Lenape (Delaware)



Tradition title rus: 
Делавары (ленапе)
Areal ID: 
12.5.1.4
Tradition analysis result motif count all: 
87.00
Tradition analysis result motif count cosmo: 
59.00
Motifs: 

Motif

a3


Name_eng: 
Male sun and female moon
Description: 

The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male




Motif

a5


Name_eng: 
The Sun and the Moon are males
Description: 

The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (much more rare) asexual




Motif

b1


Name_eng: 
Two male creators
Description: 

Two male anthropomorphic creators compete in producing things. One of them is or becomes master of the underworld and/or spirits while another is associated with humans




Motif

b2a


Name_eng: 
The female earth
Description: 

The earth is a female person (alone or together with a male person); she is female being or associated with a woman




Motif

b3a


Name_eng: 
Primeval waters
Description: 

Water is the original element, the dry earth appears later




Motif

b3b


Name_eng: 
Earth grows big
Description: 

Original earth was small and later increased in size or the fertile soil grew from a small amount of original substance




Motif

b3e


Name_eng: 
Earth falls on waters
Description: 

In the beginning there are only air and water. 1) Person descends from the sky, creates the dry land or a hard support created for her or him grows into the earth. 2) The earth is sent or dropped from the sky, put on the surface of the water. 3) The earth is brought from somewhere (not from the underworld) and put on the water




Motif

b27


Name_eng: 
Variants of transformations
Description: 

Persons ponders over what object, feature, or creature it would be appropriate for him or her to turn into. When the choice is made, the persons transforms himself or herself




Motif

b36


Name_eng: 
Creatures acquire their physical traits
Description: 

Birds, fish, reptiles, mammals intentionally or by chance are smeared with colorful substances or divide among themselves parts of somebody's body thus acquiring their present characteristics




Motif

b36c


Name_eng: 
Fat animals
Description: 

Animals get meat and fat extracted from some original creature or created otherwise. Some get a lot, some remain lean




Motif

b41a


Name_eng: 
Animal reveals master’s secrets
Description: 

The dog or other domestic animal speaks aloud about those details of its masters' life that they would prefer to conceal. He is punished by depriving his ability to speak




Motif

b42


Name_eng: 
Cosmic hunt
Description: 

Certain stars or constellations are interpreted as hunters, their dogs and game that the hunters pursue




Motif

b42b


Name_eng: 
Sky hunters pursue an ungulate
Description: 

In the cosmic hunt tale the game pursued by the hunters is an ungulate (elk, deer, mountain sheep, etc.)




Motif

b42c


Name_eng: 
Sky hunters pursue a bear
Description: 

In the cosmic hunt tale the game pursued by the hunters is a bear




Motif

b42l


Name_eng: 
Animal is the dipper, hunters are the handle
Description: 

Stars of the handle of the Big Dipper are identified with the hunters, the dipper itself with the game (bear or elk) or a neat-barn ravaged by bear




Motif

b42p


Name_eng: 
Ursa major is a bear
Description: 

Ursa major is identified with a bear




Motif

b45


Name_eng: 
Marriage of winter and summer
Description: 

A coming of warm (light, abundant, etc.) or cold (dark, barren, etc.) time is related to the marriage of certain person




Motif

b48


Name_eng: 
Predators become herbivorous
Description: 

Weak or herbivorous animals were dangerous predators but have been transformed




Motif

b59


Name_eng: 
A group of dancers ascends to the sky
Description: 

A group of people (usually children, brothers or sisters) play, dance, ascend to the sky and turn into Pleiades or other compact constellation




Motif

b60


Name_eng: 
Offended children abandon parents
Description: 

Children conflict with their parents who do not pay them enough attention, condemn their sexual behavior, do not give them enough food, clothes, etc.; the children abandon their parents and become birds, bats, atmospheric phenomena, or stars (usually the Pleiades)




Motif

b87


Name_eng: 
Alcor
Description: 

Alcor (a weak star near the second star of the handle of the Big Dipper) is selected as a particular sky object




Motif

b87a


Name_eng: 
Alcor is a dog
Description: 

A weak star near the second star of the handle of the Big Dipper (the Tibetans: Small Dipper) is interpreted as a dog




Motif

c5a


Name_eng: 
Bird-scouts
Description: 

Birds or humans later changed to birds are sent to explore the earth (is it dry, are any survivals, to investigate why smoke rises to the sky, etc.) or to bring some soil to make the land that would be good for living




Motif

c5b


Name_eng: 
Animal-scouts
Description: 

During the creation of the world or after the world cataclysm animals run around making the earth big, reporting about its condition or they are sent to report the size of the growing earth




Motif

c6


Name_eng: 
Valuables brought from the lower world
Description: 

Persons or animals dive or otherwise decend to the lower world to get a desired object and to bring it to earth (besides episodes in the fairytales, cf. motif k27x9)




Motif

c6a


Name_eng: 
The diver is turtle or frog
Description: 

A turtle or a frog (toad) brings the desired object from the bottom of the water body or from the lower world




Motif

c6b


Name_eng: 
The diver is muskrat (otter, beaver)
Description: 

A muskrat (more rare beaver or otter) brings the desired object from under the water




Motif

c6c


Name_eng: 
The diver is a bird
Description: 

An aquatic bird dives and brings the desired object from the bottom




Motif

c6d


Name_eng: 
The aquisition of the earth from the lower world
Description: 

The dry land (the earth) grows from a small amount of solid substance (sand, clay, dirt and the like) brought from the lower world (usually from the bottom of the ocean)




Motif

c25b


Name_eng: 
A spinner in the Moon
Description: 

In the sky, on the Moon (rare: on the Sun), i.e. somewhere outside of our world certain person is spinning, weaving, plaiting, or embroidering




Motif

e5b


Name_eng: 
First couple from the underworld
Description: 

First man (a group of brothers) or first human couple come out from the underworld (a cave) or from a small enclosure on its surface (tussock, reed, tree, rock, gourd)




Motif

e32


Name_eng: 
People born from trees
Description: 

First people are born by trees or come out of a tree, flower, reed




Motif

f30


Name_eng: 
Snake paramour
Description: 

A woman or a girl takes a snake, an eel (i.e. Pacific snake-eel), a lizard, or a worm for husband or paramour. People kill or badly injure him, the woman and/or her progeny or the woman herself is transformed into snake. Cf. motif k76b: the snake-husband becomes and remains a handsome man




Motif

f65


Name_eng: 
The false burial
Description: 

To realize his or her secret desire (illicit sex, refusal to share food with relations), person pretends to die and is abandoned at a burial place




Motif

f65a


Name_eng: 
Death feigned to meet paramour
Description: 

Person pretends to die. His or her wife or husband abandons him or her on a burial place. He or she marries his or her paramour




Motif

g6


Name_eng: 
Primeval tree
Description: 

One of the trees is the principal, original one (emerged before all the other; ancestor of wild or cultivated plants; ocean or rivers inside it; world axis; higher than all the others; overshadows sky)




Motif

h18


Name_eng: 
Hoarded game released
Description: 

Game animals were concentrated in one single place. Certain person lets them disperse in the world




Motif

h28


Name_eng: 
Plagues from the body of a person or creature
Description: 

Killed and destroyed (often burned) person or creature (usually ogre, fierce animal, powerful shaman) turns into a multitude of biting insects or into other small molesting creatures




Motif

i1


Name_eng: 
The thunderbirds
Description: 

Creatures that produce rain and/or thunderstorms are birds or anthropomorphic beings with wings; or (rare) some or all birds are connected with thunder, lightning or rain though Thunder is not a bird




Motif

i4b


Name_eng: 
Thunder in trouble: fights with his enemy
Description: 

A man helps Thunder who fights with his enemy




Motif

i11


Name_eng: 
Cosmic turtle or toad
Description: 

A turtle, toad, or frog supports the earth (sky) or is its embodiment




Motif

i13a


Name_eng: 
The horned serpent
Description: 

Giant water-chthonic or sky serpent or dragon has horns or antlers on its head




Motif

i22


Name_eng: 
Objects in permanent movement
Description: 

There are objects which remaining on the same place are moving permanently or periodically (meet and part. rise and fall down, shut and open, rotate)




Motif

i22a


Name_eng: 
Rising and falling sky
Description: 

The sky is constantly moving up and down in respect to earth




Motif

i27


Name_eng: 
Chthonic canine
Description: 

A dog is the lord, guard or guide of/to the land of the dead; or dogs live on the way to the land of the dead




Motif

i28


Name_eng: 
Animals in the underworld
Description: 

Game animals live inside a mountain, in a cave or in the underworld where they often look like humans and have a master




Motif

i65


Name_eng: 
Milky Way of the dead
Description: 

Milky Way is the path over which souls travel to the beyond or a path of the funeral procession




Motif

i70


Name_eng: 
Water reptile on plants on its back
Description: 

Trees or reeds grow on the back of a monstrous reptile




Motif

i80a


Name_eng: 
The youngest Thunder
Description: 

Man meets Thunders and becomes one of them




Motif

i99


Name_eng: 
The Pleiades are boys or men
Description: 

The Pleiades are a group of boys or men, or a group of different people but predominantly males




Motif

i100


Name_eng: 
The Pleiades are girls
Description: 

The Pleiades are a group of girls or women (with children)




Motif

i100b


Name_eng: 
The Pleiades are a group of people
Description: 

The Pleiades are any people (of any ages and sex, combined data of i99-i100a)




Motif

j18


Name_eng: 
Woman falls from the sky
Description: 

A woman who is pregnant or has a small child falls from the sky. She or a daughter born by her dies but her (grand)son is grown up




Motif

j23


Name_eng: 
A late son kills monsters
Description: 

People (elder brothers, elder siblings, elder sister) disappear (one by one). A lonely woman has a baby or finds a baby or she becomes pregnant magically and gives birth to a boy or twins. The boy grows up, exterminates the antagonists, usually revives and releases those who had disappeared




Motif

j64


Name_eng: 
Person moves on clouds of smoke
Description: 

Not being burned in a fire, person ascends to the sky or gets across a river on clouds of smoke




Motif

k1e


Name_eng: 
Marooned on an islet
Description: 

Person is marooned on an islet or on another side of a sea or wide river




Motif

k8a


Name_eng: 
Jonah: swallowed by monster
Description: 

Person gets into the belly of water being or into the belly of giant creature which appearance and living place remain vague. He kills the monster from the inside and/or returns to earth by himself (i.e. not extracted by other people)




Motif

k8c


Name_eng: 
Jonah: swallowed by terrestrial animal
Description: 

Person gets into the belly of ground animal or bird. He kills it from the inside and/or returns to earth by himself (i.e. not extracted by other people)




Motif

k9


Name_eng: 
God’s wife thrown down from the sky
Description: 

The sky chief discovers or thinks that his wife, sister or lover is untrue or incestuous. He throws her down from the sky. She becomes the mistress of the lower or middle world or a part of it or one of her sons gets power over the lower world




Motif

k27k


Name_eng: 
Diving contest
Description: 

A contest: to dive deep or for a long time




Motif

k27m


Name_eng: 
To get an animal of unusual color
Description: 

The hero must kill and bring an animal of special (often unusual) color or form




Motif

k27n


Name_eng: 
Difficult tasks of the in-laws
Description: 

A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage




Motif

k69


Name_eng: 
A visit to God
Description: 

A group of persons decide to go to the end of the world to meet the Sun or other supreme god. One (or several) of them perish on their way, some reach destination, at least one returns home using the shorter way than the one they have took before




Motif

k75


Name_eng: 
The youngest daughter is willing (The loathsome bridegroom)
Description: 

A girl (usually the youngest of several sisters) does not reject but marries a poor, sick, dirty, old, too young, non-human, etc. man who later demonstrates his supernatural qualities




Motif

k77a


Name_eng: 
Small objects and animals defeat the ogre
Description: 

Small objects and animals (rare: animals alone but including those who really are harmless) revenge on a powerful enemy making attack on him in succession (usually they hide in his or her house); the enemy is badly injured, runs away or dies




Motif

l13


Name_eng: 
The reared up monster
Description: 

A small creature is reared up by people. When it is grown up, it becomes harmful and dangerous




Motif

l14


Name_eng: 
Reared up serpent
Description: 

A small creature (often a worm or a reptile) is brought home and reared up or it becomes to live by itself in an artificial body of water. When big, it goes out of human control or becomes something huge and/or dangerous. Cf. motif L13A (The reared up monster attacks people)




Motif

l31


Name_eng: 
People stick to monster
Description: 

People against their will must follow an object, a creature, or a person (usually stick to it) who/which leads or carries them far away, usually into the water or to the sky




Motif

l31b


Name_eng: 
Reptile carries people into the water
Description: 

People find a snake or a turtle on a dry ground. They touch it or sit on it, stick to it, it carries them into the water




Motif

l46


Name_eng: 
Head downward
Description: 

Person ascends, descends, walks head downward or sees the world upside down




Motif

l69


Name_eng: 
Puma rescues man from a monster
Description: 

A man is attacked by a monster but puma or jaguar fights with the monster and rescues the man




Motif

l75


Name_eng: 
Flint kills his mother
Description: 

One of twin brothers is evil. Being still in the womb, he does not want to be born in a normal way and bursts through his mother’s side killing her




Motif

m13


Name_eng: 
The short-sighted wish is granted
Description: 

Some person makes a wish not taking in mind that his words can have other meaning or accidentally replacing one word with another. As a result, something quite undesirable takes place




Motif

m30


Name_eng: 
Trickster falls down
Description: 

Person or creature who has no wings or is unable to fly on a long distance attempts to ascend to the sky or to fly far away but falls down or, deprived of his wings, remains in a place from which he is unable to return




Motif

b42g


Name_eng: 
Ursa major is a game animal(s)
Description: 

Ursus major (seven stars or only four stars of a dipper) is identified with the game animal or anmials (usually pursued by the hunter)




Motif

b42a


Name_eng: 
Blood or fat drops to earth
Description: 

Hunters pursue a bear across the sky, kill it in August – October. Its blood or fat drops to earth as a dew or painting leaves of the trees in red




Motif

j59b


Name_eng: 
An arrow falls down, a dead one revives
Description: 

To revive the dead, person shoots an arrow into the sky (it is suggested that the dead would be afraid of the arrow falling, jump aside and become alive)




Motif

m29b2


Name_eng: 
The bear is a failure/enemy
Description: 

Because of its stupidity or unsocial behavior, the bear suffers a reverse, is injured or dies




Motif

h12


Name_eng: 
The alive person comes to the land of the dead after somebody’s death
Description: 

The alive person comes to the land of the dead to bring back somebody who has recently died (besides stories about shamans who journey to the other world to bring back the soul of a sick person) or, having no particular aim, goes there in company of somebody who had recently died or following his or her tracks




Motif

h12c


Name_eng: 
Orpheus: to return the dead wife
Description: 

Husband follows his dead wife to the other world but is unable to bring her back or succeeds to do it but loses her once again




Motif

k38f4


Name_eng: 
Fire-breathing monster
Description: 

From the mouth of a monstrous creature or person who is the enemy of the hero fire is coming out; its breath is fire




Motif

k8c5


Name_eng: 
Bear dies after swallowing mouse
Description: 

Animal person (mammal, bird, fish) of a small size (less than a fox) gets inside the bear and kills him from the inside (usually eat his meat)




Motif

g2


Name_eng: 
The return of Persephone
Description: 

Person who is the incarnation of fertility and life first disappears and then (reriodically) returns




Motif

f45a1


Name_eng: 
Accidental conception from wind
Description: 

A woman is impregnated by wind in defiance of her wish




Motif

b27b


Name_eng: 
Transformation into stars
Description: 

Persons ponders over what object, feature, or creature it would be appropriate for them to turn. When the choice is made, persons turn into stars




Motif

c6c3


Name_eng: 
The loon is successful diver
Description: 

The loon dives and brings a piece of earth (a blade of grass etc.) that is transformed into the dry land or it brings other object which everybody is eager to get (the loon is the only or the only successful diver)




Motif

j23c


Name_eng: 
Youngest brother kills monsters
Description: 

People (elder brothers, elder siblings, elder sister) disappear (one by one). A lonely woman has a baby or finds a baby or she becomes pregnant magically and gives birth to a boy. The boy grows up, exterminates the antagonists, usually revives and releases those who had disappeared





Similar traditions based on Cosmology and Etiology motifs:
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 7 Tradition: Five Nations Iroquois (Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition:
Western Ojibwa (Chippewa)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition:
Sauk (Sak, Mesquakie), Fox, Kickapoo
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition:
Sicuani
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition:
Huron (incl Wyandot)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition:
Pemon: Arekuna (incl. Kamarakoto), Taulipang (Taurepan)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition:
Sayula Popoluca (=Veracruz Mixe), Sierra Popoluca, Veracruz Zoque
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition:
Cherokee
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition:
Micmac
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition:
Blackfoot

Similar traditions based on Adventures and Tricks motifs:
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 6 Tradition:
Five Nations Iroquois (Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 5 Tradition:
Western Ojibwa (Chippewa)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 5 Tradition:
Huron (incl Wyandot)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 5 Tradition:
Santee
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition:
Blackfoot
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition:
Cherokee
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition:
Crow
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition:
Caddo
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition:
Menominee
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition:
Creek, Seminole; Tuskegee; iconography of Kentucky Hopewell