K25a7. Two brothers and a winged maiden. .36.37.39,

The elder brother hunts, the younger one keeps house. Having caught a winged maiden, the elder one takes her as his wife, and the younger one, in his naivety, returns her wings. The elder one sets off in search of a wife.

North-eastern Yakuts, Baikal Evenks, Far Eastern Evenks (Uchur-Zeya, Amur), Evens, Negidals, Nanais, Orochs, Udege, Tundra (?) Yukaghirs.

Eastern Siberia. North-eastern (Verkhoyansk) Yakuts : Illarionov et al. 2008, No. 19 [when Yudzhyuyen goes hunting, his younger brother Khudoy Khudzhugur stays at home; every time seven cranes fly in, ask if Yu. has left, come down to play; when Yu. returns, nothing has been done, XX replies that he overslept; Yu. hides, grabs one crane, it turns into a girl, B. takes her as his wife; she asks XX what to give him so that he will return her down (feather clothing); XX replies that frogs, beetles, worms, snails; she collects them for him, he takes out her down, she flies away; Yu. flies on a horse to the upper world; a bird advises him to become an ermine, to pinch his wife's child; she flies in at the cry, Y. plucks out her fluff, she dies; Y. flies to the lord of the Pleiades, the lord of the Moon, the lord of the Sun, receives the daughter of each; dresses his crane wife in his clothes; the heavenly wives come, thinking that their husband has died; the daughter of the Pleiades can turn a man who has been dead for 3 years into a man lying unconscious; the daughter of the Moon can make it look like he has just fallen asleep, the daughter of the Sun - so that he can immediately run; each jumps over the corpse, reviving the woman; when they see that it is a woman, they fly away; Y. returns home with his wife]: 219-229 (other translations of the same text in Khudyakov 1890, No. 3: 74-80; Ergis 1964, No. 55: 188-191); Ergis 1967b, No. 173 (summary of Khudyakov's entry and an archival text of unknown dialect affiliation) [the elder brothers are smart, the younger is a bit of a fool; the elder married a Siberian crane girl whom he caught while she was swimming (or dancing); the younger finds and returns her feathers to her; she flies away; the elder comes to the upper world for her; burns her feathers, she dies; with the help of heavenly shamans - the daughters of the Sun, Moon and Pleiades - he revives his wife; returns home, lives happily; the younger brother becomes a hero], 174 (location of entry not indicated; since we are talking about a Siberian crane, most likely northeastern) [the Siberian crane flies to the lake, removes its skin; Erdyigan Silik grabs it; she and other girls are hostages of the sea spirit, they live on an island; ES flies with her; seven girls - daughters of abaasy, ES chooses the eighth, whom he saved; flies home with her, lives happily]: 204; 1974 [(=Ergis 1964-1967(1), No. 55: 188-191; recorded in the 1860s by Khudyakov: Verkhoyansky sbornik 1890: 74-80); the elder brother is a hunter Uchugey Udyuyeen ( Good Yudyan ), the younger is a homebody Ku hae'an Khodyugur ( Thin Khodyugur); seven white cranes (sterkhs) began to fly to them and play with XX; the elder brother caught one sterkh bird and married it; soon she found her feathers, turned into a sterkh and flew away; HU flew up onto a cloud, found his wife, plucked out all the feathers and burned them, which is why she, having lost the soul hidden in them, died; then he flew to the heavenly shamans: to the daughter of the Pleiades - the Timid shaman, to the daughter of the Sun - the Kγθgel'ld'in shaman, to the daughter of the Moon - the shaman with the Moonlight; having promised to marry the shaman and having dressed his wife in his clothes, he forced them to revive her; the shamans, having seen the resurrected woman and taking her for HU himself, flew away into the sky; HU returned home with his wife, lived richly; XX became a strong hero; (retold in Sivtsev, Efremov 1990: 176-181)]: 224-225; Baikal Evenks (Baikal region) [ Letylkek stays at home while her older brother hunts; swans arrive twice, shed their feathers, tell her to feed them, scratch her face, fly away; L. lies to her brother that she herself was scratched; he hides, grabs the plumage of one of the swan girls, takes her as his wife; she gives birth to a son, finds her plumage, flies away taking her son; the husband finds his wife and son; when the swans are bathing, he steals his wife's clothes again, and she has to return to him; she finds her plumage again, flies away forever]: Voskoboinikov 1967, no. 9: 33-35; Evenks {more precise affiliation is not indicated; Baikal?} [ Niveniken hunts, Kukeki does housework; three women descend from the sky, comb K.'s hair; N. lies in wait for the women, hides a pair of silver wings; the wife asks K. to return them, in exchange for which he gives her something that K. has not eaten; it turns out to be a deer stomach; N. kills K., goes to look for his wife; the old woman sends him to her sister; she tells him how to reach the place where his wife is now; he runs like an ermine past a kite blocking the sun; having killed two deer, he throws them to two bears on either side of the path; he throws a comb onto a rock, which becomes a ladder; having killed two goats, he throws them to two wolves, who let him pass; a long-haired woman comes out, N. kills her; he returns his wife; at home he revives K.; he leads N. to a pit, N. falls into the underworld; two girls take a needle from each other, N. breaks the needle, gives half to each; the same with boys quarrelling over an arrow; an old woman asks whether he will put his pillow by the mountain or by the shore; N. answers by the mountain, wakes up at home; digs a hole under K.'s bed, he falls through, kills the girls and boys, says by the shore, does not return]: Voskoboinikov 1960a, No. 11: 79-83; Far Eastern Evenks(Uchur-Zeya): Voskoboinikov, Menovshchikov 1951 [{also begun in Vasilevich 1947: 275}; Torganai is hunting, his younger brother Chanykoi is sitting at home, dirty; T. is surprised that he has become clean; Ch. admits that two swan-maidens wash and comb his hair; Ch. grabs one, T. hides her clothes, takes her as a wife; three days later the wife with her clothes and Ch. disappear; a three-headed eagle tells him to go west, to catch a wild deer with a broken horn, a silver bridle; T. rides it to the foot of the mountain, turns the deer into a stump, himself into a child; the eagle brings him to himself; T. ties himself to his leg, and so gets to the top of the mountain; he finds his little son, Chirkumai is babysitting him ; his mother and her sister come down, T. chops his wife's plumage with an axe, the sister flies away; their son Hurugujonwants to marry the daughter of the Sun; she is guarded by the one-legged, one-armed Avasi; he eats half a berry with half a spoon; Kh. flies in like a fly (the text breaks off)]: 185-191 (similar text in Vasilevich 1966, no. 15: 263-267); Myreeva 2013 (Uchur) [Torgandun and his younger brother Chanikol live alone, not born of a woman; T. understands that he did not descend from the sky (otherwise there would be dew on his neck), did not rise from the lower world (there would be a mark on his feet), but grew like grass; Ch. has been lying in the mud in a tent for 35 years; two girls flew in from the upper world, washed Ch., put everything in order; the same for the next two days; Ch. is forced to tell his brother everything; T. orders the girls to be grabbed tomorrow, and he himself will be in ambush; hides under a pile of chips; the younger swan maiden senses T., does not come down, the elder Gahantyma decides to come down, even if she has to become T.'s wife; Ch. grabbed the swan maiden, she tried to fly away, but T. grabbed them both, took away their clothes, hung them on the top of the hitching post; one day T. went hunting, G. began to ask Ch. what he would like if she asked him to cut down the hitching post; he asked for a cauldron of sinews, by evening he cut down the hitching post; G. overturned a boiling cauldron on Ch., Ch. died, and G. flew away, putting on her swan clothes; the crow does not know where to look for G., sends to the raven sitting on the hitching post-tree; the raven asks T. to kill a deer for him, points to the deer that can take T. to the mountain on the edge of the world; nearby is a larch with a nest of a three-headed eagle; you need to kill deer, kill an eaglet with an arrow, pretend to be an eaglet, the eagle will lift it into the nest, will feed it; you need to make a tambourine from deer skins; do not let the eagle sleep; and when it falls asleep, tie yourself to its feet, beat the tambourine; out of fright, the eagle will carry you to the meadows of the upper world; there are many deer in the upper world; G. in clothes through which the body is visible, through the body - bones, through the bones - the brain; 33 copper and iron guys serve her; they hit the deer with their foreheads in front of T.'s eyes, T. lost consciousness; waking up, he followed the tracks; the same again at the house of the beauty Solkokchon; T. meets a female teal, who is lulling G.'s child; G.'s younger sister again does not order him to go down, but G. goes down to feed the child, T. comes out of hiding, tears her swan clothes, finally marries; their son quickly grew up, his mother gave him the name Ivulchen; I. grabs a female deer by the leg, she flies with him to the mountain of the upper world; says that the daughter of the master of the upper world, Gevan the old man, who rides on seven stars, is destined for him; leaves him with his giant brother, who first tries to kill I. by throwing him up, then offers a competition; 1) to lift a cast-iron ball frozen into the ground, 2) to jump on balls placed at a great distance from each other (I. does everything); the hero of the upper earth Cholbondor ("riding on Venus") is pleased, gives I. to be raised by his sister; (further about the struggle of the heroes of the upper world and the exploits of I.'s son)]: 41-83; Evenki(Far Eastern?) [Erinyndya-bogatyr – the eldest, the fool Torganandya – the younger brother; in E.'s absence, two bird-women arrive, T. drives them away; E. hides, grabs one; E.'s wife asks T. to get her the wings hidden in a tree, gives her toys in return – dog feces; flies away; E. comes for her, there the jay makes E.'s child and that woman cry so that his mother will come; E. grabs his wife, beats her, returns]: Varlamova 2004, No. 4: 146-164; Far Eastern Evenks (Amur) [two older brothers are hunting, the younger fool Ivulder remains to run the tent; two girls arrive, clean up, cook food, comb I.'s hair, fly away before the brothers return; I. responds that he did everything himself; the same on the next day; on the third day the brothers spy, call I. to hunt, order him to kill an elk, which they are supposedly chasing, they themselves roll a stone down the mountain, I. dies; the brothers return to the tent, one dresses like I., the other hides; they catch the girls, burn the wings, get married]: Malchakitova 2003: 225-226; Evens: Dutkin 1980a (Allaikhovsky district of Yakutia) [Umchegin is the elder brother, hunts wild deer, Buyundya is the younger, sits at home; sees seven swans fly in, remove their skins with feathers, become girls, play ball; they do not tell B. to tell his brother about them; B. ties knots in his clothes, but still forgets; U. watches, the swans notice him, fly away; when the swans fly in for the fourth time, U. hid well, hid the skin-clothes of one of the girls; took her as his wife; she invites B. to play ball, gives him the ball in exchange for B. giving her her clothes, hidden in a hollow snag; flies away towards the midday sun, telling him to tell U. that she is pregnant; U. goes off to search; sits down on the ground, digs a little, there is a tent, an old woman is in it; gives water, meat, taking them out of his sleeping bag; U. does not drink, does not eat, hides under his clothes; what is hidden disappears, he is full; the old woman sends him to her older sister, there is the same; she gives a board, you need to point it at the sea, it will freeze, you can cross on the ice; U. ran across like an ermine; seven girls are playing there, a bird is nursing the child of one, tells him that his father has come; the girls beat her, do not believe her; U. found, burned the skin of his wife; the wife and the bird became girls; they stepped over the sea in one step; at home there are only bones from B.; U. revived him with living water]: 111-117; Lavrile, Matic 2013 (Tomponsky district of Yakutia, Topolinoye settlement) [Irkenmel is hunting, his younger brother Өyinde is cutting up the catch at home; he sees 7 cranes descending, taking off their wings, turning into girls, playing, repairing the tent, cleaning up, cutting up a deer, promising to return tomorrow; the same the next day; on the third day I. hid, hid the wings of his older sister; she became I.'s wife; he asks Ө. to find and give her the wings, promises to make him various items of clothing; he agrees only when she gives him the yala; the girl puts on the wings and flies away; I. went in search, telling the yule not to take Ө. far from home; he turned into an ermine to run easier; having become a fish, he swam across the sea; on the other bank the cranes are dancing, and the bird tells the baby that his father is I.; tells I. to become a mouse, to grab his wife by the braid when she starts feeding the child; I. grabbed his wife, lives with her, then decides to return home; shoots an arrow across the sea, the sea freezes, they cross with the deer; at home I. cuts the Ө. and the top in half, a handsome guy and girl appear, they get married]: 119-158; Lebedeva 1981 (Momsky district of Yakutia, 1963): 40 [ Irkenmel – the elder brother, Sulerken– the youngest; S. sees three swans shedding their wings and becoming girls; helps I. steal the wings of one; one day she deceives S., takes the wings, and flies away; a year later the swans arrive again; I. turns into an ermine, steals the wings, and returns his wife; throws the wings into the fire], 144-150 [swan girls fly to Omcheni’s yurt; O., with the help of his younger brother, steals the wings of one of them; she gives birth to a son, persuades his younger brother to return her wings, and flies away, taking his son with her; O., in the form of an ermine, sets off in pursuit; finds his son’s cradle; his wife appears, he throws his wife and son into the fire, and two birds fly out of the fire; the wife says that they are flying to their father Buskan Burai; “Omcheni quickly made himself a bow and arrow and shot it upward, and he himself sat astride the arrow. The arrow flew to the sky and, hitting it, fell back near the fire. Omcheni broke two eights of his ribs. He was lying near the fire, poor thing"; a bird flies up (his wife's younger sister), lifts O. into the sky through a hole; he meets his father-in-law, returns his wife and son]; Novikova 1987 [Buyundya sees seven swan girls playing ball on the lake; ties knots in his clothes to remember at home and tell his older brother Umchegin, but forgets; the third time U. hides himself, but the swans notice him and do not take off their wings; on the fourth U. hides the clothes of one Swan; takes the girl as his wife; she gives B. the ball, in return for which he tells where her wings are hidden, she flies away; U. goes after her; meets one, then another old woman; the second gives a board that freezes the sea; U. runs across to the other shore like an ermine; seven girls playing ball; a bird nurses a child, sings that his father has come; U. finds out from the bird where the bird skins are hidden, burns his wife's skin; the nurse bird becomes a girl, all three return home; U. revived B. from the bones]: 51-58; Evens[Deki's elder brother is hunting, Elki's younger brother is cooking at home; he sees 7 swans flying in, taking off their swan clothes, becoming girls and swimming; they play with E.; he wants to tell his brother, but forgets every time; he remembered after the third time; D. pretends to leave; he came back, grabbed the wings of one; took her as his wife; one day she offers E. to teach him to fly if he shows where the wings are hidden; E.: I'll show you if you give me your ball; E. goes off to play, and his wife flies away, telling him to tell D. that she is pregnant; D. got angry with his brother and went towards the sun, where the swans were flying; along the way he turned into a bird, a worm, a bear; he lay down on a hummock and felt smoke; he pulled it out, found himself in the house; the old woman is preparing food for him: she cut off one of her dried breasts, cut it, squeezed the liquid out of it; D. saw it, did not eat it, but felt full; the old woman sent him to her sister (the same episodes: a hummock, the old woman crumbles her breast; D. pretends to eat, but hides the food given to him under his clothes); the old woman gave him a board overgrown with moss: when you reach the sea, say, "Spread yourself across the sea like a bridge!"; D. ran across it like an ermine; on the other bank he sees seven girls, one with a child; they went to play, and that girl gave the child to a bird; it sings: don't cry, your father will soon come for your mother; the girls came running, scold and beat the bird, and it sings again; this happens three times; D. recognized his child, the bird showed where its wings were, D. burned them in the fire; D. took his wife and two old women with him and they all jumped over the sea; E. lies dead at home; they collected the bones, moistened them with water, E. came to life; D. began to hunt and brought in many deer]: Robbeck 2005: 61-67.

Amur - Sakhalin. Negidals [the elder brother Kusunkum was hunting, the younger Savkan was looking after the house; three women flew in, combed his hair, and flew away; K. returned and was surprised that S.'s hair was shiny; S. combed it with bark; the same the next day; K. tried to comb his hair with bark - it did not shine; after the third time S. confessed; K. ordered to cover him with bark; when the women arrived, let him say that K. had left; the women folded their silver wings by the door; K. hid two, one woman was unable to fly away, she became K.'s wife; warns S. not to show his wife where the wings were hidden; the woman promises to feed S. well; he gave the wings, she flew away, and there was only lard in the cauldron; K. returned, hit S., went to look for his wife; the old woman does not know the way, sends him to his elder sister; she sends a big devil up the river into the land, who blocks the sun; you have to kill deer, throw meat to two bear guards; gives a comb; when K. reaches the wolf guards, you have to throw the comb and say: "Fall right through, make a fence from your teeth"; kill roe deer and give the meat to the wolves; having passed the guards, K. came to a house on the mountain; a long-haired woman came out, K. tied her to a tree; there is a wife in the house, K. brought her back, they are still living well, S. continues to work around the house]: Pakendorf, Aralova 2019: 67-75; Nanai [Leterken is the younger brother, Mergen is the elder; M. went hunting, L. sees seven swans, invites them to come down; they took off their swan clothes, combed and washed L., told M. to answer that he did everything himself; M. does not believe, L. tells how it was, M. orders to stick a finger into a hole in the robe of the younger sister; M. hid her swan clothes; six poods flew away, M. took the seventh as a wife]: Medvedev 1992: 149-151; Orochi : Avrorin, Lebedeva 1966, No. 14 [ Ngetyrkasits at home, his elder brother hunts; seven swans fly in, turn into girls, clean the house, wash and comb N.'s hair; then they tell him to get dirty again, to scatter the spruce branches spread on the floor; N. does not do this; lies, as if he combed his hair with a bird's paw, wiped his face with bird down; the brother shows that this is impossible; N. tells the truth; the brother tells him to sew the younger sister's robe to N.'s robe next time, he himself hides; grabs the girl; she bears him a son; the boy stops crying when N. tells him that his mother's clothes are in the box; the woman tickles N., makes him say how he stopped the baby's crying; puts on feathers, flies away, taking her son; the husband shoots at a flying swan, shoots off his son's little finger; meets a servant, asks what he is doing and saying at home; kills him, takes his form, comes to his wife, puts his little finger on her son; the servant discards his form (skin?) in the taiga; says that he killed a hare, but in fact he killed a lot of elks, feeds his father-in-law and mother-in-law; returns home; N. is stuck to the door because, contrary to his brother’s warning, he ate fatty meat first instead of lean; his brother revives him], 15 [beginning as in (14); N. immediately admits that the Swans were courting him; the brother meets not a servant, but an old woman; she gives him a teal and tells him to release it when the man reaches his destination; the teal calls the Swan to the shore, the man grabs her, tears her plumage; returns to N., who is happy]: 142-145, 145-147; Medvedev 1992 [Ngetyrka, he has an older brother; While he is hunting, seven swans arrive, turn into girls, do N.'s hair, tidy up everything; as they fly away, they tell him to smear his face and make a mess again; the brother does not believe that N. combed his hair himself (he says that he combed it with a bird's paw, the brother offers to do it, but it doesn't work); tells him to sew the younger girl's robe to his robe next time and then call him; six swans fly away, the youngest gets stuck in the smoke hole; the older brother marries her; hid the skin with feathers; a boy is born; stops crying only after N. tells him that his father hid his mother's skin in a birch bark box; the brother's wife begins to tickle N., he confesses, which calms the child down; the wife takes the child and flies away; the father manages to shoot off his son's little finger; the brother leaves meat for N., goes to look for a wife; a servant rides on a sled to fetch firewood; replies that he serves a woman; if he wants to eat, he says, "Give me some yukola!"; when he arrives, he throws his axe with a crash; he weaves ropes for nets, calls the spinners for weaving "khochku"; the hero killed the servant, took his form; the mistress is angry that the servant does not know where the spinners are; when the mistress left, the hero puts his little finger to her son's hand; he took his form; the girl's parents came to eat hare meat, and there was a pile of elk meat; the hero returned home, there N. was stuck to the door; his brother fucked him, fed him]: 353-355; Udege : Lebedeva et al. 1998, No. 25: 197-203 [while the older brother is away, the bird girl flies to the younger Letige, removes wings, claws; he sews her clothes to his, the elder brother grabs them, hides the bird clothes in a box; while her husband is away, her son cries, wanting his mother's clothes; she takes the clothes, flies away with her son, the husband shoots off his son's little finger; sends a decoy duck (given by the old woman) to his bird-wife, grabs his wife, tears off, burns her bird clothes; when they returned, L. was stuck to the door (because he ate good meat, not bad, as he was told); they revive him].

NE Asia. Tundra Yukaghirs (probably Tundra) [(summary); the elder of two brothers steals the wings of the younger of seven swan maidens; the younger secretly returns her wings, she flies away; the elder goes in search, two old women help him reach the land of his wife's parents; he returns home with her, lives richly]: Gogolev et al. 1975: 242.