K65 — Spirits of loci.

Having been cast out, discarded, or born of the first ancestors, creatures of a certain category acquire individuality, transforming into spirits who are the masters of various loci.

Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes

This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 3, Cosmogony, the earth and the sky, etiology of the elements, natural and biological phenomena (fire, water, soil, thunderstorms, dream, etc.), cataclysms and cosmic threats, spirits of nature.

K65.  Having been cast out, discarded, or born of the first ancestors, creatures of a certain category acquire individuality, transforming into spirits who are the masters of various loci.
K65a.  After being thrown from a height or expelled, various creatures end up in different locations, acquiring corresponding functions and names.
K65b.  Spirits (deities) or unpleasant animals (snakes, frogs, worms, etc.) are generated by the same first anthropomorphic pair or the same pair of first ancestors as humans (deities).
K65c.  A woman (rarely a man) hides some of her children (less often, all of them) or some of her domestic animals from God. According to God, the hidden children become either poor people or creatures of a non-human nature, and the hidden domestic animals become wild.
K65c1.  A woman gives birth to many children, but hides some of them from God. Those who are hidden become the progenitors of people of low social status, and those who are shown become the progenitors of people of high status. {The definition of plot 758 in Uther 2004 largely coincides with ours, but the references also include traditions in which children hidden from God become spirits rather than people of low status}.
K65c2.  A woman or female animal gives birth to several sons, including a human and a tiger.
K65c3.  A woman (alone or with her husband) hides some of her children from God because she is ashamed of having given birth to so many offspring.
K65d.  The first human couple initially only have miscarriages, or their children are spirits or unpleasant and dangerous animals. After performing a formal marriage ceremony or repeating it according to new rules, the woman gives birth to real people or gods.
K65e.  A woman is invited into the non-human world, where she delivers a child for one of the creatures (or serves as a nanny for a certain period of time, baptises the child). Then she returns to the human world.
K65e1.  A woman delivers a baby (baptises a child) for a creature that in the human world has the appearance of a toad or frog.
K65f.  Once in the locus of demons, a person sees them in their true form. Upon returning, the person sees the demon again, which ordinary people are incapable of doing. The demon blinds him.

This motif has been recorded in 39 traditions: Ot Danum, Ngadju, Mindanao and Sulu: Blaan (Bilaan), Bagobo, Bukidnon, Cotabato, Hiligáynon, Binukid, Magindaan (=Magindanao: main Muslim population), Mandaya, Mansaka, Manobo (Agusan, Ata, Dibabawon, Sarangani, Ilianen), Maranao, Samal, Subanon (=Subanun), Subanen, Tboli, Andamanese, Santali, Turi, Mahli, Northern Munda of Kharwar branch: Birhor, Ho, Mundari, Kol, Asur (including Agaria, Kol, Birjhia), Bhumij, Oraon (Kurukh), Poles, Estonians, Karelians, Western Sami, Eastern Sami (including Skolts), Danes, Danish, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Georgians, Mari (Cheremis), Mordvins, Chuvash, Udmurt, Komi (Zyrians and Permyaks), Southern Altai: Altai proper (Altai-Kiji), Telengit, Altaians, Northern Altai: Chelkan, Kumanda, Tubalar, Altaians, Nganasans, Southern Selkups, Northern Selkups, Kets, Olcha (Ulch), Nivkh, Creols of Russkoye Ustye, Lkungen (Straits; including Samish, Songish, Sooke, Lummi), Klallam, Chol; pre-Columbian Mayan iconography outside of Yucatan, Mataco, Arabs (literary tradition; incl. One Thousand and One Nights), Icelanders, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Early Russian written sources, Russian Federation