Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M198B2 — A fortune teller named Grasshopper.
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
OverviewAn authoritative character asks a person whose name (or his wife's name) is the name of an insect (most often Grasshopper) to guess what is in his fist (in a box, etc.). The corresponding insect is there. The person says that now he, so-and-so, has been caught, while others think that he has guessed correctly.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| K100A | 99.66% | Setting off on a journey, a young man releases a caught fish or animal, or he or his father does someone a favour. As a reward for their help, a person or creature in the guise of a stranger or animal comes to the young man, becomes his companion and protector. |
| K121 | 99.66% | At the crossroads, it is indicated that one road is safe, another is neutral, and the third is deadly dangerous. There can only be two roads – dangerous and safe. The hero travels along the dangerous road. |
| K85E | 98.75% | Magical horses live in water. |
| K29D | 98.72% | To catch an animal or supernatural character, the water in a reservoir is replaced with wine, honey, etc., or containers with alcohol are left in plain sight. The creature, having lost control of itself, is captured. |
| K96 | 98.70% | Several (more than three) brothers marry or must marry in such a way that their wives are sisters. |
| I35A1 | 98.64% | The character claims the role of the thunder god and imitates him. |
| M75B | 98.64% | A person hides in the skin or carcass of a large animal. A bird brings a skin or carcass to the nest without knowing what it brought the person. |
| J32A | 98.55% | When dying, a person orders that someone spend the night at his grave or bring something to the grave. |
| K35C | 98.34% | The dev (ajdaha, sea king) did not kill the man who descended to him, as people assumed, but rewarded him because he greeted him and/or answered his question correctly. |
| L96A | 98.33% | A person sighs, after which a character named Oh, Uh, Hey-way, etc. appears. |
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, Arabs of Egypt, Berbers of Morocco and adjacent parts of Algeria, Algeria Arabs, Spain, Spaniards, Portuguese, Portugal, Sicily, Sicilians, France, Poles, Slovakians, Slovaks, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Latvians, Western Ukrainians, Uzbek, Tajik, Persians, Abaza (Abazins), Cherkassians, Adyghe, Kabardin, Lezgians, Archin, Kürin; Khinalug, Tabasaran, Aghul, Laks, Kumyk, Terekemen, Nogai, Tats, Georgians, Anatolia Turks, Azeris (Azerbaijanis), Kurds, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Uyghur, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Mongols (Khalkha), Arabs (literary tradition; incl. One Thousand and One Nights), Kumaoni (Central Pahari), incl. Garhwali, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Terek Cossacks, Russian Federation
If you wish to get access to data for projects and research, then please contact us, we do our best to help
How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
0009-0006-1672-4451
Where applicable, users should also cite the relevant original sources, catalogues, and classification systems, including Berezkin, ATU, Thompson, and other cited authorities, alongside the page accessed and the last time accessed.
Editorial annotations and database enhancements © Jonathan Fielder-White licensed under CC BY 4.0. Berezkin-derived narrative and metadata licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Full rights information can be found here.
All rights are reserved in the database structure, selection, arrangement, metadata, classifications, software, interface design, and original editorial content.
Important: The Folklore Database expressly reserves all rights in relation to text and data mining, automated extraction, scraping, machine learning, dataset creation, and the training, development, validation, or improvement of artificial intelligence technologies or systems. No part of this website or database may be scraped, copied, reproduced, harvested, downloaded in bulk, or otherwise used for AI training or commercial data extraction without prior written permission.
Designed and Developed by Jon Fielder-White.
© 2024–2026 Crecganford / Jonathan Fielder-White. All rights reserved.