Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
J12A — Penis in a vessel.
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 girl or two sisters come to an old woman who invites them to marry her son. In reality, he is a worm, a snake or a penis, which his mother hides in a vessel during the day. The girl (sisters) do not allow him to approach them and run away. See motif J12.
Berezkin category: Avenger heroes: The amerinday cycle
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
J12 has 13 other sub-motifs
RelatedJ12. A girl or two sisters wander, usually in search of a suitable groom or husband who has left or lives far away. Along the way or upon reaching their destination, they encounter false suitors. (Traditions in which two heroines travel rather than one are highlighted in bold (motif j13).
J12a. A girl or two sisters come to an old woman who invites them to marry her son. In reality, he is a worm, a snake or a penis, which his mother hides in a vessel during the day. The girl (sisters) do not allow him to approach them and run away. See motif J12.
J12b. A honey groom or a skilled honey gatherer is attractive to a girl.
J12c. A girl meets her fiancé at a dance and then follows in his footsteps. See motif J12.
J12d. After a girl marries a worthy suitor, the rejected suitor or his relatives kill the rival. See motif J12.
J12E. The false bridegroom - skunk. See motif J12.
J12F. False groom - eagle owl/owl. See motif J12.
J12G. The false bridegroom is a bird that lives on or near water. See motif J12.
J12H. The false groom - the opossum.
J12I. A desirable marriage partner secretes beads instead of saliva or excrement. See motifs J12 and M57.
J12j. A girl or sisters end up with a false groom who plays the role of a jester in the chief's house. See motif J12.
J12k. Desirable and undesirable marriage partners live in the same house. The undesirable partner is a servant or junior partner, usually pretending to be the master.
J12l. The murderer pretends to mourn the victim along with everyone else. The deception is revealed, and the murderer is pursued. See motif J12.
J12m. A woman or two sisters come to two men and become wives of one of them. The other kills or tries to kill his rival or the women. As a result, the women turn into waterfowl.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| A10 | 100.00% | The sun gets its sparkling eyes (eye) from an animal. |
| A11C | 100.00% | The Sun and Moon kill a monster whose eyes shine differently. At first, the Moon takes the brighter eye, but then swaps with the Sun. |
| B23 | 100.00% | The deity forbids the use of fire for cooking and punishes those who violate the prohibition. |
| B39 | 100.00% | An insect or character, which later turns into an insect, knows where food (cultivated plants) or water is located, but refuses to share this knowledge. To find the valuables (usually to force the insect to reveal its secret), the first ancestors pull on a rope tied around the character's waist (the origin of the bridge between the abdominal and thoracic sections of insects). |
| G12 | 100.00% | A huge tree bearing various fruits and/or containing water in its trunk grows out of a human body or is a transformed human being. |
| G27 | 100.00% | Cultivated plants appear together with urine or in the place where the hero urinated. |
| J33A | 100.00% | A boy, a young man, or two children live in an old woman's house. They kill her husband—a man or a large animal—and make a scarecrow out of him. Angry that her husband is not responding to her, the old woman beats the scarecrow and then discovers that her husband has been killed. See motif J33. |
| J51B | 100.00% | The moon has been eaten or has died and its body has decomposed. It is revived, but a small part (the bone) is missing. This determines the characteristics of the moon or the characteristics of human anatomy. |
| G3 | 99.75% | Cultivated plants or fertile soil for their cultivation are hidden inside the rock. Birds or thunder gods pierce a hole in the rock. |
| G16 | 99.41% | Ants are the first to find cultivated plants that are unknown to others and concentrated in one place. |
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
7 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 7 traditions: Omotic: Ari (incl Baka, Male, Schangama, Ubamer), Kafa, Dime, Banna, Basketo, Nao, Napo (Quijo), Kanelo (“Jungle Kechua”), Shuar, Achuar (Shiwiar), Aguaruna, Huambiza, Chayahuita , Barasana, Taibano, Macuna, Lisu, Lolo (incl. Bai), Achang, Yi, Axi, Nasu, Jino, Taungyo
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