Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
L65 — The scary baby.
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
OverviewAn infant or small child turns out to be a demon and kills people.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
L65 has 12 other sub-motifs
RelatedL65. An infant or small child turns out to be a demon and kills people.
L65a. A daughter is born, or people find a girl; she is a monster or turns into a monster and devours everyone. Her brother escapes (usually leaves, marries, returns), and she pursues him unsuccessfully.
L65a1. A demonic character successively devours parts of the horse on which the hero arrived, each time returning to the hero and then leaving to devour another part. (Often asks whether the hero arrived on a three-legged, two-legged or one-legged horse).
L65a2. A man shoots off (damages) the finger of a demonic creature, and then sees that his sister, lying in her cradle, has lost her finger.
L65b. A demonic woman, less often her lover or another monster, is ready to kill or kills the hero. Dogs (or animals and birds that replace them – lions, bears, eagles, etc.) come running (flying), rescue the hero and kill the demon.
L65b1. A man exchanges sheep (goats) for dogs. The exchange seems unequal, but the dogs help him achieve success.
L65b2. The hero's dogs have names that speak of their strength and agility (Wind, Ironbreaker, etc.).
L65b3. A character who climbs a tree manages to escape from a demon (who usually tries to knock the tree down).
L65b4. The character pulls out his tooth to use it as a weapon or tool (often an axe).
L65b5. Despite obstacles, the young man's dogs or other animals serving him get to the princess just as she is about to be given away to a deceiver.
L65c. The eldest of three or more sisters turns out to be a cannibal, devouring her younger sisters and other people.
L65c1. Three or more sisters have the ability to fly and fly away from the cannibal – their older sister or mother. Only the youngest is saved.
L65d. When the older sister becomes a cannibal, the younger sister (temporarily) escapes. Cf. motifs L1B, L65C.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| B3B | 95.03% | Initially, the earth or the world as a whole was small in size, then it grew; fertile soil grew from a small amount of initial substance. See motif B3A (the earth grows from a piece of solid substance thrown onto the surface of the water). |
| K8A | 93.09% | The character enters the belly of an aquatic creature or a giant creature whose appearance and habitat are not precisely described. He kills the creature from within (K952) and/or returns to the outside without outside help. Upon emerging from the belly, he often finds himself bald (K921). Cf. motifs I81B (Charybdis) and L110 (Devourer). |
| I22 | 92.63% | There are objects that, while remaining in place, move constantly or periodically (collide and diverge, fall and rise, open and close, rotate). |
| C19 | 92.45% | The missing, hidden, concealed or stolen sun (daylight) reappears. See motif C18 |
| F9 | 92.39% | For various reasons, sexual intercourse with a woman is deadly dangerous for a man, or so it seems to him: Teeth, blades or sharp stones in the vagina or on the inside of the thighs; the vagina is a toothy mouth. See motif F9A. |
| B40 | 92.12% | The hare/rabbit is a false deer, a former deer, a brother of the deer, a former or failed owner of antlers, its ears are false antlers. |
| J46 | 91.26% | Antagonists perish by falling into water or attempting to cross a water barrier. See motifs J42, J44. |
| B75A | 90.81% | The voice of a character who once lived can still be heard (most often it is an echo; A1195, The origin of Echo). |
| H34B | 90.63% | Somewhere there is or was a river that flowed or, according to the plan, was supposed to flow in two directions at once. |
| B82 | 90.49% | The raven (less often another bird of prey, or another black bird the size of a raven) was first white, and then turned black. |
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
72 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 72 traditions: Ngbakka, Mbum (incl Mbai), Mundang, Fali, Tupuri, Maya (=Bali), Nyong, Masai, Khoekhoe (=Hottentot; incl Nama, Korana); Damara, Western Australia: Walmanjeri, Njolnjol (Njulnjul, Nyul-Nyul), Worora, Kariara (Karierra), Karadjari (Karadjeri, Garadjari), Djaberdjaber (Djaberadjabera), Ngarluma, Wiilman (Wheelman), Bibbulmum (Pebelman), Burong (Panaka), Melanesians of the northern coast New Guinea, nearest off-shore islands and Huon Gulf (Morobe district): Watut, Bilbil (Bilibili), Jabim (incl Kai), Tami, Bukawac, Wogeo, Tumleo, Yakamul, Manam, Sissano, Sio, Samoa, Flores, incl Mangarai (Western Flores), Nage, Keo, Riung, Ngada or Nad'a (Central Flores), Sika (Eastern Flores), Kachin (Singpho), Chak, Bhils (incl Barela-Bhilala), Lithuanians, Western Ukrainians, Azeris (Azerbaijanis), Bashkirs, Khakas, Northern Selkups, Central Yakuts (Sakha), Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Tungus (Evenki) of China (Solon, Birar, Oroqen, Manegir), Evenks, Tungus (Evenki): Russian Far East, Evenks, Western Tungus (Evenki), Western Siberia Tungus (Evenki): Sym River, Ket River, Ainu, Nanai, Nivkh, Chukchi, Central Yupik, Inland Tlingit, Koyukon, Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), Bering Strait Inupiat (incl. King Island), North Alaskan Inupiat, Polar Inuit, East Greenland (Angmassalik, Kulusuk), Tlingit, Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw), Nootka (Nu-chah-nulth), Makah, Malecite, Passamaquoddy, Arapaho, Yankton/Yanktonai, Mandan, Crow, Carrier, Nez Perce, Flathead, Klamath, Modoc, Maidu, Nisenan, Konkov, Owens Valley Paiute, Northern Paiute (=Paviotso), Northern Shoshone, Western Shoshone, Gosiute, Eastern Shoshone, Ute, Southern Paiute, Serrano, Paez, Guambia, Pijao; Ilama culture, Yaruro, Cañari, Napo (Quijo), Kanelo (“Jungle Kechua”), Shuar, Achuar (Shiwiar), Machiguenga, Moseten, Chimane, Cayapo (incl. Kubenkranken, Pau d’Arco, Shikrin or Xikrin), Nivakle (=Chulupi, Ashluslay, Ajlujlay), Yamana (Yaghan), Alacaluf, Yellowknife, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Ilimpii Tungus/Evenki, Yerbogachen Tungus/Evenki, Tungus/Evenki of Nercha - Chita area, Greenland, Russian Federation
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