U is for Underarm (Body Folktales)

This year, my A to Z Challenge theme is Body Folktales. Enjoy! 

I was having a hard time with this letter, and none of the uvula stories were particularly exciting, so I ended up looking for armpit stories.

The sun and the children (/Xam, South Africa)

In this myth the Sun is an old man who hides light in his armpit. There is only light when he lifts his arm in his sleep, and even then only around his house. Two women send their children to lift him and (politely) throw him into the sky where he turns into the Sun and shares his light with all. (See a longer version here.)

The merchant's slandered daughter (Russia)

A king wants to marry a merchant's daughter, but a jealous general tells him she is immodest, and he has already slept with her multiple times. When the king asks for proof, the general pays a crafty old woman to find out what special mark the girl has. Turns out she has a single golden hair under one armpit. This almost ends the whole issue, except the clever girl finds a way to prove that the accusation was false.

Galngam and Hangsai (Vaiphei / Gangte, India)

In this series of tales the hero Galngam visits the land of Keichalpu, a lion shapeshifter and his people. When his brother Hangsai wants to follow in his footsteps, the villagers kill him and distribute his body parts among themselves. Galngam goes looking, and when they find out the victim was his brother, they put Hangsai's body back together. However, one of his armpits is missing, because an old woman already ate her share of the meat. Galngam fixes up the hole with a bat's wings. However, when Hangsai revives and finds out his armpit was fixed with a bat, he scratches at it, and the wound kills him again. (Read another version here.)

There were also some other legends about heroes being born from a mother's armpit, or only being vulnerable in their armpit. Go figure.