M199o. Who will pierce the tree, ATU 1085. .11.15.16.23.24.27.28.31.(.34.)

A man and his opponent agree to punch a hole in a tree trunk (stump) with their head (finger, penis) or to topple the tree with a blow of the head. The man has made a hole (sawed the tree) in advance.

Swahili, Portuguese, Galicians, Spaniards, Catalans, Italians (Veneto, Basilicata, Calabria), Maltese, French, Flemings, Sinhalese, Ngadju [dwarf deer hero], Bosnians, Greeks, Russians (Nizovaya Pechora), Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, Livs, Estonians, Finns, Western Saami (South Altai Tuvans).

Bantu-speaking Africa. Swahili (west on the coast of Mozambique from a migrant from Zanzibar) [(Abrahams 1983, no. 3: 42-45); the sultan's son arrives on an island, eats the fruit, spits out the seeds, new trees with fruit immediately grow from them; he sails to another island, tries to show the local sultan a miracle, nothing happens, the sultan puts him in prison; the same with five more brothers; the youngest, the seventh Sadaka, visiting the islands, feeds the birds, flies, and genies, they promise to help; the genie explains that the seeds will sprout only on the earth collected from that island; they sprout; the sultan gives new tasks, giving his daughter in marriage to S.; 1) sort out mixed grain of different varieties (the birds do it); 2) to pierce a baobab tree with a sword blow (the genies bring carpenter ants, they make a hole in the trunk in advance); 3) to identify the bride among many girls (a fly lands on her); S. gets a wife, frees his brothers]: Baker 1938, No. 1: 183-187.

Southern Europe. Portuguese [a worker and an owner agreed that if the worker gets angry, he will remain without wages, but if the owner gets angry, he will pay the worker for a year, even if the year has not passed; the owner offers to pierce a pine tree with his finger; the worker drills a hole in advance, disguises it with bark, pierces it; the owner breaks his finger; sends him to tend goats - so that they laugh; the worker cuts off the lips of all the goats; to tend sheep so that they dance; he dislocates the legs of each one; sent him to drive thrushes out of the vineyard; the worker shot and wounded the owner's wife who was there; the owner got angry and drove the worker out, paying for a year]: Cardigos, Correia 2015(2), No. 1000: 587-588; Galicians [a smart brother was tending sheep, saw a giant crush a stone with his hand, ran home in horror; a fool took a lump of butter from his mother and squeezed it, a giant accepted him into his service; proposes a competition: who can make a deeper hole in a rock; a man made a hole with a chisel at night and sealed it with paper; pretended to make a hole, and when the giant tried, he broke his fingers; who can cut down more pine trees with one blow; a man sawed down pine trees at night and felled 7, and the giant 3; who can eat more potatoes; a man puts potatoes in a bag hidden under his clothes; who can run faster; a man pretends to rip open his own stomach in order to run faster, asks a woman for a knife, rips open the bag, the potatoes fall out; the giant also asks for a knife, rips open his own stomach and dies]: Contos 1972, no. 76: 74-77; Spaniards : Uther 2004(2), no. 1085: 32; Catalans (including Mallorca) [a competition with a giant: who can make a hole in a tree with their finger; the man has made it in advance with a drill]: Oriol, Pujol 2008, no. 1085: 210; Italians (Veneto, Basilicata, Calabria): Cirese, Serafini 1975, no. 1085: 262; Maltese [one of the episodes of a competition between a man and a giant; a young farmhand, a shepherd, has made holes in the trees in advance, masking them with bark and leaves; the giant Son of the Lion pierces the holes with his little finger; the boy calls himself Son of Samson and does this too]: Mifsud-Chircop 1978, no. 1085: 442.

Western Europe. French , Flemings : Uther 2004(2), no. 1085: 32.

Southern Europe. Sinhalese [a man drank everything; begged for a coconut, split it open, began to eat, flies flew in, he killed 20 with one blow; he asked tinsmiths to make him an inscription in Sinhalese and Tamil on a piece of tin: I killed 20; he hung it around his neck; the king of a Tamil city promises to make the one who kills a fierce giant a vizier; sail at sea for 8 days; the man demands an enormous amount of food and arak, he will sail for 8 months; the giant refuses to compete; then hand-to-hand combat; the man had previously pierced the wall of the giant's house with a nail; he asks him to give him tobacco - pierce the wall with your hand and give it; the giant cannot, but the man pierced the wall, the giant again admits defeat; when they met, the man prepared to run away, but the giant ran away first; the man received the reward and became vizier]: Parker 1910, no. 55: 312-315.

Malaysia – Indonesia. Ngaju [a dato (demon) challenged a plandok (dwarf deer) to a bet: whoever kicked a hole in the root of a huge tree would eat the other's liver; meet in 8 days; a beetle gnawed a hole for the plandok; let the opponent put his eye on the other side of the root; the dato kicked but made no hole; the plandok kicked the hidden hole and knocked out the dato's eye; the dato ran away]: Sundermann 1912, no. 7: 180-181.

The Balkans. Bosnians [9 giants have a mill; whoever goes there will never return; a peasant in a village has three sons, the youngest is a fool; decided to go to the mill, taking a bag of ashes, cheese and a drill; a giant entered, the boy threw ashes in his eyes; the giant suggested a test of strength; he crushed a stone with his hand, but did not squeeze out the water; the boy squeezed the cheese; the giant suggested making holes in a log with his finger; the boy drilled 5 holes in advance; the boy climbed a cherry tree, and the giant bent it over and held it; decided to collect some too, let go, the boy flew far away and fell on a hare; he brought it back - like he caught it; to make a cow pen, the boy breaks branches instead of pulling out trees - he says it will be stronger; they roasted a cow - whoever eats more; the boy quietly throws the meat behind him; who can throw the stone farthest; the boy pretends that he wants to throw it over the ninth mountain; giant: no need, that's where my house is; brought home; the guy was supposed to climb into a vat at night, but he hid behind the vat; at night the giants poured a cauldron of boiling water into the vat; by morning the water had cooled and the guy lay down in the vat; the next night they sent the guy to the barn, but he hid behind the barn; they set the barn on fire, in the morning the guy was unharmed; on the third night the giants fired a cannon at where the guy was supposed to sleep, but he lay down somewhere else; on the fourth night the giants poured boiling water behind the vat, but the guy slept inside the vat; the giants loaded the guy with ducats and sent him home, and then chased after him; the guy: I robbed nine giants and will rob nine more; the giants returned home]: Eschker 1992, no. 12: 68-73; Greeks : Uther 2004(2), no. 1085: 32.

Central Europe. Russians (1907, Ust-Tsylma, Nizovaya Pechora, Pozdeeva, wife of P.R. Pozdeev, a storyteller of epics, remembers the content) [A peasant sat in a lake to earn money by cunning. He lowered a rope into the water, a demon appeared, asked him not to wrinkle the lake, and gave the peasant money for this. The peasant put a holey hat under his hat for the money. The demon felt sorry for the money and suggested that the peasant throw a club up into the air, the demon threw it high, the peasant could not lift the club, so he said that he would wait for the cloud to go away so that he could throw it into the sky, the demon got scared, "the old man would start scolding him." Then the demon suggested giving the money to the one who could sing longer on a sled. The peasant did not carry the demon for long while he was singing, when the demon was carrying the peasant, he got carried away and did not stop for a long time, the peasant's song turned out to be longer. The demon suggests punching a birch tree with a fist, the man found a birch tree with a hole in advance, covered it with bark and punched it easily, the demon could not. The demon and the man went to the village, when the demon asked what was glowing in the village, the man answered that it was the demons that were being driven out, the demon got scared, ran away, fell and died]: Onchukov 2008, No. 32: 140-141 (there are no other East Slavic examples in SUS).

Baltoscandia. Norwegians [a man and a giant compete to see who can make a hole in a tree with their heads; the man has already cut the hole with an axe]: Hodne 1984, no. 1085: 216; Swedes [a giant sees a shepherd squeezing water out of soaked bread; thinks he has squeezed water out of a stone, but he himself cannot do the same; takes the shepherd on as a worker; offers to thresh; the shepherd pretends to use a house beam as a flail, the giant stops him, threshes himself; sends for water, the shepherd pretends to want to bring the whole well; the giant orders them to put the large ones in a large pit, the small ones in a small one; the shepherd slaughters all his cattle, puts them in two pits; hears the giant and his wife agreeing to kill him at night; puts wineskins with blood on the bed, lies down under the bed himself; the giant strikes with an axe, blood spurts out, and the shepherd is alive in the morning; the shepherd offers to drill a hole in a tree with his penis, he drills a hole in advance, disguising the hole; the giant pokes with his penis to no avail; they compete to see who can eat more porridge; the shepherd quietly puts the porridge in a sack, the giant admits that he can't eat any more; they compete in running; the shepherd cuts the sack, the porridge falls out, he explains to the giant that he is now light, overtakes him; the giant cuts his stomach and dies; the shepherd takes possession of his property]: Stier 1971, no. 31: 123-127; 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 the 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 drying, but on the 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 the winter he chopped down wood; the devil: I'm warming my hands; the devil: mine are frozen too; 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; Livs[Ants hires himself out as a servant to the devil (Vanapagan); the latter leaves for a funeral, tells him to take care of the children, to come to the funeral in the morning too, to keep an eye on the stove where the devil will sleep; A. disembowels the children, hangs the bodies on the walls, takes out the eyes, comes to the devil, and throws them to him; on the way home the devil pulls out an oak tree: let A. carry the top, and he, the devil, will take hold of the butt; A. says that he is stronger, chooses the butt, sits down on the oak himself, which the devil drags without looking back; at home the devil throws the oak, A. jumps up from the blow and grabs a bird; offers to compete who can throw a stone further; releases the bird, it does not return, A. wins; offers to drill the oak bark with his penis; the devil cannot, A. drills with a drill hidden in his pants; A. agrees to leave if the devil pours him a sack of money; there is a hole in the sack, the devil throws out all the money he has; the horse neighs, A. says that it is his father pulling up his trousers; the devil is frightened; the devil suggests to his wife and A. that they spend the night in sacks by the river; A. persuades the devil's wife to exchange, the devil throws the sack with his wife into the water; now A. agrees to leave]: Setälä 1953 in Kippar 2002: 68-71; Western Sami: Pollan 2005, #8 [Stallo killed a man, his wife gave birth to a child, S. asked what gender it was, his wife lied and said it was a girl; the boy grew up and became S.'s farmhand; he suggests a competition; pretends not to know which cloud to throw his spear at; S. asks not to throw; suggests a competition: who can knock down a fir tree with their head; the guy sawed down a fir tree at night and knocked it down easily; S. broke his forehead; the guy said his name was "Sam"; S.: why do you have such sharp eyes? I made them out of lead; he filled S.'s eyes with lead; S. called his brother, he asked who did it? Hearing that "I did it myself", S.'s brother left; the guy: let's let the sheep out; S. began to wait at the exit with a hammer; the guy threw on a ram's skin, walked between S.'s legs; suggested making sausage out of mutton; put ashes in S.'s sausage; S.: why does it make a different sound when we eat? mine is a farm laborer's sausage, yours is the master's; S.: when do you sleep best? lad: at midnight; S.: and I in the evening and in the morning; the lad put stones and ashes in his place, and climbed onto the roof himself; at midnight S. hit the place where the lad was supposed to be sleeping with a hammer; he hears laughter: the girls are tickling me; S.: I want to be with the girls too; the lad lifted S. onto the roof and threw him, S. broke his leg, and did this several times; the next time his leg, the third time his back; the lad said that he was the son of the one S. had killed; he finished off S.]: 59-62; Poestion 1886, no. 22 [a lad hired himself out as a worker to a giant; the giant suggested that he first test his strength by hitting his head on a pine stump; the lad made a hole in it beforehand, and his head sank into the stump; the giant only scratched the bark; now: who can shout the loudest; the guy makes a wooden hoop: you need to put it on your head, otherwise my shout will burst it; the giant refuses to compete; who can throw the hammer higher; the guy looks at the sky: which cloud should I throw it at? the giant: don't throw it at all, this hammer is my grandfather's inheritance; at night the guy put wooden blocks on his bed instead of himself, and he lay down in another place; at midnight the giant began to beat the bed with an iron hammer; when he left, the guy threw out the blocks and lay down; in the morning the giant asks how he slept; the guy: a louse was biting; the next night the giant set fire to the bed; the guy in the morning: it seemed like he could hear the sound of the wind; the giant decided to send the guy away, gave him a sack of silver, and then some gold; on the way to the house, the guy left half because he couldn't carry it; seeing this, the giant and his wife set off in pursuit; the guy threw a leaf behind him, it turned into a forest; flint: a mountain; the giant ran after a drill; a lump of sulfur – a lake; a giant, together with his wife and daughter, tried to drink it; there was a little left, the giant ordered his daughter to plug his ass; then the crow began to jump so funny that the daughter burst out laughing, water poured out of her and out of the giant himself and they all drowned]: 93-97; Danes , Finns : Uther 2004(2), No. 1085: 32.

( Cf. Southern Siberia - Mongolia. South Altai Tuvans [an old man was grazing 7 black cows, saw three black Mangysses; they offer to throw a stone; the old man: there (i.e. in the sky) is a place where it can get stuck; the old man buried a gut with blood, offers to play the game "Crush the belly of the frozen earth"; when the old man hits, blood flows; he put some of the blood in a hole in the stump, offers to hit the stump with a pole so that the blood spurts; his spurts, but the Mangysses don't; he brought the Mangysses, agreed with his wife: where is the back of the middle Mangysses, where is the ham of the last one? The Mangysses undertakes to bring water in a huge wineskin instead of the old man; he let out the winds, the old man was thrown back, he clung to the stump; "I want to plug your ass with them"; the Mangysses left, the wolf tells them to come back, they pretend to throw a leash around his neck; old man: wolf, hold the mangys tighter; the mangys ran, dragging the wolf, he is dead, his teeth bared; mangys: he is still laughing!]: Taube 1978, no. 58: 282-285 (=Taube 1994, no. 31: 240-244).