Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M157A3 — The demand to milk the bull.
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 character demands that another provide him with offspring or milk from a male animal.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| M193 | 98.68% | To avoid predators (suitors) on the way back, the character climbs inside a pumpkin, a round cauldron, etc. and rolls down the road or walks, disguised beyond recognition. |
| L44 | 98.59% | A demon or powerful beast demands that a person or weak animal show certain parts of their body. The person shows parts of a large animal's body or certain objects. The opponent decides that the hero is more frightening and powerful than them. |
| A23D | 98.40% | Animals argue about which of them should start the cycle of 12 months or years. The mouse wins the primacy. |
| M149A | 97.50% | The character, either recklessly or against his own will, finds himself bound by a contract with a predator, which he cannot or does not want to fulfil, or which he breaks. The predator intends to eat him, but the character remains alive. |
| L128 | 97.10% | When a demonic character or predator reveals who he is, the hero or herbivorous animal responds by calling himself a name that implies his superiority over his opponent. |
| M145 | 97.03% | One character (usually zoomorphic) shows another his reflection in a body of water. The latter believes that a beast resembling him is challenging his seniority, invites him to visit, etc.; usually throws himself into the water and perishes. |
| L125 | 96.84% | After meeting a beautiful woman, a man finds her in a situation where her inhuman nature is revealed. After that, the marriage falls apart. |
| M152 | 96.57% | Seeing a predator (a giant, etc.) approaching, the weak character pretends to thank the one who is leading the predator for his promise to bring prey, or his wife and children (rarely: he himself) begin to talk aloud about how they are going to eat the predator or how they have eaten his companions before. |
| B125B | 96.31% | A zoomorphic character goes to a festival and asks another to lend him a part of his body, which will make him look more attractive. |
| N37 | 96.07% | The character is said to sleep under the sky (like a blanket). |
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
34 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 34 traditions: Aka, Baka (Badjue) and other Western (Bantu speaking) Pygmies, Hausa, Viet, Muong, SW Arunachal Pradesh: Sherdukpen, Tawang (Monpas), Aka (Hrusso), Miji, Kashmiri, Hindi-speaking peoples and casts (incl. Teli, Parahiya; incl. Chhattisgarhi) of Northern and West-Central India, Sinhalese; Vedda, Miao (Hmong) and Yao of Southern China, Koreans, Albanians, Balkarians, Western Ukrainians, Laks, Tats, Kalmyk, Kazakh, Uyghur, 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, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Bashkirs, Chuvash, Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Mongols (Khalkha), Daur (Daghur), Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Shor, Dolgans, Southern Altai: Teleut, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Buryats: Eastern (trans Baikal), i.e. Khori, China, Japan, Russian Federation
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