Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
F52 — Bird's crest made of pubic hair.
Source data for narratives and traditions is drawn from Berezkin’s Analytical Catalogue. If you use this data, please acknowledge and link to it: Ю.Е. Березкин, Е.Н. Дувакин. Тематическая классификация и распределение фольклорно-мифологических мотивов по ареалам. Аналитический каталог.
Summary of motif
OverviewThe first ancestor bird puts pubic hair or part of a woman's genitals on its head; since then, birds of this species have had a crest.
Berezkin category: Gender and sex
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 5, Origin of human beings, ethnic groups, etiology of human anatomy, strange body configuration, ways of behavior, marriages before the establishment of the present norms.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K11A | 99.21% | Plucked feathers of a (huge) bird turn into actual birds (or their plumage) or humans emerge from them. |
| K58A | 99.11% | The character brings water for irrigation or a fish river to the place where the girl agrees to meet him, and does not bring water if she refuses. (The parallel between the myths of Peru and Oregon was first noted in Lehmann-Nitsche 1935a; 1936). |
| M103 | 99.11% | One character asks another how her (his) children acquired valuable qualities (became beautiful, obedient, etc.). The other replies that children must be baked in ashes, kept in fire, burned, etc. The first character does so, and her or his children die or are maimed. |
| F21 | 98.72% | While the character copulates with a woman, she turns into a tree or a rock. His penis gets stuck in her. |
| I37D | 98.33% | Mushrooms are the excrement of a mythological character. See motif I37. |
| K42 | 98.28% | A young bird woman energetically searches among a group of men for one she likes, takes him by force and makes him her husband; she turns into a monster, pursues and kills men, but is ultimately killed herself. |
| J53A1 | 97.86% | The children of the murdered man kill the murderer's children, luring them to a place where they perish from heat or smoke. |
| K18B | 97.70% | Men or women approach the little boy one after another or take him in their arms. The person who makes the boy stop crying is recognised as his parent. See motif K18. |
| J58B | 97.42% | With the help of a chain of arrows, the sky or the sun is pulled down or pushed up, or a hole is made in the sky. |
| C6F | 97.25% | The characters attempt to retrieve a living creature or part of its body that has sunk to the bottom of the water. See motif C6. |
See the 100 most similar distributions →
Map of motif dispersal
DistributionDrag the map to pan, use the scroll wheel to zoom — choose a texture or projection below
Traditions
13 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 13 traditions: Maka (Makaa), Baya, Kaka, Yuchi, Lushootseed (Puget Sound: Puyallup, Nisqualmi, Snuqualmi, Duwamish, Muckleshoot, Snohomish, Skagit), Tillamook, Coos, Yurok, Yuki (Yuki proper, Coastal Yuki, Huchnob), Wintu, Patwin, Nomlaki, Upland Yuma: Walapai, Havasupai, Yavapai, Mehinaku, Waura, Yaulapiti, Kamayura, Makka, Russian Federation
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How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
0009-0006-1672-4451
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