p.

Luo

comparative

41

The Crocodile-god "caught a fish, and he told

Anthedon’s son Glaukos witnessed the revitalizing power of grass sown by Kronos during the Golden Age, "when a dead fish (or, some say,

the hare that if he ate it, he would become as big as

a hare) was laid upon it and came to life again." (GM 90.j).

an elephant. As the hare tried to take hold of the fish, the crocodile grabbed on of his legs. ... When the crocodile saw the other leg, he ... let go of the hare’s leg."

{Elephant was seized on his leg by a crocodile, but the crocodile was compelled to release the leg by a god. (BhP)}

21 & 40-1

The Hare-god had surreptitiously devoured the eggs laid by the Crocodile-wife of the Crocodile-god; thereupon,

{cf. the hunt for hidden Easter eggs for the Easter Bunny (this ritual is of British Celtic origin)}

21

the Hare-god had offered to fetch his own out-of-the-body heart when

he was transported aboard the Crocodile-god’s back to the mainland from

{this is a "Br’er Rabbit" episode}

40

the Crocodiles’ "island".

22

The Hare-god was carried on the back of the Spider-god

O,rvandil was carried on the back of To`rr. :

to the place of the Hare-god’s betrothed fiance’e :

O,rvandil’s wife Gro`a

23

thence leaping, the Hare-god was knocked unconscious.

endeavoured to extract from the forehead a stone which had struck it.

The Hare-god donned shoen.

O,rvandil’s big toe became a star [the big toe is useful for pirouetting on; so the North Star as pivot is indicated].

p.

Luo

Hellenic

27

Aloo, after she had been "thrown into the water,"

Purrha, after she had escaped the deluge (GM 38.c),

29

transformed stones into women.

transformed stones into women (GM 38.d).

p.

Luo

comparative

30

Awino Nyamako roamed about the countryside seeking the whereabouts of her vanished daughter Atieno Ademba, who "had been kidnapped by the apul-apul man."

After Antiope had been seduced by a praetended satyr (A – quoting Nonnos, Dionysiaca 7. 110 ff), "laughing" at her (A – quoting Nonnos, Dionysiaca 16. 240), Dirke was "roaming ... in a Bacchic" frenzy (GM 76.b), i.e.

"hyenas came and ate their only cow."

as a Mainad; she was tied "to ... a wild bull" (GM 76.a).

A "spotted he-goat" was offered for

{Brindled sheep were granted as wage to Ya<qob as suitor for

Atieno, who had "been locked up in a rock in Ndere."

Rah.el.}

31

The site of Ndere was a "cave" which "is now close to the water, and can only be approached by boat from the lake."

Antiope was imprisoned at the behest of her step-mother Dirke, at whose site of death "a spring welled up, afterwards called the Dircaean Stream." (GM 76.b)

p.

Luo

Yokut

other

32

In lake Nyanza, a goddess was caught in a weir by the fisherman Nyamgondo the son of Ombere;

divine "fish-catching contest"

Persephone [goddess of the red mullet (DE:A IV)] had sexual intercourse with (GM 16.f; see further DF:DL:P) the fishermen’s god Poseidon.

33

after she returned into the lake, "he died standing up and

{in tantrik lore, at the dying of a saint while standing, a flash of light appeareth : cf. the so-called "earthquake light" (often witnessed in Japan) – Poseidon is earthquaker}

was transformed into a large tree-stump."

at a "tree-stump" (YCM).

{Paiute sacred songs personify (ShGhDR, p. 500) the stump of a ponderosa pine : pine "was sacred to Poseidon" (IG, n. 13, quoting Ploutarkhos : Moralia 5.3)}

p.

Luo

comparative

33

"When the boy tried to make love to her, she suddenly changed into a lion[ess]."

When Peleus attempted to make love to Thetis, she transformed herself into a "lion[ess]" (GM 81.k).

"Just as they were about to be married, she changed into a rock,

Thetis transformed into stone the wolf sent by Psamathe (GM 81.p) "the wave-blue Nympha" (Th – quoting Ovidius, Metamorphoses 11.397) : the Winnebago 4 wolf-couples (including "blue wolf", Version 1) "caused waves to go before them." (WCOM, Version 4)

which grew larger and larger".

{In a Fijian myth, a young woman who refused to marry sat upon a stone which grew, isolating her atop it (GS).}

34

She sang : "The girl who picked me up changed me into a grindstone and also into a beautiful bowl, which is holy."

{[Tupari tale] mother-in-law became a pot (BH, p. 117)}

She was picked up also by 3 men : Otumba, Oliec^, and Nengo.

Luo

comparative

The Chameleon-god climbed up

Theseus was tonsured in the fashion of the Abantes (GM 95.h). Aba[nt]s became a lizard (GM 24.e).

a rope to

Theseus returned out of the Labyrinth by following along a clew of thread (GM 98.k).

dwe (‘the moon’).

Theseus tossed an ox over a temple’s roof (GM 97.a) – cf. "the cow who jumped over the moon" (in Mother Goose Rhymes).

"The result was a war between men and women."

There was a war between (GM 100.d) men (the army of Theseus) and women (the Amazones).

"Up to this time women had ruled and determined all that had to be done"

{which is a common South American tropical-forest Indians’, and New Guinean & Australian aborigines’ theme}

p.

Luo

Norse (SM 5-6)

other

37

A native of Sido in Kano, Oc^injo’s son Luanda’s physical body could not be wounded, because his skin was too tough (and his body "hard as stone" – p. 38).

On a skin-covered stone skerry were set the 2 dwergar who had

However, he was enticed to marry a treacherous Masai woman; after she had obtained his blood,

obtained, in O`dro,rir (a basin), the blood of Kvasir.

38

at her advice the Masai killed him by assaulting his shadow.

Gilling’s son Suttung, when flying as an eagle, died.

In Sioux myth, the "Eagle’s shadow" portended death (LJM).

Gilling was drowned by the 2 swimming dwergar,

In Fijian myth, of swimming children, the one named Tepete

who afterward killed, by dropping a stone on her, Gilling’s wife.

killed, by dropping a stone on her, a cannibal hag from Lokalie (ST).

He became a hone stone.

Bo,lverk possessed a hone, much-coveted by the serfs of Baugi the brother of Suttung.

p.

Luo

<arabi^ & <ibri^

38

"other girls turned her into a millet plant".

/GuDaM/ & /GuDDaMah/ ‘plant of the genus /h.d./ (LA-L, 3:263a)

39

"this was the beautiful girl they were looking for to eat."

/mutaGADIM/ ‘voracious’ (LA-L, 3:263a)

She praetended that "Adina" was her absent sister; and then

/ma<DuM/ ‘absent’ (DMWA, p. 699a)

began making impudent assertions.

/GADawaN/ ‘impudent’ (LA-L, 3:264a)

She sang : "Obongo my brother has gone to look for a very sharp spear."

<ADINO^ ‘his spear’ (Strong’s 5722)

"She said, ‘Hyenas like you are the enemies.’ "

/muta<ADDIN/ ‘aggressor’ (DMWA, p. 701b)

"The girl was thus able to escape."

Luo

Yoruba

When the man Obongo neglected to sacrifice animals at the behest of an ajuoga (medicine man), he suffered misfortune of losing all his property in consequence.

{such tales of persons suffering misfortune when neglecting to perform sacrifices praescribed, accompany each figure of Ifa divination}

p.

Luo

Astika (13BS)

42

"several girls went to the forest to fetch some firewood, where one of them was seized by a big snake, which the Luo people

From the naga dragons, S`andu the magician had learned to climb one of them into the sky, for

43

call tond-bungu, meaning ‘the rope of the forest’. ...

the "rope trick" : whence the enlightenment of

She sang and cried out until she heard someone cutting wood.

Kabinda {cf. name of Kabinda (Cabinda) north of Angola?} the woodcutter; and thus,

Finally her parents brought chicken {known in IndoChina as "jungle fowl"} into the forest ... for the snake."

chauffeured by the goddess Amela, Lomar {Loma-hars.ana?} rode the golden eagle to heaven.

p.

Luo

Norse

Tehuacan valley

45

"The bride was very fond of hunting wild animals for food at night."

The goddess Skadi "goes for the more part on snowshoes and with a bow and arrow, and shoots beasts" :

46

When the Hyaina-god sang, the voice seemed unacceptable to the nocturnal-huntress-goddess’s

"the wailing of wolves seemed ill" (G, cap. XXIII, in PE, p. 37) .

Path to canine headed black clawed god (CBM, p. 38) from

"lame child".

Son of Skadi and of Njo,rdr is Freyr, god of vegetation;

amputated black foot of maize-deity (CBM, p. 37).

The Hyaina-god’s projeny "said .. that their mother had cooked flies";

To coat fly-paper for catching flies, rubber-tree sap may be used : to this liquid sap adhaere the feet of [what are perhaps] nude fly-gods (called "essences of rubber" in CT&M, p. 186b) in CBM, p. 33;

one of these children obeyed instructions (from the nocturnal-huntress-goddess) "to climb on to the top of the roof".

clothed gods are depicted reclining in the attic of the "Black Temple" on the same CBM page; and also

his brother is the goddess Freyja, keepress of half of those who die (G, cap. XXIV, in PE, p. 38)

on the same page, in the lower left corner, is a death-headed goddess of vegetation.

The Hyaina-god’s wives died by their merely quaerying;

[probably meaning, despite Snorri, the women who die, perhaps in childbirth].

On CBM p. 34, "The Red Temple has ten recumbent Cihuateteo (souls of women who have died in childbirth)" (CT&M, p. 186a).

47

but they were afterwards revived.

Maasai Religion and Folklore. Nairobi, Kenya : City Print. Works, 1979.

Iraqw Religion and Folklore. Fjellhamar, Norway : World Folklore Society, 1981.

Turkana Religion and Folklore. Stockholm : Universitet Stockholm, 1986.