Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
I70 — Reptile with trees on its back.
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
OverviewTrees or reeds grow on the back or head of a reptile.
Berezkin category: Supernatural objects, objects and creatures
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 8, Queer and monstrous beings, creatures, objects and loci, folk beliefs related to particular phenomena and objects.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| L89 | 97.72% | One person, wishing to harm another, secretly gives him certain food to eat or a certain object to use. As a result, the other person dies (usually undergoing a metamorphosis). Cf. motif K82a. |
| L84 | 94.15% | The character attempts to chop down a tree with an axe made of obviously unsuitable material. Cf. motif K27g5. |
| C12A | 92.85% | The dog warns of an impending global flood or fire and advises what to do. |
| E20 | 91.89% | When a certain person enters the water, the fish die. A plant grows from parts of his body or on his grave, from which fish poison (timbó) is made. |
| M73A | 90.89% | Two (animal) persons compare their feces (with different purpose). One of them gets to exchange them |
| B59 | 89.28% | A group of people (usually children, brothers or sisters) play, dance, rise to the sky and turn into the Pleiades or another small constellation. |
| K27YY2 | 89.11% | The hero is sent to bring the chick of a dangerous bird. |
| B65 | 89.08% | A mischievous character imitates other animal-people. As a result, his belly is torn open and his spilled intestines turn into vines. |
| E5D | 88.91% | The first people to arrive on earth and settle within a limited space are threatened by a predator or monster. |
| F47A | 86.93% | Men use each part of the body of a single woman for copulation, or each man takes a part of her body cut into pieces. |
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
6 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 6 traditions: Lenape (Delaware), Mandan, Xipaya, Mundurucu, Curuaia, Mataco, Japan
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