I85c1. Celestial Receptacle of Rain, A1131.4, A1131.4.1.

.17.21.23.26.29.-.31.34.38.(.39.).40.41.50.52.59.72.

In the sky there is a vessel, box, or unspecified receptacle for storing rain (rain clouds).

Old Testament, Ugarit, Rengma, Ancient India (Rigveda), Baiga, Koreans, Lezgins, Tabasarans, Svans, Turkmens, Estonians, Livonians, Baoan, Japanese (Chukchi), Eskimos of Labrador, Slevi, Tsetsot, Navajo, Nahuatl of Puebla, Zapotecs, Cuicatecs, Kekchi and Mopan, Jacaltecs, Acuryo, Chamacoco, Nivacle, Lengua.

Western Asia. Old Testament [God makes it clear to Job that he, as a mortal, is not given to comprehend the structure of the universe; he asks a series of rhetorical questions, including: "Who can number the clouds by wisdom? And who overturns the vessels of the heavens?" (Job 38:37); Job himself speaks of the omnipotence and incomprehensibility of God: "He wraps up (literally binds) the waters in clouds, and the clouds do not break under them" (Job 26:8); in the parable, a series of rhetorical questions revealing the insignificance of man in comparison with God, including: "Who has gathered the wind in his fists? And who has wrapped the waters in a mantle?" (Prov. 30:4b); God's omnipotence is praised in the psalm (in reference to the storing up of the wind, but in the context of God's ability to send thunderstorms in general): "He makes lightnings for the rain, and brings forth the wind out of his storehouses" (Ps. 136:7b–c). Gen. 7:11 and 8:2 contain the idea that the flood comes when the windows of heaven are opened, so that rainwater is usually stored (though it is not said in what) above the firmament]; Ugarit [after defeating the sea god Yammu, the thunder-god Ba'lu decides to build himself a palace; the decision to build a palace must be approved by the supreme god El; when El's sanction is finally obtained, his wife Asiratu praises the wisdom of this decision; speaking of the benefit that will come from building the palace, she seems to note that Ba'lu will be able to store his rains inside the palace]: KTU 1.4 iv 62–v 11; del Olmo Lete 1981: 202; Ugarit [the death god Motu calls Ba'lu to descend into the underworld; among other things, Ba'lu must take with him clouds, winds, rains, and perhaps containers for storing rain]: KTU 1.5 v 6–8, Pardee 2003a: 267.

Tibet - North-East India. Rengma [1) sky spirits produce rain by splashing water from wooden vats (western); 2) thunder rumbles when vats are dragged across the roof of the sky to empty their contents onto the earth (eastern)]: Mills 1937: 245.

South Asia. Ancient India (Rigveda) [from a hymn in honor of the god of thunder and rain Parjanya: “Roar, thunder, insert the embryo! / Fly around on a chariot full of water! / Pull down well the untied skin! / Let the hills and valleys be leveled! / Lift the huge tub! Pour (it) out! / Let the released streams gush forth! / Saturate the earth and sky with fat! / Let there be a good watering place for the cows!” (V.83.7-8); from a hymn in honor of Varuna: "A barrel with a hole at the bottom Varuna / Poured out on both worlds (and) into the air, / With it the king of the whole universe, / Like rain – bread, irrigates the soil" (V.85.3)]: Elizarenkova 1995: 85-86 (English translation in Jamison, Brereton 2014 (2): 766, 768; retelling of the episode with Varuna in Parpola 1985: 39); baiga [the Pandava wanted to know what was underground; they asked Bhimsen to come down; for 8 nights and 9 days they lowered him down a rope; out of mischief they cut the rope, Bhimsen fell; an old cobra gave him a lightning horse, he returned on it, and is still riding; when Bhagavan wants to send rain, he sends Bhimsen; he drags behind him a water-filled rat-skin bag; the skin scrapes against the air, producing thunder]: Elwin 1939: 336-337.

China - Korea. Koreans [the young man Pak is an orphan, he cuts and sells marsh grass for fuel; one day a deer asked him to hide it from hunters; in return he said that 8 heavenly maidens come down to the lake to bathe once a year; he must hide the skirt of the one he likes the most and not give it back until she gives birth to three children; Pak hid the skirt of the youngest; his wife built a tiled fanza, a barn, a bull; Pak gave away the skirt when there were only two children; everything disappeared; the deer gave three pumpkin seeds: if planted, they will grow to the sky, but you can’t look back; Pak looked, fell; the deer gave again - the last one; in heaven the children recognized Pak; the wife said that for the sake of their father she was forced to ask to give up the skirt, but she herself wanted to live on earth; the old man, the father of the maidens, orders to find him, becomes a rooster, a boar (the wife prompts); The eldest son-in-law shot an arrow: let Pak not let it fall either to the earth or to the sky; the wife turned into a gyrfalcon, picked up the arrow; the son-in-law - into an eagle, rushed after the gyrfalcon; it dropped the arrow, it fell on the son of the leader of the nobility; the son-in-law demands that the arrow be delivered to him; the wife to Pak: ask for a horse and take the poor foal; he immediately delivered Pak to the house of the leader of the nobility; there they mourn for their dead son; the arrow is so thin that people do not see it in the body of the young man; Pak imperceptibly pulled out the arrow, the young man came to life; Pak received a wife, but he was persuaded to stay with her in heaven in the service of Oconshante {distorted Okhwan Sanje, Chinese Yuhuang Shandi - "Jade Lord"}; they rode to him on a dragon, the wife poured rain from a marble bottle; Pak asked to pour more, grabbed the bottle, started pouring himself, dropped it; it fell into the mouth of a volcano, which went out from this, and in the crater the lake of the Great Dragon was formed, from which three rivers have flowed since then: Amnoka, Tumangan and Sungari; the great Okonshante was not angry with his wife Pak, but he removed her from the business and did not give any service to her husband; they remained in heaven]: Garin-Mikhailovsky 1958, No. 6: 446-452.

Caucasus - Asia Minor. Lezgins [an angel tells a poor man in a dream that he must send one of his three daughters to heaven as a shepherd; only the youngest agrees; she dresses up in men's clothing, the wind lifts her and her dog from the top of a mountain to heaven; the father and son have sheep in heaven; the father says she is a boy, the son suspects she is a girl; she withstands all the tests (she hits the mark, the dog changes the violets placed under her mistress at night - the violets will wither under a woman, but not under a man); after seven years she is released; from heaven, a young man sees that she is a girl after all; on a holiday, everyone was swinging on a swing, the dog would not let the girl in, but she sat on it, the swing lifted her back to heaven; she had to get married; her mother-in-law would not give her the keys; she fell asleep, the girl took the keys and began to open the rooms; in one of them were jugs containing the moon, sun, rain and wind; She removed the lid, saw the ground where her mother and father were, jumped into the jug; flew and turned into sunbeams; the guy jumped into the jug of snow out of grief and turned into snowflakes]: Ganieva 2011b, no. 20: 235-237 (=Khalidova 2012, no. 10: 37-39); Tabasarans [the father confesses to his daughter that Galigambar ("formidable giant", but the name Kambar goes back to the name of Ali's servant in the Shiite tradition, p. 225) calls him to heaven to herd sheep for 7 days; the daughter goes in his place, wearing men's clothing and taking a talking dog; 7 days in heaven are 7 months; the dog helps the girl remain unrecognized by eavesdropping and telling her what the celestials are talking about; the girl enters a house; the owner shows her all the rooms except one; She steals the keys, unlocks the room; there are vessels, in one there is rain falling to the ground, in another there is snow, in the third there is the sun; in the seventh she sees her parents harvesting in the field; she calls out to them, but they warn her not to go down; she begins to go down the chain (or rope), but the chain breaks, the girl turns into snow crystals; when the snow sparkles in the sun, these are particles of the body of the girl who fell from the sky]: Khalidova 2012, No. 9: 35; Svans []: Virsaladze 1973, No. 9: 50.

Iran - Central Asia. Turkmen [during a drought, the people turned to the ruler Tuys-Khatyn for help; a special water cloud lives in the center of a cluster of clouds; if a piece of this cloud is placed in a gourd, all the other clouds will rush after it; having saddled a wind horse, TH rushed into the sky; the ruler of the clouds, old woman Mamaka, resisted and began to shake her thunder bag with force, causing lightning; TH asked the clouds for rain and, having given people water, was unable to return back (Mary velayat, recorded in 2017); when there is a windless silence before the rain, they say: "This is Tuys-Khatyn freezing, yearning for her homeland"; if a damp wind begins to blow, they say: "Tyuys-Khatyn saddled a wind horse and is carrying rain clouds"; TH is also known as Tuytatyn: “The rains of Burkut are pouring from the sky, / Old lady Mamaka is shaking her sack. / Tuytatyn is bringing us a cloud, / A thousand clouds are following her”; Mamaka’s grandmother is the patroness of clouds; she beats a huge leather sack sanach and shakes out the rain; at the first drops of rain, adults scared children: “Hide in your homes, otherwise Mamaka will put you in a sack and lift you to heaven”]: Atdaev 2020: 90-91, 93.

Baltoscandia. Estonians (Saaremaa) [a tobacco stalk grows to the sky, a man climbs up there, the wind knocks down the stalk; a man asks Pitkne to let him twist a rope out of chaff he found in his two baskets; in one of them there is rain, in the other there is snow; P. does not allow it, but lets the man down to earth with the rain]: Stern 1935: 135 in Hatt 1949: 57; Livs [when it rains for a long time, they say that the locks have been removed from the rain barn; that a sack of rain has opened; that in the sky the sack has got a hole; or they say that the sky grandfather (sky god) has left home, and the children are going crazy, playing pranks, raking and throwing snow, etc.; one day they untied the sack of rain, and many drowned on the ground; when the heavenly grandfather returned, he was very angry with them]: Loorits 1998(1): 57.

Southern Siberia – Mongolia. Baoan [a severe drought occurred, a lion called the animals to a council, a hare volunteered to go for rain; he flew up to the sky, found the rain god; he replied that there was a divine vat behind him, let the hare pour three spoons of water into it, but no more; he did so, it rained for three days and three nights; the hare was so happy that he fell down and hit his head on a boulder; he thought that it was dry land and that the rain god had deceived him, he went up to the sky again; the rain god repeated the instructions, but this time the hare poured 24 spoons of water into the vat; it rained for 24 days and 24 nights, the water boiled, flooded all the plains; the present plains and slopes in Kashgar and Qinghai were formed at that time]: Zhou Yang et al. 2001a, No. 263: 375-376.

Japan. Japanese : Ikeda 1971, #800 (27 versions from Tohoku to Kyushu) [an old man, a fool or a lazy person, a cooper or umbrella maker goes to heaven; (1) climbs a miraculous plant; (2) grabs an umbrella, is carried up by the wind; (3) a bamboo hoop from a barrel springs, throws the craftsman to the sky; he becomes an assistant of Thunder; following him on a cloud, pours water, causing rain; finding himself above his native village, produces a downpour; at this time, a local temple is celebrating, everyone runs away, looking for shelter; from excitement, a man stumbles, falls down; the spilled water formed Lake Biwa; the hero falls into it, becomes a gibel fish; his name was Gengoro , the fish is now called Gengoro gibel ; (2) falls on the roof of a famous temple, calls for help; jumps on a cloth held by four men at the corners, they collide with their foreheads, sparks fly from their eyes, the temple burns down; (3) he falls into the sea, serves as a gatekeeper (gardener, servant) in the Dragon's house; he is told not to put certain food in his mouth; he takes it, is caught by a fisherman on the ground, returns home; (4) falls from the sky onto a mulberry tree; Thunder takes pity on him, has not struck the tree since; Chinese version in "The Rainmakers" in Chinese Myths and Fantasies , p . 101—110]: 185-186; Markova 1956 [a cooper was pulling a hoop over a barrel, it bounced off, throwing the cooper into the sky; the thunderers asked him to carry sacks of water for them; the cooper caused a terrible downpour, stumbled, fell on a tree near the temple; the monks began to hold the scarf, the cooper jumped, the monks hit their foreheads, sparks flew, the tree caught fire; now it is a "tree of fire" - hinoki (a type of cypress)]: 121; 2000, No. 43 [an old man finds a huge bean, plants it, the bean grows to the clouds; the old man climbs to collect the harvest, sees the sleeping thunderers, one wakes up, tells him to help him, he himself beats the drum, tells the old man to lightly sprinkle water from the bucket; seeing his house, the old man spills half a bucket; the stream carries away his house, the old man cries out to save his wife; wakes up], 65 [Torayan, by order of his mother, cooks eels; one escaped, T. was afraid to return to his mother, began to work for a peasant; pulling out a radish, flew out with it, fell to the cooper; bending a hoop, flew to the umbrella maker; the wind carried him to the sky; the thunderers ordered to pour water, he pours uncontrollably, falls into the sea; Oto-hime calls him to the feast, he is told to beware of the food descending from above; he grabs a piece of meat, fishermen fish it out, take it to his mother for punishment]: 183-185, 252-255.

( Cf. NE Asia. Chukchi [the husband's younger brother pesters his wife in his absence; one day she threatens him with a knife, accidentally kills him; the husband fattens up a beetle and a caterpillar in a pit, they turn into huge monsters; the Spider tells her that her husband will take her to the monsters to be eaten, orders her to sew new torbaz, throw them in front of the pit; the husband rushes after him, the Spider lifts the woman to heaven, the husband throws himself into the pit in anger, is eaten; in heaven, the kele catch the souls of earthly people on a hook; the kele's wives tell the woman to hide in the house of the Solar Woman; she burns the kele, looking at it; the Solar Woman lets the earthly one look into the boxes, from each of which the earth is visible at different times of the year; the woman pours water, sprinkles snow, it rains on the earth, snow {whether snow and rain are stored in these boxes is not said}; she sees her house; The sun returns her to the earth to her parents]: Belikov 1982: 138-149).

Arctic. Eskimos of Labrador : Hawkes 1916 [when the spirit in the north blows, a snowstorm occurs; spirits from the east and west bring summer; in the south live spirit women, who send flowers and summer rain, which they keep in sacks; when they run across the sky, thunder is heard, and the splashed water is rain]: 153; Turner 1894 [the clouds are waterskins; two old women run with them across the sky, water oozes from the seams, falls as rain; the thunder is their voices, the lightning is torches in their hands]: 267.

Subarctic. Slevi [winter never ends; animals gather for a council; only the Bear is missing; Lynx, Fox, Wolf, Mouse, Pike, etc. rise to heaven; find two Bear Cubs in the house; learn from them that rain, wind, fog, and warmth are stored in the pouches; Lynx turns into a caribou, Mother Bear rushes after her; animals steal warmth; snow melts, flood begins; huge creature drinks water]: Bell 1901, no. 1: 26-27; tsetsot [in the beginning there were no mountains, rain, snow, wind, people and animals were indistinguishable, the sun shone constantly; the boy cries, wants to drink; his father gives him fat, he does not want it; his father shoots at a mud mound, all the rivers flow out of it; animals gather for a council on how to get rain and snow; came to the edge of the sky, the Ermine made a hole in the sky, they went out into the sky, the hole closed behind them; in the middle of a beautiful plain there is a dwelling, in it are sacks with rain, snow, fog, storm, four winds; in the house the Goose Woman ordered the sacks to be torn; clouds came out, everything appeared, including the mountains; the Ermine gnawed a hole again, everyone returned to the earth]: Boas 1896, No. 3: 260-261.

Great Southwest. Navajo [see motif K21; Pueblo enslave youth, call him Scavenger; lower him onto a rock ledge, telling him to throw down his eaglets; Wind and Speaking God advise not to abandon the chicks; Pueblo leave the youth on the rock; Eagles bring him food; wrap him in a cloud and tie him with lightning bolts and rainbows, and carry him to a hole in the sky; get tired; give feathers to the lightning serpents of heaven, who help carry the burden through the hole; Eagles warn not to touch the blue vessels in the house; the youth opens them, a downpour begins on the ground; the youth runs away in fright, is caught by a Spider; Eagles rescue him; a coyote touches the youth, turning him into a coyote; Eagles find him, pass him through a hoop, the youth takes on his true form; the swallow throws stones at him, the Eagles revive him; the youth helps the Eagles defeat their enemies, gets married, remains in heaven]: Reichard 1977, no. 4: 26-36.

Mesoamerica. Nahuatl of Puebla: Heller et al. 1993 [a man-eating kite carries off men; they work with baskets over their heads; one man neglects this, is carried to the top of a mountain; kills the kite with a blow of a bone when it falls asleep; descends on its wings; the Thunders take him as a servant; instead of five beans, he puts many on to boil, the beans spill over; in the absence of the Thunders, opens vessels containing wind, clouds, rain, puts on the cloak of the Thunders, flies across the sky as lightning; the Thunders catch him, send him to his village]: 140-153; Reynoso Rábago 2003, no. R51 [beginning as in Heller et al. 1993; The Thunders first have to take them tortillas, which the frog cooks make for the Thunders; then they tell him to cook beans and corn; he has to put in 7 grains of each; one day he put in two handfuls, and the beans and corn filled everything around; the Thunders forgave him; they forbade him to take the lids off the pots; the man began to take them off - in one there were clouds, in another - wind, in a third - rain; on the ground there was a storm with thunder; having opened the chest with thunder clothes, the man put them on and began to fly across the sky - himself like one of the Thunders; the Thunders: he put on the best clothes, and ours are old, how will we catch him? they pelted him with lightning, scolded him: he wanted to be the boss, although he himself is only a servant]: 481-484 (similar text No. R52: 484-485); Taggart 1983, #16 [a man goes hunting when the Thunders have forbidden hunting; they meet him in the guise of woodcutters, ask him to help their cook prepare dinner; seeing a frog, the man does not realize that it is the Thunders' cook, beats it; puts more than one grain of corn and beans in a pot, the brew spills over the edge; puts on bright clothes, blows a horn, opens vessels with rain, hail, wind, cannot close; the Thunders come running, send him home; forbid him to hunt, but give him crystals, a calabash, a ring, which will provide him with food forever]: 223-224; Zapotec[sitting on the river bank and lost in thought, the young man did not notice how the crocodile swallowed him and swam away; sometimes he was freezing - that meant the crocodile was in the water; sometimes it got hot - the crocodile came ashore and warmed itself; one day the man realized that the crocodile had died on the shore, since it was not moving; he cut its side with a knife and went out to the sea beach; he approached the giant who was cooking fish soup; he said that rarely did any people end up in these places; he gave the young man a bowl of fish soup, and he himself only sniffed his own; he explained that in this country they are saturated with smell; that is why people smoke incense during rituals; in the morning he introduced him to the Gran Maestro in white robes; he showed a row of jugs; each one has its own type of precipitation: from a gentle rain to a hurricane; to cause precipitation, it is enough to wet your thumb and forefinger and shake off a drop; a young man carelessly scooped up water with his palm - there was a storm on the ground; a master gave a vessel to a young man, warning him to use it carefully and not to divulge the secret, otherwise lightning would strike; it must be used drop by drop, if there is time to irrigate the field; the young man closed his eyes, and when he opened them, he found himself by the river in the place where the crocodile swallowed him; he offered the chief to work for him on a share basis, but he refused; an old man agreed; he reaped a rich harvest, but nothing grew for the chief; after a few years the young man became rich; gradually became lazy; fell in love; she insisted that he share his secret; he showed her the magic vessel, lightning struck, the vessel disappeared, the woman grinned; they say that an old man still walks in these parts; he hopes that the crocodile will swallow him again]: Rebollar San Juan 2007: 59-64; Jacalteca [a naughty boy comes to an old man; does not know that it is Kich Mam , the master of rain; he orders to boil 13 beans; the boy puts in more, the brew spills over; opens the forbidden door, behind it are three vessels, inside are red, green, yellow cloaks; he opens one vessel, clouds come out of it, a storm begins; puts on the red cloak, turns into Thunder, rises to the sky; KM saves and forgives him]: Montejo 1991: 46-49; Cuicatec[an old woman found two eggs, put them in a vessel, from them the Sun and the Moon were born; every day she went out to feed the deer with corn porridge, told the twins to stay at home; called the deer the father of the twins; when she returned, the house was in complete disarray; one day he sent them themselves to feed the father - call him, Kundo, Kundo !; they called, the deer came, they killed him, the Moon took the right eye, the Sun - the left; to cook meat, you need fire; they sent a fox to the old woman; she set fire to her tail, ran away; so that the tail would not burn, the fox placed fire in a stone {apparently, in flint}, the twins struck fire from it; they brought the old woman roasted venison, and made a scarecrow from the skin, filling it with wasps and other stinging insects; The old woman ate, and by the river the frogs told her that she had eaten the liver of a deer; the twins told the old woman to pour sand on the frog's bottom, that's why it was rough; the black vulture also told the old woman that she had eaten a deer; she accused the twins of killing their father; she went to check herself; the deer did not respond; she went up to the scarecrow and hit it with a stick - why did not it answer; the insects bit her; she returned home and promised the twins to call their uncle; it was a jaguar; they dug a pit trap, the jaguar fell into it; then the old woman called the twins' aunt, it was an eagle with two heads; they made a cage, the eagle sat on top, they grabbed her by the paws (and killed her); the old woman called another uncle; it is an aquatic animal with a shell, but large; the twins ran, met Thunder, asked him to hide them behind his cheek; Thunder answered the beast that his teeth hurt and his cheek was swollen; the beast tried to climb into Thunder's mouth, but the Sun asked him to hit him, Thunder smashed the beast to pieces; while Thunder was working, the twins opened three vessels that stood in his house: with water, with wind and with hail; wet Thunder returned, closed the vessels and drove the twins away: that's why your aunt drove you out; they found honey, the Sun ate a little, and told the Moon to eat more, she was thirsty; the Sun gave water only after they changed eyes; the Sun told not to drink everything, but the Moon drank everything; the Sun told to burp some of the water, otherwise it would not be on earth; the Moon burped, but the dirty water stained her face, that's why there are spots on it; the woman has a chest; The Sun gave her ripe cherimoyas and said that there were many of them in the forest; she left, and he asked a rat to gnaw through a chest; the woman hears and asks, Sun: don't worry; the same with the woodpecker; the agouti gnawed through, in the chest there is a wheel with a rope, the Sun and the Moon rose to the sky, the agouti followed; asks what she should do; Sun: cut the rope higher than you; the agouti fell, buried herself in the ground; the woman managed to give the Moon a few slaps; that is why when the moon looks like a sickle, women have their period; the woman to the Sun: remember me when I cover your face with my petticoat]: Weitlaner 1977: 56-62 (=Bartolomé 1984: 6-9); kekchi , mopan[the forest spirit Mahanamatz asks a man for honey; eats it with wax; when a man climbs a tree, M. makes him tall, leaves; various animals refuse to help, because the man was hunting them; coatis form a chain, order not to step on a pregnant female; the man steps on, but manages to jump to the ground; runs, gets to Chak , he hides the man, orders a puma and a jaguar to tear M. apart; makes the man his assistant; orders to work in the garden, but not to look under the roots; the man looks, sees through the hole his house on the ground, his brother, his wife; descends on a rope, but hangs between heaven and earth; Chak pulled him out; Ch. is waiting for guests, orders to sweep, the man sweeps out the frogs, but they were both guests and musicians; in Ch.'s absence, the man puts on his clothes, opens a bag of wind, takes a calabash of water, a drum, thereby causing a hurricane, rain, thunder; falls into the sea, Ch. revived him, sent him home, giving him a calabash with endless wax and honey; allowed him to go to heaven if he did not bring anyone with him; the wife tagged along with the man; Chuck asks her the names of body parts; when he points to the genitals, she wants to answer, but a hurricane carries away both her and her husband]: Thompson 1930: 146-150; pipili [the rain boys have a calabash in which they store clouds]: Schultze-Jena 1935: 73.

Guiana. Akuriyo [The Heron and the King Vulture created the world, gave people the rules for cooking, body painting, family names, etc.; they, with the help of the Black and Red Vultures, bring water to the sky in calabashes and pour it out as rain]: Jara 1989: 203

Chaco. Chamacoco [rain comes at the behest of spirits who guard a huge celestial vessel filled with water]: Métraux 1946b: 366; nivacle [rain is produced by thunderbirds who, in anger, open a celestial vessel filled with water]: Métraux 1946b: 366; lengua [clouds are smoke emanating from the pillars of the sky; birds bring vessels of rain from the north; do not want people to see them, so they hide behind the clouds; if they fall asleep, a drought begins]: Loewen 1969: 115-116.