K27x9. Retrieve an item from the seabed.

.12.14.-.17.22.-.24.27.-.29.31.32.35.-.37.

The hero must retrieve a small object (often a ring) thrown into a deep body of water (often the sea). Cf. motif C6 ("The Diver").

Loma [ring of the sea], Arabs of Egypt [ring of the sea], Spaniards [ring of the sea, river], Galicians [ring of the sea], Portuguese [ring of the sea], Basques [ring of the sea, river], Corsicans [ring of the sea], Sicilians [ring of the sea], Italians (Liguria) [ring of the well], Italians (Piedmont, Tuscany, Abruzzo) [ring of the sea], Ladins [ring of the sea], Bretons [ring of the sea; from the lake; key from the sea], French (Upper Brittany, Lorraine, Gascony) [ring and key from the sea], Walloons [ring from a well], Germans (Hesse) [ring from the sea], Germans (Pomerania) [keys from the sea], Germans (Mecklenburg) [key from the sea], Palestinians [ring from the sea], Mons [golden cup from the sea], Kumaoni [ring from the river], Kannada [ring from a well], Tamils ​​[ring from a well], Agaria [ring from a well], Malays (south Sumatra) [ring from a well], Sundanese [needles from the sea], Murut [beads from the sea], Sangihe Islands [ring from the sea], (Binukid [ring from the sea]), Moldovans [flute from the sea], Romanians [keys from the sea], Bulgarians [ring, key from the sea], Albanians [ring from the river], Greek Cypriots [ring from the sea], Belarusians [keys from the sea], Ukrainians (Poltava, Yekaterinoslav) [ring from the sea], Slovaks and/or Czechs [pearl, ring from the sea], Adyghe [golden stick from the sea], Latvians [ring from the sea], Udmurts [box], Mari [ring from the sea], Bashkirs [ring from the sea], Southern Selkups [knife from the sea], Dolgans [ring from the sea], Udege [ring from the sea].

West Africa. Loma [one of the two chiefs in a village died, the younger son got only a tree with cola nuts; he shared the nuts with the Snake, the Ant, the Wind, the Crocodile; the other chief, at the instigation of his adviser (town-crier), wants to kill the youth, suggests 1) to fell the tree in the direction of the forest (the wind blows), 2) to collect the scattered rice (the ants collect), 3) to get a ring thrown into a pond (the crocodile gets it); the Snake bit the chief's daughter, advised the youth to ask the adviser's liver to cure her; he was stabbed, the girl came back to life, the youth married her, received power over half the village]: Schwab 1947: 458-459.

North Africa. Arabs of Egypt [the king fell in love with a fisherman's wife, the vizier advises him to demand from him 1) to cover the hall with one carpet; the wife tells him to go to the well, ask her sister for yarn, a carpet is ready by morning; 2) to bring an eight-day-old child who would tell a fairy tale (the same sister produces a talking baby from the well); at school, the fisherman's son Muhammad teases the king's son; he complains, the teacher beats M.; M. went fishing, caught a queen fish, she promised to help, he let her go; vizier: let's send M. for the daughter of the Sultan of the Green Land; the fish advises him to make a golden ship with the vizier's money; they sail to the Green Land, the Sultan's daughter comes to look at the ship, she is taken away; she throws her ring into the sea; she sets the king a condition of marriage to get the ring; M. gets it; the second condition: to throw himself into the fire; the fish teaches what to say, M. becomes a handsome man; the king, the prince and the vizier threw themselves into the fire and burned; M. married the daughter of the Sultan of the Green Land]: Spitta bey 1883, no. 4: 30-42 (= Lebedev 1990, no. 18: 101-109): 43-60.

Southern Europe. Spaniards: Malinovskaya 2002 [a childless king and queen want a child, even if in 20 years the Devil will have it; the young man grows up, loses his soul to the Devil, and goes to him; an old woman advises him to hide the clothes of Blancaflor, the youngest of the Devil's three bathing daughters, the dove girls; another old woman, the mistress of birds, sends him to her sister, the Moon, who sends him to her brother, the Sun; only the Lame Eagle volunteers to take him to the Castle of No Return, and orders him to feed her meat on the way; the meat is running out, the prince is ready to cut some off from himself, but the Eagle still flies there; the Devil orders 1) to cultivate the plot of land within 24 hours, bake bread from the harvest; 2) to grow grapes; B. does everything; 3) to bring the ring dropped by the grandmother in the sea; B. orders to kill her, collect her blood in a jug, throw her body into the sea; the young man sheds a drop of blood; B. comes out of the sea carrying a ring, the edge of her little finger is missing; 4) recognize B. among the sisters; the girls stick their little finger out of the crack, B.'s has a scar; B. orders the prince to take a bad horse, a rusty sword, and run; leaves spittle to answer for himself, puts two wineskins on the bed; the Devil pierces them, thinks he has killed his daughter and son-in-law; the prince took a good horse, a steel sword, the Devil catches up with them; B. throws down a comb (forest), salt (mountain); the horse becomes a chapel, B. - a statue, the husband - a hermit; the Devil does not recognize them, at home the wife explains that they were fugitives; the prince leaves B. at the spring, comes home, his old nanny embraces him, he forgets B.; prepares to marry another; B. hires herself out as a servant, asks to give her the stone of sorrow, the dagger of love; the Devil sells them to the prince; B. asks them if it was she who helped the prince; they confirm, the prince remembers B.; the dagger tells B. to plunge it into her heart, the prince stops him; wedding]: 268-276; Camarena, Chevalier 1995, #313C (Salamanca) [the young man Lisardo plays cards and always loses; the demon offers a condition: he will always win, but in 5 years he will go to the castle of Go-Never-Return (PN); in 5 years he goes, asks the eagle for directions, it sends him to another, who is older, it brings him to the castle, it tells him to hide the clothes of the one of the three bathing daughters of PN, who is a saint, her name is Blancaflor; he hides and returns the clothes, the girl promises to help; PN orders 1) to scatter a sack of rice in the forest, to bring it back intact the next day (B. does everything); 2) to make a field in place of the forest, to collect wheat, to bake bread, all in one day (ditto); 3) ditto – vineyard, wine; 4) to get from the river the ring lost by the great-grandmother; B. orders to cut it up, to put it in a vessel, without spilling a drop of blood, to throw it into the river; in the evening he brings the ring, says that a drop spilled, but from the little finger; 5) to tame the horse; this is PN himself, his wife and daughters, B. will be on the right, do not hit on the right side; 6) three daughters will stretch out their hands, and L. is blindfolded, it is necessary to choose the bride’s hand; B. can be recognized by the missing phalanx of the little finger; B. orders to leave the spitting to answer for them, to choose the skinny nag Mysl’, and not the well-fed Vetra; L. does the opposite; father chases, B. throws a comb (thicket),handkerchief (lastral), garter (river); PN returns each time, his wife sends him away again; B. turns the horse into a vegetable garden, L. into a peasant, himself into a bed of lettuce; chapel, hermit, icon; PN's wife decides not to chase him, but to make L. forget B. if he kisses someone; B. warns him, but some old woman kisses him from behind, L. forgets B.; she comes and stops disguised as a prostitute; L. comes to her three times before the wedding, but each time she tells him to do something (for example, serve coffee), and he freezes at this task until the morning; at the wedding he tells two dolls to portray himself and L., they tell everything, L. remembers, marries B.]: 85-95;Spaniards [the warrior Jose returned from America; his father died, his brother Gomez drove him out of the house, gave him an old chest; there were coins under the lid, but H. gave them to a poor woman; he hired himself out to the king, earned respect; H. also hired himself out; the king wants to marry Bella-Flor; H. says that only H. can get her; the white horse tells them to go; give the bread to the ants, free the eagle caught in the net, throw the fish from the shallows into the water; the horse with H. approach the princess, she mounts the horse, they carry her away; on the way she throws bran on the road, a handkerchief on the top of a tree, a ring in the water; she tells the king that she will come out of the room where she locked herself when they bring her the lost things; the ants, the eagle, the fish get them; the princess: let my kidnapper be boiled in oil; the horse takes H. to a spring, after bathing in which the oil is harmless; H. jumps into the cauldron, comes out a handsome man; the king also wants to become younger, jumps, dies; H. receives the throne, marries the princess]: Shishlova 1971: 100-109; Galicians[childless parents finally have a son, Antón; he is only interested in cards; he always wins; one day a stranger came, A. even lost his soul to him; he tells him to come to the castle of You Will Go-Not-Return in a year; he will get there, wearing out the iron soles of his shoes; along the way, A. divides the carcass of a mare between a lion, an eagle, a greyhound and an ant; each gives him a wool (feather, leg), with its help he will turn into the one of them whose wool it is; a man (this is the owner of half the moon) agrees to direct A. to the goal if he catches a hare (the greyhound caught it); the man directed the full moon and half the sun to the owner; having become an eagle, A. flew over the green river; the owner tells him to kill the 7-headed snake and bring him the egg, which is on the middle head (A. performed in the form of a lion); he sends beyond the white river to his father, who is the master of the moon, the sun and the whole world; A. flies back as an eagle; this master is the oldest of all; sends beyond the red river; one must penetrate through a tiny hole in the rock; further on the girl Bruta will meet; A. flew there, crawled through the hole like an ant; Bruta: one must pass a calm sea, and then a stormy sea; ordered to bring her food: the blood of a whole bull; I turn into animals, A. got it and brought it. B. became a huge bird, carried A.; the blood runs out, A. offers his own, Bruta appreciates his courage, she flew just there; teaches: three daughters of the demon will come to the lake to bathe: two are black, and the third is Blancaflor; one must hide her clothes and give them in exchange for a promise to help; she promises to come to the rescue herself, there is no need to call her; first task: in one day cultivate a rocky field, sow, reap, bake and bring hot bread; B. completes it; the same with the vineyard: bring wine (B. does); get from the sea the ring lost by the great-great-great-grandmother 500 years ago; B. orders to cut it into pieces, collect them in a vessel and throw it into the sea; do not sleep until she swims out; but A. dropped a drop of blood; dozed off; B. woke him up with difficulty; there is a ring on the ring finger, but the tip of the finger is missing; the demon: choose one of my three daughters as a wife; each puts her ring finger in a glove through the hole; A. recognized B. by the missing tip; B.: they will kill us at night; put two wineskins in the bed and bring not the air-horse, not the wind-horse, but the thought-horse; but A. in the dark chose the air-horse; had to ride on him; B. left the spittle to answer for herself; the demon's wife sends him in pursuit on a horse-thought; B. turns A. into a priest, the horse into a chapel, himself into a bell; next time a shop, a merchant, a salad; the demon's wife is chasing; a boat, a ferryman, a river; B. threw a comb: a thicket; the demoness broke through, fell into the river and drowned; but managed to curse: if A. hugs someone, he will forget B.; the dog rushed to meet A. and hugged him with its paws; B. became a dressmaker; young men approached her; finally, A. came; she sent him for the forgotten keys, but called out: wait, I will tell you a story; as I told it, A. remembered everything; a wedding]: Reigosa 2021, no. 8: 45-65; Portuguese[St. Anthony becomes the godson of a poor girl; brings her up at his home, undertakes to help her, and dressed in men's clothing, she comes to serve the king; the queen does not know that he is a young man; being rejected, she slanders the imaginary young man to the king, who gives him difficult tasks; St. Anthony helps her carry them out: retrieve a ring from the bottom of the sea; plant a vineyard {probably overnight}; bring Chinese oranges; fill a well with water; build a castle of feathers; free the princess; make the mute princess talk; she speaks and reveals that the young man is a girl in disguise and that the queen is slandering; the queen is punished, the king marries the girl]: Cardigos, Correia 2015(1), no. 514**: 283; Portuguese [the prince ends up with the devil, who gives him difficult tasks; 1) plant a vine in the morning, the wine is ready by evening; 2) get a ring from the bottom of the sea, for this it is necessary to dismember the girl; 3) sow wheat in the morning, bake bread in the evening; 4) tame a horse (it is the devil himself); 5) build a palace in a day; 6) sort out mixed seeds; and something else; he denies that the girl helped him; must identify the girl among several identical ones (only by her hand; the girl is missing a finger, that is how he will recognize her); the spouses run, the wife leaves saliva to answer for herself; a wineskin is left in the bed; the young man chooses a well-fed horse, he is like the wind, he should have chosen a skinny one, he is like a thought; the horse turns into a church, the girl into an image, the young man into a hermit; a garden, salad (flowers) and a gardener; a river, a boat, a boatman; objects are thrown: ash (fog appears), needles or pine needles (thorny thickets), salt or water (sea), sand (hill); the devil's wife cast a spell: having kissed his mother or grandmother against his will, the hero forgets his wife; she attracts his attention (many variations), he recognizes her]: Cardigos 2006, no. 313: 68-69; Basques[the young man has lost; a certain Castillo Branco orders him to come to him to carry out some errands, then he will reimburse him for what he has lost; the young man goes to the animal house, the deer sends him to the lion; the lion orders the carcasses of four bulls to be cooked, carries the young man on his back, eats the carcasses along the way; KB has two devil daughters and one of divine nature; KB demands 1) to cut down a forest in a day, plow, etc. - grind flour, bake bread (KB's daughter does it); 2) to tame three horses (he himself and his two older daughters, the youngest helps); 3) to get the youngest daughter's ring from the bottom of the sea; she teaches him to cut her body into pieces, fill a bottle with blood without spilling it, and throw it into the sea; the bottle returned with the ring; it is necessary to pour blood on the pieces of the body; the girl came back to life, but the young man spilled a drop, so her little finger is missing; KB gave money, promised a daughter, let him choose himself with his eyes blindfolded; the young man felt the girls' hands, chose the one without a little finger; got a wife; they flee, the wife left spit to answer for her; left a wineskin with wine in the bed; KB asked until the spittle dried; burst into the room, pierced the bed, mistook the wine for blood; then chased on a horse, fast as thought, and the young people's horse is like the wind; asks the reapers, they answer that the young people passed by 9 months ago; KB decides that if so, he will catch up; seeing the pursuit, the girl became an onion field, the young man - digs onions; next time the horse to the church, himself into an icon, the young man into a priest; KB returned empty-handed]: Barandiaran 1962a, No. 4: 17-25; Basques [a poor young man leaves home, hires himself out to Tartaro; He orders to hide the feather clothes of one of the three dove maidens who will fly to the lake to bathe; to return them for a promise to help; he orders to go and hire himself out to her father; he demands 1) to uproot an oak grove, sow, harvest, bake bread; the dove maiden orders her comb to do everything; 2) to get a lost ring from the river; the dove maiden orders to ask for a rusty sword, to chop her into pieces, to throw into the river, she comes out whole with a ring; the young man has lost her little finger, she pretends to slam it with the door; 3) to tame a horse with three foals (this is the owner with three daughters, they must be beaten with a club, and her - only pretend); in the morning the owner and daughters look beaten; 4) to choose a wife with closed eyes (she has no little finger and she will give her hand twice); a young man gets a wife, she tells him to run away, leaves the spit to answer for himself; the father pursues, the daughter throws down her comb (fog, hail), throws it down again - a river, the father drowns; on the border of Christian land the wife tells him to go and get a priest to baptize her, not to kiss anyone, otherwise the husband will forget her; an old aunt kisses him; the wife sets up an inn, the husband and two companions come in; she promises to spend the night with each; with her comb she makes it so that morning comes before they have done anything; she reveals herself to her husband; he brings a priest; all is well]: Webster 1879: 120-130; Corsicans[the prince lost his money at cards; when he lost his soul, the sorcerer returned his money and carriage, but ordered him to come to the Seven Golden Mountains in a year and a day; the old woman teaches him to turn to the sorcerer's youngest daughter for help; he gives tasks: to demolish a mountain in a day and sow wheat in its place (according to the girl's word, everything happens instantly); to get the ring that the sorcerer dropped in the Red Sea; the girl orders to slaughter her at the seashore, collect all the blood in a basin, and pour it into the sea; since one drop fell on the ground, the girl, having brought the ring, returned from the sea later and was left without a little finger; the sorcerer orders to tame the horse; the girl: the horse is himself, the saddle is she, the stirrups are her two sisters, you have to hit the horse on the head with an iron stick; the sorcerer promises his daughter in marriage, but the young man must choose a bride with his eyes closed; the girl: feel your hand, there is no little finger on it; after the wedding, the wife tells them to run; one horse is like the wind, the other like breath, you have to take the one that is half asleep; the young man takes the vigorous one; the sisters chase the first two times, the young man's wife throws down a bottle of cologne (river), a comb (thorny thickets), the pursuer returns; the sorcerer himself gallops, the wife throws down soap, the sorcerer is unable to climb the slippery mountain; the spouses are saved, a feast]: Massignon 1984, No. 102: 227-233; Sicilians: Gonzenbach 2004a [1870], no. 5 [after the death of his father, Peppe receives an old cloak and date-tree branches, Alfinu an old bag and the trunk of a tree, the younger Ciccu a horn and fruit; only Ciccu hears how three fairies endow the cloak with the ability to transport him anywhere, the bag with the ability to fill with money, the horn, if blown, with the ability to create and remove a fleet; the brothers give C. his cloak and bag; he lives luxuriously; the king brings him his wife and daughter; the daughter lures out the bag; when C. comes for it, the king forces him to give up the cloak and horn as well; the brothers agree to divide the dates; each carries his own basket to the palace; P. replies to a stranger that his basket is dirty; at the palace he sees that this is true; he is given 50 blows with a cane; the same with A., he replies that there are horns in the basket, and receives 150 blows; Ch. replies that dates; the man he meets eats half of them, spits the pits back into the basket, and there are more dates in it; the king takes him into his service; the brothers say that Ch. can 1) bring the cannibal's sabre; the little horse in the royal stable promises to help; Ch. asks the women to bring him bags of lice, pours them out onto the cannibal's bed, he tosses and turns, takes off the sabre, Ch. carries it away; 2) deliver the cannibal himself; Ch. tells the cannibal that Ch. has died and needs to make a coffin; asks to try it on, nails it in, and brings it; 3) bring the most beautiful woman as a wife; the horse orders to give honey to the fly, release the fish, free the eagle from the trap; the horse dances in front of the princess, she asks to let her ride, the horse carries her away, Ch. also jumps on the horse; along the way, the princess drops her veil, throws a ring into the water; promises the king to marry him if Ch. returns her ring and the dropped veil; birds bring the veil, fish bring the ring; the princess wants Ch. to jump into a red-hot oven; the horse teaches him to rub himself with sweat first, Ch. is unharmed, becomes a beauty; tells the king that he needs to rub himself with fat; the king burns, Ch. gets the princess and the throne], 13 [after the death of their father, three brothers are hired to work in the cannibal's garden; at night, the youngest Caruseddu (Carusu, "youth", also "clay piggy bank") ties the cannibal's daughters' kerchiefs on the brothers, puts his own hats on them, the cannibal swallows the daughters, the brothers run away; they hire themselves out to the king, who brings K. closer to him; the others are jealous; they suggest sending K. for 1) the cannibal's talking horse; K. enters the cannibal's house, at will he becomes the size of a mouse; the horse warns the cannibal twice, he cannot find K., beats the horse; K. takes the horse away; 2) a veil with a golden bell (the cannibal beats his wife, K. takes the veil away); 3) the cannibal himself; K. tells him that K. has died, and he is making him a coffin; asks the cannibal to try it on, nails it down, brings it; 4) get the queen's daughter with seven veils; the horse orders to give crumbs to the ants, release the fish into the river, release the bird from the snare; dances, the princess mounts the horse, he carries her away, she throws off her veil, ring; orders to find them before marrying the king; the birds bring the veil, the fish the ring; sort out the bin of mixed grain (the ants sort it out); princess: let K.will die in a red-hot oven; the horse tells him to rub himself with his sweat and foam, K. has become a beauty; tells the king that he has greased himself; the king burns; K. receives the princess and the throne], 20 [a widowed father marries a neighbor; she has an ugly one-eyed daughter; she tells her husband to take Maria and Peppe into the forest; M. leaves lupine seeds on the path, then beans, then bran; each time the father hangs a pumpkin so that it knocks in the wind, as if he were chopping wood, he himself leaves; the children return along the trail twice, but the wind carried away the bran; P. is thirsty; the first stream babbles, that those who drink from the waters will become snakes; the second - P. will be a rabbit; the third - M. will become a beauty, P. - a lamb; P. drinks; M. and the lamb live in a cave for several years; the king finds them, takes M. as his wife; she is pregnant; the stepmother and her daughter come; the stepmother pushes M. into the sea, she is swallowed by a shark; leaves her daughter in place of M.; the imaginary M. says that she has become ugly because of the lamb, orders it to be killed; by the sea the lamb turns to her sister, says that they are sharpening knives, preparing cauldrons, they want to slaughter it; M. answers that she is being held by a shark, she cannot even give birth; the servant informs the king; M. teaches how to throw a hook into the shark's mouth, the king pulls her out; the chopped head of the stepmother's daughter is sent to the stepmother under the guise of a tuna; she recognizes the blind eye; the stepmother is boiled alive]: 28-40, 85-95;Sicilians [ring from the sea]: Pitrè 2009, no. 34: 180-183; Italians (Liguria) [a fisherman has three sons; the catch is meager; there is a place where there is a lot of fish, but the father forbids his sons to go there, because the devil is there; the youngest son goes, the devil takes him away, gives him difficult tasks; 1) bail out a lake with a basket; tells the youngest daughter to take the worker's lunch; seeing the young man, she tells her ring to dry up the lake; 2) get eggs from a nest on a high cliff, and the stepladder is only a meter high; the girl tells the ring to get the eggs; 3) get the ring from the bottom of a well, if he gets it, he will get one of the devil's seven daughters as a wife; the girl tells her to cut her into pieces and throw her into the well; he forgot to throw the bone from his little toe; the girl got the ring and became whole again, but her little toe was missing; she said that by this sign the young man would be able to recognize her among her sisters; and that he should spend the night at the window of the room, because his father would drop a millstone on his bed; in the morning the young man tells the devil that a rat fell on him during the night; the young man recognized the devil's youngest daughter; the girl tells him to run away and for this purpose to take the skinniest nag from the stable; but the young man took a fat horse; the girl says that this is the worst, but now it is too late to change; the devil chases, the girl turns the horse into a chapel, the young man into a priest and herself into a servant; the devil did not recognize them, the devil's wife calls him a fool, sends him again; a rose bush, a hunter, a bird; a river, a fisherman, an eel; they manage to cross the border of the devil's possessions, he gets only the back half of the horse; all is well]: Andrews 1895, no. 34: 155-160; Italians (Piedmont: Montferrat) [the owner of an island kidnapped a girl with golden hair; the poor man's son went to look for her; gave an old woman white bread, keeping the black for himself; she told him to go to the King of Portugal, who had a mad horse; gave him three bouquets; having smelled these flowers, the horse would be tamed; the king is grateful, but the other servants, out of envy, say that the young man boasted of returning the kidnapped golden-haired girl; the horse promised to help; the young man fed the lark and the dove, they also promised to help; the fish are on the beach, the young man releases them into the water, they are grateful; the kidnapped girl did not want to return, threw a diamond ring into the sea; demanded that all the grain from her bins be transferred to the king (the birds, at the lark's request, transferred it); now she needs water for washing from hell and heaven (one dove brought from hell, although it was burnt, and the other from heaven); ring (got a fish); woman: let the one who kidnapped her be cut into pieces and revived; horse: do not be afraid; the young man was revived with heavenly water, and he became handsome; now the woman fell in love with him; the king also wanted to become handsome, but the woman wet him with hellish water, and he became ugly; out of anger he broke his head, and the young man married the golden-haired one]: Comparetti 1875, No. 16: 66-70; Italians(Tuscany) [Giovanni, a peasant boy, gets lost while hunting and comes to a castle; a voice invites him in; food and a cigar appear at will; if he survives three nights of trials, good luck awaits him; sorcerers chop him up and hang him in a chimney, but in the morning he will be whole; on the third morning, three princesses kidnapped by sorcerers are disenchanted; they give him a bad horse, but only this one will carry him across the whole world; G. hires himself out to the king, others are jealous; they say that G. boasted that he could remove the hill in front of the palace in one night; the horse drinks wine, gallops up and down the hill all night, and by morning the land is level; bring a beauty living on an island in the sea; the horse carries him there; G. offers to go for a ride with the local king; the princess wants it too; G. gets in with her and carries her away; on the way, she threw a diamond ring into the sea; she will marry the king if he gets it; horse: promise the siren a mirror if she gets the ring; the siren got it; princess: first let J. bathe in boiling oil; horse: kill me, smear yourself with my blood and you will remain unharmed; J. did so, and instead of the horse a princess appeared - the sister of the three; she disappeared; seeing that J. was unharmed, the king agreed to bathe in the cauldron himself, for this was the condition of the princess; boiled; J. became king and married the princess]: Tuscan Fairy Tales sa, № 8: 75-92; Italians (Tuscany) [the duchess will marry the one whose riddle she does not solve; the loser will be executed; the shepherd whose mother did not want him to go succeeded; along the way he does good to ants, bees and fish, they help him (separate different types of grain, get a ring in the sea blindfolded, choose a bride among other girls); he marries a princess]: D'Aranco 1953, No. 554-a: 81; Italians(Tuscany: Pisa) [a prince decides to go to Portugal to meet the king there, his father's brother; another young man joins him; at gunpoint, he orders him to call him prince and to be his servant; the Portuguese king shows his pretended nephew a mare that no one can tame; a deceiver: my servant will do it; the mare tells the prince not to worry and she will pretend that he has tamed her; the king, at the suggestion of the deceiver, orders him to tame the evil stallion Belverde; the mare teaches how to do it: by hitting the horse on the head with a sabre; now the king sends the prince to find his missing wife Granadoro; the mare orders him to take a year's supply of food; they ride up to the palace where G. is; she agrees to return to her husband if they get her a ring that fell into the sea; the mare tells the fish to find it; the fish brought the ring; G. wants water from the top of a steep mountain (a swallow brings it in its beak); to identify G. among her two sisters; a mare gives a box with a butterfly in it; it must be opened: whoever it sits on is G.; they come to the king; G. demands that the prince (i.e. the imaginary servant) also sit down to feast; the deceiver goes, supposedly to call him, but kills him; G. revives him with water brought from the top of the mountain; G. tells the king everything; the deceiver is driven away, the prince lives with his uncle, and then returns to his father]: Comparetti 1875, No. 5: 18-22; Italians (Abruzzo) [with the help of a magic horse, a peasant youth obtains a beautiful sorceress for the king; she says that she will not marry the king until she receives a ring thrown into the sea and a crown thrown in the forest; the youth helped two fish and a bird, they got these objects; the sorceress demands that the youth be burned, because he got her by deception; but the horse carries him out of the fire together with the sorceress, whom he seized]: Del Monte Tammaro 1971, No. 402-g: 26; Ladins[a merchant's son set sail on a ship with goods; a black ship sailed up to him in the middle of the sea under a red flag; the captain suggested playing cards; the young man lost the goods, the ship, and himself; the captain returned everything, but demanded that the young man come to him in America by a certain day; upon learning of this, the merchant sent his son to a hermit; he advised him to sail to an island where swans fly; when they throw off their swan clothes and become girls, he must hide the clothes of one of them; he chose the most beautiful one; she promised to become his wife and help; gave him a wand; when he touched the sea with it, it retreated and he walked on dry land; the black man showed 60 boxes; 59 of them were for a human head, and the 6th was for the young man's head; 1) gave a glass axe to cut down the forest; the axe immediately broke; the swan girl told him to go to bed, and when the young man woke up, the forest was felled; 2) remove the mountain and plant a vineyard on this site (ditto); 3) get a ring from the sea, put it on a paper boat and set it adrift; the girl orders her head to be cut off; the severed head rolls into the sea, three drops of blood rise from the water and with them the ring, followed by the reborn girl, more beautiful than before; they both come to the black captain – the girl’s father; he greets them with a smile, gives them a lot of gold; they return to the young man’s father; wedding]: Uffer 1973, No. 3: 9-11.

Western Europe. Bretons [the marquis finds the boy Nun-Doare, adopts him; he asks her to buy him a rusty sword and a skinny mare; she carries him to Paris; he does not tell him to pick up the shining crown; he picks it up; he hires himself out to the king as a groom; the king steals the crown; the boy says that the crown belongs to Princess Belledor; the king tells ND to bring B.; on the way ND saves a fish, a bird, and a chained king of demons; ND lures B. into mounting the mare, which brings them to Paris; B. tells her to bring the ring she forgot (the birds bring it), her lock (the demons bring it), the key to the gate, which is at the bottom of the sea (the fish bring it); at B.'s wedding to the king, the mare turns into the princess of Tartary, marries ND]: Luzel 1995: 47-56; Bretons [the king's son got lost while hunting, lost all his money and his head at an inn; Barbover Greenbeard tells him to come back in a year; the old man gives him a ball, it rolls to B.'s castle; use scissors to cut a path through the thorny bushes; when three birds arrive, they throw off their feather clothes, start swimming, jump on the back of the youngest Quantique; she brings the youth to her father; B. gives tasks, K. teaches what to do; 1) chop down an oak grove with a wooden axe (hit once, all the trees will fall), 2) demolish a mountain with a wooden pick (ditto), 3) get grandfather's anchor from the bottom of the sea (K. tells him to cut off her head, throw it into the sea, don't sleep; brings out the anchor, B. has not yet fallen asleep, puts K.'s head to his body); 4) B. is ready to give K. to the young man if he recognizes her among the three mice in a bag (K.'s two sisters rush to the young man's hand, she herself hid in the corner); entering the bridal chamber, K. throws a candlestick onto the bed, it falls into the abyss (this is the work of her sisters); the spouses return to the young man's father, after the death of his father, he inherits the throne]: Lopyreva 1959, No. 32: 122-129; Bretons[when the prince reached marriageable age, the king ordered him to go up to the tower; there is a hall there where the girls are of marriageable age; he liked the one who was in the corner under a thick veil; she says that whoever chooses her will have to fulfill three orders of the sorcerer, otherwise she will turn to stone; the prince went to the sorcerer, got lost in the forest; a man lies under a tree, the prince asked for directions; he stood up and stretched out so that his head was higher than the forest; he saw where the castle was; he agreed to go with the prince; his name is Long; the same with Wide (he puffed up so much that his stomach rested against the branches of the trees); with the Clairvoyant (whoever or whatever he looks at, that or whatever explodes); in order not to kill, he blindfolds; the walls of the castle reach the clouds, a massive door; the Clairvoyant took off the blindfold and smashed the door to dust; the sorcerer: if you can catch the princess by tomorrow, you can take her; but they fell asleep, and in the morning the princess was gone; they had to bring her back by midday; Long saw her in the acorn of an oak tree a hundred leagues away in a dense forest; Wide reported there in an instant, the princess was returned; the sorcerer was so furious that one of his three iron belts broke; but in the morning the princess was gone again; Long: she was 500 leagues away in a grain of corn in a rye field; Wide brought her back again; the sorcerer's second belt broke; on the third day the princess was in a ring at the bottom of a lake a thousand leagues away; Wide drank up the lake, they made it in time, throwing the ring out the window of the princess's room when the sorcerer entered; the third belt broke, and he himself turned to stone; the prince brought his bride; the wedding]: Delarue 1957, No. 329: 362-364 Bretons[King Bran is a widower and has a son, Hael; the king has remarried, his stepmother does not like her stepson; he spends all day hunting; the old man suggests playing checkers; the winner can ask the loser for whatever he wants; H. wins and asks that his stepmother have a goat's head for a month; and so it happens; H. goes back to the old man, this time he loses; he orders him to come to him in the Black Valley within a year and complete three tasks there; H. goes in search; a huge bird comes down: its chicks are dying of hunger, let H. give them his horse to eat; H. agrees; in return the bird carries him across the seas and mountains into the desert: follow the path and you will be shown the way to the Black Valley; the old man in the castle gives H. food, lodging for the night, and a mule that will gallop 500 leagues in an hour; there will be a lake there, at noon three swans will fly in to bathe, throw off their clothes; These are the three daughters of the King of the Black Valley; the clothes of the youngest must be hidden, she will have a blue ribbon; she agrees to help and be his wife, her name is Skoaz-Wenn (White Shoulder); after spending the night in her room, H. announced to the King of the Black Valley that he had arrived riding a rainbow; the king does not feed H. and leaves him on a tree for the night; SV carries him to her room; 1) demolish the old castle in a day, throw the stones into the pond; SV does everything with the help of her magic wand; 2) rebuild the castle from the stones thrown into the pond (ditto); 3) get a ring lost in the lakes and swamps; SV dives in the form of a swan, fights with the hellish forces, brings the ring, but the feather on her wing is broken; when it will be necessary to identify her among the sisters, H. will feel that her little finger is broken; the king offers to identify the chosen one, H. does it; one of the sisters noticed when H. was climbing into SV's room, she was going to tell; SV became a swan, H. sat on her, and they flew away; the king-father was happy to see his son with his daughter-in-law; the wedding took place after the stepmother's head became human again]: Brekilien 1999: 209-219; Bretons[a young man named Tag has 12 mares; 11 gave birth to normal foals, and the last one was blue; he asks his owner to slaughter the others so that he can suck the milk of 12 mares; becomes a heroic horse; asks to sell his property and buy a silver currycomb; when the owner began to scrape the horse with it, the blue wool came off, the horse turned white; orders to sell the rest and buy luxurious harness; go to the king of Brittany; T. is exalted; the horse heals 12 royal stallions and as a result becomes even stronger himself; the spy of the king of France persuades T. to send to get the Horse of Peace (Cheval du Monde); the horse orders to shoe him well and ask the king for 90 skins; T. arrives where the Horse of Peace is, puts the 90 skins on his horse; The horses are fighting: the Horse of Peace is tearing off skins, and the horse T. is gnawing pieces of flesh from his rival; the Horse of Peace has given up, T. has brought him to the king; the spy says that T. boasted of getting a golden-haired princess from a silver castle; on the advice of the horse, T. feeds the hungry wild geese; throws into the water the fish that found themselves on dry land; the queen of the geese and the fish promise to help; a silver castle on an island in the middle of a stormy lake; the geese harness themselves to a boat and carry T. to the island; the princess (even her maids are beautiful) asks permission to enter the boat; T. tells the geese to take the boat away; the princess promises to marry the king only if he brings her her castle, chest, clothes and jewelry; but the castle is under lock and key she dropped in the lake; the spy orders to send T.; the fish sends others to look for the key; The last to arrive was the bleak; it was late because its head was stuck in the ring of the key; T. brought everything; the princess: the king is too old; to rejuvenate him, dead and living water are needed; let T. bring it; the horse tells T. to kill him, climb into his belly and catch one of the two ravens that will fly in; give the second one two bottles and send him for living and dead water; a female raven is caught; but the raven returned: both springs are guarded by 7-headed snakes, they spit fire; then T. told the raven to change places with the female raven; she brought water; T. revived the horse, and he turned into a prince - the princess's brother; both returned on foot; the princess killed and revived the dog, it became young; the king wants the same, they did not revive him; T. is killed and revived by a handsome man; became the new king]: Brekilien 1999: 191-208; French(Upper Brittany) [three brothers (the eldest is henceforth called the prince) are asked to choose what to do; the youngest becomes a sailor, the middle one a soldier, the eldest a hunter; in the forest he is rude to an old woman, chases her out of the forest several times; a hare appears nearby, walking or running next to him; turns into a terrible cannibal with fangs: I am neither a hare nor an old woman; you will be my servant; orders the gray horse to be fed, and the white one to be starved and beaten; horse: I was the same as you; feed and water me for three days, and then take a brush, a currycomb, and a bouchon {cork?}; they gallop off; What do you see? - A gray cloud. - Throw away the brush (forest); the currycomb (mountain); buchon (an even higher mountain); on the bridge the devil grabbed the horse by the tip of the tail, but the young man cut off the tip, and beyond the middle of the bridge the devil is powerless; horse: and now to Paris; hire yourself out as a shepherd to the king; the other shepherds are jealous that the new shepherd's rams are living fat; it is forbidden to light a fire at night, but the prince lights up the stable with his ribbon with diamonds; the king does not notice this light, so the shepherds say that the new shepherd boasted of getting the Beauty with the golden keys; horse: ask for a ship that sparkles like the sun; the beauty is on an island and at the foot of a mountain held by four giants; invite the beauty onto the ship; the young man took her away; then the princess threw her keys into the sea; told the king that she would marry him if he got her keys; the king tells the young man to do this; horse: ask for a small ship, take a stone and here is a magic wand; hit the stone with it where the keys are buried; a dwarf will swim out and threaten to eat you, but hit him with a stick and he will throw the keys into the stern; princess: whoever got the keys will carry my castle here too; horse: ask for a ship with wine and mead, give the giants something to drink and feed them, they will carry the castle; when the castle is carried, the princess demands that the one who delivered the keys and the lock be burned; horse: wrap yourself in linen and wet it from this bottle; you will not burn, but will quietly get off the fire; princess: now let the king also stand on the fire; the king burned; the princess wants to marry the young man; horse: kill me and cut my heart; the horse turned into a lady: you could be happy with me, but you are ungrateful and will be unhappy; she is lost; the young man married a princess, was unhappy and died in poverty]: Sébillot 1882b, no. 13: 130-142; French(Lorraine) [a poor man with many children cannot find a godson for his newborn; the Lord meets him, offers to be his godson, and takes the boy away in 7 years; takes him away in 7 years; turns into a mule (the transformation is not described; but there is no more talk about the godson, and the boy rides on a mule, which helps him with advice); tells him not to pick up a feather - it will cause a lot of trouble; but the boy picked it up; when he came to the king and waved the feather, the bad stable became good, the king's bad hair - beautiful; he is in favor with the king, the courtiers are envious; they say that the boy promised to get the bird whose feather he found; mule: it will be the first bird we find on the border; the boy brought it to the king; soon the bird died; courtiers: he undertook to revive it; mule: cut off my head, there will be living water; revive the bird, and then me; new task: to get the Golden-Haired Beauty; mule: if you hit the drum, the first girl to stand up will be her; on the way back across the sea, the Golden-Haired Girl threw her ring and key into the sea; she agrees to marry the king only if he will bring her parents; the king demands this from the young man; the same episode with the drum; the Golden-Haired Girl demands her ring and key, the king sends the young man; mule: they will be in the belly of the first fisherman who catches the fish; the Golden-Haired Girl: first let the young man be hanged, then I will marry the king; mule: at the scaffold, ask the king for tobacco, throw it on those around, everyone ends up dead; only the Golden-Haired Girl survived, the young man married her]: Cosquin 1887, no. 73: 290-294; French (Gascony) [the young man plays the flute well; the pike left on the shore asks to be taken into the water; a tired ant - to an anthill; a bee with a damaged wing - to a hive; everyone promises to help; since then the guy was lucky in everything; the king called him and ordered him to get a key thrown into the sea - otherwise he would execute him (the pike got it); to collect the scattered millet (the ants collected it); to recognize the one he likes from three identical princesses (the bee circles above her head); the king married the guy to this princess]: Soupault 1963, No. 41: 215-222; Walloons: Laport 1932, #313 [a young man lost his money at cards and decided to drown himself; someone helps him win it back on the condition that in a year and six weeks the young man will come to the castle of Mille de Plomb; the young man came to an old man, who is subordinate to animals; a pig carried him away, he broke the ban on talking, fell into the sea, swam to the shore; the giant has birds under his command; he orders an eagle to carry the young man; on the way the food supply runs out, the young man cuts off a piece of his own caviar; at the pond he sees three daughters of the owner of the castle bathing, steals the clothes of the youngest, returning them in exchange for a promise to become his wife; the owner says that the young man must ransom his soul, and to do this 1) get a ring from the bottom of the well; to do this he cuts the girl in half, the upper part dives and brings the ring, joins with the lower one; because a drop of blood was lost, one finger is missing; 2) to reap and thresh wheat from a huge field in one day; 3) to create a sea with all kinds of fish (the girl helps to perform it); it is necessary to recognize the veiled bride among her sisters three times; the young man recognizes her by the missing finger; a wedding; the newlyweds flee; they turn into peasants; into a chapel and the Holy Virgin; the girl creates the sea, her father drowns in it; the young man's family does not recognize his wife, she disappears, he forgets her; she works in a cabaret; the first one who wants to stay with her asks for a glass of water, he remains in this position and is released only in the morning; the same with the second; the third is her husband, he recognizes his wife; their wedding again], *313D [the poor young man goes to the castle of the seven mountains; the king of fish, the king of insects, the king of birds answer that they do not know where it is; the young man is led there by a swallow; he falls in love with the youngest of the three girls; The king agrees to the marriage if the young man completes the tasks; build a castle of feathers over a pond; knock down an oak grove with one blow; get a ring from the bottom of a well; the girl is dismembered in two, gets the ring, is put back together, but is missing a toe on her left foot; the young man wants to visit his parents; the girl does not allow him to hug his mother, he hugs, forgets the bride; at the inn the girl makes a date with men (see No. 313); her husband is the third, he recognizes his wife and is reunited with her]: 43-44, 44-45; Germans (recorded from the Hassenpflug family, Hesse) [the king's servant tries the meat of a white snake, acquires knowledge of the language of animals; learns that the queen's ring was swallowed by a duck, receives a horse as a reward; along the way he saves three fish, ants, and crows that fell out of their nest; with their help he completes the king's tasks, receives the princess; 1) fish get a ring from the bottom of the sea, 2) ants collect millet scattered in the grass, 3) crows bring apples from the tree of life; the young man and the queen eat half an apple each and live happily ever after]: Grimm, Grimm 2002, no. 17: 61-64 (=Grimm, Grimm 1987: 57-60); Germans(Pomerania) [a farm laborer has 23 sons; when another one is born, he cannot find a godfather; the farm laborer goes looking; soon he meets a girl; she says that she is God and is ready to be a godmother; the farm laborer refuses: God is unfair; he meets the devil - the same thing; then an old man; this is Death; the farm laborer is glad; the son is named Hans; the godfather gave the pastor a key and told him to give it to G. when he grows up; G., having received the key, went wandering; there is a castle in the forest; the key fits the gate; there is much light in the palace; the godfather comes out - an old man - Death; the light from the lamps, each burns as long as a person lives; G. sees that his father has a couple of days left to live; he asks to light a new lamp for him; G.'s own lamp should burn for a long time; G. went on; again the house, the key fits again, a white horse is behind the door; the horse: if you opened the door, then are you Death? G. asked him to feed him; horse: here is food and wine, and then let's run, this is a den of robbers; G. mounted the horse, it rose to the clouds and flew away; G. sees a bird with shining plumage; the horse advises not to touch it; but G. turned the key into a gun, fired, the bullet hit the bird and G., contrary to the horse's advice, picked up a feather; near the city, the horse orders that the bridle be taken off him: if you shake it, he will appear; and let G. hire himself out as a groom; the king has forbidden lighting a fire at night; G. lives in a stable; at night he took out a feather and the stable was illuminated; servants came running, found the feather, brought G. to the king; he demands that the bird itself be obtained in three days; horse: ask the ship for three ships with provisions to sail to the princess, on whose table the bird is; Six months later they swam to the shore and G. released three carps that had found themselves on the sand into the sea; they promised to help; in another place three giants were fighting; a storm had destroyed all their property, only an ox remained; the one who killed the other two would eat the ox, and then die himself; G. gave the giants cattle and grain seeds, etc., which he had brought with him; the giants promised to help; on another island there was a storks' nest in a pine tree; a black cloud with hail was approaching; G. covered the storks with branches; adult storks arrived, the chicks told them everything; for the first time they would be able to raise the chicks; the storks promised to help G.; they swam to the castle, the key unlocked the door; the princess was sleeping in the bedroom; there was a golden and an iron cage on the table; as the horse had taught, G. put the golden bird in an iron cage and carried it away; he brought it to the king; having learned how everything had happened, he ordered to get the princess; The horse teaches how to swim to the princess, taking a hundred trumpets; at 50, blow under the window of the castle; if she wants to hear another 50, let her go up on the ship; when she got up, G. took her away; she threw all the keys to the rooms of her palace into the sea; tells the king that she will not marry him until she has a palace better than her previous one; The horse: the giants will help you; the giants gave you an iron ring, it created a palace; The princess: let them bring my keys from the sea; The horse: ask for carp; carp are the kings of the sea, they called all the fish; the last to arrive was an old pike; she found the golden keys, decided to deliver them; but since they are heavy, she was delayed; The princess demands the water of life, the water of beauty and the water of death; The horse: ask the storks; G.swam to them; these are blue storks; they say that the water of life and the water of beauty are with them, and the water of death must be asked from the white storks; they flew to them, defeated them, brought a vessel with the water of death; G. gave all three vessels to the princess; she pierced him with a dagger, sprinkled him with the water of beauty and revived him with the water of life; the king wanted the same, but she sprinkled him with the water of death; G. became king and married the princess; the horse orders to slaughter him, and then wash him with the water of beauty and the water of life; the horse became a princess; G.: I already have a wife, but become the wife of one of my brothers; she chose the youngest; from among the remaining 22, 11 began to serve G., and the others - the brother who married the princess; and if G. did not die, then he is still alive]: Jahn 1891, No. 9: 48-61;Germans (Mecklenburg) [a prince took servants and went on a journey; seeing a flock of hungry ravens, ordered a horse to be slaughtered for them; saw an unusual bird in a tree; the horse warns that it will bring trouble, but the prince climbs the tree after it; the bird flew away, and on the fallen feather is a portrait of the beautiful Clarawinde; the prince goes to look for her; pushed a fish that had ended up on the shore into the water; pulled a giant out of a swamp; in the city he hired himself out to the king; one day he was examining a feather; a local prince came in, saw the portrait, grabbed the feather and said that this woman would be his; the king orders him to get K. for his son; the ravens, which he fed, led him to K.'s castle; the castle is on an island, there is a bridge across the lake; K. threw the key to the lock into the lake and orders someone to get it; the giants moved the lock {it is not entirely clear why}, and the young man got the key from the mouth of the rescued fish; K. promised to marry only the one who would jump from the castle across the water to the shore; both princes jumped, but K. doused the local prince with the water of death, and the young man with the water of life and beauty; he brought her home, all is well]: Bartsch 1878, No. 7: 483-486.

Western Asia. Palestinians [the king's unloved wife has one son, the young and beloved have two; the young son comes to his father and asks him to give him the kingdom in his lifetime; the king: first you must work as hard and endure as many hardships as I; the same with his brother; Ballan is the son of an unloved wife, the king beats him, but the third time the courtiers advised him to tell him the same thing as his half-brothers; B.'s mother gave him a horse and he set out on a journey; a sparkling feather on the road; the horse: if you pick it up, you will regret it, and if you don't pick it up, you will regret it; B. picked it up, arrived in the city, stopped at the caravanserai; the local king and the vizier went out to check if all the lights were out, for such was the king's order; a light was visible in the caravanserai; the vizier came there in the morning; the young man had to give up the feather; the vizier advised the king to send B. for the bird itself; horse: that's easy: let them give a cage of gold and silver from the vizier's treasury; the horse flew to where the bird lived; at dawn she flew to the cage, said that one like it was for her, and entered it; B. brought the cage with the bird; vizier: let B. find the owner of the bird; horse: let them give gold and silver from the vizier's treasury to build a large ship; B. brought the ship to the city where the princess lived; she boarded the ship to look at it, B. steered the ship away from the shore; she threw her ring into the sea; when they arrived, she told the king that she would marry the one who got the ring; horse: asked for a ship with flour, it should be poured into the sea where the princess threw the ring; the fish ate their fill and the leader of the fish asked how to thank him for such a meal; B.: get the ring; they got it; vizier: let him get the princess's horse; horse: let the vizier give him a bridle of gold and silver; that horse is in the cave, he would have killed B.'s horse, but he will let himself be bridled with that bridle and ride on it; the princess cut the horse into pieces and demanded that he be made whole again and brought to life; horse: let the vizier give him a gold and silver bucket; they flew to the sea of ​​living water; while getting the water, the horse lost consciousness, but the splashes fell on his muzzle and he came to life; B. was supposed to sprinkle him, but forgot; the horse ordered that some of the water be poured into bottles and hidden; princess: now let B. be burned at the stake; horse: rub yourself with living water and demand that they add wood; king: who are you? it turned out that the king was B.'s father's brother; he ordered that the vizier be thrown into the fire; they rode to B.'s father and he handed over the kingdom to him]: Muhawi, Kanaana 1989, no. 5: 69-82;

Burma - Indochina. Mons [the spouses adopt various forest animals; the last one is a bull; then a son Kunhadi is born; the mother dies, becomes a nat, protects her son; the forest animals disperse; the father takes the stepmother, she hates the bull; having conspired with a fortuneteller, pretends to be ill, asks for the bull's meat; the bull and K. run away, the deceased mother-nat with them; orders to go to the lake, where seven sisters-keynars fly at midday, it is necessary to steal the jewelry of one of them, she will not be able to return to heaven; K. hides the jewelry, returns the six keynars, leaves the jewelry to the youngest, takes her as his wife; the king sees K.'s wife, decides to destroy him in order to take the beauty for himself; orders 1) to get a golden cup from the bottom of the sea; the wife advises to send K.'s adopted brother - a crocodile - for the cup, he brings the cup; 2) collect scattered sesame seeds (pigeons collect); 3) bring tigress's milk (tiger brings); 4) a tuft of wool from a lion's mane (lion brings); 5) seven nat flowers; the wife sends to a hermit, he to another, to a third, to a fourth, to a fifth; the fifth sends to the lake where the remaining six Keynari sisters are bathing; K. brings flowers and gifts from the hermits and Keynari sisters; the king sends warriors, K. ties them with a magic rope; the scissors of justice kill the king, K. reigns]: Kasevich, Osipov 1976, No. 147: 340-350.

South Asia. Kumaoni [a prince and his wife went to his father-in-law, who gave his daughter a diamond ring and his son-in-law a necklace; on the way back the prince went to bathe, hung the necklace on a branch; a celestial peri danced poorly before Indra, and he sent her to earth for 12 years; she became a crow, took the necklace; upon learning that his son had lost the gift, his father sent him to the forest for 12 years; the prince came to that very tree (it was a pipal); the peri took the form of a maiden and gave him the necklace; the prince saw a snake that had seized a frog; he cut off a piece of meat from his leg and gave it to the snake, it released the frog; the snake's wife told him to take the form of a brahmin and follow the prince, and the frog's wife told him to take the form of a barber and also follow the prince; the prince, the brahmin, the barber and the peri came to the city; the peri went to wash her hair and one hair 44 cubits long floated away; another prince saw it, asked his father to find the owner; he sent a servant on a flying bed; the servant lured the peri onto this bed and flew with her to the king; the peri to the prince: 12 years we will be brother and sister; the king gave her a hospice; she tells the servants to tell about the people who come; the prince and his two companions were taken into the service of the king; the servant advises to order the prince to build a bridge across the Yamuna and a hospice; it is done; the prince offered to play dice, dropped the ring into the Yamuna: if you do not get it, I will execute you; the frog (=barber) told the frogs to get it; the prince wants to shoot with the prince, but the snake bit him; 12 years have passed {the prince married the peri?}]: Minaev 1966, No. 3: 31-35; Kannada[a mighty king asks his four sons what they will do after his death; the eldest: I will continue my father's work on the throne; the second: I will help my brother govern the state; the third: I will lead the army; the fourth: I will become the king of kings, build my own city and marry four heavenly maidens; the king banished the youngest son; finding himself in the forest, he came to the house of an old woman; she is the daughter of a hermit sage who lost control of himself and raped a girl; after that, he was torn apart by a tiger, and the daughter she gave birth to turned out to be ugly; her mother died and she became a hermit in the forest; as a result, she gained power; the young man began to graze her cows; she ordered not to take them to the north; he went and hid by the pond; the four heavenly daughters of Indra came down, took off their sari, began to bathe; he stole one sari; the maiden ran after him, promised to become his wife, he looked back in amazement, she took the sari and turned the young man into stone; the old woman found him and revived him; told him to take the sari and run to her house and not look back; he did so; the old woman turned him into a baby, and hid the sari inside his thigh, so that the seam was not visible; when the maiden came running, the old woman advised her to cover herself, giving her a cotton sari; then she promised to return the sari if the maiden agreed to become the young man's wife; the young man and his wife came to the city; the king's servants saw the maiden, informed the king; he pretended to be ill, sent the young man to get the poison of the Karkotaka snake; the wife directed him to the mountains to the snake's hole and gave him a letter for the snake; on the way he saved a worm from the web; threw the letter into the hole; four snakes carried it to the nether world to the king of snakes; in the letter there was a request to give the bearer his daughter in marriage and to fulfill his request about the poison; having returned with the second wife and the poison, the young man gave the poison to the king's servants; when they opened the bottle, the tamarind standing nearby flared up and burned; the king ordered to bury the poison deeper; he sent the young man to bring crocodile bile; on the way, the young man released a young crocodile that had found itself on dry land into the water; the young man threw letters from his wife to the crocodiles; the king of the seas gave him a daughter, diamonds and bile; now the king asks to ascend to heaven to Indra and find out how his deceased parents and brothers are doing; the wives wrote many letters, the young man jumped into the fire, the god of fire lifted him to heaven, there Indra gave him a daughter, letters to the king and the minister and returned him to earth; on the way, the young man saved ants when the anthill was flooded with water; the young man gave the letters; in them an invitation to heavenly paradise - you also have to jump into the fire; the king and the minister with their families burned; the young man made a poor Brahmin king; he himself with 4 wives built a new city; at this time his father lost the kingdom and became a firewood seller; the young man came with his family to the city; he sheltered them; gave the sari of his first wife for safekeeping to his mother; the wife asked her for it, put it on and all 4 wives flew to heaven, and the city again turned into a jungle; the young man brought his brothers and mother to the city, where he made a Brahmin king, and he himself went to look for wives; his wives met him and the first said that he must pass the tests of Indra so that he would recognize him as a son-in-law; the wives lifted him to heaven,having turned for this purpose into a fish in a vessel with water, and left; I. orders 1) to collect scattered sesame in 3 hours (the young man called the ants - they obey); 2) to get a ring thrown into the well (the frog got it; meeting the hero with the frog, the informant lowered; for this, the frog threw a tadpole to be eaten by snakes at the bottom of the well, and itself found the ring); 3) to cut a banana tree into three parts with one blow (the crocodile cut it); 4) to recognize the first wife among three identical girls (the worm, now having become a flying insect, sat on her sari); I. arranged a wedding; on earth, the young man conquered kingdoms; his father admitted that he was right]: Ramanujan 1997, No. 3: 5-15;Tamils[the king asks his seven sons what they would like to do on this cool night; one wants to invade the neighbors at the head of an army, another to engage in irrigation, the third to hunt, etc.; the seventh - to have four wives near him, the daughters of Indra, Agni, Varuna and Adisesha; the father, in a rage, orders his son to be executed, the mother warns him, orders him to flee; the executioners bring the king the blood of an animal; the prince lives with an old woman and tends cattle; despite the prohibition, he goes north, climbs a fruit tree and sees Indra's daughter bathing in a pond; steals her clothes, runs away, she asks him to look back, he turns into stone, Indra's daughter returns to heaven along with four other maidens; the old woman revived the prince, ordered him not to look back next time, but to bring the clothes to her; turned the prince into a three-year-old child, sewing the clothes into his thigh; gave Indra's daughter her clothes, she stayed to live with the old woman; she convinced her to marry the prince, turning him back into a young man; after six months he sends them to live alone, ordering the prince not to give his wife her heavenly clothes; they come to the city, the vizier advises the king to take the wife away, to do this he must pretend to be ill, send the prince for snake venom; the wife gives a note for her uncle, orders to lower it into any anthill; he sends the prince the necessary poison and another wife {the daughter of Adisesha?}; when the package with the poison was slightly opened, it burned half the forest; the vizier suggests sending the prince for whale fat; the wives wrote a note to their uncle Varuna, the lord of the seas, he sent his daughter and fat; the vizier: send the prince to deliver messages to the dead; The wives write a letter to Agni, the prince throws it into the fire, jumps in himself, returns to his wives, and then emerges from the fire unharmed, supposedly with answers to the letters of the king and courtiers; in them the dead ask to visit them; the king and all the others threw themselves into the fire and were burned; the prince with four wives goes to his father; halfway there the wives create a magnificent city; the prince's father, however, has been deprived of power by enemies, and is busy collecting brushwood with his whole family; they arrive at the city, and his son and daughters-in-law greet them; one day the prince went hunting, taking out the garment of Indra's daughter sewn into his thigh and giving it to his mother; she showed it to her daughters-in-law and they flew away to heaven, and the city and all the property disappeared; the prince went to the old woman who helped him get Indra's daughter; on the way he saved ants, a frog, and a cricket from the river, who were dying without water; the old woman sent him to sit by the path along which those heavenly maidens passed every day after bathing; On the 40th day they agreed to lift him to Indra in the sky; carried him away, turning him into a frog; Indra agrees to give him his daughter, but he must perform three tasks to get her sisters; 1) re-collect the sown sesame (the ants collected); 2) get the ring from the well with snakes (the frogs dive into the well, most are eaten by snakes, but one gets the ring); 3) cut down 7 fused plane trees with one blow (Agni's daughter does this herself); 4) I. gave all four maidens the same appearance, ordered them to identify his daughter (a cricket jumped on her leg); the prince with four wives returns to earth,[returns the city and power]: Natesa Sastri 1886: 80-119;agaria [a young man ransoms a bird pecking grain that a man wanted to kill; saves a frog from a snake, gives milk to the snake; ransoms a deer that is being beaten; the bird and the frog become women - the wives of the young man, the deer turns into a horse, brings them to the rajah's pond; the rajah demands that 1) the trees become covered with fruit during the night (the bird-wife complies), 2) he jumps over a lake on horseback (the horse jumps over), 3) he gets a ring from a well (the Frog temporarily becomes a frog again, gets it); the rajah gives the young man half his kingdom and his daughter; on the way back the horse falls, the Frog and the Bird die, the young man remains to live with the rajah's daughter]: Elwin 1944, no. 3: 399-401 (translated in Zograf 1971, no. 15: 59-60).

Malaysia – Indonesia. Malays of southern Sumatra (Perigi village) [many propose to the princess, but she spits on the head of each suitor every time and his hair turns grey; the king’s general learns that the princess’s magical powers are given to her by her brother Langkusa; the king decides to destroy L., offers difficult tasks: 1) kill a mad bull (kills him easily); 2) get a ring from a well with spears at the bottom with their points upwards (L. jumps, the spears break, he himself is unharmed); the king orders to dig a river, sail to the princess on a ship and kidnap her; L. jumps on the ship and carries off his sister; the king orders that none of his descendants should marry people from the princess’s clan; she herself is left alone, she remains unmarried]: Bunanta 2003: 54-57; Sundanese [fisherman Ki Bener fishes with a straight hook, fish swallow the bait; grateful rajah of fish sends KB a fish with a diamond in its belly; KB gives the fish to a neighboring rajah, who sends him rich gifts; local rajah orders KB to get 1) needles drowned in the sea (fish get them), 2) a green sword (a crocodile keeps it, he gives it); rajah decides to visit the crocodile himself, it eats him, KB is elected rajah]: Braginsky 1972: 106-110; Murut(Keningau group) [(Brooks 1960: 34-47); the hunter Baiagong went to look for game at the watering hole; sees seven girls bathing, hides the rainbow dress of the youngest; the elders could not lift it, flew away; B. brings the girl into the house, hides her clothes in a chest; the wife gives birth to a son; feels that her mother-in-law does not love her and does not believe that she is a heavenly maiden; tells her son her story, he says that he knows where her clothes are; flying away, the heavenly maiden teaches her son how he and his father can find her; in the place where K. met her, an old man is fishing; you need to grab his hook, he will cast it with a rod to the heavenly country of Kayangan; along the way, B. frees fish from a trap, builds a bridge across a stream for ants, frees a squirrel from a trap, a deer entangled by its antlers in vines, a firefly from a web; A fisherman throws B. and his son into the sky, B.'s wife meets him; her father, the rajah, says that his daughter also has a prince-fiancee in the sky; gives him tasks: 1) get beads thrown into the river (fish get them); 2) collect rice scattered in the grass (ants collect them); 3) collect all the fruits from a felled tree without breaking any branches (a squirrel collects them); 4) race with a local prince to get red leaves from a tree in the distance (the prince flies, but B. jumps on a deer and returns first); 5) identify his wife's cup among many (a firefly shows it); the rajah gives B. a wife, but does not order him to return to earth; the celestials want B. to bathe in a pond, getting rid of the smell of man; there are crocodiles in the pond, B. sticks his finger in, it turns white, B. refuses to bathe; he is thrown like garbage through a hole in the floor of the house, he ends up on the ground, a drum, an axe, and a coconut fall nearby; a whole grove immediately grows from the coconut, the drum scares away enemies, the axe kills them, getting heads as trophies; the son occasionally descends to him from the sky, then stops; after B.'s death, his white finger, axe and drum became relics of the Murut]: Wrigglesworth 1991, No. 5: 276-285; Sangihe Islands [the spouses went to another village; on the way the wife gave birth; the child was wrapped in cloth and left on a tree; the prince was hunting, wanted to shoot a garuda, it flew away, and he found a baby on a tree; they raised him, he is stronger than other children, beats them; they gave him a horse and sent him to wander; on the road there is a portrait of a beauty; the horse tells him not to lift it, the young man lifted it and put it in a knapsack; on the advice of the horse, he returned the fallen garuda chick to the branch; he released the fish that had found itself on dry land into the sea; the young man went to the city to see the king, the horse ordered him to call him if necessary; the king sees the portrait; threatens to execute if the young man does not get the depicted beauty; the grateful garuda brought it, but on the way the princess dropped a ring into the sea; she refused to marry the king until the ring was retrieved; the fish retrieved it; the princess demands a magic potion; the ants brought it; the princess demands to drink, but it is poison; the king drank and died; the princess married the young man and he became king]: Adriani 1894, No. 26: 82-85.

( Cf. Taiwan - Philippines. Obviously European borrowing. Binukid [a patron spirit tells Don Juan in a dream to marry Donya Mahal Maria, the king's youngest daughter; the six older sisters do not want to take her with them, but she follows anyway; a patron spirit in a dream directs DH to the bathing place of the heavenly sisters; when the older ones have already flown away, DMM descends, DH hides her clothes; she suggests that DH come to her father to agree on the marriage; the king tells him to 1) get the ring he dropped in the sea by morning; a swordfish (Xiphias gladius) gets it; 2) kill a giant who devours cows; DMM says that the father will give tasks until he kills DH, tells him to run; in the morning the king on a horse and his wife on a lame horse catch up with the fugitives; DMM asks the gods (Diwata) to create behind 1) a wall of fire up to the sky (the pursuers rush through it), 2) a wide river (they swim across); 3) let DH become a river, DMM a crab; on the outskirts of DH's village DMM asks him to go home first alone, not to kiss anyone; he kissed his mother, forgot about his wife; DMM asks the gods to turn her into a white flower; then comes to DH, turns a pair of slippers into a Big and a Little DH, the little one beats the big one, says that he forgot his wife; the real DH remembers everything; wedding]: Wrigglesworth 1991, no. 9: 117-131).

The Balkans. Moldavians [left an orphan, Ion sowed wheat; the harvest was pecked by birds; buckwheat - frost killed; went to work as a farm laborer, received a foal, wolves ate it; asked for a millstone for the second time - lightning smashed it to pieces; left home, received a rooster for his work while harvesting hay; came with it to the king - he was driven away; the hermit orders him to take a wife; says that three fairy birds fly to the milk lake, take off their wings, bathe; let Ion hide the wings of the youngest and give her only after the third promise to become his wife; Ion received the fairy, but the Sun saw her and carried her away; the king has a tree up to the sky, whoever gets the fruit from the top receives half the kingdom; the tree is divided into three branches, apples on the eastern one, pears on the southern one, nuts on the western one; the Sun invited him to watch the rays; food will be brought by the Lord of the Birds, Frost, the Wolf Iron Mouth, the Serpent Golden Scales; having questioned everyone, Ion beats each one for the ruined wheat, buckwheat, foal, millstone; seeing that the Sun is leading a fairy to the altar, Ion cuts down golden trees and throws them on the way; explains to the Sun why he punished his servants and himself; the Sun returns Ion's wife, sends them in peace to earth; Ion brings fruits to the king; the advisers order not to chop off Ion's head, but to give impossible tasks, and then take away his wife; 1) let there be a vineyard around the palace to the horizon; the wife called her servants, the vineyard is ready; 2) get a self-playing flute (a kind of flute) from the bottom of the sea; the wife gives the ring, Ion comes to the sea, sighs, Okh appears, says that the devils at the bottom will make the flute for 7 years, all this time you can’t sleep; at the bottom of the sea Ion gives the devils tasks, during this time he himself sleeps off: to count what is more - blades of grass or leaves; Ion brought the flute to the king, he himself fell asleep; they began to dance, do not know how to stop the flute, died; Ion received the kingdom and had a wedding]: Botezatu 1981: 105-117; Romanians[an old man advises a childless emperor to send a fisherman to catch a fish; if the empress eats it, she will give birth; the fish does not bite, the fisherman asks God or the devil to help him catch it; a water monster gives the fish in exchange for a promise to give him something he does not know at home; the fisherman brings the fish, the empress gives birth; the fisherman's wife was also pregnant, she gives birth to Peter; he grows up, goes to the monster; the monster in the form of a man meets him on the way, tells him to ride to him on a horse; the horse advises him to run, on the way P. picks up a golden pen, hires himself out as a scribe to the emperor, the pen writes for him; other servants report this to the emperor, persuade him to send P. to get 1) the bird whose pen it was; on the way P. feeds people who were eating each other, they promise to help; the same - feeds fish in the sea; the horse advises P. to lure the bird with food and wine, P. brings it to the emperor; 2) to get Slava-Mira as a wife for the emperor; P. brings her, she promises to marry the emperor if they also bring her glass palace; those people bring the palace, the fish get the lost keys from the bottom of the sea; Slava-Mira asks for the Water of Life, the Water of Beauty, the Water of Death; their mistress tells P. to divide the wheat, barley, and oats in an hour; the birds that P. fed earlier are divided; Slava-Mira gives the emperor the Water of Death to drink instead of the Water of Beauty, he dies, P. gets a wife and the throne]: Browne 1915: 320-329; Bulgarians [the hero (the youngest of three brothers) saves animals (ants, bees, eagles, fish, fox, etc.) or helps them; with their help he carries out the tasks of the beauty's (princess's) father - separates mixed types of grain, gets a ring (key) from the bottom of the sea, brings living water, identifies the bride among several identical girls, hides so that the princess cannot find him; or takes the form of animals that he saved (lion, fish, ant, etc.)]: Daskalova-Perkovska et al. 1994, No. 554: 206; Bulgarians [the king left his pregnant wife, went to another; ordered to send his son to him if a boy was born; the mother sends her son a flatbread to school, the messenger took a bite of it; sends it with another man, he did not touch it; she thinks that he will be faithful to her son, sends the son to his father, giving that man as a companion; On the way, the guide tells the young man to go down into the well for water, allows him to get out for a promise to give the paper and switch roles; the impostor lives with the king; in order to get rid of the young man, he sends him as a matchmaker to another king, who killed his daughter's suitors; on the way, the young man saves ants, eaglets, a stork, a fish, they promise to help; the king orders 1) to sort out mixed grain during the night (ants sort it out), 2) to revive a baby who died 3 years ago (stork brings living water), to swim to the princess on the island (eagle carries), 4) to get the ring dropped by the princess in the sea (fish gets it); the prince brings the bride, the impostor hacked him to death, the princess revived him with living water; the tsar executed the impostor, married his son to the princess]: Klyagina-Kondratyeva 1951: 73-77; Albanians[going out in a storm with a lantern for a midwife, the husband saved a ship that could have crashed on the rocks; the captain baptizes the boy, tells him to come to Istanbul when he grows up, but not to take the beardless man as a fellow traveler; he forces himself on him as a fellow traveler, invites the young man to go down a well, makes him swear to exchange status and clothes with him; the king (apparently the former captain) considers the beardless man his godson, the young man his servant; the old woman teaches him to kill the monster that guarded the water, the elephant with the diamond skin, to get the Beauty of the Earth, to go along the road where it is written "if you go, you will not return", not to go where "you will return"; give meat to the eagles, grain to the ants, honey to the bees; they let him pass, promising to help; the mother of the Beauty of the Earth commands 1) to sort out three types of grain in one night (ants sort them out), 2) to get a ring from the river (eagles command ducks), 3) to identify her daughter among 12 girls (a bee lands on her); the eagles carry the youth and the Beauty of the Earth to Istanbul; the beardless man kills him, chops him into pieces; the Beauty of the Earth revives him with living water; having died and been resurrected, the youth is freed from the oath, tells the king everything, marries the Beauty of the Earth; the beardless man is hanged]: Serkova 1989: 136-151; Greek Cypriots[the king boarded a ship and sailed to an unknown destination with his only companion; landed at Cyprus; they came to a light, there was a shepherd; he had a son and the king became his godson; he gave him a ring and a letter; when the youth grows up, let him come to him; but he does not take a lame, cross-eyed or bald man as a companion; the youth went, imposed himself on the lame man, but fell behind; the same with the cross-eyed man; the bald man suggested that the youth go down into a well to get water; he pulled him out only after he gave the ring and letter and swore until his death to call himself a servant, and the bald man - master; the youth was given cows to graze; he laughs at the conversation of swallows; the deceiver complains to the king that he is being treated; and since the shepherd understands the language of birds, then let him go to India for the Pipiris bird; the old servant warns that hundreds of people tried to get the bird and did not return; you have to wait until two huge fires go out; then grab a bird on a golden tree branch and gallop away; the young man brought the bird; bald: let him get the golden-haired girl; the servant tells him to take a lot of honey, millet and money with him; the young man fell asleep at a halt, his horse woke him up: a snake is crawling to the eagle's nest; the young man hacked it to death; the eagle flew in, the chicks explained that the young man saved them; she gave him a feather to call her; the horse tells him to be careful, not to trample the ants; the young man poured out millet for the ants, feeding them; the queen of the ants gave her a wing to call her; the young man released a fish that found itself on dry land (further a scale) into the sea; he pulled a swarm of bees out of a stream and poured honey for the bees; their queen gave a sting to call her; The father of the golden-haired princess threw a ring into the sea and ordered to get it (the fish got it); during the night, sort out the grain from all over the kingdom, separating it by type of cereal (the ants sorted it out); bring living water; the young man called the eagle; living water is inside the crushed mountains; the young man gave the eagle a golden cup and she brought water in it; the king cut off the head of the servant and tried the water: the servant came to life; identify the golden-haired one among 39 others (a bee was hovering around her); the young man brought the princess; the bald man: the path will climb a tall apple tree and pick apples; the branch broke, the young man fell and crashed to his death; the bald man buried the body; the girl orders to dig up the body, revived the young man with living water; the young man is released from the oath and told everything; the king ordered to tie the bald man to the horse's tail; the young man married the girl and after the death of the king received the throne]: Herreros 2007, no. 40: 103-108 (= Megas 1970, no. 33: 83-93).

Central Europe. Belarusians [a childless grandfather has a dream: to collect bird eggs and hatch them; he collected 31, the woman hatched them, boys were born; they were all baptized, the last one didn’t have a name, they called him Mal-Malyshok; the sons went to mow, M. broke an oak tree, mows with it; every night one haystack disappears; ten brothers keep watch, they don’t notice anyone; M. orders an iron club to be forged, tossed it up, put his forehead under it, it split; the one that weighed 40 poods didn’t split; M. beats a mare with a club, she gave him the foals, M. took the weakest one for himself; the brothers left; after the death of their parents, M. caught up with them; the first Baba Yaga has 29 daughters, she sends them to her sister, she has 30, she sends them to another, she has 31; The horse tells M. that at night the brothers should quietly put the brides' hats on and tie their scarves on themselves; Baba Yaga cut off her daughters' heads with a self-cutting sword; Baba Yaga catches up on a goat, M. kills him; the brothers hired themselves out to the tsar, M. is the eldest, the brothers persuade the tsar to order M. to bring Baba Yaga's self-cutting sword; M. carried away; the brothers: to get the self-cutting gusli; M. carried away; the brothers: M. can find out why the sun stood in one place for three hours; M. rides to the sun; the fish-whale asks to find out why he is lying on the shore; M. comes to the Moon, who first hides him from his brother-Sun, then M. revealed himself; the Sun: was lost in looking at the maiden-Bagpipes when she was sailing in a golden boat; let the whale spit out 40 swallowed ships; the tsar orders to get the girl-Volynka; M. offered V. wine, she got drunk, he carried her off; V. orders to get the chest with her clothes from the bottom of the sea; M. sends a self-cutting sword to chop fish, the fish-whale asks not to do this, gets the chest; V.: now the keys to the chest from the bottom of the sea; the last crayfish brought the keys; V. in order to get married, to build a church of gold and silver bricks and the same bridge; and for the resin to boil in the cauldron; V. did everything herself, the tsar fell into the resin, M. became the tsar, married V.]: Vasilenok et al. 1958: 94-109; Ukrainians (Poltava, Piryatinsky u., recorded by L.M. Zhumchuzhnikov) [see motive K27p1; the snake tsar gives the prince difficult tasks; they are carried out by Ivan Golyak, who is in fact the prince's younger brother; The prince liked the snake's youngest daughter; the snake orders to thresh 300 stacks of hay overnight, arrange them straw by straw, grain by grain (IG orders the mice to do so); retrieve a ring dropped in the sea (IG: the snake himself threw it into the sea; orders the pikes to retrieve it); shoot a bow weighing a hundred pounds; the prince: I am ashamed to shoot from such a thing, let the servant shoot; IG drew the bow, it broke; break in the horse that is behind the 12 doors; IG: this is the youngest daughter; say that you do not want to be ashamed, let the servant break in; IG hits the mare with a broken bow, orders her to get down, fall and spread her legs; identify the bride among the sisters (a mosquito will sit on her nose); prince got wife, IG orders not to trust her for 7 years]: Kulish 1857 in Pankeev 1992: 84-99; Ukrainians(Ekaterinoslavskaya, Mariupolsky district, Olginskoye village) [the parents went to reap, taking the baby; the eagle carried him off to its nest; three robbers heard his crying; one advised not to kill the boy, but to raise him; they named him Tremsyn; when he grew up, they sent him to look for his parents; horse: do not pick up the Firebird's feather; the feather is shining, T. picked it up; he hired himself out to the master; the other workers are jealous that the new one has an unusual horse and a shining feather; they say to the master: T. boasted of getting the Firebird itself; horse: take off your clothes, lie down in the field, the Firebird will fly in; when it tries to peck out your eye, grab it; workers: T. boasted of getting the Beautiful Nastasya from the sea; horse: set up tents with goods by the sea, flasks of wine and vodka; N. went out, looked at the kerchiefs, drank and fell asleep; T. brought her to the master; N.: get my necklace from the sea; horse: catch a crayfish; he got the necklace; N.: and now get the herd of my sea horses; the horse orders to cover it with 20 skins, and between them resin; if red foam appears on the water, then run, and if white, then hit with a weight the one who runs after me in front of the herd: he will not be so strong; the sea horse tore the skins that were put on, but not T.'s horse himself; N.: milk the mares, milk in three cauldrons: hot in one, warm in the other, cold in the third; N.: first dive into the cold, then into the warm, then into boiling water; T. first became an old man, then grew younger, then became a handsome man; the same with N. herself; and the master was boiled in boiling water; N. married T., they began to rule in the gentry household]: Dragomanov 1876, no. 10: 286-290; Slovaks {cf. Czechs in Nemcova 1978} [from Louis Leger. Contes populaires Slave. Paris 1992, no. 25: 203-210, and the original in Recueil de litt. pop. Slovaque. Vienna: Literary Society “la Matica”, 1870, vol. 1; a poor peasant has sons Jozka and Janko; Jozka is a wandering shoemaker; does not share his bread with the ants, refused to throw the fish into the water, did not measure the fighting devils; returns; when Janko leaves, his father gives him healing water; he shares with the ants, throws the fish into the water, reconciles the devils; heals the sick princess; [she demands to separate poppy seeds and ashes (ants do); to get a pearl from the sea (fish bring); to bring a rose from hell (devils bring); wedding]: Cox 1893, No. 333: 455; Czechs{a plot very similar to the Slovak one, but with some differences} [a shoemaker has two sons, Joza has learned the craft, is unfriendly; Janek has not learned it, is kind; J. goes to look for work, refuses to give bread to the ants, to help the devil, who is locked in a fight with another by his horns, to throw carp into the water; finds nothing, returns; when J. leaves, his father gives him living water; J. helps the ants, the devil, the carp, they promise to help him; J. heals a sick princess with drops of living water, her father promises him a daughter, she does not want to marry a poor man, gives difficult assignments; 1) get a pearl from the sea (the carp bring it), on the way back J. dyes her hair green; 2) bring a golden rose from hell (the devil gives it along with other jewels), on the way back J. paints her face black; 3) to separate the ashes from the poppy seeds (ants separate); at the wedding J. washes off the paint, puts on a luxurious outfit; everyone is happy; J. inherits the throne of the old king]: Nĕmcová 1978: 71-82 (=Nĕmcová 1970: 150-163); Czechs (Slovaks?) [an old woman gave the king a snake (hereinafter – a fish): if you eat it, you will understand the languages ​​of animals and birds; the king ordered Jiri to fry the fish, he licked it himself; the king senses that J. has received this gift, tries to destroy him; two birds fought over three golden hairs, one fell, J. picked it up; the king orders the golden-haired one to be brought to him; J. saves ants from a burning stump; fed the crows whose parents flew away; bought from the fishermen, released the golden fish; the king of the crystal castle promises to give his golden-haired daughter if Zlatovlaska 1) collects the beads scattered across the meadow (the ants collect them), 2) gets the ring lost in the sea (the fish got it), 3) brings living and dead water; the crows brought it; along the way Zlatovlaska sprinkled a spider with dead water, revived a fly with living water; the king orders Zlatovlaska to be recognized among her sisters, shows her husband; having received Z., the king ordered Zlatovlaska's head to be cut off; Z. revived him with living and dead water; Zlatovlaska became a handsome man; the king wanted to too; but they only attached his head back, and the living water had already been used up; Zlatovlaska became king]: Erben 1976: 38-42; Czechs{the text is almost identical to the Breton; a mistake, a hoax?} [the old king asks his son to marry him; he replies that he has no one to marry; the king sends him to a room behind an iron door; there are living images of 12 beautiful girls; the prince chose the most beautiful and saddest, she nodded to him; the king is upset, for everyone who had previously tried to get this girl died; setting off, the prince meets and takes as companions Long (can stretch to any height and length), Wide (can swell infinitely, drink all the water), Quick-Eyed (sees everything and can destroy any object with a glance); B. reports that the bride is guarded by a warlock in a tower; they arrive there, there are petrified people; the warlock, with hair down to his knees and in three iron belts, demands that the girl be found three times; each time B. sees her from 100, 200, 300 miles away, she is hidden in the form of an acorn, a precious stone, a ring in a shell at the bottom of the sea; the first two times D. easily reaches the acorn, the stone, brings it, the acorn, the stone turn into a girl, each time one hoop falls off the sorcerer; the third time Sh. drinks up the sea so that D. can get the ring, D. returns at the last moment, when the sorcerer is ready to turn the prince and the others into stone; the last hoop falls off the sorcerer, he himself flies away as a raven; the petrified ones come to life, the prince returns with his wife]: Erben 1976: 8-14.

Caucasus - Asia Minor. Adyghe [a dragon (blago) coiled around the prince's herd (pshi) promises to return the cattle if he gives up his son; the two elder ones refuse, the youngest Doletmiz goes and kisses the breast of the naguchitsa, who teaches him to throw a burka to the black snakes and a bag to the blue ones; to go into the house, where two snakes will turn into girls; they advise him to ask their father for an inconspicuous horse and a bag with tools; upon returning to the village of D., they build a luxurious house there; the two elder sons, the father and the sorcerer strive to exterminate D.; the wives help to carry out the assignments; 1) to return the herd from overseas; the horse orders to smear it with resin and sand, the dzhindzhif defeats the horse, he gives up the herd; 2) to get the grandfather's golden stick from the bottom of the sea (the sea king gives it to the horse D.); 3) to bring from the other world the grandfather's golden bath and kumgan; D. enters the burial mound on horseback; grandfather tells him to return home calmly; brothers become wolves, father becomes a boar, they chase him; the sorcerer dies; D. lives peacefully with his wives]: Kerashev 1967: 168-176.

Baltoscandia. Latvians [apples grow in the father's garden, which can heal the princess; the older brothers go to visit the sick woman; on the way they are rude to the old woman, do not help the mouse, the pike, the angel and the devil (the raven and the bees); their apples turn into toads (snakes); the younger brother is kind to the old woman, feeds the mouse, throws the pike into the water, resolves the dispute between the angel and the devil; the princess is healed and promises to marry the younger brother if he gets a ring from the bottom of the sea, a flower from heaven, coals from hell; grateful animals help]: Arijs, Medne 1977, No. 610: 305-306.

Volga - Perm. Udmurts [when her husband died, a widow and her son went to look for work; the son picked up a glowing feather; the mother told him not to do this, but the son did not listen; they came to the king; the mother settled in the kitchen, and the son in the stable; the king told him to look after an unprepossessing foal, the tail in the manure; he touched the foal with a feather, and the foal became well-fed, although there was little food; other grooms spied; the king orders to get a bird that has such feathers; on the advice of his mother, the young man asks for food, ropes and chains; he lured the king of birds with food, tied them with a rope, he broke them, but did not break the chains; the king of birds asks to get a mare with 7 foals, which gives 7 buckets of milk (ditto); get a gold box from the bottom of the sea; foal: if a star comes out of the sea, then all is well, but if not, then I am lost; got the box; the king orders to find out why the sun has not been visible for 3 years, 3 months, 3 days and 3 hours; the young man came to the copper house where the girl is spinning with copper tools; this is the sister of the sun; she hides the young man; when her brother comes, he asks why he has not been visible for 3 years, etc.; the sun did not answer and quickly left; the sister of the sun sends the young man to the silver house (ditto); in - to the golden one; the sun answers this third sister that, passing over the sea, he saw a boy in a golden boat with a golden oar, and he shot at him; therefore the sun had to heal a wound on the seabed for 3 years, etc.; the mistress of the bird {= the king of the birds, who was caught?} boiled 7 buckets of milk, dived and came out a beauty; and the king was boiled; the beauty married the young man and he began to reign]: Vasiljev 1902: 9-11; Mari (meadow) [a father asks his three sons to find out who is eating the wheat in the field; the eldest and middle ones go to their mistresses, the youngest Ivan catches two horses in succession, then the little humpbacked horse, and puts it in a stall; the brothers stole two horses to sell at the market; Ivan caught up with the little humpbacked horse, and on the way picked up a feather from the firebird; the little humpbacked horse orders that the horses and his tsar be sold; they do not let the grooms near, and the tsar is forced to take Ivan as a groom; the other grooms, seeing the feather, persuade the tsar to send Ivan for the firebird; the little horse takes him to the apple tree where the firebird is, and Ivan brings it; to bring the princess as a wife to the tsar; the little humpbacked horse helps to seize her and bring her; the bride demands that the tsar get the wedding crown from her father's church; brings; the princess demands that the ring she threw into the lake be brought; the hunchback orders the lake to be beaten with chains, the king of fish sends for a ruff, who brings the ring; the princess promises to marry the king if he becomes handsome; one must jump into boiling water, then into boiling milk, then into cold water; the hunchback brings grass to cool the boiling water, I. emerges handsome; the king is boiled; I. married the princess, became king]: Chetkarev 1941, No. 10: 169-173; Bashkirs[an old couple's late son and a foal born at the same time constantly defecate; the old man leaves them in the steppe, caravan drivers pick them up, give them to an old woman to raise; children tease the boy for being fatherless; he asks his foster mother to fry peas, squeezes the hot peas in her hands; she admits that she is not his real mother; the boy rides off on his foal, which has become a horse; despite his warning, he picks up a golden feather; the king's servants notice the light emanating from the feather, the king invites the young man to live with him; those close to the young man slander the young man, as if he despises the king, bragging about getting the whole bird; the fox shows the way to the bird; the young man catches it, the king covers the palace with its skin; the servants advise ordering that the daughter of the sea king be brought to the king as a wife; the wolf teaches her to catch her; The mermaid promises to marry the king if he gets her ring that fell into the sea; the young man saves the fish, it brings the ring; the mermaid orders her sea stallion to be brought; the fox teaches him to tether it; first the young man's horse is bitten by the sea horse and dies; the young man hides in its belly, grabs the young crow that has descended; returns it to the crow when it brings living water, revives the horse; he defeats the sea horse; the king orders the young man to bathe in boiling water and in boiling milk, if he is not boiled, he can take the mermaid for himself; the young man bathes and becomes a handsome man; the king is boiled; the young man marries and becomes king]: Barag 1988, no. 46: 314-334.

Western Siberia. Southern Selkups [a lazy son does not bring back any catch or firewood; an old man invites him to his place, tells him to weave a seine, teaches him to catch a nelma fish, and leaves it overnight on the table between two balls of thread; in the morning a towel is ready; the old man tells him to go and sell it for a thousand rubles; only the young man’s father buys it; when the young man returns, he sees a girl, and she was the nelma fish; tells him not to tell anyone that he got married; his father gets him drunk, finds out about his wife, tells him to 1) get the knife the young man’s grandfather dropped in the sea; the wife calls the fish, the pike brings a chub fish with a swallowed knife in its belly; 2) find the cast iron fish that the grandfather lost; the wife calls the birds and animals, the mouse shows him where the cast iron fish is (it has a nest in it); 3) get music from overseas; the wife gives him a towel and a thread to cross the sea, not to look around; he comes to the overseas people, takes the music; [The father gives his son an inheritance after making sure that he is not a slacker]: Pukhnachev 1966: 25-34.

Eastern Siberia. Dolgans [the sun, moon and stars disappeared just when the tsar hid his grown daughter in a gilded city under nine tiers of permafrost; promises her as a wife and half the wealth to the one who returns the sun; the son of a beggarly old woman of Pashenny went to the wind; at midnight he sees the sun come out of a hole in the ground and immediately return there; promises the tsar to return the sun; goes down into the hole, the tsar's daughter is there; she gives two balls: if you attach them to your feet, they will lift you up to the sky; tells you to spend the night with the inhabitants of the sky along the way; he sees an old woman with an overgrown belly lying on the other side of the copper city; she asks him to ask the mother of the sun how to get rid of her illness; this is one of the younger sisters of the mother of the sun; then the guy arrived at the silver shining city-house; there a sick woman-maiden also asks the mother of the sun to find out if she will become a person; {what exactly happened to her is not described}; Now the guy has arrived at the golden city-house; there is a girl-woman with a star on her forehead, sewing; she asks to know why her children always die "as soon as the time of playfulness comes"; the guy has come to the mother of the sun; she says that she has grown old, and has given the month, "the arc of the sun" and "the reins of the stars" to her daughter; the first time the sun-daughter looked in, smelled the bad smell of a man and left again; the next time she explained that she was angry with the king of the middle world, whose daughter decided to equal her; the sun-mother asks what to do for the one with a huge belly; the sun-daughter: to swallow three more nimble people; what to do for the middle, sick sister; let her point the sick part of her body towards the sun-mother; let the youngest sister not conceive children on unfavorable days and hours; finally, the sun illuminated the world; the guy passed on advice to the three sisters of the sun; The one with the big belly was guilty of the fact that when the sailors addressed her "the deity looking down from the copper edge of the sky, save us!", she did not save them; {and now she has saved them; it is not entirely clear}; her belly disappeared; the guy came to the king, but now he demands that he find his daughter's ring lost in the sea; she explains that the master of the sea stole the ring; she gave the diving bag to dive through 9 sea channels; the cook-girl dressed the guy up as the master of the sea, who himself was sleeping; disguised as the master, he went around everything, found the box with the ring, rose to the ground, received the king's daughter]: Popov 1937: 113-127.

Amur - Sakhalin. Udege [young Egdi tries to shoot back at the cannibal Sontra-Masa , but he has a stone body and a metal chest; S. takes him in a boat, E. says that it is dangerous to swim in the middle of the river, quietly jumps ashore; S.'s wife finds nothing in the boat, sends her husband to catch up with E.; E. killed an elk, cut it in half; tells S. that he will throw his lower half into his mouth, throws the elk's rear end; throws the upper half in front of the elk; the antlers rip through S.'s stomach, S. dies; E. puts on his clothes, comes to his wife, orders her to prepare a cauldron and a knife; lowers a noose through the chimney, catches the witch by the horns, kills her with an axe; along the way he helps birds, boys, fish; marries a rich girl; the father-in-law orders him to collect the discarded oats (the birds collect them); 2) to retrieve a ring thrown into the water (fish retrieve it); 3) to kill a fox with seven tails; foxes with two, three, etc. tails pass by, E. kills the seven-tailed one; 4) to bring unquenchable heat from the sun; E. helps a boar, elks, and a bear along the way; an old woman brings him heat wrapped in cloth; the animals bring it home; the father-in-law unwraps the bundle and is burned]: Lopatin 1933, No. 2: 241-246.