J53B. Breasts of the murdered mother. .24.43.48.50.

Two women live together, both have children. One of them goes out with the other, kills her, brings her flesh home and starts cooking it. The dead woman's children notice her breasts (or in California, her eyes or liver), or the mother's breasts turn to her children.

Loda, Pagu, Tobelo, Numfor, Wamesa, Shuswap, Thompson, Lillooet, Halkomelem, Comox, Skagit, Upper Chehalis, Clackamas, Kathlamet, Lassik [eyes], Kato [eyes], Yuki [eyes], Nisenan [eyes], Mountain Miwok [liver], Western Keres (Acoma).

Malaysia - Indonesia. Loda (Halmahera) [two wives of one husband went fishing, one pushed the other into the water, crushed her with a spear, dismembered her, brought the meat home; answers the son and daughter of the dead woman that she is cooking fish, tells them to watch the brew; the mother's flesh speaks from the cauldron that these are her breasts, she is their mother; the woman who returned says that the mother stayed to smoke the fish, tells them to watch her own child; the children roasted it in a frying pan, ran away; a bird pointed out a log to cross a river swarming with crocodiles; when the children passed, it chopped the log with its beak; the pursuer fell through, eaten by crocodiles; the bird tells them to go along the road to the right, the children turn left to the cannibal Kine-kine-boro; on his back is a basket with a man in it upside down; the children called K. grandfather, came to his house; in the morning they loaded the boat with food and valuables, sailed away; from the tree K. saw a sail in the distance, threw his hair like a lasso; the children cut the hair with difficulty, the tree sprang back, K. fell on his wife standing below, both exploded]: Baarda 1904, no. 12: 438-441 (retold in Dixon 1916: 229-231); pagu [in a forest hut lived two women, an old and a young, the old had a daughter, the young had two; one day they went to get crabs; the old woman made it so that horseflies began to bite the young one; at that time she broke off a stick and killed the young one; cut off her breasts, put them in a bamboo vessel and brought them home; she told the children of the dead woman to cook sago porridge; she herself began to cook their mother's breasts; the daughters hear their mother's voice: these are my breasts; they did not eat them; The old woman says she doesn't know where her mother is; she left in the morning; The older girl told the younger to catch a full vessel of horseflies; The girls released them on the old woman's daughter and she died; They placed the body as if she were alive, and the vessel with the horseflies was to answer the old woman when she came; The girls crossed the river on a bridge of vines and asked a green parrot to cut the vines so that the bridge would barely hold; The girls saw from afar how the old woman brought the remains of their mother and were convinced that she really was dead; The old woman began to ask the girls to lower her a ladder; the vessel with the horseflies answered, but the ladder did not come down; She climbed into the house, and then rushed back and chased the girls; The bridge collapsed under her, she fell into the water and was eaten by a crocodile; The girls came to the old woman's garden; They asked her to give her some fruit, but she refused; Then they asked a hornbill to carry them to the top of a tree to eat the fruit; the old woman in response ordered the pigs to undermine and fell the tree; the girls called the dogs and they mauled the pigs to death; only one pair was saved and that is why there are now pigs in the world; the girls asked the old man {is this the old woman's husband?} to give them some pork, but he did not want it; then the elder {came down from the tree and} offered to search the old man's head, and the younger threw two ants' nests into his eyes; the girls swam down the river to a whirlpool; the old man followed him to kill them, but the whirlpool swallowed him up; the sisters returned to their village]: Ellen 1916a, no. 1: 146-149;tobelo [there lived a witch and a woman; the witch had one child, the woman had an older daughter and a younger son; the witch called the woman to gather shrimp; suggested that she dive, and when she dived, she pinned her down with a pole with a fork on the end and she drowned; the witch pulled her out, cut off her breasts and brought them home in a bamboo vessel; the breasts say: it is I, mother (words in the Ternate language); the woman's daughter realized that the witch had killed her mother; when the witch left, the woman's daughter roasted her child, took her little brother and ran away; realizing that her child had been killed, the witch gave chase; jumped into the water and a crocodile swallowed her; the little brother asked for a drink, and then to pour water on his head; his hair turned golden; they came to the woman, she gave them something to eat; at night there was a thunderstorm and rain; the sister insisted on leaving quickly, although the brother did not want to; in the morning the owners did not find the children; {I don't understand everything further; the pursuers (the inhabitants of that house?) ate the brother, and the sister sailed on a ship to another country, the king took her as his wife; split a watermelon, there was wealth in it}: Hueting 1908, No. 23a: 75-77; Numfor [two women, Indawaworki and Binkakuri, went to collect shells; B. brought a large shell; I. got angry; she lay down on the path and mushrooms grew out of her body; B. saw them, tried to pick them, I. jumped up and tickled B. to death; cut off her breasts, gave them to B.'s two daughters at home to cook them; the breasts began to cry; then B.'s daughter asked I.'s daughter to look for the fallen needle, and then called out to her, telling her to open her mouth, and threw a stone heated on the fire into it; she swallowed the stone and died; B.'s daughter took two of I.'s daughter's lice and left them at different ends of the house; she put a new sarong and bracelets on I.'s daughter's corpse and left it standing in the doorway; I. returned and did not immediately realize that her daughter was dead; she called B.'s daughter, and the two lice answered in turn from different ends of the house; when I. realized this, she set off in pursuit; at night she crawled under a fallen tree, not knowing that B.'s daughter was sleeping on the other side of the same tree; by the river she told the crocodile that her mother's killer was chasing her, and the crocodile took her across; and when he took I., he began to lower himself into the water, saying that B.'s daughter had also gone under water and that it was okay; in the end he drowned I.]: Hasselt 1908, no. 30: 525-526; vamesa[a female kangaroo {apparently a species of tree kangaroo} and a cassowary live together; the kangaroo has two daughters, the cassowary has one; in the dry season the stream becomes shallow and both go to catch shrimp and fish in it; each time the kangaroo catches a lot, and the cassowary little; finally, the cassowary killed the kangaroo with her powerful paws, cut the meat into small pieces, put it in bamboo vessels and brought it to the kangaroo children: this is the mother sending them fish, and she herself fell asleep by the stream; the daughters were going to cook the fish, but a voice came from the bamboo vessels: mother's flesh, mother's flesh! the girls found their mother's breasts and realized that the cassowary had killed her; in the morning the cassowary said that she was going to their mother and ordered oil to be boiled; The kangaroo girls told the cassowary girl to bend down to find a fallen weaving bait, then asked her to look up and poured boiling oil in her face; left the body standing with open eyes and mouth - as if smiling; asked all the objects not to give them away, but forgot about the weaving bait; the cassowary girl returned for a long time and did not understand why her daughter was standing there smiling and not answering; when she approached, the body fell; the cassowary girl began to question all the objects and the weaving bait told her in which direction the kangaroo girls had run away; when night came, the fugitives spent the night under the roots of a tree on one side, and the pursuer on the other; the same the next night; a few days later the girls ran to the river; asked the crocodile to take them across; he took them across and returned, and while he was taking the cassowary girl across, he dived in and she drowned; the sisters reached a tree on which two young men were eating fruit; the youths came down; the elder took the elder sister; the younger ran away and met a snake; was afraid of it, but it turned out that at night the snake turned into a youth; the girl gave birth to a boy; he grew up and asked to make him a bow; mother: neither I nor your father the snake can make it; but one day the snake burned his snake skin and remained a man; made his son a bow and arrows; they live among people; the elder sister came with her husband; she wanted a husband for the younger; but she said that he was a snake, and the elder left]: Vries 1925, no. 34: 151-160.

Coast - Plateau. Shuswap [Grizzly and Beaver live in the same house, each has two sons; digging roots, each searches in the other's head, hinting that each one's lice resemble their owner in appearance; offended Grizzly kills Beaver, brings home the cut off breasts; the eldest Beaver sees her roasting them; Grizzly advises her children to feed the Beavers well and drown them in the lake; her children themselves eat too much, the Beavers drown them; leave the roasted body of the eldest on the trail; Lark tells Grizzly that she is eating her son; the Beavers hide on a rock above the river; Grizzly climbs after them; they push the ladder away, Grizzly falls into the river, dies]: Teit 1909a, #21, 62 [Grizzly is the eldest, Beaver is the youngest of Woodpecker's wives]: 681-683, 753; Thompson [a man marries Grizzly and a Black Bear; each gives birth to three or four sons; jealous Grizzly asks her husband to help her carry some dug up roots; says he has a lot of insects in his head, kills them by biting him in the neck; calls Black Bear to look for her husband, kills them in the same way; Black Bear's youngest son notices Grizzly roasting their father's genitals first, then their mother's breasts; Grizzly tells her children to drown Black Bear's sons, who drown them themselves; Lark tells her she is eating her roasted child; Black Bear Cubs run away, climb a tree; ask Grizzly to open his mouth; throw into it not the younger brother, but an old branch with ants; Grandfather Bear takes them across the river in a boat; tells Grizzly to sit on the bottom of the boat to plug the hole; fish eat out her insides; Coyote finds her body, roasts the meat]: Teit 1898, No. XXII: 69-71; Lillooet [four brothers and a sister live by a river; on the eve of the salmon run they built a dam and went hunting; the sister stayed behind; when she caught a salmon and was about to eat, someone called her and she fell asleep; a grizzly woman came in, ate the salmon; same next day (two salmon); on the third (three salmon); the brothers sense that something is wrong with their sister; they returned; the eldest followed the grizzly to her home; she lived with her sister, a black bear; the young man married them; The black bear is a better cook, the grizzly is jealous; each gave birth to 4 daughters; (further the same as in text #22 of the Thompson Indians: the grizzly asks her husband to help carry the dug up roots; says that there are a lot of insects in his head, kills them by biting his neck; calls the black bear to look for her husband, kills her in the same way; the black bear's youngest daughter notices that the grizzly first fries their father's genitals, then their mother's breasts; the grizzly tells his children to drown the black bear's sons, they drown them themselves; the lark tells her: look at the claws (of her child, whom she eats?); the black bear cubs run away, climb a tree; ask the grizzly to open her mouth; they throw into it not their younger sister, but an old branch with ants; the black bear cubs' grandfather transports them across the river in a boat; tells the grizzly to sit on the bottom of the boat to plug the hole; the fish eat her out entrails; coyote finds her corpse, roasts the meat]: Teit 1912b, no. 19: 321-323;halkomelem [the elder sister Grizzly has daughters, the younger Black Bear has a daughter (BM), a son and a little son; the daughter BM notices her mother's breast in her aunt's cauldron; Grizzly replies that BM will come later; the children of BM take Grizzly's children to swim, they drown (grizzlies cannot swim); the children of BM run away, having put a rotten tree in Grizzly's children's bed, as if someone were sleeping there; they climb a spruce tree, Grizzly runs up, the children of BM say that her children are with him, ask her to open her eyes, blind her by throwing what they scraped off the bark of the spruce; a man ferried them across the river in a boat; while ferrying Grizzly, he capsized the boat, Grizzly drowned; the elder brother threw the younger brother's hat into the fire; he began to cry, the water in the river began to rise; the brother and sister ran away, the younger one remained, the fire remained burning under the water; seeing the fisherman, the younger one turned into a fish, bit off (torn off?) the hook; having become a man, he came to the fisherman, who complains that the hook is missing, the boy says that he found it; stays with the fisherman; finds a piece of wood with a hole in it from a branch in his bed, throws it into the fire; the fisherman says that his wife went out and burned; that he is the first man, and the creator forgot to make him a wife; the boy carves out two women, from birch and from alder; the fisherman replies that he wants the alder one, it is his color (i.e. with red sap); the boy completed the woman, the first man got a wife]: Thompson, Egesdal 2008: 258-261; komoks (chatloltk) [The grizzly asks the Black Bear to pick lice off her; they are frogs, they fall to the ground, the Bear says that branches are falling from the tree (she should eat imaginary lice?); Grizzly kills She-Bear, cuts off and boils her breast, gives it to Bear's sons to eat; they recognize the meat of their mother, kill Grizzly's children, leave them standing near the chest, as if they were getting food from there; run away, climb a tree; ask Grizzly to open her mouth, throw wood dust in her face; Grizzly runs away]: Boas 1895, No. 9: 81; skagit [Grizzly and Brown Bear are married to Woodpecker; Bear brings ripe berries, Grizzly green; Bear warns her husband that Grizzly will kill her, looking in her head; Bear's youngest son sees Grizzly roasting his mother's breast; Woodpecker makes arrows with flint tips for his sons from Bear, and with coal tips from Grizzly; the former kill the latter (this is not a game); Woodpecker gives them berries, feathers, a spear to pay the bushes, the tinder fungus on the spruce, the Crane; flies away from Grizzly, taking the baby; the bribed bushes let the She-Bear's children through, but prevent Grizzly from running; Crane stretches out his leg like a bridge; the Bear's sons cross to the other bank, give the Crane a spear; he pretends that his leg hurts; twitches when Grizzly steps on it, throwing it into the river; she swims out; runs to Flint - the Bear's father, with whom his grandchildren are hiding; he suggests that she enter the house backwards; the blade cuts her in half; the sons fly away into the forest to their father Woodpecker; the baby turns into red feathers on his head]: Hilbert 1985: 130-136; Upper Chehalis[She-Bear and Mountain Lion are Woodpecker's wives, each with five sons; She-Bear gathers ripe blackberries, Mountain Lion gathers red ones; suggests to She-Bear that they search each other's heads; Mountain Lion has lizards in her hair, which she eats; on the fourth day she sucks the blood of She-Bear, on the fifth she bites off her head; the children of the She-Bear see Mountain Lion roasting their mother's breasts; Woodpecker gives them strong arrows, and Mountain Lion's children weak ones; the cubs kill Mountain Lion's children with their arrows; Woodpecker sends the cubs to their grandmother, tells them to go along the path with the red paint; they go along the other path, fall into the hands of Wolf, run away, come to their grandmother; she tells Mountain Lion to enter the house backwards, the slamming door cuts Mountain Lion in two; the body is burned]: Adamson 1934, no. 26: 43-46; Clackamas [Black Bear and Grizzly both have five sons; Grizzly asks to search her head; frogs are there, Grizzly eats them; searches Bear, bites her, devours; brings breasts home to stove; youngest cub notices them; cubs kill and cook Grizzly's sons; leave one body standing with smiling mouth; Grizzly eats his children; chases Cubs; Crane stretches leg across river, warns not to step on kneecap; Cubs cross, Grizzly scolds Crane, steps on knee; he removes leg, she drowns; crows peck at her vagina, she comes to life; paints face with vaginal blood; goes and asks various trees what she looks like; determines what their properties will be based on answer]: Jacobs 1958, no. 15: 141-156; katlamet [Robin and Berry (Salmon-berry) are sisters; the former has five daughters, the latter has sons; the sisters go for berries, Robin searches inside Berry's head, wants to eat her; Berry warns her sons that they must run away if she is eaten; the youngest sees Robin throw Berry's breasts into the fire; the brothers invite Robin's children to play steam room, suffocate them with heat; arrange corpses as if they were alive and smiling; run through the underground year; Robin first asks the dog where the children ran, then finds a passage; the Crane carries the brothers across the river; stretches out his legs like a bridge; when Robin steps into a narrow place, throws her into the water; the Crow pecks out her genitals; she comes to life, paints her belly with blood; asks different trees if the paint suits her; Willow, Poplar, Fir, Thuja answer that it does not; Alder, Cedar, Spruce, two species of Maple, yes; it makes the wood of the first useless, of the second valuable]: Boas 1901a, no. 15: 118-128.

California. Lassik [a grizzly and a doe are a hawk's wives; they pounded acorns and went to a creek to soak the flour; the doe told the grizzly her hair was clean; the grizzly said the doe had lice and bit off her head; she put it on the fire at home; the eyes burst , the grizzly said it was the log that cracked; but the little fawns {a boy and a girl?} knew it was their mother's eyes that had burst; her hair was telling them to run; the fawns suggested to the cubs that they should take turns suffocating each other with smoke in an empty log; they climbed in first, said that was enough; when the cubs climbed into the log, the fawns choked them to death; they brought the grizzly's bodies, said they had killed two skunks; then they said the grizzly had killed their mother and was now eating her own children; they ran away; ask the crane to stretch his neck across the river; hide in a cave on the other side; when a grizzly walked across the crane's neck, he shook it off in the middle of the river; grizzly: may my back turn into a young oak]: Goddard 1906, #2: 135-136; kato [Bear and Doe are Blue Jay's senior and junior wives; both go for clover, Bear asks to look in Doe's head; throws grains of sand into Doe's hair, biting them and making a characteristic sound; kills her; a boy and a girl fawn find their mother's eyes in a basket of clover ; offer the cubs to climb into an empty log; smother them with smoke, give the meat to their mother, saying that they are skunks; [She-Bear drowns when Crane pulls out his neck]: Goddard 1909, no. 17: 221-222; yuki [She-Bear is the mother of Doe; Doe's husband, Deer, brings birds to his son and daughter, gives the entrails to his mother-in-law; the mother-in-law took out the caught birds, left one partridge in the trap; Doe bent down to pick it, the mother-in-law killed him; called the daughter to gather clover, asked her to look in her head, then began to look in the daughter's head, bit it off; put the eyes of Doe and Deer in acorn porridge, gave them to the Cubs; they recognized their mother's eyes ; invited the Cubs to play in the steam room, closed the smoke hole; placed the bodies, putting sticks against them, turning them into skunks; ran to the sea, asked grandfather Crane to ferry them across the sea; he stretched out his neck; when the Bear came, he removed his neck, she fell into the sea, but swam out; Coyote, Rabbit, Fox and others killed her on the beach with stones, turned her into a bear]: Foster 1941: 236-237; nisenan [The Bear and the Doe went to get clover; the Bear said she saw a louse on the Doe's head, the Doe bent down, the Bear tore out her eyes, put them in her basket; the Doe's children noticed the eyes in the basket mother; lured the cubs into a cave, made a fire at the entrance, they were baked; the she-bear ate them in a rage, set off in pursuit of the fawns; they climbed a cliff, dropped a hot stone, the she-bear died; threw stones in different directions, acorns and berries appeared; the elder brother made a hole in the sky with an arrow, put up a ladder; the younger was afraid to climb; then the elder gave him a pipe to smoke so that the ground would not be visible; both climbed into the sky, saw their mother at a pond, recognized her by her empty eye sockets; the elder brother was a deer, the younger was a woodpecker (Sphyrapicus varins); the brothers did not like their blind mother, they rode on a wheel, fell into the pond, drowned]: Powell 1877: 341-343; Mountain Miwok : Gifford 1917 [A mother bear invites her sister, Deer, to gather clover; offers to search in her head, gnaws through her neck, eats her, brings the liver at the bottom of the basket; the younger of the two fawn sisters finds the liver under the clover; the sisters leave the basket and the awls to answer for them, run away; their grandfather Long-legged (crane?) stretches out his leg; the She-Bear falls into the river, but continues the pursuit; the other grandfather of the Fawns, Lizard, offers the She-Bear to climb onto the roof of his house, open her mouth and close her eyes, throws two hot stones into her mouth; she falls, dies; Lizard skinned her, cut her in half, gave the larger part to the older Fawn sister, the smaller one to the younger; the girls began to run, dragging these pieces behind them, producing thunder; Lizard sent them to the sky, they are Thunders], 2 [the She-Bear's lice are frogs; The Doe throws them out, the She-Bear is displeased, the Doe says they are falling leaves (apparently the Doe is supposed to bite the "insects")]: 286-292; Merriam 1993 [The Doe is Grizzly's husband's sister; she has two sons, Grizzly has one; Grizzly suggests that she search her head, kills her, brings the liver home; The fawns find and recognize her; playing with him, smother the Cub in smoke in a hole, lay him down as if he were sleeping; run to the other side of the river; Grizzly asks how they got across; Backwards ; Grizzly walks backwards, The fawns roll a hot stone on her; they make a belt from her skin, climb to the sky; there they meet their mother; she drowns in a spring; they climb back down; [that is why deer live on earth, not in heaven]: 103-109; Wilson 1922 [a doe with two fawns came to visit a she-bear with a cub; went with her to pick berries, she killed her; the fawns saw the she-bear bring a liver their mothers; they suggested that the bear cub play by climbing into a cave one by one, with a fire in front of it, and blowing smoke into it until the one in the cave said that it was enough; they suffocated the bear cub with smoke; they ran to their grandfather; he taught them how to heat up stones and roll them down a mountain; when the she-bear gave chase, the stones killed her; the grandfather made several proposals to his grandchildren regarding their future destiny, but they agreed only when he suggested that they live in the sky; he lit a fire to lift them up to the sky; they began to dance around the fire and accidentally spilled water; they ascended into the sky with the steam, where they now live with their descendants; lightning – sparks from under their hooves; short sharp peals of thunder – that’s the younger fawn running, and the dull rolling ones – the older one]: 87-89.

Great Southwest. Western Keres (Acoma) [A She-Wolf (she has a son and a daughter) calls a Deer (she has twins; it is unclear whether they are two sisters or a brother and sister) to gather pinyon nuts; asks how her children became spotted; the Deer says that she locked them in a room and made a fire in it; while gathering nuts, the She-Bear tore the Deer to pieces, brought home her meat, gave the fawns her udder , said that the mother would come later; some man told them that their mother had been killed, advised them to kill the cubs, and flee to Wu'nimatse, where their mother was now; the fawns suggested making two of the cubs spotted in the way that the Deer had told the She-Wolf; they lock the Cubs in the house and suffocate them with smoke; they arrange the corpses as if the cub was going to shoot his sister with a bow and arrow, who had swept the floor; they flee to the west; old Turtle carries them on his back across the river; She-wolf pushes her son, the corpse falls, she realizes that the children are dead; Turtle carries her too; in Wу'nimatse Deer invites She-wolf to go down and take the fawns; Elk kills her with his antlers]: Boas 1928a: 180-183.