Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M154A — The ox, the donkey and work, ATU 207A.
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 of the domestic animals (usually a donkey) persuades another to pretend to be sick. After that, the advisor has to work for both of them. Then he tells the pretend sick animal that the owner is going to slaughter him, and the animal rushes to work.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| K100G | 98.84% | In order to revive or heal a friend (to heal oneself, to fulfil a vow), the character agrees to sacrifice his son (children). The slain person usually comes back to life, or the person's willingness to make the sacrifice is sufficient to satisfy supernatural forces. |
| M130C | 98.82% | When a lion (tiger, bear, elephant, human) is trapped, a mouse or rat frees it (usually by gnawing through the ropes). |
| K80C4 | 98.78% | In a deserted place, one person kills another. After some time, he is exposed thanks to facts and circumstances that do not seem important and do not directly tell about the crime (the victim's last words; objects or living beings that were or appeared at the scene of the murder). (All texts containing motifs K80c3 and K80c4 also contain the more general motif K80c). |
| K83 | 98.59% | To heal, rejuvenate or save one's father, father-in-law or sister, one must bring medicine (bring a doctor) from a distant country. The medicine is brought and the sick person recovers. |
| M78D | 98.58% | A tiny boy (rarely a girl) comes from a pea (bean, seed) or from a spool of goat droppings, he is almost as tall as a pea. Or he was born after his mother ate a pea. |
| M197 | 98.48% | Seriously or demonstrating the absurdity of such actions, the character tries to fry or cook something on a fire (source of light) located far from the object that needs to be heated. |
| L108A | 98.30% | A predator or cannibal swallows people and animals. A goat (rarely a sheep) punishes it and usually rescues those who have been swallowed (most often by cutting open its belly, allowing those who have been swallowed to escape alive). |
| K119A | 98.20% | An animal saves a human, does him a favour, and he humiliates or kills it. See motifs K119, M161. |
| L19B1 | 98.07% | Describes or depicts a monster (usually a reptile) with seven heads (except in cases where snakes with an increasing number of heads are described sequentially and "seven" is not the largest number). |
| K38F | 98.06% | A reptilian monster demands human sacrifices (devours people; kidnaps a girl; blocks water sources). The hero kills it. The monster's victims do not play an active role in the action. |
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
41 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 41 traditions: Arabs of Levant (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan); Bedouins of Sinai, Kabylia and other Berber of Northern and Central Algeria: Beni Snous, Beni Menacer (incl Zuav), Shaui, etc.), Morocco Arabs, Arabs of Sudan, Sudanese, Nuba, Somali, Amhara; Zay, Harari; Silte, Gogot, Swahili, Midjikenda (incl Giryama), Nyika, Duruma; Ngindo, Kiluguru and other Islamic groups of the Eastern Coast of Africa, Garo (Atchik), Kachari (Bodo, incl. Lalung), Dimasa, Tripuri, Riang (of Tripura), Khami, Riga, Mori, Punjabi, Seraiki (Multani), Sinhalese; Vedda, Ireland, Spain, Spaniards, Maltese, Sicily, Sicilians, France, Germans: North (Low- and Central German dialects): Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg, Pommern, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony, incl East Frisia and Oldenburg), Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Thüringen, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen, Brandenburg, Rügen, Hungarians, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Macedonians, Balkarians, Slovenians, Slovenes, Albanians, Balkarians, Lithuanians, Pashto, Persians, Ossetians, Laks, Armenians, Kurds, Kara Kalpak, Kazakh, Hui (Dungan) of Xinjiang, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan (Dungan texts from Southern and Eastern China are clustered with the Chinese ones), Turkmen, Mordvins, Wallons, Picardie, Galicians, Eastern Ukrainians, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Berbers of Algeria, Egypt
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