Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
H18B — Cattle return to the water.
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
OverviewHaving received livestock from supernatural characters, a person (usually due to violating a prohibition on looking, shouting, etc.) immediately loses all or most of the animals (they go into the water, into the sky, scatter, etc.).
Berezkin category: Paradise Lost
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 7, Etiology of plants and animals and of their peculiar features, particular animals as protagonists of cosmological stories, metamorphoses, weather and calendar.
H18 has 2 other sub-motifs
RelatedH18. Hunted animals were concentrated in one place. A certain character creates them there or allows them to scatter.
H18a. The owner of the hunting animals hides them underground; one of the first ancestors turns into a puppy, which is picked up by the owner's children, and releases the animals. See motif H18.
H18b. Having received livestock from supernatural characters, a person (usually due to violating a prohibition on looking, shouting, etc.) immediately loses all or most of the animals (they go into the water, into the sky, scatter, etc.).
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| H44 | 97.27% | A human enters into a relationship with a non-human being. When they part, the being tears apart (or intends to tear apart) their child. (Most of the data was collected by S.Y. Neklyudov). |
| B116 | 96.87% | The first book (writing, important document) is eaten by an animal or a person. (In some European traditions, the eating of the book is not described, but is implied from the context). Cf. ATU 200. Cf. Thompson 1955-1958. â A2219.2. Cow swallows book; cause of maniplies in stomach. |
| K80 | 96.61% | The character transforms into objects or creatures, which another character systematically destroys. However, the character (usually a young woman) is reborn each time in a new form and eventually in her original form. |
| B79 | 95.96% | In the world ocean or in the world abyss, from an egg (eggs) or egg-like sphere, shell, etc., the earth, sky, luminaries, and creator gods arise. |
| K144 | 95.60% | When the animal, object, or person that was supposed to cause the character's death has already died or is far away, the character's remains or images become the cause of death. |
| K27HH | 95.38% | The character is tasked with quickly separating small particles of different types (usually seeds of different plant species) mixed together in a single vessel, or counting the number of grains, or gathering scattered or already sown grain. |
| K76A | 95.38% | A frog or toad marries a beautiful woman, or a handsome young man marries a frog. |
| M84D | 95.25% | A person hears trees talking, one of which is (fatally) ill and suffers. |
| K56B | 95.11% | Two men take turns meeting a character who can reward and punish. One behaves correctly and is rewarded, the other (or two others) behave incorrectly and are punished (rarely: not rewarded). |
| K95 | 95.11% | Two people who love each other (usually a man and a woman) die prematurely and are buried in the same grave or nearby. After or during the burial, something unusual happens that is connected with the story (special plants grow in that place, the smoke from the two funeral pyres joins together, the dead turn into two birds, two stars, etc.). |
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
23 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 23 traditions: Masai, Fula (Fulbe, Fulani, Pular), SW Arunachal Pradesh: Sherdukpen, Tawang (Monpas), Aka (Hrusso), Miji, Chin-Naga: Ao, Mao, Sema, Zeme, Kolren, Kom, Lhota, Rengma, Angami, Kabui, Tangkhul, Koirenf, Garo (Atchik), Kachari (Bodo, incl. Lalung), Dimasa, Tripuri, Riang (of Tripura), Khami, Riga, Mori, Rawang, Dulong; Anong, Drung, Lavrung, Jiarong; Qiang (incl rGyalrong), Namuci (Namuyi), Naxi; Pumi (Primi), Lepcha, Wales, Slovenians, Slovenes, Lithuanians, Estonians, Western Sami, Eastern Sami (including Skolts), Norwegians, Tajik, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Karachays, Balkar, Bashkirs, Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Central Yakuts (Sakha), Lkungen (Straits; including Samish, Songish, Sooke, Lummi), Klallam
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