K67E. Before the First Cuckoo, ATU 1029.

.15.16.23.27.-.32.34.-.36.

Someone promises to do his job until he hears a bird calling at a certain point in the time cycle (annual or daily). Another character imitates the bird. The first recognizes the deception.

Aragon, Spaniards, Basques, Portuguese, Catalans, Italians (Emilia-Romagna, Campania, Calabria), Corsicans, Irish, Bretons, French (Upper Brittany, Upper Pyrenees, Auvergne), Germans (Schleswig-Holstein, West Prussia, Pomerania, Austria), Frisians, Ancient India, Hungarians, Moldovans, Romanians, Bulgarians, Greeks, Poles, Kashubians, Czechs, Slovaks, Russians (Gorky, Voronezh), Ukrainians (Eastern Slovakia, Hungarian Rus, Transcarpathia, Hutsulshchyna, Volyn, Galicia, Kiev), Belarusians, Abkhazians, Georgians, Armenians, Persians, Latvians, Lithuanians, Estonians, Setos, Finns, Western Saami, Norwegians, Danes, Swedes, Kazan Tatars, Khakass, Mongols, Nenets, Evens.

Southern Europe. Aragon [a man hires himself out to a stingy (cannibal) master on the condition that whoever gets angry first will have the other man strip his belt off his back; the contract is valid until the first cuckoo (or until it is so quiet that even the straw does not move); the servant pretends to be an idiot and successively destroys the master's property; the master dies]: González Sanz 1996, no. 1000: 106; Spanish , Basques : Uther 2004(2), no. 1029: 16-17; Portuguese [the contract between the master and the worker ends when the call of the cuckoo is heard; the master's wife or he himself climbs a tree and starts cuckooing; the worker shoots her or him]: Cardigos 2006, no. 1029: 257; Catalans [a master, tired of his worker, fires him the first time a cuckoo calls; he tells his wife to climb a tree and call; the worker overheard the agreement and shoots the master's wife]: Oriol, Pujol 2008, no. 1029: 203-204; Italians (Emilia-Romagna, Bologna) [when dying, the father left each of his three sons an equal share of money; the middle one, Fiore, went to look for work and hired himself out to a bishop with the agreement that whoever gets angry first will give the other his money; (the agreement is valid until the first cuckoo - this follows from what follows); F. went to the fields in the morning, food and wine were brought to him only late in the evening, and the pot and bottle were sealed so that they could not be opened; F. returned home having lost his money; the same with the older brother Giovanni; The younger Pírolo takes his own food with him, and in the evening he breaks off the rim of the pot and the neck of the bottle; the next day he is ordered to sell 100 pigs; he sold them to the first man he met, cutting off their tails and sticking them in the ground - the pigs fell into hell; he left one pig and buried it whole; when the owner began to pull, the tails broke off, and P. pulled out a whole pig; the next day - to sell sheep; P. took the money for himself, placed one sheep on the top of a poplar and said that the sheep went to heaven on a rainbow; the next day the bishop orders P. to go to mass with him; it began to rain, the bishop sent P. to bring him a pair of wooden shoes; P. said that the master told him to kiss both maids; P. cries out: Isn't it true both? Master: yes, both {meaning both shoes}; to get rid of P., the senior maid covered herself in feathers, climbed onto the roof and started to cuckoo; P.: March, and already cuckoo; and shot the "cuckoo"; the owner drove P. away and gave him all the money; P. returned to the brothers what they had lost, opened a business, got married, lived well]: Calvino 1980, no. 56: 179-184; Italians (Campania, Calabria): Cirese, Serafini 1975, no. 1029: 258; Corsicans : Ortoli 1883, no. 26 in Uther 2004(2), no. 1029: 16-17.

Western Europe. The Irish [a widow had three sons; the eldest was hired by the owner until the first cuckoo on the condition that whoever got angry would receive 20 lashes; if the farmhand got angry, he would leave without pay; at the end of the term, the owners forced him to get angry, beat the farmhand and threw him out without paying; the same with the middle brother; the youngest was ordered to look for stray calves, low and high, where they could be and where they could not; he broke down the hayloft; so that the calves would not get their hooves wet, he dragged them across the river, turning them on their backs, they all drowned; he was ordered to guard the cabbages, so that there was an eye on each head of cabbage; he killed all the sheep and all the birds, took out the eyes, put them on the heads of cabbage; the owner's wife climbed a tree, began to cuckoo; the farmhand knocked her down with a stone; the master had to pay his wages, the farmhand whipped him]: Danaher 1967, no. 7: 28-32; Bretons [January is the elder brother, February the younger; J. went to earn money, knocked on the door of the castle; the master hired him for a term of time until the first cuckoo on the condition that he would not get angry, otherwise they would flay a strip of skin from his back and send him away without wages; and if the master got angry, they would flay his back; in the morning he was told to go for firewood where the bulldog led him; the bulldog made sure that J. worked all the time; hungry and exhausted by work, J. gets angry, they flayed his skin, send him home; F. arrives; killed the bulldog, threw the master's children out of the window; in the forest the master killed an old woman; F.: her three sons would take revenge; the master sent F. to bring two shovels to bury the body; F. told the master's wife and daughter that he had ordered them to embrace; F. to the master: both, indeed? The master thinks that he is asking about the shovels, says both; having brought the shovels, F. explains that the wife and daughter screamed when they saw the wolf; the master orders his wife to climb a tree and cry out; F. shot her; the master is angry, F. skins his back, takes his wages, and returns home]: Luzel 1887(3), no. 3: 216-230 (=Brekilien 1999: 281-289); French (Upper Brittany) [a worker is hired by a master on the condition that whoever gets angry first, the other will cut a belt from his back; gets angry, the master skins him; his brother comes; the master orders as many bunches (of grass?) for bedding as there are sheep; a worker cuts off the legs of the rams, kills the dog that tried to prevent it; shoe the horses; the worker cuts off the hooves of the horses, brings back a bag of shod hooves; sells the cows, cuts off their tails, puts them in a swamp, says that the cows have sunk into the mud; the contract is valid until the first cuckoo; the owner puts his wife in a tree and tells her to cuckoo, the worker kills her; the owner sends for a shovel, which is in his daughters' room; the worker tells the girls that the owner told them to get together with them; they protest, the worker asks the owner - didn't he tell him? he answers that he did; after this the owner got angry and the worker cuts a belt from his back]: Sébillot 1894, no. 49: 340-341; French(Hautes Pyrenees; the same story in Auvergne) [the son is pugnacious and mocking, his parents sent him to earn his own living; he made a deal with the owner: whoever gets angry first, the other will cut a belt off his back; the owner ordered to bring crooked firewood - the guy cut down the owner's vineyard; the owner orders to drive the cows to pasture, without opening the doors and fences; the guy chopped the cows into pieces, threw them over the fence; the owner sent the pigs to graze, without giving them food; the guy drove them into the forest, where a giant lives; his herd mixed with the pigs, the giant; taking nuts with him, he began to gnaw them, when the giant approached: I gnaw human bones; giant: who will throw the stone higher; the old woman gave the guy a bird to release instead of the stone; the stone thrown by the giant still fell, and the bird disappeared forever; the giant believed that the guy threw the stone further; who can throw the club farthest; old woman: pretend that you are going to throw, and say: fly club to Salamanca; giant: don't throw, my parents are in Salamanca; who will bring more water; the guy started digging a well, the giant asks him to stop; bring an oak tree from the forest; the old woman gave him a ball of yarn: start wrapping the entire forest, as if you want to carry it away; the giant asks him not to do this; the giant invited him to his house; in the evening the guy puts three corpses {whose?} on the bed, he hides under the bed; at night the giant hits the bed with a club, in the morning the guy says that fleas (Ungeziefer) bit; when the guy leaves, they divide the pigs; the guy says that his pigs have one or two holes under their tails; almost all the pigs had holes and the guy took them all; the guy sold the pigs, and kept the tails for himself; seeing a giant approaching, he killed one pig, tied the entrails to his belly, and ran; in front of people, he stabbed himself in the belly, the entrails fell out, and the guy sped up his run; people told the giant about this, he also wanted to run faster, stabbed himself in the belly and died; returning to the owner, he threw the remaining pig and the tails of the others into a well filled with mud; the owner sent for a hoe and a shovel; he shouts from the house: one or both? owner: both; the guy got together with the mistress and the maid; the owner orders them to mow down the fern before the cuckoo calls, otherwise he will kill; he put his wife on a tree and ordered her to call; the guy shot her; the owner got angry, the guy tore the belt off his back; returned to his parents; [They lived well and died well]: Tegethoff 1923(2), No. 59: 314-317; Germans(West Prussia) [a peasant hires farm laborers on the following terms: the first one to get angry will have his ears and nose cut off, and he will also give up a keg of gold; the contract lasts until the first cuckoo; each farm laborer is crippled and left with nothing; things went differently with Hans; to plow where the dog Petrushka runs; it jumped over the fence, but the oxen would not go; Hans killed them and threw them over the fence; the owner sent Hans to town to sell 12 pigs; he sold them, but cut off their tails; hid the money, stuck the tails in the peat: the pigs fell through; the owners went to church; the owner orders that in the meantime the sheep that looks at him be slaughtered; make a dinner of mutton and add parsley; wash the child, and whatever else you can do, hang it on the fence; all the sheep looked except the oldest and barely alive; Hans slaughtered them; boiled the dog Petrushka; killed a child, washed it in a river, hung the body on a fence; to get rid of a farmhand, the owner smeared his wife with tar, rolled her in feathers, put her on a tree and told her to call; Hans shot an unusual bird; the owner got angry, Hans cut off its ears and nose, took the gold; if he didn’t die, then he’s still alive]: Treichel 1889, no. 3: 474-476; Germans (Schleswig-Holstein, Pomerania, Austria), Frisians : Uther 2004(2), no. 1029: 16-17.

South Asia. Ancient India (Sukasaptati, "Seventy Tales of the Parrot", Sanskrit text before the 12th century CE) [in the city of Vilasapura, the lustful Brahmin Vishnu came to a hetaera; they agreed that if he became exhausted from love first at night, he would pay her, but if she did, he would not pay; feeling that her strength was running out, she agreed with a procuress to climb a tree, taking with her two fans; she would flap them like wings and crow like a rooster, as if it were morning; going outside and seeing that it was still dark, the Brahmin noticed the procuress and threw a lump of dirt at her; she fell and the women laughed at her]: Sukasaptati 1960, No. 45: .

The Balkans. Hungarians [two older brothers hired themselves out to a priest on the condition that they would not get angry until the first cuckoo; he cut the belts off their backs; Janos hired himself out on the condition that he would cut off the ears of anyone who got angry; he destroys all of the priest's property; he throws a dog and a cat named Celery and Parsley into a cauldron; he disembowels a child he was told to clean; the priest tells his mother to climb a tree and call out; Janos shot her; he cut off the priest's ears]: Ortutai 1974, no. 30: 361-368; Moldovans [the older brother hired himself out to a priest as a farm laborer; if he gets angry, the priest will cut off his ear and nose; the priest does not feed him, the worker gets angry, the priest cuts off his ear and nose; the same with the middle brother; the youngest Pacală agreed on the same conditions for the period until the cuckoo calls; sold the oxen, eats and drinks to his heart's content, exchanged the sheep for bagpipes, to which the priest dances against his will; the priest calls P. to show the bagpipes to the priest's wife; tied millstones to his feet, but he dances anyway; orders a bridge to be made from the porch to the gate, so that it would be strong on one side and sag on the other; P. kills the sheep, makes a bridge out of their bodies; the priest sends P. to the devils to the mill, but fills the sacks with ashes instead of grain; P. puts the devils under the millstone, threatens to burn the mill, they give 12 sacks of flour; they break the cart, P. makes new wheels and shafts out of the devils' bodies; the wolves ate the oxen, P. harnessed the wolves; they ate the cattle in the priest's barn; [the priest's mother-in-law climbed a tree and called like a cuckoo, P. killed her with a stone; the priest and his wife decided to run away, P. hid in a sack which they had taken with them; by the river he changed places with the priest's wife at night, the priest drowned his wife; he became angry; P. cut off his ear and nose]: Botezatu 1981: 339-349; Romanians , Greeks : Uther 2004(2), no. 1029: 16-17; Bulgarians [the worker has undertaken to work until the cuckoo calls; the owner himself, his wife, daughter or mother climbs a tree and calls to terminate the contract; the worker kills the imaginary bird]: Daskalova-Perkovska 1994, no. 1029: 375.

Central Europe. Poles [two brothers hire themselves out to a master on the condition that the first one to get angry will have his nose cut off; they get angry and come back without a nose; a third brother, a fool, hires himself out on the same condition for a period of time until the first cuckoo; he does everything badly, ruins the farm, burns down the house; the master and his wife decide to run away from the worker; the latter hides in a sack they took with them; they agree to drown the worker; the latter changes places with the lady at night, the master drowns not the worker, but his wife; or the master tells his wife to climb a tree and cuckoo, the worker shoots her]: Krzyżanowski 1963, no. 1000: 9; Kashubians [wife to a blacksmith: you are a healthy man, but you have no children; the blacksmith forges a boy and names him Iron Martin (ZhM); he eats so much that the family goes bankrupt; he promises to fix things, his father forges him a heavy club and JM goes off to earn money; hires himself out to the most evil owner on the condition that in a year he will hit him with three fingers in a certain place; does everything literally; he is told to return from plowing when the dog runs home; he crushes it with his club, it runs squealing, jumps over the fence; JM throws a horse over the fence, it dies; next time he is told to plough until the horse laughs; JM cuts the horse's mouth, exposing its teeth; threshes grain with rafters torn out from under the roof; to get rid of JM, the owner tells him to clean the well; when he comes down, he first throws a millstone on him, and then a bell; JM thanks for the necklace and hat, keeps them for himself; he is sent into the forest for firewood; a pair of lions killed the horses; he harnessed them himself; on the way home he relieved himself, which he did only once a year; shit flooded the whole valley; at home he locked the lions in a barn, giving them hay; began to beat them: why don’t they eat; the owner sent JM with sacks of grain for grinding to the devil’s mill; beat the devil until he wrote in blood that he promised to leave the mill; the owner tells his wife to climb a tree and cuckoo: supposedly, the year has already ended; JM shot her; a week later a real cuckoo cuckooed; JM hit (clicked?) the owner the first time, he flew out the window into the yard; the second time - beyond the border of the site, he gave up the ghost; now JM came to hell; Beelzebub showed him a bed prepared for him with knives with the points up; he tore V. from the chain on which he was chained, and laid him on the knives himself; let him go for a promise to leave people alone and give a barrel of gold; brought gold to his parents, but turned back into iron]: Knoop 1885, no. 10: 208-215; Slovaks [three brothers are hired out as farm laborers in succession; the first one to get angry has his nose cut off by the other; the contract is valid until the first cuckoo; the first two returned without a nose; the third sold grain to a Jew, bought himself some food; did not take the manure to the field, but dumped it near a tree where the owner's dog was resting; made soup out of it; the father cut it up and made a bridge out of them; the owner put his wife in a tree and told her to cuckoo; the guy shook him, the wife fell, broke her leg; the guy cut off the owner's nose and took the noses of his brothers]: Gašparíková 1993, no. 289: 210;Czechs : Uther 2004(2), No. 1029: 16-17; Russians (Gorky, Voronezh), Ukrainians (Eastern Slovakia, Hungarian Rus, Transcarpathia, Hutsulshchyna, Volyn, Galicia, Kiev), Belarusians [ The master's wife (master) pretends to be a cuckoo : she calls at night on a tree in the hope of getting rid of the cunning worker ahead of schedule; the worker kills her]: SUS 1979, No. 1029: 257-258.

Caucasus - Asia Minor. Abkhazians : Bgazhba 1983 [the eldest brother hired himself out as a worker to Spinodral - until the cuckoo cuckooed in the spring, and whoever was the first to be offended would have his back skinned; he hired himself out as a shepherd, but was also told to plough the land; he got angry, S. skinned his back, he died; the same with the middle brother; the youngest was told to plough wherever the dog led him; it stopped by the forest; the young man cut off its tail, it returned home, he ploughed a little, slaughtered bulls with the shepherds, and threw a feast; S. told the goats to be driven in such a way that they would smile; the young man cut their lips; told the sheep to dance - he drove them over dry thorns; to get rid of the farmhand, S. told his mother to climb a tree and start cuckooing; the farmhand is going to throw a stone at her, she slips, hangs on a branch; at night S. and his wife decide to leave unnoticed; the young man hid in a chest; seeing him, S. got angry, the young man went to skin him, S. and his wife ran away, the young man took possession of their property]: 256-260; Georgians [the elder brother hired himself out as a farmhand for a period of time until the cuckoo cuckooed three times; if he was offended, he would leave without money, and if the owner was offended, he would pay well; in the end the young man could not stand it and left without money; the younger one hired himself out; does not work, slaughtered a bull, a sheep; the owner tells his wife to climb a tree and cuckoo; the worker is going to shoot the cuckoo; the owner pays him double]: Kurdovanidze 1988(2), No. 127: 248-250; Armenians (Van Vilayet) [the elder brother is the headman, the younger is a peasant, both became rich; Satan: they must be forced to gouge each other's eyes out; persuaded the younger one to be made headman; does not know Turkish, they kicked him out; then he went wandering; priest: whoever of the workers does not get angry before the cuckoo arrives, I will pay him, otherwise I will cut the skin off his back; orders to plow where the hound sat; it sat on a rock, the priest cut the skin off the younger brother; the elder threw the dog into the river, raped the priest's daughter, who brought dinner; the priest puts his mother in a tree so that she will cry like a cuckoo; the farmhand knocked her down with a stick; the priest and his wife decided to run away, the farmhand hid in a basket; urine is flowing, the priest thinks it is butter; seeing that the farmhand is with them, the priest suggests lying on the bridge and throwing the farmhand into the water at night; the farmhand threw the priest's wife; The priest allowed his skin to be cut out]: Orbeli 1982, no. 47: 83-86.

Iran – Central Asia. Persians (Mazandaran) [the term of a worker's employment must end when the cuckoo calls; the master himself or his wife climbs a tree and calls like a cuckoo; the worker fells the tree and kills the master's wife]: Marzolph 1984, no. 1029: 185.

Baltoscandia. Latvians [the working year ends when the cuckoo calls; the devil's mother calls, wanting to get rid of the farmhand; the farmhand kills her]: Arijs, Medne 1977, no. 1029: 339; Finns , Lithuanians : Uther 2004(2), no. 1029: 16-18; Estonians(Viljandi) [the devil (vanapagan) hired Hans on the condition that he would not get angry; whoever gets angry first will have the other's nose cut off; when the devil started to pull out the spruce trees by the roots, H. pretended to have a stomach ache; suggested that the devil carry the butts, and he the tops, sit on the trees himself, and the devil carries him along with them; H. pretends to count wolves; the devil runs as fast as he can and does not look back; the devil orders that beer be prepared in three days; H.: while they were running, he twisted his ankle; the devil himself brings barley to the brewery; H. sold the barley, bought tar, the devil drank it instead of beer and praised it; H. mows the hay with the handle of a scythe; the devil is forced to say that he is not angry; but then he gives H. the best pieces, before that only bones; the devil: let the tools do the work themselves; while the devil was sleeping, H. mowed his plot; the devil called the little devils and they did everything for him; the devil suggested wrestling; H.: first with my older brother; set a bear on the devil, the devil barely escaped; the devil: to run a race; H. suggests his younger brother - a hare, the devil did not catch him; they began to throw stones; the devil's stone fell back towards midday; H. threw a sparrow, three days later the devil decided that H.'s stone was stuck on a cloud; the devil has a club from his grandfather, he threw it almost to the cloud; H. cannot lift it; pretends to wait for a cloud to float up to throw it at it; the devil feels sorry for the club, tells him not to throw it; the devil suggests choosing part of the harvest; H. chooses the tops of wheat, then turnip roots; the devil loses both times; in the forest they both wanted to drink, H. suggested drilling holes in the birches to drink the sap; we will drill with our penis; H. has a drill with him, the hole is ready, the poor devil is suffering; in the smithy he taught H. to fuse pieces of iron; the devil went to the wedding, ordered H. to clean out his children and bring them, he himself would also cast a glance {in the sense of looking}; H. gutted the children, washed the intestines, strung the eyes on a rope, brought it to the devil, threw the eyes into his chest; the devil remembered that he should not be angry; decided to get rid of H.; ordered the old woman to climb up into the birch tree under the window and cuckoo {this means that the end of the lease term has come}; H.: it's too early for the cuckoo, took a gun, fired; devil: where are you sleeping? H.: on the stove; he himself lay down where they dry the grain; at night the devil threw a knife on the stove, there was a dish with milk there, everything spilled; devil: I did it to the cockroaches; the same the next night (H. said he would sleep on a bench by the stove, but he himself slept on the stove); the devil: I scared the cat; the same on the third night (he lay down not where grain was dried, but on a bench by the stove); the devil decided to run away from H., took a bag of money with him, H. hid in it; at the halt H. quietly got out: I barely caught up with you! The devil had to pay everything, he himself became poor, and H. bought a farm; in winter he chopped down wood; the devil: I'm warming my hands; the devil: mine are frozen; H. offered to put his hands in a half-split log, knocked out a wedge; he freed him for a promise to bring a bag of gold; he hired himself out to H. as a shepherd; he fell asleep on a hot day, the cattle rushed to the house, trampled the devil to death]: Kippar 1910, No. IV.6: 78-85; Setu[a farmhand made an agreement with a priest that whoever got angry first would cut a belt out of the other's back, and that he would serve until the first cuckoo; no dinner was brought to him in the field: he slaughtered and roasted the ox he was ploughing with; the same thing the next day; the priest and his wife went to a wedding, and were told to cast an eye on the cows; the farmhand gouged out the cows' eyes, took down the door of the barn, put the bowl with the eyes on the door and brought the door to where the wedding was taking place; the farmhand told his brothers that while the priest was at the wedding, they should take everything out of the house; the priest told the priest's wife to climb a tree and call cuckoo; the farmhand shot her, the priest got angry, the farmhand cut a belt out of his back]: Säärits 2022: 183; Western Sami : Kecskeméti, Paunonen 1974, no. 1029: 241; Danes [a poor man tells his three sons to find food themselves; the eldest, Per, hired himself out to the owner on the condition that he not get angry, otherwise he will get nothing, and the owner will cut the straps from his back and stomach; the term of work is until the first cuckoo of spring; the owner, who is actually a troll, forces him to work, does not feed him; Per gets angry, the owner cuts straps from his skin, sends him away empty-handed; the same with the second son, Pelle; the youngest, Esben, threshes rye, immediately exchanges it with a neighbor for food and drink; the owner tells them to plough where the dog runs; E. beats the dog, it runs home, E. with the horses after, one leg broken; E. sold a herd of pigs, drowned the thin beard in a swamp, so that only the tail is visible; tells the owner that the pigs went into the swamp; the owner began to pull the boar's tail, the tail came off; the owner orders the cart to be tarred, E. tarred the seat; the owner orders to be kinder to the little ones, meaning his children; E. called the poor together and distributed their property; the owner orders to fill up the old well with whatever is at hand, E. throws their property into it; orders to light a fire in the yard upon returning, E. set fire to the outbuilding; in order to break the contract, the troll tarred his wife, rolled her in feathers, put her in a tree, and ordered her to cuckoo; E. killed her with a stone; the troll got angry, E. killed him]: Braude, Zolotorevskaya 1969: 25-38; Norwegians [the contract between a man and a cannibal will end when the cuckoo cuckoo begins; in order to get rid of the man earlier, the cannibal's wife climbs a tree and cries like a cuckoo; the man shot her]: Hodne 1984, No. 1029: 215; the Swedes [the boy agreed to work until the cuckoo crowed; but the giant's wife dressed up as a cuckoo the very next morning and began to cuckoo; the boy shot her]: Liungman 1961, No. 1029: 256.

Volga – Perm. Kazan Tatars [bai ​​Atbasar hired a worker until the first cuckoo on the condition that he would not get angry; he was ordered to graze a herd, the horses ran away; in a dream an old man ordered him to say special words, the horses came running; the worker slaughtered one foal; this happened every day; A.’s wife chased cuckoos to postpone the day of payment of wages; the worker killed her; A. poisoned the stones in the bathhouse; the worker took out the stones, washed himself, then returned them; A. died himself]: Zamaletdinov 2009, No. 77: 309-311.

Southern Siberia - Mongolia. Khakass [a priest went into the forest to relieve himself, at that time the mare with the cart went home; a peasant rode up on a horse, they spent the night; during the night the mare gave birth to a foal; the priest says that his birch tree gave birth to a foal; they came to an elder; he says that he sowed grain in the sea, but nothing grew; priest: grain is not sown in the sea; elder: a birch tree does not give birth to foals; the priest invited the peasant to his place, gave him mead to drink, in the morning said that he borrowed money from him for mead, now he must work for a year, starting with the roosters; the rooster crows earlier and earlier; the peasant stuck a stick down his throat; in the morning it turned out that the priest's mother had died - it was she who crowed like a rooster; the priest ordered that the mother be buried; the peasant put her in the barn, gave her a stick in her hand; the priest and his wife believe that the deceased came to guard the barn; the next time the peasant put the deceased woman on a horse and gave her a stick; the priest thinks that the deceased woman is chasing him; because the peasant promised to bury her in such a way that she would never return, the priest paid him well]: Balter 1986: 93-97); the Mongols [a rich man hired the younger of two brothers for a period of time until the cuckoo cuckooed; whoever gets angry first pays the other a thousand tugriks; the younger one gets tired, gets angry, pays; the elder brother goes; is idle; slaughters all the sheep ("he got every one"); the rich man tells his wife to climb a tree and cuckoo; the farm laborer is going to shoot; the rich man gives him 2000 tugriks]: Mikhailov 1962: 180-181 (= 1967: 23-24).

Western Siberia. Nenets [two poor brothers, one hired himself out to a rich man until the time when the cuckoo crows; whoever is the first to be offended gives the other a hundred reindeer; the owner orders them to return when it gets dark; the worker comes after sunset; the owner says that the moon is shining now; the worker is offended, is forced to work for nothing until autumn; the second brother hired himself out, does not work at all; to get rid of him, the owner orders his wife to climb a tree and cry like a cuckoo; the worker points a gun at her; the owner is forced to give up a hundred reindeer]: Tereshchenko 1949: 155-159.

Eastern Siberia. Evens [the elder brother went to herd the reindeer of a rich man; the latter sets a condition: whoever gets angry first will give the other one a hundred reindeer; the lad worked for free and returned; the younger one went to work until the first cuckoo; offers to negotiate for a thousand reindeer; he is idle; the owner tells his wife to climb a tree and call cuckoo, otherwise the worker will ruin them; the lad is going to shoot the cuckoo; the rich man gives him a thousand reindeer]: Robbek 2005: 131-133.