I22H. The Pulsating Abyss. .40.43.44.46.(.47.)

The character must jump over a gap (chasm) under his feet, which sometimes widens and sometimes closes, or a river, the banks of which converge and diverge.

Aleut, Nez Perce, Lower Chehalis, Fox, Eastern Cree, Assiniboine, Crow, (Koasati).

Arctic. Aleuts (Unalaska) [people disappear; a young man goes to find out the reason; he comes to a river, its banks come together and then diverge , the river flows with the bones of the dead; the young man throws in the dead man's fat (corpse fluid is a common witchcraft remedy), the banks stop, the young man jumps over the river; he sees a sleeping giant, kills him with an arrow; he comes to his family, they are worried about his brother; the woman puts the young man to bed with her daughter, he changes places with her, the woman cuts off her daughter's head, drinks her blood; the young man runs away, people hide him; a cannibal falls into a pit trap, the young man finishes her off with arrows]: Jochelson 1990, no. 41: 317-323.

Coast - Plateau. Né percé [the woman had a husband, but she was left alone; digs roots {camas tubers?} and makes cakes from them; they disappear, someone leaves dried salmon instead; the woman is pleased; having calculated the frequency of such an exchange, the woman hid; the children came, left salmon, began to collect cakes; speaking of the woman, they call her "brother's wife"; when they notice her, they run away in fright, leaving everything; one day she sees a thundercloud, she likes it, she wants it to come to her; soon a wild goat appears; sits on a pile of tubers collected by the woman; refuses to get up when she called him "husband's brother"; the same for all categories of male relatives; she had to call him husband; he puts her between his horns and carries her away; she would like to drink clean river water; he orders the fur on his back to be parted - water runs over the pebbles there; the goat has sisters at home; she must pick grass with them beyond the river, and the sisters must watch her; the woman's first husband began to look for her; broke a lark's leg; promised to fix it if he told where the woman was; he told, the leg was whole again; the man came, hid, the wife stumbled upon him; he teaches her not to attract attention: let her hide him in the grass and bring a bale, supposedly for herself for bedding; she bandaged her hand - as if she had cut herself; the husband teaches her to be kind to the goat, so that he quickly falls asleep; the goat and his wife live in one dugout, and his sisters in the next; when the goat fell asleep, the husband cut his throat; they run, taking the goat's head and throwing it out of the boat in the middle of the river; the sisters go to wake up the sleeping ones and find the goat's body; they notice the head at the bottom; they dive for a long time, but finally get it out; the woman gave birth to a son with the face of a man and the body of a goat; refused to throw it away; then her husband left her; then the hair fell out of the woman's son's body; the woman wants to find her husband; broke the lark's leg, promised to cure it if he told her where to go; lark: first there will be a crack in the ground that opens and closes ; you need to jump over it while the crack is closed and the flame does not beat out of it; then you will hear two singing boys; they will rush to suck the breasts; you need to make nipples out of grass, otherwise they will bite off the real nipples; having bitten off the false nipples, the boys will look into the face; you cannot show displeasure; then there are 5 skull brothers; and then there will be the land of people; the woman jumped over the flame, her nipples remained intact; seeing the calm face of the woman, the boys recognized her as a mother; seeing her son (from a goat), whose body is white, they wanted the same for themselves; the woman dug a hole, threw hot stones into it and ordered the boys, having smeared themselves with resin, to jump both at once; she held them with a spear until they turned to ashes; she thought: how else, because people will appear soon !; [she went further and spent the night in a sweat lodge; five skulls rolled up, crushed her son, made her their wife, she gave birth to a skull-son; the skulls took her in a boat to the shore, where Coyote and his people and his children lived; a small skull plays with the children, hits and pushes them, it hurts them; Coyote offers the skulls to break a rock; all five and the small skull break themselves on the rock; the woman remained in the village]: Phinney 1934: 401-408; Lower Chehalis (Humptulip) [see motif A5; two salmon girls kidnap the baby Moon; his grandmother and mother wring out his diapers, create a brother from his urine; he is cross-eyed and crooked; they learn that there is a Chief with two wives; the chasm in front of his house opens and closes ; only Blue Jay manages to fly over on the fifth try; the Chief promises Blue Jay to return; approaching the abyss, wipes his feet, it closes forever]: Adamson 1934: 266-284.

Middle West. Fox [six men march to Visaka ; pass under shooting stars, one killed; through chasm that opens and closes , one falls through; four reach goal]: Jones 1907, #16: 333-337; Albany Cree [cannibal devours family, fattens two small boys to eat later; eldest makes hole in ground with mother's awl, goes through it, carrying younger on his back; younger cuts cheek in squeezing through hole; eldest throws down piece of wood, rag, stone, they turn into forest, briar thicket, huge boulder blocking hole; Walrus carries brothers across lake; tells them to warn if Thunder appears; tells them not to shoot arrows into water, and if one falls into water, not to retrieve them; when transporting a cannibal, warns him not to move and not to touch the sensitive spot on his neck; the cannibal moves, the Walrus throws him into the water, he drowns; the elder brother's arrow falls into the water; Wemishus invites him to come and get it; takes him away in a boat, the younger one remains on the shore, he is raised by two polar bears; V. gives the elder brother as a husband to his daughter; always kills sons-in-law; V. takes his son-in-law to collect birds' eggs; on the way there is a hole in the rock, which sometimes closes , sometimes opens (probably V. created it to destroy his son-in-law); the son-in-law jumped over, and V. fell through, his head is broken into 4 parts, but he makes it whole again and gets out; takes his son-in-law to an island to collect birds' eggs, sails away in a self-propelled boat; [Young man dons seagull skin, flies over boat, defecates on V.'s head, arrives before father-in-law; V. is surprised that his grandchildren shoot arrows feathered with seagull feathers; father-in-law takes him into winter forest; at night wants to throw his moccasins and knee pads into the fire; young man changes them in advance; father-in-law smears his feet with coal as if he had shoes, but freezes in the forest, turns into juniper; young man finds younger brother; reminds him of scar on cheek, younger brother believes that elder brother is in front of him; releases his bear servants]: Skinner 1911: 88-92; Eastern Cree (Quebec, Lac Hameçon) [one of two wives hates the other's son; asks to bring her a live partridge, puts it under her clothes, is scratched, accuses young man (his name is Ayatz ) of trying to rape her; his father takes him to an island to collect seagull eggs, throws them away; A. puts on a seagull skin, flies over the water, falls on a rock; the water serpent Pisikiv places him between his horns, tells him to warn him if thunderclouds appear, takes him to the shore; A. passes the Mouth of the Earth , throwing stones into it; flies to his mother as a bird, takes the form of a man; shoots an arrow, setting the world on fire; those who were kind to him are saved]: Petitot 1886, No. 1: 451-459.

Plains. Assiniboine [woman falsely accuses stepson of attempting to rape her; husband takes son to island to collect seagull eggs, abandons him there; seagull advises him to kill seagull, wear its skin; twice he encounters chasms, the mouth of which sometimes closes, sometimes opens , each time he must throw them a fish; mother shows boy sores on her body, says her husband is torturing her; boy tells her to throw other wife's child into fire; when its father comes out, boy brings down sun from sky by its rays, father dies of heat]: Lowie 1909a, no. 7a: 150-151; Crow : Lowie 1918: 63 [same ravine episode as in text on pp. 74-85], 74-85 [a woman comes to a hunter's wife; she each time forgets to tell her husband about her; One day, when the hostess serves food to a guest; she replies that she eats from a wrong plate; she serves another; also no good; my plate is a pregnant woman's belly; the guest gives the hostess her belly, throws one twin behind the curtain of the tipi, the other - into the stream; mice raise Home Boy before his father finds him; River Boy's sharp teeth are filed down; the brothers find their mother's grave; Home Boy threw up a scraper, shouts to mother: the scraper is falling on you! she moved; then threw up a jug (ditto); hammer; mother stood up; forbids the children to pass under a tree, which falls on passers-by; the sons stopped at the last moment, the tree fell, they dance on it; mother forbids walking through a clearing through which a stream flows in a ravine; if you try to jump over, the ravine will immediately widen ; the brothers ran up to the ravine and stopped until it stopped moving; they killed and burned the Red Woman; a snake crawls through the anus into River's brain, he tells the sun to shine hot, his brains boil, he takes out the snake, makes it less dangerous, but is left without brains; Domashny puts pebbles in his skull, now his name is Rattlehead; Long Arm drags Domashny to the sky; Old Man Coyote collects the birds, but none of them know where Domashny has gone; River notices a hole in the sky; he shoots a yellow, black, blue, green arrow, and flies up to the sky with the last one, he himself is each of these arrows; the old woman replies that they are going to eat Domashny; so he passes through the villages of Cranes, Eagles; they tell him that such a poor man is unlikely to be given a piece; the Black Eagles have Long Arm as their leader; River Boy kills him with an arrow, orders the body to be burned, orders all the birds to go and live on earth; returns with his brother; mother turns into the Moon, father into the Morning Star, Home Boy into the last star of the Big Dipper, River Boy into the Evening Star].

( Cf. Southeastern USA. Koasati [the ogre answered Rabbit that he was going to sow beans; Rabbit came to the ogre's wife: Cook me some beans! To the ogre: Is that true? The ogre: Yes (he meant: It is true that I will sow beans ; the wife understood: You can cook Rabbit some seed beans) ; when the ogre came home, Rabbit said that if he was angry, he could cut him in half, and to do this he would lie down on a chest; Rabbit jumped back, the ogre smashed the chest with an axe; then he lay down on a stone - the ogre smashed his axe; I can only be burned in the house; when I start burning, you will hear my testicles bursting; in the house, Rabbit dug an underground passage, got out and began to wait; when the ogre saw the living Rabbit, he decided to make friends with him; they spent the night under tree; when the ogre fell asleep, Rabbit began to pour hot coals on him, and cooled coals on himself; they came to a river (stream?), Rabbit suggested jumping over; he jumped, and then back; the ogre jumped, and when he was about to go back, the river divided {unclear} and carried the ogre across the sea]: Swanton 1929, no. 57: 207-208 (detailed in translation and in the original language in Kimball 2010: 12-15).