Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M70A — A pierced old woman
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 on whom an old woman defecates or whose face blows the winds pierces her from below with a sharp object. See M70 motif.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
M70 has 1 other sub-motifs
RelatedM70. The oldest character poisons the youngest with his intestinal gases.
M70a. A character on whom an old woman defecates or whose face blows the winds pierces her from below with a sharp object. See M70 motif.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| F46 | 99.00% | At the beginning of time, two or more men (human-animals) had only one woman. |
| L135 | 98.54% | A person leaves home and finds himself in unfamiliar places. His journey is marked by encounters with various strange creatures. In the end, he either returns home or leaves the earth for another world. (With an abundance of episodes, the story often either breaks off or does not contain the initial episodes explaining the reason for the hero's departure from home). |
| H29 | 98.53% | A woman mates with an animal. The people of a hostile tribe originate from or derive their culture from the descendants of this union, from the relatives of the animal or from the children of the woman's brothers. |
| D8 | 94.90% | The first fire (or summer) is stolen from a large predator â a lion or leopard in Africa, a tiger in Asia, a bear in northern Asia and North America, and a jaguar in South America. |
| M70 | 94.77% | The oldest character poisons the youngest with his intestinal gases. |
| B36 | 92.45% | Birds, fish, and four-legged animals deliberately or accidentally smear themselves with colouring substances or divide parts of another's body among themselves, thereby acquiring their current appearance. |
| E15 | 91.84% | People learn how to build boats and row from birds; a bird or part of its body serves as a model for building a boat. |
| M75 | 91.62% | The character attracts and catches corpse eaters (usually birds) and as a result obtains valuables or returns something valuable (fire, woman, animals, etc.). |
| H37 | 91.07% | A magical item that makes hunting or fishing easy and reliable falls into the hands of a character who is unable to control it or abuses it. |
| E21 | 91.01% | A child catches fish (with poison), or fish poison is secreted from his body. Fish or water snakes kill him. Death is avenged. |
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: Western Woods Cree, Naskapi, Montagnais, Arikara, Yana, Trio, Suya, Txukarramae, Chamacoco (Ishir), Guarani of Paraguay and Brazil: Caygua, Mbia, Apapocuva, Nyandewa, Chiripa
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How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
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