Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
K37B — Recognising a woman by her missing little finger.
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 man must identify his chosen one blindfolded. He does this by touch, knowing that one of her fingers is damaged or missing.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
K37 has 5 other sub-motifs
RelatedK37. In order to return or obtain a wife, son or husband (in Africa also a domestic animal or object), a person must identify her or him among several identical people or animals (objects).
K37a. The character must identify his son or husband among many identical people or animals. See motif K37.
K37b. A man must identify his chosen one blindfolded. He does this by touch, knowing that one of her fingers is damaged or missing.
K37c. The character must identify an animal or object among several identical ones. See motif K37.
K37d. The character recognises the presence of another by noticing traces of their teeth or nails on fruit or leaves.
K37e. The clairvoyant cannot identify the person who revealed the secret, because that person does so while hiding among objects that are never found together in everyday life.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| H7B2 | 100.00% | A man named Poverty makes Death swear that it will never come to him. Therefore, poverty is inevitable in the world. |
| H24D | 100.00% | An animal character who released the contents (darkness, insects, reptiles) from a vessel is still trying to gather everything back (etiology of the behaviour of a certain species of animal). |
| M38C2 | 100.00% | To shove a horse or donkey, Jesus (the saint) cuts off his leg, nails a horseshoe to his hoof, and attaches his leg back. The other character tries to imitate in vain. |
| M39A4F | 100.00% | Fool sells property to the statue and believes that it will pay him. Trying to get his money, he finds treasure |
| I80B | 100.00% | Man is allowed to control the weather in his own interests. He sends rain at the right time, but cannot take all factors into account (he usually forgets about the wind). The bread will not grow or will be unpalatable. |
| M157D | 99.99% | Animals (mainly domestic) and/or people join forces to achieve a goal (usually to pull a root vegetable out of the ground). They succeed after the last participant (usually the weakest) joins in. |
| B87C | 99.98% | Alcor (the faint star next to the second star of the Big Dipper's handle) â rider, driver, coachman. |
| J51A1 | 99.98% | To retrieve an object from a hard-to-reach place, the girl orders it to be dismembered (or just have its fingers cut off) and then reassembled, after which it comes back to life. |
| K32H1 | 99.98% | The antagonist is executed by being placed in a barrel (with nails) and rolled down a hill or tied to a horse. |
| L129A | 99.98% | The wolf or demon is asked why its body parts and organs are the way they are. It explains sequentially. |
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
9 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 9 traditions: England, British, Bretons, Scotland, Scots, Picts, Scotti, Scottish, Spain, Spaniards, Portuguese, Portugal, Basques, Sardinia, Corsica, Sardinians, Corsicans, France, Galicians, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio)
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