoise shell, got the flint; the wood for the front of the arrows is Bear's property; M. invited him to marry his grandmother; said that he makes arrowheads from coal; Bear believed him, shot an arrow with a coal tip at M., and M. shot him with an arrow with a flint tip, killed him; grandmother: butcher the deer in the clearing, and not under the tree; M. began to butcher under a tree; a naked woman came down from the tree, chased M. to get together with him; the grandmother hid him under the hearth; but the woman began to write there, M. climbed out; M. made penises from bluestone, quartz, lava and clay, used each one for one night, breaking off the woman's vaginal teeth; she became his wife; in fact, she is a she-bear; offered to drive game at him; he hung his clothes on a pole; three or four bears rushed at her, M. killed them, tore out fangs and claws; The spider told M. that the Wind took his wife; let M. compete with him outside, and not in his cave; whoever can drive the ball faster; M. won all the captives and the life of the Wind; whoever has the longest hair - M. won again, killed the Wind with a club; they spent the night in the Wind's cave; the wife became snakes in front of the entrance, M. jumped over them; M. went to look for his father the Sun; on the way he spent the night with people who wanted to kill him; at night he closed his eyes with pebbles ("glass eyes"), the owners think that he is awake; the wife of the Sun to her husband: your son has come; he wants to test the newcomer, invites him to the steam room; M. keeps adding steam and says that it is cold, the Sun believes that he is his son; M. tamed the horse, went home; the Sun and the Cloud began to argue over him; each painted one half of his body; M. returned to the east to the Sun, and the grandmother went to the west to the ocean].

NW Mexico. Huichol [the soul of the deceased reaches a fork in the road; the righteous take the right path; those who have committed incest or had sexual relations with non-Huichol take the left; the left path goes between crushed rocks; the souls are frightened but pass ]: Furst 1967: 62-64.

Mesoamerica. Aztecs [the dead going to Miktlan pass between crushed rocks ; then past a snake; past a blue lizard; through 8 deserts; across 8 mountains; to a place where the wind carries obsidian blades and stones; the deceased is given a yellow dog to take with him; the white one will say: I just bathed; the black one: I just got dirty; and the yellow one will carry him across the river]: Sahagún 1978: 43; Otomi [ crushed rocks on the path of the dead – like those of the Aztecs]: Galinier 1990 in L Quellec, Sergent 2017: 1236; Chinantecs [rocks; Sun and Moon shoot at them, they turn into butterflies]: Bartolomé 1984 [break them into pieces with arrows]: 14; Weitlaner 1952 [the twins Sun and Moon tell Hummingbird to warn them of the coming of the old woman; the third time he forgets; the twins kill her; come to the crushed rocks , break them with clay balls; go to the mountain on which the two-headed man-eating eagle perched; feed the Bat twice; the second time the root of the tree growing on the top of the rock reaches the ground]: 170-174.

Northern Andes. Yupa [souls can take the roads of the worm, the toad, the stone; the toad laughs, gives them dirty food; those who eat, end up on the road of the worm, then on the road of the flies, are eaten by worms; those who choose the road of the stone must pass between two rocks that do not let liars through]: Villamañán 1982, no. 5: 20.

NW Amazon. Barasana [man-eating eagle Rame carried off a man to his nest to be eaten by his young; the man killed the young, plucked the down to use in shamanic rituals, and descended to earth; told Warimi everything; he tried to kill the eagle with poisoned arrows, but the poison had no effect; W. went to get it from Anaconda Yada; a flock of ibises (Micteria americana) is flying; they are carrying ants for a symbolic exchange of food with their mother-in-law Romi-Kumu; W. calls the ibis his nephew (on his mother's side), but it replies that his nephew is flying behind; the same with the next ibis; the third agrees to take W. into his flock, although he dissuades him; W. was given feathers and taught to fly; on the way there is a cassava patch where they burn vegetation, the flames block the road; W. made it rain, the ibises liked it; then a strong wind on the way; crushing mountains ; V. overcame these obstacles too; when ibises fly into RK's house, Taho Yai (Pouncing Jaguar) kills and eats them, for him they are game (different kinds of game birds); with his shamanic power V. stopped the trap so that it would not fall (on the birds) anymore; Jaguar is furious: is no one with you? ibises: no one; for Jaguar and for RK V. is invisible; the ibises danced all night, in the morning they presented RK with bundles of ants; RK and Jaguar notice that the pieces of cassava are disappearing; the ibises again deny everything; they flew away, but V. remained; when RK was sweeping, she felt as if something had clung to her pubic hair; this hair is a liana (Lonchocarpus) covered with flowers, from which fish poison is made; V. became a green bee and drank nectar from those flowers; then he began to copulate with RK and entered her body; not finding poison to poison her, he came out of her head as a poisonous lizard; now RK cannot stop and continues to copulate with V. already against his will; she took him to her house and closed the stone door so as not to come out; her father Anaconda Yada was sleeping, but RK woke him up: here is a servant for you to blow on the fire; V. hid upstairs on a pole, and Anaconda Yada began to look for him on the floor to eat him; he began to call V. to blow on the fire, but V. did it from afar; V. climbed out onto the roof and made a hole; the ray touched the body of Anaconda Yada, this is V.'s sarbacan; Anaconda Yada fell asleep; becoming a fly, V. climbed inside Anaconda Yada through the backside, tied a rope around his heart and gall bladder; V. took poison from the gall bladder, and Anaconda Yada screamed in pain: this fool, a tuft of pubic hair, left me (one on one) with V. - the father of the sky; he closed his anus and mouth, but V. began to tickle Anaconda Yada in the nose and he sneezed him out; having climbed out through the hole in the roof, V. became a parrot and flew away; then he became an oriole (Icterus chrysocephalus), tied a sac of poison under his neck, that is why she has a yellow neck; when he flew over RK's garden, she threw a stick at him, but he dodged]: S. Hugh-Jones 1979, № 4F: 279-281.

Eastern Amazonia. Urubu [the man-eating eagle Rame carried off a man to the nest to be eaten by its young; the man killed the young, plucked the down to use in shamanic rituals, and descended to the ground; he told Warimi everything; he tried to kill the eagle with poisoned arrows, but the poison had no effect; W. went to get it from Anaconda Yada; a flock of ibises (Micteria americana) is flying; they are carrying ants for a symbolic exchange of food with their mother-in-law Romi-Kumu; W. calls the ibis his nephew (on his mother's side), but it replies that his nephew is flying behind; the same with the next ibis; the third agrees to take W. into his flock, although he dissuades him; W. was given feathers and taught to fly; on the way there is a patch of cassava where they burn vegetation, the flames block the road; W. made it rain, the ibises liked it; then a strong wind on the way; crushing mountains ; V. overcame these obstacles too; when ibises fly into RK's house, Taho Yai (Pouncing Jaguar) kills and eats them, for him they are game (different kinds of game birds); with his shamanic power V. stopped the trap so that it would not fall (on the birds) anymore; Jaguar is furious: is no one with you? ibises: no one; for Jaguar and for RK V. is invisible; the ibises danced all night, in the morning they presented RK with bundles of ants; RK and Jaguar notice that the pieces of cassava are disappearing; the ibises again deny everything; they flew away, but V. remained; when RK was sweeping, she felt as if something had clung to her pubic hair; this hair is a liana (Lonchocarpus) covered with flowers, from which fish poison is made; V. became a green bee and drank nectar from those flowers; then he began to copulate with RK and entered her body; not finding poison to poison her, he came out of her head as a poisonous lizard; now RK cannot stop and continues to copulate with V. already against his will; she took him to her house and closed the stone door so as not to come out; her father Anaconda Yada was sleeping, but RK woke him up: here is a servant for you to blow on the fire; V. hid upstairs on a pole, and Anaconda Yada began to look for him on the floor to eat him; he began to call V. to blow on the fire, but V. did it from afar; V. climbed out onto the roof and made a hole; the ray touched the body of Anaconda Yada, this is V.'s sarbacan; Anaconda Yada fell asleep; becoming a fly, V. climbed inside Anaconda Yada through the backside, tied a rope around his heart and gall bladder; V. took poison from the gall bladder, and Anaconda Yada screamed in pain: this fool, a tuft of pubic hair, left me (one on one) with V. - the father of the sky; he closed his anus and mouth, but V. began to tickle Anaconda Yada in the nose and he sneezed him out; having climbed out through a hole in the roof, V. became a parrot and flew away; then he became an oriole (Icterus chrysocephalus), tied a bag of poison under his neck, that is why she has a yellow neck; when he flew over the garden of RK, she threw a stick at him, but he dodged]: Huxley 1956 [Mair flies over a rotten fruit in the form of a bird; a woman comes out of the fruit, he takes her as his wife; she does not believe that the yams, manioc, etc. planted by her husband ripened that same day; angry M. leaves ; the wife follows in his footsteps, the unborn son from the womb shows the way; after spending the night in the house of Opossum, the woman conceives a second son; Mair's son is offended by his mother, falls silent; the woman comes to the village of Jaguars; the Old Woman hides her under a vessel, the Jaguars find her, eat her; the children are thrown into boiling water, they jump out; the Grandmother adopts them; the brothers cut down trees into the river, they turn into piranhas and crocodiles; they make an island in the river, on it are fruit trees, a bridge is built to the island; when the Jaguars go across the bridge for fruit, the brothers cut down the bridge, the Jaguars are eaten by water creatures; because The Possum's Son hesitated, two escaped; the brothers come to M., who gives them bows and arrows; offended for their mother, the brothers throw them into the forest, they turn into snakes; Mair wants to know if the children before him are his; 1) remove the bait from Anyang'a's hook; The Son of Mair removes the bait, then jerks the line for a laugh; The Possum's Son takes the hook in his mouth, is fished out, eaten; in the form of an ant, The Son of Mair collects its bones, revives; 2) go to Grandfather Wind; he is not at home, The Son of Mair tickles his wife, the husband hears her laughter, blows, a tree falls on the brothers; The Possum's Son dies, is revived by his brother; 3) pass between two converging and diverging grinding stones ; The Son of Mair passes, The Possum's Son is crushed, is revived by his brother; M. understands that the youngest of the brothers is not his son, tells him to go back between the stones; the Son of Possum is crushed again; the Son of Maira rises up to the sky in anger, taking the stones with him; from now on he produces thunder with them; the Son of Possum rises to his brother]: 217-220; Ribeiro 2002 [a worm crawled out of a tree, turned into a woman; she reached a fork in the path; the path to Maira was thorny and overgrown, to Mukura it was good, she took the good one, became pregnant by Mukura {further it is clear that before this the woman was already pregnant by Maira}; the woman went out for a walk, she was torn to pieces by a jaguar, the son of Maira, and after him the son of Mukura jumped out of the womb, threw themselves into the river; four days later they climbed out of the water - Maira's son as a 9-year-old, Mukura's - a 7-year-old boy; they unsuccessfully tried to kill the jaguar with a machete; again jumped into the water, Maira's son came out 14 years old, Mukura's - 10 years old, but they still couldn't kill the jaguar; Maira's son created a river, laid a liana as a bridge; the brothers stood at opposite ends, cut off the liana when the jaguar went along it, did not let him get out of the water, chopped it up, killed it; a hurricane knocked down the forest, lifted the brothers into the air, Mukura's son was hit hard; they came to Maira, his son said that they were both his sons; the brothers went along the road, stones began to fall, Mukura's son was crushed; Maira's son got angry with his father, went further, creating stones in the middle of the river, where he is now is unknown; at the full moon Maira rises to the sky, then descends; when thunder, lightning strikes the land of Maira]: 180-182; Tupinamba [Maire-ata goes on a journey, his wife cannot accompany him because she is pregnant; follows him, the son from the womb shows him the way; she does not give him any fruits, he becomes angry, falls silent; loses his way, ends up with an Opossum; at night conceives a second son from him; the Opossum turns into an opossum; the woman comes to the village of the Jaguars; the Jaguar eats her, the twins are thrown out on a garbage heap; one woman picks them up; the twins hunt for her; they show the Jaguars an island in the sea where they will find much fruit; the Jaguars swim there; the twins cause a storm; the Jaguars drown, turn into jaguars and other cats; the twins come to MA, he tests them; 1) pass between the crushing rocks ; the son of the Opossum dies; the son of MA revives him, both pass; 2) remove the bait from Anien's hook; The son of the Possum is caught, A. tears him to pieces; MA's son resurrects him, both remove the bait; MA recognizes them as his sons]: Thevet, 914-915 in Metraux 1932: 135-136.

Central Andes. Jauja and Concepción Provinces (Ancash Dep.) [a father is poor, throws his children into an abyss, they fall on a ledge of rock; a swallow brings them corn kernels, a condor carries them across a river; they come to an old woman; the latter asks a girl to bring water in a basket; the girl returns with an empty basket, the old woman goes herself; the girl opens a boiling cauldron, pieces of her brother's body tell her to run; she takes the cauldron with her, runs to the old man; he hides her and the cauldron under the cloth he is weaving; the old woman is crushed by the mountains closing in on themselves ]: Arguedas 1953: 230–232; Quebrada de Humahuaca (NW Argentina) [somewhere in the mountains there are crushing rocks ]: Calífano in Cipolletti 1978: 65, n. 47.

Montaña – Jurua. Shipibo-conibo [like the Tupinambá: the younger brother is crushed by the crushing rocks]: Urteaga Cabrera 1995: 49 in Le Quellec, Sergent 2017: 1236.

Bolivia - Guaporé. Tacana : Hissink, Hahn 1961, No. 48 [Beni (South Wind) Udutzi (ancestor) found several types of cultivated pepper on an abandoned plot; turned one into a man, easily defeated; the same with the second; made a comrade from wild pepper, he is his equal, this is Bidutzi (wild pepper) Edutzi; both came to the sorcerer Macanaua (name in the Eseeha language); he gave his two daughters, ordered 1) to clear the plot, 2) to harvest corn by evening, 3) to build a house by evening; they do everything instantly; M. locked them in a stone house; all the birds and animals are chipping at the stone; squirrels gnawed through it, the brothers came out; during this time the wives married one a vampire bat, the other a melero marten; Beni killed M. with a club; the brothers each killed his wife, her husband, the children in her womb, two were saved, from them are the current vampires, martens; the brothers came to the water separating our world from the other; the bird Dzuducu carried them, told them not to look down, Bidutzi looked, fell, the snake Tsrabuna Bacua swallowed him; Beni called the animals, they drank all the water, at the bottom small snakes ask them not to kill; Beni ripped open a large snake, took out his brother; all the midges came out of the snake's womb; the brothers walked along the dry bottom to the end of the world, where the crushing rocks; slipped into their world; var.: leaving the stone house, the brothers in the form of doves flew to M., sat on a tree above the reservoir; M.'s daughters saw their reflection, the brothers became people again; the girls during this time married two melero; the brothers killed new husbands and the girls' father, returned their wives; asked the Woodpecker to carry them to the land of the edutzi; he carried them, and when he carried the women, they looked down, fell, became fish], 217 [the woman is seduced by a tapir; the husband wounds them both; pursues him to the end of the world; he sees crushing rocks in front of him and a red world beyond them; the woodpecker helps him return home]: 104-107, 341; guarayu [according to the Franciscan José Cardús, 1886; at the fork, the soul of the deceased turns onto the narrow left path; the wide right one is for Europeans, nothing is known about it; the soul swims across the first river on a caiman, playing the flute; if it plays poorly, the caiman will drown and eat it; on the opposite bank of the second river is a tree with a box on top; it sometimes bends toward this bank, then straightens up; the soul jumps into the box; if it misses, it drowns; Further on the path lies the worm Izoiramoi; to a good man it seems gigantic, and as he approaches it it shrinks to a tiny worm; to a bad man it seems small, and then he grabs it between his legs, bites it in half, eats it; further on is the region of darkness, the soul lights a bundle of straw, passes through; this torch must be held behind the back; if in front, bats will pounce; approaching the bottle tree Tuanandior, the soul kicks the root, making itself known; the soul washes, drinks chicha, walks around the tree, hummingbirds flutter near its flowers; the soul wounds them with arrows, picks up feathers as a gift to Grandfather, releases the hummingbirds; further on is the path between two crushed rocks Itacuru ; when they diverge, the soul screams, the rocks stop for a moment, the soul slips through ; if it doesn’t know what to scream for, it’s crushed and eaten by insects; it floats across the next river on a raft; if the person was bad, the raft capsizes in the middle, the soul drowns; then at the fork the Vulture looks, does the newcomer also have decorations in his lower lip, nose, ears; if not, he shows the wrong path, where the soul dies; then a huge monkey grabs the soul and tickles it; if the soul laughs, the monkey will eat it (the Guarayu try not to laugh; women often giggle, so they won’t get to Grandfather); then to the left of the path is the deceptive tree Iguirar-oriyo; from under it there are voices, screams, there are colorful plants, it’s easy to lose the way; you have to pass by with your eyes closed and your ears plugged, otherwise the tree will carry you away; then the road becomes smooth, there are flowers all around; the soul is kindly met by the long-bearded Grandfather, washed, made handsome, given a wife; the man lives an ordinary life in the village of the dead]: Grubb 1924: 187-193; Pierini 1910: 707-708; chiriguano [ pounding rocks ; scissors ; also alternately rising and dying flame and a boiling cauldron]: Cipolletti 1978: 55.

Southern Amazon. Kayabi [Kuewma'up – elder, Me – younger brother; their father is Moon; their mother died in childbirth, her mother threw the twins into the forest, but they are shamans, they returned; she is glad; she tells them not to go downriver; the brothers want to kill the mutum bird, she tells them not to shoot, she tells them that their father lives downstream; they come to him; his new wife is old and ugly, but after bathing she becomes a young beauty; the brothers' father, Moon, leaves an axe to chop on the property; K. repeats the trick, M. begins to chop himself {since then the axe does not chop by itself?}; Moon has an arrow that kills monkeys by itself, it returns, taking the form of a snake; K. uses it too; M. finds it, sees a snake, chops it in half; Moon finds the pieces, turns them into three types of snakes; his net is full of fish, K.'s too, M.'s only small fish; the Moon wraps itself in bark and leaves, turns into a fish, people shoot arrows at it, it brings the arrows home; K. repeats the trick; M. wrapped himself poorly, they killed him, ate him; the father turned into a cricket, took the bone, revived M.; made a shelter in a tree covered with thorns, lured wild pigs with a flute, killed the pig; the same for K.; M. made a shelter between two trees, one of them was not thorny, the pigs knocked down the shelter, ate M.; his father revived him from a drop of blood; he went to another village, there were crushing stones on the path ; he slipped between them, the same on the way back, the same for K.; M. was crushed, his father revived him]: Pereira 1995, no. 2: 28-34.