Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M111 — Monkey on a banana.
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
OverviewTwo animals (usually a monkey and a turtle) agree to gather fruit. The one who can climb trees eats the good fruit and throws one peel or rotten fruit to its companion. The companion takes revenge.
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.
M11 has 4 other sub-motifs
RelatedM11. The character gives others food extracted from his or someone else's body or contaminated with bodily secretions, without revealing the source of the food.
M11a. The character gives others the fish extracted from his body.
M11b. A woman feeds a man with good-quality meat or fat, which she cuts from her own flesh or extracts from her body, and stops doing so when he learns about the source of the food.
M11c. Without harming himself, a male character cuts off, pierces, roasts, holds over a fire, etc. a part of his body (or his wife's body). The character cooks the meat, fat, etc. obtained in this way and treats his guest to it. This food is not perceived as unclean (cf. motifs M11B and M38).
m11d. The character makes food taste good by adding salt to it. Another character learns that the cook extracts this salt from his own body (it is contained in his bodily secretions).
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| L85B1 | 99.97% | After ascending to the sky (meeting God, returning from the sky to earth), a physically disabled young man (usually with only half a body) becomes whole. |
| E8A | 99.64% | Women or people in general emerge from fruits (often coconuts), or fruits or, less commonly, leaves turn into people or only women. Cf. motif k33c. |
| G21 | 99.53% | A coconut palm grows out of the character's head. |
| L112 | 99.47% | A physically defective boy is born (tiny, with one head, half a body, etc.). After a series of adventures, he gains physical completeness. |
| E39 | 98.78% | The child of a pig or boar is a woman or man – the ancestor of a certain group of people. |
| A21A | 98.31% | The moon is an object that was accidentally released by its owners or stolen from them and ended up in the sky. |
| B118 | 98.31% | A character who was unable to reach the sky or returned from the sky to earth becomes an owl. |
| B74B | 98.31% | The owl is forced to part with the moon and now cries out when it sees the moon. Usually, the story tells how the marriage of the owl and the moon fell apart or did not take place. |
| E39A | 98.31% | An animal (snake, pig) conceives from a man's urine and gives birth to a human child (or twins). |
| F43C | 98.31% | The husbands of the first women, Amazons or single women are small animals - usually flying foxes. |
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: Malagasy, Santa Cruz Islands (incl Nguna, Reef Islands), Fiji, Ulithi, Ngulu, Timor: Amarasi, Tetum, Meto, Atoni (incl Mollo), Kedang (Lomblen island), Leti Islands (Leti, Moa, Lakor), Sangir Islands, Toraja (Toradja), To Mori, Baree (=Eastern Toraja), Minahasa (incl. Tondano, Tentemboan), Bantik, Minangkabau; Kerinci, Ot Danum, Ngadju, Northern Luzon: Apayao, Bontoc, Nabaloi (Ibaloi), Ifugao, Igorot (highland people, not specified), Ilocan, Ilongot, Isneg, Kalinga, Kankanay, Tingian (Tinggian, Bilongan Itneg); Ibanag, Kasiguran Agta, Keley-i Kallahan, Central islands and Bikol: Vizaya, Mansaká, Bikol, Mangyan, Panayan, Sulod, Cebuano (Cebu), Capiz, Romblomanon, Manuyu, Mindanao and Sulu: Blaan (Bilaan), Bagobo, Bukidnon, Cotabato, Hiligáynon, Binukid, Magindaan (=Magindanao: main Muslim population), Mandaya, Mansaka, Manobo (Agusan, Ata, Dibabawon, Sarangani, Ilianen), Maranao, Samal, Subanon (=Subanun), Subanen, Tboli, Mon, Garo (Atchik), Kachari (Bodo, incl. Lalung), Dimasa, Tripuri, Riang (of Tripura), Khami, Riga, Mori, Assamese, Fiji, Vanuatu, Japan
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