Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M149B — Dogs in the stomach.
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 person says that in his stomach (in a box) there are dangerous creatures that he has swallowed (put in a box) and that they may come out. A predator that is about to eat (bite) a person believes this and runs away.
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.
M14 has 1 other sub-motifs
RelatedM14. A man brutally murders his wife (rarely: children, fiancée, sister) and/or eats her flesh himself, or brings her flesh to her relatives (if he kills children, he brings the flesh to his wife).
M14a. To take revenge on his wife or her relatives for (allegedly) causing him offence, the husband roasts his wife alive. See motif M14.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K12A | 99.46% | An unrecognised hero arrives at a place where his bride or wife is to be given to another man or turned into a servant. Contrary to expectations, he manages to draw a tight bow (raise a spear), with which he kills his rivals. |
| M91B | 98.98% | A person manages to fraudulently sell or exchange ash for gold and money. Others are unsuccessfully offering ash for sale. |
| K99B | 98.95% | A girl and a young man agree that he will take her away at night. The young man is late or falls asleep, and the girl is taken away by someone else who happens to be at the appointed place. |
| F100B | 98.91% | Thanks to her virtue, a woman is capable of doing what others cannot, but she succeeds only after she remembers a minor transgression she committed in her youth. |
| I27D | 98.91% | There is a certain black or red dog that (is associated with objects in the night sky and) negatively affects people's lives. |
| K138 | 98.91% | A person gains the ability to revive the dead by incarnating in their body. While they remain in it, their own body is dead. Another person takes the body of the first, leaving them with the body of an animal. |
| K155C | 98.91% | The father regularly weighs his daughter and learns of her pregnancy when she becomes heavier. |
| M188A | 98.62% | The character demands to be addressed as a ruler (usually sits on a pile of rubbish and demands to be recognised as king). One of the animals exposes him. |
| K109 | 98.57% | The hero is advised to ask supernatural characters for something insignificant (a puppy, a cup) in return for his service. What he receives turns out to be the daughter of a deity. Another character unsuccessfully tries to take the hero's wife away from him. |
| K27Z5 | 98.51% | Two men agree to marry their children if one has a son and the other has a daughter. The girl's parents do not fulfil the agreement. The boy grows up and finds his betrothed. |
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: Santali, Turi, Mahli, Oraon (Kurukh), Punjabi, Seraiki (Multani), Assamese, Tajik, Persians, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Transylvanian Saksons
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