Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
H38 — The owner of the valuables comes to retrieve them.
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
OverviewA supernatural character changes appearance and comes to the hero's children (less often to the hero himself). Unaware of the trick, they hand over the magical object they have obtained to its former owner, and the character disappears with it.
Berezkin category: Paradise Lost
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| B42D | 100.00% | In the cosmic hunting plot, the object of pursuit is a bear. See motif B42. |
| E9G | 100.00% | Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife, helper) has the image of a vulture. |
| K11B | 100.00% | The bones of a huge bird are turned into reeds or bamboo for making arrows or sarbacanes. |
| M1A | 100.00% | The caiman transports one of the brothers or a group of brothers, who then turn into the Pleiades. It usually bites off the leg of the youngest. Cf. motif K13B. |
| F9B | 99.89% | A biting piranha in a woman's genitals. |
| A25 | 99.85% | When coming out onto the earth (for the first time or after a global catastrophe) or witnessing the first sunrise, people should not look directly at the light. |
| J68 | 99.85% | Characters who have been chasing an animal for a long time see increasingly fresh droppings on the trail and finally catch up with their prey (usually the droppings correspond to how long they have been lying there); or the pursuers see areas where less time has passed since sowing. |
| L39A | 99.62% | A supernatural character emerges from the underworld and attacks a man who has climbed a tree. |
| L78 | 99.52% | In the images, the character has the features of a jaguar and a toad; the toad/frog turns into a jaguar; the toad/frog is the mother or wife of the jaguar. |
| J43 | 99.28% | To destroy his antagonists, the hero creates edible bait for them, usually a fruit tree on the other side of the river. |
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
4 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 4 traditions: Trio, Shuar, Achuar (Shiwiar), Karijona, Rikbaktsa
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