I22g1. Colliding stones. .15.16.(.23.)

In another world, the hero sees many strange things, including colliding stones (but they do not block his path).

Spanish, Portuguese, Bretons, French (Gascony), (Konkani: Goa).

Southern Europe. The Spaniards [the eldest brother went out to look for work; the owner told him to pasture the sheep not in the meadow, but on a stone wasteland; the boy brought the sheep to the meadow, they ate nothing; the owner offered him a choice of gold, silver, or God's mercy as payment; he chose gold; he did not return home, but built a palace and got married; the same with the middle brother; the youngest let the sheep out on the wasteland, they got fat; he drove the sheep, there were two fighting stones ahead; they stopped and let him and the sheep pass; he saw an old woman knocking figs off a tree, she promised to knock him down too; he came to a bloody river; it dried up, the boy crossed to the other bank with the sheep, and then the river filled with blood again; the owner gives an explanation; the colliding stones : the boy's older brothers; the old woman - Envy; blood in the river: the envy of the brothers; the boy chose God's mercy as a reward; he also received a piece of bread; he took a bite and there was no less; he brought bread to his father and it never ended; they were visited by that master and San Juan; when leaving, the master left a cross; the young man ran after it, but the master ordered him to keep the cross; the older brothers accused the younger of theft, bribed the judge, they were going to hang the young man; he asked that that cross be brought to him, turned to him, the older brothers died on the spot, and the younger one lived happily with his father]: Camarena, Chevalier 1995, No. 471: 349-353; Spaniards (Murcia) [three sons of a poor widow leave home one after another; the old man gives each one a letter that must be left where the horse stops; the older ones do not dare to cross the river and leave the letter on its bank; upon their return, they tell the old man that they have fulfilled his assignment; he gives each one gold, but they do not share it with their mother; the younger one crosses a 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; Portuguese (many records) [the older brother, and then the others, go on a pilgrimage (or all three go together); or the poor man goes to look for work, receives advice from the owner; each meets an old woman (the Virgin Mary), must be kind to her; the owner sends each one on an errand and with instructions (written in a letter): feed the child, do not touch certain objects (do not stop), do not be surprised at the sight of strange things; the older brothers do not follow the conditions, disappear, die; the youngest does everything correctly; crosses the bloody river (the Virgin Mary helps him); chooses the blessing rather than the owner's money; envious older brothers bury him alive; he is rewarded, receives an explanation of what he saw; rivers of blood, milk, tears: the blood of Christ, the milk and tears of Mary; an orchard - Eden; lean sheep on fat pastures and vice versa: sinners and the righteous; colliding stones : tongues of evil women; a man who knocks ripe and unripe figs from a tree: death that takes anyone; a woodcutter: prepares wood to burn souls in hell; a heavenly palace; a man dies (remains in heaven)]: Cardigos 2006, no. 471: 112-113.

Western Europe. French (Gascony), Bretons [while making a journey to the other world, the hero sees rocks colliding with each other ]: Delarue, Tenèze 1964, no. 471: 174, 175 (variant 3, Bretons), 178 (variant 19, Gascony).

( cf. South Asia. Konkani (Goa) {obvious Portuguese borrowings; no other single-plot texts are recorded in India in the Modern Age; the motif of the colliding stones in the first text is known only in the Pyrenees and France, cf. motif i22g1} [a 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 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 a rajah; a beggar woman advises her to first put gravel in the rice that the rani will cook for her husband: he shouts at her in anger, but also looks; the husband does not look; prepare a bath that is too hot: ditto; the rani secretly follows her husband; when the door to the brothel opens, she screams, seeing two dressed-up women hurrying to the raja; the husband turns around and is struck by the beauty of the woman he is seeing for the last time; she runs away, sobbing; her tears turn into pearls; the husband follows the trail of pearls to his palace, asks his wife for forgiveness; she tells him to look into five neighboring rooms; in them: 1) two stone pillars colliding 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 dies]: Rodrigues 2020: 95-101).