M6. Night with the Partridge. .57.59.62.-.64.66.-.68.70.73.

A young man or woman is forced to spend the night in the woods. The wood hen (Tinamus sp.) has a fire, a shelter, and/or a hammock. She allows them to use them, but after the hero or heroine does something wrong, she flies away, taking the fire, the hammock, and everything associated with the culture.

Makiritarē, Sanema, Wapishana, Oyampi, Ticuna, Yagua, Munduruca, Xipaya, Kaxinahua, Chakuba, Kayabi, Riqbaktsa, Waura, Kayabi, Paresi, Kayapo, Mbya.

Southern Venezuela. Makiritare [Makusáni was hunting in the forest, began to chase a frog, it ran away, he got lost; a forest hen (gallineta) took the form of a pretty girl, invited him into her house, told him not to touch her; M. tried to get along with her, she became a hen, flew away; M. came to a river; an Otter (perro de agua) took him into his own, promised to take him home if he would look neither forward nor backward; M. looked through his fingers, the Otter left him in the water; M. climbed a tree to sleep; Nuna (Moon) saw his reflection, realized that he was not in the water, but on a tree, when M. spat; brought him to himself in the sky, gave him two daughters in marriage; sends for firewood, the wife confesses that her father will eat him; he throws sand at her back, she thinks it is wasps, starts to run, M. runs in the other direction, comes to Shi (the Sun); N. looks for M., Sh. says that he was not there, drives N. away with heat; M. marries one of Sh.'s two daughters; Sh. gives her an air rifle, tells her not to look through it; M. looks, sees his house, his mother; his wife also wanted to look, both ended up on the ground in M.'s house; M. hides his wife under a basket; when he walked away, her mother found her, began to beat her; M. reconciled them; all three returned to heaven to Sh.'s house, and live there to this day]: Civrieux 1959: 119-120 (= 1980: 119-120 {pagination is correct!}); sanema [Colchester 1981: 72-74; The young man went to the otter people, fell behind them; met a tinamou girl; she invited him into her hammock, but flew away when he tried to copulate; told him to wait three days, but he left, climbed a tree above the river; the Moon came, saw his reflection, began to catch; the young man spat, the Moon looked up; he brought him to his home, told his wife to bake cassava for meat; the son of the Moon told the young man to run, showed three roads - to the stars, to the vultures, to the Sun; the young man came to the Sun; when the Moon came for him, the Sun baked him with its heat; now there are spots on the moon; the Sun gave him a sarbakan, told him not to look; the young man looked through it, flew out like a dart, fell near his house; his mother did not recognize him, wanted to copulate; he said who he was, she was glad]: Wilbert, Simoneau 1990b, no. 324: 568-570.

Guiana. Wapishana [there was no fire or clothing, the people were freezing; a young woman spends the night in the forest; a bird, Maam (Tinamotis elegans), has control of fire, keeps her warm; she brings Maam home as her husband; her father asks his son-in-law and daughter why the daughter is collecting firewood; they do not answer, the father-in-law becomes angry, Maam returns to the forest, takes her fire with her; phosphorescent mushrooms are called "Maam's fire"; (the text is called "Origin of fire", so apparently Maam had fire at first, but the people took it)]: Farabee 1918: 113-114; oyampi [a man's two wives get stuck in a hollow tree sucking honey; he cuts off their heads, which turn into frogs; spends the night with two tinamu women ; goes to urinate, they fly away]: Grenand 1982, No. 45: 285.

NW Amazonia. Tikuna [girl sees a canopy and lies down to sleep under it; the canopy turns out to be the wing of an old partridge, which soon flies away]: Nimuendaju 1952: 149; yagua: Powlison 1959 [wandering in the forest, a man spends the night in a partridge's hut; spits when he smells the odor from its anus; the partridge flies away with its hut]: 13 (=1972a: 81); 1993 [warriors go to take revenge on their enemies; on the way they beat a toad; this is the shaman Watachare ; the warriors rape his wife; two do not take part, see V. weaving a basket; he says it is a basket for eyes, tells the two to settle down at night apart from the others; in the form of a bat he extracts an eye from each of the sleeping men; In the morning the crooked decide to turn into peccaries; some become a howler monkey, birds, a deer, an anteater; two walk towards the house; one warns the other not to break a branch of a fruit tree, he breaks it; V. screams that he has been bitten in the heart; he eats the fruit with the people, spits out the seeds, says that these are eyes; the warriors understand that they ate the eyes of their comrades (the origin of the tasty fruits of the ungurahui palm ); at night V., in the guise of a bat, cuts off the leg of the one who broke the branch, he throws it into the river, the leg turns into a caiman, the one-legged man continues on his way; climbs a tree after night monkeys, his companion explains that these are mushrooms; the one-legged man turns into a toucan, flies ahead, showing the way; A squirrel lures the remaining one to cross a ravine on a log, the end of which does not reach the other bank; the log is an anaconda; the man jumps, is swallowed; finds a live deer inside; they cut the anaconda from the inside with the teeth of a piranha when it crawls out into the sun to digest its food; the anaconda pursues them, they throw a calabash into the river for it, the anaconda dives into the water; the man goes bald, the birds make new hair from bast, the monkey dyes it black; the man spends every night with another man-animal, each warns of the next meeting; the Partridge's anus stinks, the man spits, the Partridge flies away, taking the fire with it; the man plugs the anus of the Anteater with a tampon; he thinks that the Partridge has cast a spell, is grateful to the man when he takes out the tampon; the Turtle mutters that he will go eat poisonous rhizomes, the man turns him into a turtle; a termite mound falls from a tree to crush the man, he manages to dodge, orders the termite mounds to stay on the ground from then on; copulates with the Frog, who warns that her husband the Armadillo is jealous; the Armadillo calls the man into his hole, hoping to leave him in the lower world; the man climbs a tree, the Armadillo calls up the wind, he has to climb down; the man comes to the Wild Pig Festival (a series of episodes); to the Agoutis (kills them); home to his wife and sons]: 97-118.

Central Amazonia. Mundurucu: Kruse 1949, no. 33 [Peresuatpë went hunting with his older brother; the latter went into the bushes; P. shot at a tapir, missed; it was the brother who had taken the form of a tapir; his grandmother advised him to pull the tapir's guts out through his rear next time; his hand got stuck, the tapir ran, P. pulled his hand out when the tapir had relieved itself; P. and the tapir ended up on the right bank of the Tapajos; the local people killed the tapir, cut it into pieces, P. saw this from a tree; the people mistook it for a bees' nest, began to poke it with a pole, on the advice of a parrot, P. described the pole, the Indians began to lick the urine, thinking it was honey; in order to cross back across the Tapajos, P. called a caiman named Uàtippanpàn'a; First the smaller caimans came out, P. rejected them; on U.'s back there was grass and trees; the caiman burped, P. compared the aroma to the smell of uruku; when he reached the shore, he shouted that U. stunk, he was furious, dived, the palm tree on his back broke; at night the jaguar began to call P. by name, he asked what he wanted, fell asleep; the next night the inambu hen woke up, P. broke all her eggs, three remained, since then inambu lays three eggs; the next night P. sleeps in a hollow; the jaguar wants to bite off his finger, P. gives him the finger of a killed monkey; so the Jaguar received and ate all the fingers, then the liver; left; the next night the Jaguar promises to bring a stone; P. leaves his excrement in the hollow, climbs the tree; the nevictotes answer for P., the Jaguar throws a stone into the hollow, finds shit; The next night the caterpillars kept him from sleeping, P. crushed half of them, now these caterpillars are few; P. sees two girls in the palm grove; agrees to marry; they ask him not to be afraid of their father; he came, P. ran away; P. sleeps with the Jaguar's wife; during the day he replies that he did not see her; running away, he shouts that he slept with her; the Jaguar accidentally rushed not at P., but at the Anteater, who scratched out his eyes; the Jaguar's wife made him new eyes out of resin, since then the Jaguar's eyes shine; P. asks the Rain Mother to throw him bananas; she throws the peel; he threatens to shoot, replies that he will cover himself from the rain with a banana leaf; he shot, it began to rain, P. got wet; the Inambu woman plays the flute, there is a fire by her hammock; he refused to lie down with her, she flew away, taking the hammock and the fire; P. took the bone out of Jaguar's throat, he showed him the way home; his mother painted his uruku, P. died from the strong smell]: 642-646; Murphy 1958, #29 [ Akainoatpyo is a nephew, Karuzhuribyo is his uncle; K. turns into deer and other animals, A. cannot kill them; A.'s grandmother advises him to kill a tapir by sticking her hand up its backside; the tapir is K.; he jumps up, drags A. across the Tapajos, frees him, emptying his stomach; advises choosing a third crocodile with trees growing on its back for the crossing back across the river; A.'s name is now Periswat; P. rejects two smaller crocodiles, swims on a large one; lies that the crocodile's belch is fragrant; jumping ashore, he cries out that it stinks; at night, Inambu disturbs P.'s sleep with his conversations; P. breaks her eggs, since then the Inambu lays only three eggs; P. kills a monkey, spends the night in a hollow; this is the lair of the Jaguar; he demands that P. give him parts of his body in turn; P. gives him the limbs and liver of the monkey; leaves the excrement to answer for itself, climbs a tree; the Jaguar devours the excrement instead of P.; P. spends the night with a man whose leg bones are deprived of flesh, sharpened; he tries to pierce P.; when the leg pierces the tree, P. ties it with a bowstring; in the morning he releases it; copulates with the Jaguar's wife; he chases P., P. turns into an armadillo, scratches out Jaguar's eyes; Jaguar makes new ones from tree latex, since then they shine; P. spends the night by Inambu's fire; refuses to lie in the hammock with her; she flies away, taking the fire; P. falls with both hands and feet into the hunter's trap; he leaves the old woman to guard the game; the old woman falls asleep; an ant, a bee, a wasp, a monkey free P.; the hunter in anger hits the old woman, she turns into a bird; P. returns to the grandmother; dies when she rubs him with uruku]: 95-102.

Eastern Amazonia. Shipaya [men went on a hike; the latter stuck his hand into a hole in the ground, his hand got pinched; in the morning a bearded and hairy demon (one of the informants identified him with the Sun) threw his staff karĩ, which found the prey himself; the man pretended to be dead; the demon carried him in a basket with ants; the man twitched, the demon pricked him, he pretended to be dead again; the demon put the basket down by the house, his son found it empty; the man hid in a hollow, kari found him; the demon blocked the entrance with a stone; rodents made a hole, the man came out, climbed a tree; the demon sent a snake, the man threw it down; the demon went for an axe, the man ran away, jumping from tree to tree; he saw two caimans in the river with bushes and an imbauba tree on their backs; he took one to the other bank; the demon told him to return, but the caiman swam on; passed gas, told him to call him a fart, then a freak; the man replied that the caiman was beautiful, etc.; the man called him a disgusting fat-bellied fart when he found himself on the other side; came to an inambu who had three hammocks - for her two wings and legs; contrary to the prohibition, he lay down in the hammock, it broke, the inambu flew away; spent the night in an old dwelling, heard singing at night, saw a skull in the morning, took it to a place where the rain would not wet it; a tapir woman married to a jaguar, did not let her husband eat a man; he heard melodies in the forest; came to two other tapir spouses; then home; his little son was already grown; the man taught people the melodies he heard]: Nimuendaju 1922: 390-393.

Montagna - Jurua. Cashinahua [Nyimbobuilds a ladder, the end reaches the sky; a storm breaks it, carries N. far from the village; he follows the hunters, but is afraid to step on poisonous ants, goes another way; gets stuck in the trap of the man-eating Hawk, falling into it first with one foot, then the other, with one hand, with the other, with his head (=tar-baby); Hawk has huge testicles, and he carries his penis in a bag; puts N. there, brings it home; goes for firewood; Hawk's wife is N.'s ex-fiancée, whom Hawk stole; she hides him under a vessel; Hawk asks their pet parrot what happened; the woman promises to kill the parrot if he betrays her; Hawk tells his ants, wasps, snakes to look for him, but the woman calls them back or crushes them each time; at night, Hawk's penis crawls to his wife, ejaculates between her knees; Now she sleeps with N., gives birth to a boy; N. goes into the forest, climbs a genipa tree; the Hawk finds him, tells him to come down; N. throws him fruits, tries to throw them further and further; he comes down, runs to the river; animals are fishing there, they hide him in the sand, covering their faces with a basket; the Hawk lets out a wind, but N. manages not to cough; the Hawk returns home, the animals show N. the way to his mother's house, he loses it; rabbits, agouti show the way, but he loses it again; hears how someone is afraid that it will rain and they will die; these creatures cast a spell and prevent rain; these are mushrooms; they explain that they know where N.'s mother lives, but they are hiding here, because otherwise she will collect and roast them; a turtle shows N. the way; at night a large mossy tree says that it has an itch, but no one will scratch it; The deer leads N., but he cannot keep up with him; at night he hears the voice of a bird, sees a fire, finds a spinning girl; when he tries to make love to her, she turns into a bird, takes away her fire; this continues several times, she flies further and further, beyond the lake; at night N. hears, Oy, leg, leg! The anaconda has broken its tail; N. heals it by inserting a liana instead of a spine; the anaconda leads him to the house, but he gets lost again; removes a splinter from the jaguar's paw; he leads him to the house, gives him a small bundle with a lot of meat inside; gives a stick that kills game and packs the meat in a small volume; tells him not to tell anyone about this; N. opens the package before reaching the house, the living and dead animals run away, he manages to grab only two; arriving home, he uses the magic wand, then tells about his adventures; the wand loses its power]: d'Ans 1975: 214-232.

Bolivia - Guaporé. Chacobo [after the world fire, Nowa Pashawa was saved by climbing into an armadillo's hole; he is afraid of the voice of a turtle and a grasshopper, goes with an Anteater; he brings a small tinamou, says that this is fire, asks to tell him if he needs to light it; but NP does not say, the tinamou flies away; Anteater brings a large tinamou, NP sleeps peacefully at night; Agouti comes to the house, he gives him chicha to drink, says that it is from corn from his mother's field; NP spied - Agouti makes chicha from his snot, NP did not drink; Agouti led him to the house, told him not to laugh; NP saw his genitals, laughed, Agouti told him to find the way himself; the Woodpecker woman led her to the mother's house; at first she decided that it was the ghost of her son; he ordered to make as many clay vessels as there were people who died in the fire; three days later the skeletons arrived, each taking a vessel; soon they all had a head, but there were not enough vessels for the two old men, they had to wait; but their wives abandoned them, because without heads they could neither drink nor sleep; two birds Pulsatrix sp. arrived; other people told the women that these were their husbands; since then people have not been reborn after death]: Kelm 1972, No. 3: 223-225; Chacobo[a man lives in the forest with a wife named Waita; a tapir Rata in the form of a man kidnapped her; the man wandered for a year until he came to the tapir's house; hid on a platform under the roof; R. returned and smelled the smell, but V. insisted that no one was there; the man saw that R. was not really copulating with the woman, but was only spilling his semen on her feet; the next day R. left, the man lay with his wife; this lasted for two months, she became pregnant; R. smelled the stench, the man had to go down; R. took him for genipa fruits; the wife warned him not to climb the tree and not to touch the fruits with his hands - you would get hurt; R. climbed up himself, V. picked up the fruits, told her husband to run; R. sent a tornado and a downpour, but the man hid in a hole; came to a lake; asked a caiman to translate; he wanted to eat the rider, but at the opposite bank the man managed to jump off and grab onto a branch; the man came to the Agouti husband and wife; they fed him Brazil nuts and gave him chicha to drink; at night the man sees the Agouti adding their snot to the chicha; refuses to drink it; Agouti brings cassava, says that it is from the man's mother's garden; leads him to him; along the way the man sees his genitals and laughs; the offended Agouti leaves; by this time the man is already covered in ulcers, because on the first evening he drank snotty chicha; the man met the Big Anteater, who led him further; at night he brought him to Macuca (apparently, tinamou), who has a fire; at night the man tried to copulate with the tinamou, she ran away; the Anteater brought small Fon-Fon, so that both he and the man would have someone to sleep with; in the morning they went further, and in the evening found themselves in the place of their previous lodging; for this the man killed the anteater with a club; the man went alone; at night someone was sleeping nearby; in the morning he realized that it was Peta's husband and wife; he stuck a branch up their backsides, and they died; the Woodpecker ordered him to follow him and led him to the man's mother's garden; the mother barely recognized him because of the ulcers on his skin, cured them; a crowd of the dead came, the woman found her dead husband in it, but he, like all the others, was headless; the woman placed a calabash on his shoulders, but there was no mouth in it; she removed the calabash and began to pour only chicha right into the opening of his neck; at that moment the dead turned into Sumurucucú and flew away; since then the dead have not returned to earth]: Riester 1972, No. 226-229.

Southern Amazonia. Inambu (Kayabi: tinamu ) carries away a hammock and a fire. Waura [a man killed nightjars; they carried his hammock to the middle of a lake at night; he climbs out, follows the singing of birds in the forest; he wants to climb into Inampu's hammock; she says that the hammock will not hold, the fire will go out; and so it happens, Inambu flies away, taking the fire; a falcon leads the man to his mother's house, she is happy]: Schultz 1966: 128-130; Kayabi [like Waura]: Pereira 1995, no. 4: 41-42; Riqbaktsa [like Waura]: Pereira 1973, no. 7: 43; 1994, no. 3: 52-53; paresi [partridge man agrees to share fire if the girl sleeps with him; she refuses, he flies away, she manages to pluck feathers from his tail]: Pereira 1986, no. 16: 255.

Eastern Brazil. Kayapo: Wilbert 1978, no. 56 [a man got lost, saw a fire in the distance, it belonged to an inambu, a blue bird that makes a nest on the ground; the inambu allowed him to warm himself on the condition that the man would not blow on the fire; before dawn the man got cold, started blowing, the inambu flew away, taking the fire; the man heard a song, followed the voice, it turned out that it was a tapir skull singing; started roasting the tapir, got burned, and became a tapir himself; his brother went looking for him, came to the place from which all tapirs come out to wander the world; the tapirs are having a holiday, everyone is standing in a circle, in the center is a tapir and a tapiriha, the tapir is holding the head of a missing Indian; the brother managed to turn the missing man into a man; when he returned, he taught the people the songs he heard from the tapirs; his tapiri wife is still looking for her husband], 152 [Lukesh 1968: 60-63; the Kayapo attacked a village of other Indians, but they exterminated the attackers, only Tčakamandapá escaped; the Monkey asks not to shoot, promises to lead Ch. to his house; but she often stopped in search of food, Ch. went himself; the same with the Tapir, with the Deer; with the onset of darkness he met a bird, it had a fire under its feathers; the bird allowed him to warm up, but warned her not to push her; when Ch. moved, she flew away; then she returned; in the morning Ch. came to the river, Caiman offered to take him across; in the middle of the river he began to offer to say that he had a nasty face, a fat belly, a tail like a saw; Ch. answered that he did not; at the shore he grabbed a branch, shouted to Caiman that he was fat-bellied; The heron shot a fish with a bow, hid Ch. in a basket under the fish; the cayman could not find Ch.; the fox asked Ch. not to shoot, led him to the house, Ch. told about his adventures]: 158-159, 363-367.

Southern Brazil. Mbya [when the hero fans the fire]: Cadogán 1959: 159.