Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M103 — Children with beautiful spots.
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
OverviewOne character asks another how her (his) children acquired valuable qualities (became beautiful, obedient, etc.). The other replies that children must be baked in ashes, kept in fire, burned, etc. The first character does so, and her or his children die or are maimed.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 11, Tricks and competitions won thanks to deception, absurd and obscene behavior.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K58A | 100.00% | The character brings water for irrigation or a fish river to the place where the girl agrees to meet him, and does not bring water if she refuses. (The parallel between the myths of Peru and Oregon was first noted in Lehmann-Nitsche 1935a; 1936). |
| K11A | 99.17% | Plucked feathers of a (huge) bird turn into actual birds (or their plumage) or humans emerge from them. |
| F21 | 99.16% | While the character copulates with a woman, she turns into a tree or a rock. His penis gets stuck in her. |
| F52 | 99.11% | The first ancestor bird puts pubic hair or part of a woman's genitals on its head; since then, birds of this species have had a crest. |
| J53A1 | 98.68% | The children of the murdered man kill the murderer's children, luring them to a place where they perish from heat or smoke. |
| K42 | 98.43% | A young bird woman energetically searches among a group of men for one she likes, takes him by force and makes him her husband; she turns into a monster, pursues and kills men, but is ultimately killed herself. |
| K18B | 98.35% | Men or women approach the little boy one after another or take him in their arms. The person who makes the boy stop crying is recognised as his parent. See motif K18. |
| J22A | 97.46% | Two men or a brother and sister emerge from a single body or embryo cut in half, or the second emerges from a part of the body or from the secretions of the first. Cf. motif M37. |
| C6F | 97.05% | The characters attempt to retrieve a living creature or part of its body that has sunk to the bottom of the water. See motif C6. |
| M71 | 96.93% | A character (usually carried away by a river or fallen from a height) turns into a piece of wood. Someone is picking it up. The character then takes on his true form, usually in the absence of the hosts. |
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
19 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 19 traditions: Stieng, Chrau, Sre (Koho), Maa, Mnong, Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Yankton/Yanktonai, Plains Ojibwa, Okanagon, Sanpoil, Upland Yuma: Walapai, Havasupai, Yavapai, Navajo, Jicarilla, Chiricahua, Mescalero, Hopi, Western Keres (Acoma, Laguna), Eastern Keres (Cochiti, Sia, San Felipe, Santo Domingo, Santa Ana, Paguate, Seama), Tewa (San Juan, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Tesuque, Nambe; Hano), Tiwa (Taos, Picuris; Sandia, Isleta), Towa (Jemez), Wapishana (incl Ataroi); Mapidian; Taruma, Aimara, Chipaya
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