K27yy4. Get tree bark. .11.42.-.44.68.

The hero must get the tree bark, which is fraught with danger.

Lenje, Haida, Tsimshian, Comox, Winnebago, Eastern Ojibwa, Paresi, Iranshe.

Bantu-speaking Africa. Lenje [one of the most popular stories in the Zambezi region; when leaving, the chief orders: if one of the wives gives birth to a boy, he must be thrown away; one gave birth to a boy, laid him on a litter in the reeds, the old woman promised to take care of him; his mother named him Kalombe, but the old woman - Mandu; his first cousin Ngoma ("drum") with her friends hears his song and tries to pull him out of a hole in an anthill, where he hides like a rabbit; they dug him up, brought him to his mother; he came to his father, who is not going to kill him, gives him half the village, cattle and slaves; he goes to marry the daughter of the rain god; he sees an unusual bird, goes after it; meets an old woman, spends the night with her; she gives him a feather of this bird; then the feather leads him along the desired path, removes dangers and obstacles from it (excrement; a herd of elephants; a mountain with steep cliffs; buffalo; snakes), teaches and guides him, performs tasks; he is offered to enter different huts, saying that this is the abode of the daughter of the god of rain; they offer the girl herself; the feather repeatedly reports on the deception (the girl's mother herself and others take her form) and shows the correct choice (which mat belongs to the daughter of the god of rain, and which do not); he is given wine and food, but these are only transformed father-in-law and mother-in-law, he does not drink or eat; the god of rain orders to get bark from the top of a tree ; two other contenders fall, the feather assures that M. will get the bark; after this they bring a bride for M., but they also want to deceive: the daughter of the god of rain is in ashes and covered with skin, and the servant is in jewelry from head to toe; the feather reports everything; The father-in-law orders a hole to be dug so that it will hide M., but he orders the feather to grab the father-in-law, who is forced to release M. from the hole; then the same episode, when the feather takes the father-in-law hostage, with a tree (it must throw M. off), with a pile of dry trees (the father-in-law himself begins to burn, he orders the fire to release M.), with a hammer in the forge; the father-in-law orders a pot to be filled with tears, M. asks the other sons-in-law to fill a second pot; the father-in-law has to order that the roof not throw off M.; M. with his wife, servants, cattle, and a supply of provisions leave; M. gives his wife his feather and the skin of a wild cat; he goes ahead, she and her companions lag behind; a downpour is pouring, but M. orders it to be sunny; when almost at the goal, a deceiver comes out of the forest, taking the form of the daughter of the god of rain; M. discovers the deception, because the imaginary wife has no feather; does not believe that she forgot it while bathing; the deceiver runs away, M. returns for his wife, she is solemnly received; after 10 days she says that she cannot live there, there is incest everywhere, leaves; M. rushes after her; after her he breaks into the abode of the god of rain; remains there; in the version of the related Lenje Sera, if one thunder rumbles from one side of the sky and is answered by the other, it is the son-in-law who claps his hands, and the father-in-law claps in response]: Torrend 1921, no. 18: 97-144.

NW coast. Haida (Skydegate) [quest giver sends hero to obtain dangerous objects or creatures; these are his magical helpers; each time he mourns their death]: Swanton 1905: 238-244 [wife helps hero with advice; father-in-law sends him to creatures that swallow sons-in-law; swallowed hero calls his own supernatural helpers, who each time extract him; hero chops down tree, gets fish, seal, fur seal, shellfish; unharmed in boiling water; recognized as son-in-law; goes in self-propelled boat with wife to his mother; she sees in boat not a woman, but a cloud; water creatures abduct hero's wife; old man helps find her trail; advises to give Heron tobacco and woven cedar branches; Heron hides husband in mouth; hides again when he escapes with his wife from her kidnappers], 247-250 [as on pp. 238-244; the hero swallows hot stones; finding himself inside a fish, a sea otter, a tree, he makes them burst], 277-280 [the nephews had the right to sleep with their uncle's wife; he sends nine nephews one after another to split a log, they get stuck, die; the tenth practices by swimming in the sea, tearing off fir branches; 1) the uncle splits the log, asks the nephew to get a wedge that fell into the crack, takes out another wedge; the nephew tears the log apart, brings it to his uncle; 2) the uncle asks to bring cormorants, pushes the nephew off the cliff; he turns into a feather; into a weasel, climbs the cliff, brings the cormorants; 3) brings burning bark ; 4) uncle pushes him into a clam shell, nephew tears it apart; uncle puts him sleeping in a box, throws him into the sea; he sails to the land of the Eagles; marries the chief's daughter, receives an eagle's robe; lifts his uncle into the air, throws him into the sea; he turns into a sea spirit]; Haida (Masset) [the young man lives with his grandmother; she collects clams in the littoral, every day she finds herring under a certain stone, each time more and more in number; the young man makes himself a shaman's costume and a tambourine; heals the sick; makes his house bigger; goes on foot across the sea to marry the daughter of the Many-Ledges rock; the Heron gives him a witchcraft; he cannot enter the rock-house; he turns into a knot on the shore, the daughter of the Rock picks him up, shows him to her father; he throws him into the fire; at night the young man comes to life from the ashes, takes the daughter of the Rock as his wife; the father-in-law orders 1) to bring tree bark (it burns, the young man uses his own remedy, brings it; the same in other cases); 2) puts his son-in-law in a box with hot stones, he is unharmed; 3) kill an eagle; 4) a seal, 5) an octopus; the father-in-law is in despair, his assistants are destroyed; the young man brings his wife home, both walk on foot by sea; the wife warns him not to answer other women; he answers, the water she drinks becomes dirty; she goes to her father; he follows, she casts her gaze on him, he falls through the water; the father-in-law takes out his bones, the thigh is missing; the wife revives him, but one leg is shorter]: Swanton 1908a, no. 18: 417-426; Tsimshian [see K27; The sun sends his son-in-law to fetch firewood; wife: as soon as you touch the tree, the bark falls and crushes you ; under the tree there is a pile of bones of the dead; the tree fell on the slave, but A. is unharmed]: Boas 1912: 71-146.

Coast - Plateau. Comox (chatloltk) [two brothers make a chain of arrows, climb to the sky to marry two daughters of a chief; steal food from two blind old women; make them see, they turn into Ducks; advise to look for an old man-One-Legged; he gives 1) flat stones to put under themselves to sit on porcupine benches, 2) rods to put in the vaginas of the wives to break their vaginal teeth; the brothers successfully marry; since then the women have had toothless vaginas; 3) the father-in-law orders to get a wedge that fell into a split log, he knocks out a strut (the brothers fly up like birds, leave red and white paint, as if it were their blood and brain, return home); 4) the father-in-law turns a dog into a waterfowl, asks to get it; brothers are sailing in a boat, the father-in-law understands a storm at sea; the brothers make good weather, return; 5) the brothers make the father-in-law's hook catch on the bottom, they themselves catch many sea animals; 6) the father-in-law orders to bring bark to light a fire (the brothers' grandfather Woodpecker peels bark from a whole tree); 7) bring berries in the middle of winter (the Woodpecker orders the plants to bear fruit); 8) bring a Woodpecker (the brothers bring it, he pecks out the father-in-law's eyes); 9) bring a snake with heads at both ends of its body (the snake devours the father-in-law with both mouths, from the head and from the feet)]: Boas 1895, No. VIII.3: 65-68 (= 2002: 181-186).

Middle West. Winnebago [giants kill people, ten brothers and a sister remain; someone visits her; she gives birth to a boy; leaves with her husband; the husband (or the spirit that replaced him) is evil, she also becomes evil; nine brothers one by one go off to look for her, disappear; Old Woman Mouse gives advice to the tenth; the sister demands 1) to bring a stone (the brother pushes it down the mountain with a stick, the stone does not crush him); 2) to bring bark (the brother throws a stick at a tree, the falling bark does not crush him); 3) to bring posts for a sweat lodge (they are snakes, the brother gives them tobacco); 4) to give a sticky and burning stone (the Mouse smears his brother's hands with fat); 5) to bring a deer's horn (it does not pierce his back); the woman's son grows up, kills her evil husband; the brother kills her; the uncle and nephew come to the Thunderbirds; see motif I3]: Radin 1909, no. 1: 292-296; Eastern Ojibwa [Gambler offers to throw beads into a hole, kills the losers; Manabozo wins, kills the Gambler], 28 [three brothers marry the three daughters of an old woman; the youngest has magical powers, marries a girl with ulcers on her body; 1) the old woman kills the two elder sons-in-law by throwing them off a cliff; the youngest turns into a bird, returns; 2) his father-in-law takes him to an island to collect bird eggs, throws him there; a seagull brings him home before his father-in-law; he cures his wife; 3) his father-in-law takes him to peel the bark of a thuya; he turns into a squirrel, the bark falls on his father-in-law, the mother-in-law cures her husband; 4) in order to poison his son-in-law, his father-in-law asks him to bite off three black warts on his back; son-in-law bites into the cranberries he has saved; 5) father-in-law takes his son-in-law to harpoon fish, throws him overboard; the fish takes the youth home; 6) father-in-law takes his son-in-law sliding down a mountain; son-in-law turns into a bird, father-in-law falls off a cliff, mother-in-law heals her husband; 7) father-in-law and son-in-law spend the night in the forest; son-in-law switches moccasins; at night father-in-law pushes his into the fire; in the spring he returns barefoot, acknowledges the primacy of his son-in-law; the latter asks him to get a bird out of the nest; a thunderclap blows father-in-law to pieces; the youth takes a wife, goes to live in his father's house]: Radin 1914, No. 1: 54-61.

Southern Amazonia. Paresi : Pereira 1986, no. 7 [the younger brother falls into the trap of the demon Shihali ; he brings him home, says he has brought firewood; his two daughters lie with the youth; they have poisonous insects in their vaginas, they tell him to put a reed in, pull the insects out, have sex, then put the insects back; at night the youth falls asleep, is eaten by Sh.; the same thing happens to the older brother, but he does not fall asleep; Sh. 1) sends him to bring toucans (they kill people); the old woman tells him to first burn the thorns on the tree (variation: the wives plug the holes in the youth's face with wax, the toucans do not peck him); the youth brings the toucans, Sh. revives them; 2) clean the bird cage (there are snakes in it, the old woman or the wives warn him, he burns the snakes, Sh. revives them); 3) catch fish with poison (old woman: there are caimans created by Sh.; you need to heat up the stones, boil the lake; Sh. revives the boiled creatures); 4) get a liana to make arrows (the liana must fall on your head, the water spirit gets it); 5) tear bark from a tree (the son-in-law climbs up, throws the bark, killing Sh .); beetles crawled out of his stomach, so the daughters could not revive him; a sacred nose flute was made from two beetles; the young man, together with the boy and girl born to him, floats down the river in a cassava trough; the wives send two parrots; they fly into the young man's mouth, cut his heart, come out of his sides; since then they are red; the children tease Cocotero (their father's sister), who came to them, that she has a hairy vulva; each time she wants to grab them, they jump into the water; Zatyamare (the elder brother of K. and the dead boys) traps them; a forest spirit copulates with the girl, she herself turns into a spirit; the boy is killed by fish, he flies away as a falcon; Z. finds his veins, teeth and brain, makes timbo - fish poison from them, kills many fish], 14 [Erwaxixi - the son of Káymare, gets together with his younger wife; he gives his son tasks; the grandfather teaches the youth how to fulfill them; 1) get a liana from a tree (it should fall on the youth's head; the bat cuts it off), 2) cut reeds for arrows (snakes should bite the youth; the cabipara cuts them off), 3) bring reeds from the other bank of the river (Euterpe ripesti cuts down a tree, makes a bridge; the second time the father destroys the bridge; the youth lures vultures by smearing himself with dead fish, catches them, plucks out their feathers, flies across the river); turns into a deer, kills his father with his antlers; takes his wives; they notice blood on his head, kill him]: 131-149, 236-242; Iranian [at night, the youngest of three brothers sees their parents copulating, their mother's vagina; cries; the brothers paint themselves with ochre, rape their mother; she searches her youngest son's head, notices red paint, understands who raped her; tries to throw her son into the fire, the brothers do not let her; she and her husband turn into tapirs; the brothers kill them; the liver is given to the grandmother; the youngest arranges it so that she steps on a wasps' nest, dies; Possum asks them to clear his plot; the brothers knock down trees with the wind; Possum's wife does not believe that they have finished the work; they leave; refuse to take the daughters of the Forest Monitor, because he is ugly; the Woodpecker throws them wax instead of honey; they kill him with an arrow, cut off his penis, throw it on the path of the Otters (var.: dead); they see how first one, then the second old Otter woman (the dead man) pick him up, masturbate him; The Vulture steals their arrows; invites them to marry his three daughters; asks the eldest to strip bark from a tree ; a giant eagle flies in, the son-in-law breaks its wing; the Vulture heals it, it is his foster child; asks the sons-in-law to bring logs to build a house; a snake attacks the brothers, they kill it, bring it to their father-in-law; he revives it; asks the eldest son-in-law to get an armadillo from its hole; hits it with a club, misses; the son-in-law kills him himself; the Vulture's wife kills the two older brothers, setting an ant, a wasp, and a bee on them; the youngest takes all three sisters as wives; glues bird feathers to herself, flies away as a falcon; the sisters turn into pitifully screaming birds]: Pereira 1985, no. 41: 179-183.