Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
H49D — The Innocently Slain Parrot, ATU 916(4).
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 character (usually a bird) brings a healing (rejuvenating) fruit (seed, branch). Accidentally or maliciously, poison gets into the fruit. The person whom the fruit-bearer wanted to help kills or is about to kill his benefactor, and then learns of his mistake.
Berezkin category: Paradise Lost
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
H49 has 4 other sub-motifs
RelatedH49. A dog or other animal kills a creature that threatened a small child. The owner or other people mistake the saviour for an aggressor and kill it.
H49A. A man does not understand that a dog or cat wanted to save his wife or preserve her honour and kills the animal.
H49b. A man gives his dog to another man. The dog is of great use to him (it finds stolen goods and drives away thieves). The man who received the dog sends it back with a letter of thanks. The owner thinks that the dog has run away, kills it, and only then finds the letter.
H49c. A tame bird (rarely: a domestic animal) shows visible aggression towards its owner (usually a falcon knocks a bowl out of the hands of a thirsty man). The man kills the bird (animal) and then discovers that they saved him from death.
H49d. A character (usually a bird) brings a healing (rejuvenating) fruit (seed, branch). Accidentally or maliciously, poison gets into the fruit. The person whom the fruit-bearer wanted to help kills or is about to kill his benefactor, and then learns of his mistake.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K61F | 99.74% | Fearing her husband's wrath, a childless woman pretends to have given birth. Her husband believes that he has a daughter or son, and after some time marries her off (marries him off). During the wedding ceremony, a doll or animal is placed under the veil (in the palanquin), but at the last moment, a supernatural character transforms the supposed bride (groom) into a girl or boy. |
| K66B | 98.96% | Travelling from one place to another, the hero leaves one of his companions in each place (usually marrying them to the princesses he has received as a reward), and continues on his way. When he gets into trouble, his companions come to his aid. |
| K27Z5 | 98.94% | Two men agree to marry their children if one has a son and the other has a daughter. The girl's parents do not fulfil the agreement. The boy grows up and finds his betrothed. |
| K99B | 98.86% | A girl and a young man agree that he will take her away at night. The young man is late or falls asleep, and the girl is taken away by someone else who happens to be at the appointed place. |
| K60C | 98.12% | The stubborn wife of a worthy man goes on a date with a demon or a servant. He beats her, but she patiently endures her lover's beatings. |
| B2F2 | 98.00% | The character carries the body of the deceased for a long time, unable to bury it or not knowing how to do so, but eventually buries the body in the ground. |
| M94B | 97.77% | The character is lured to look under the mill wheel, he dies or is maimed. |
| M29Z1 | 97.73% | purely anthropomorphic character, or a character who bears the name of an animal or plant but does not act zoomorphic in the course of his adventures. See the motives in square brackets. {Data not fully entered} |
| K56A4B | 97.67% | A girl is told to clean the yarn, or to spin and weave. The wind blows the yarn (cloth, spindle) away, the girl goes in search of it, and comes across a character who rewards her. |
| L96B | 97.63% | A person encounters an ascetic, demon, etc. The latter intends to kill him by pushing him into a boiling cauldron or cutting off his head when he bows before the deity. The person asks the ascetic to do everything first, then pushes him into the cauldron or cuts off his head himself. |
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: Karen, Pa-O, Padaung, Kayah, Tamil, Muthuvan, Marvar, Tamils, Kashmiri, Rajasthani (Radjasthan and Madhya Pradesh), Uzbek, Tajik, Baluch, Karachays, Balkar, Armenians, Anatolia Turks, Kurds, Kazakh, Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal)
If you wish to get access to data for projects and research, then please contact us, we do our best to help
How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
0009-0006-1672-4451
Where applicable, users should also cite the relevant original sources, catalogues, and classification systems, including Berezkin, ATU, Thompson, and other cited authorities, alongside the page accessed and the last time accessed.
Editorial annotations and database enhancements Š Jonathan Fielder-White licensed under CC BY 4.0. Berezkin-derived narrative and metadata licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Full rights information can be found here.
All rights are reserved in the database structure, selection, arrangement, metadata, classifications, software, interface design, and original editorial content.
Important: The Folklore Database expressly reserves all rights in relation to text and data mining, automated extraction, scraping, machine learning, dataset creation, and the training, development, validation, or improvement of artificial intelligence technologies or systems. No part of this website or database may be scraped, copied, reproduced, harvested, downloaded in bulk, or otherwise used for AI training or commercial data extraction without prior written permission.
Designed and Developed by Jon Fielder-White.
Š 2024â2026 Crecganford / Jonathan Fielder-White. All rights reserved.