Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M78C — The boy is a severed finger
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 tiny little man emerges from a severed finger.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
M78 has 7 other sub-motifs
RelatedM78. A tiny little man performs a series of tricks, mocks people he meets and opponents.
M78a. A tiny little man emerges from the severed tail of a goat or sheep.
M78b. Wishing a baby, a childless woman gives birth to many tiny boys. She or her husband kill them or throw them away, but she stays alone and helps their parents.
M78c. A tiny little man emerges from a severed finger.
M78d. 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.
M78e. A tiny boy comes from an animal's ear, compared in size to an ear, his name is “ear”.
M78f. When a woman falls asleep, a joker (usually a tiny boy) places an embryo or the entrails of an animal or something similar next to her to make the woman herself or others think she has a miscarriage or that her viscera has fallen out.
M78g. When the inhabitants of the house fall asleep, a joker (usually a tiny boy) ties them together in pairs so that when they wake up, they quarrel.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| M39A8B | 99.95% | Using a stratagem, someone who hides in a tree cuts (bits) off the tongue of a dangerous person and the latter is unable to describe situation to his partners |
| M112B | 99.89% | Animals that do not see the sun (moles, shrews, earthworms) refuse to build the road with everyone else and are punished for it. |
| F83B | 99.79% | A strong female animal chases a weak male, but gets stuck between trees, rocks, etc. The fugitive mocks his pursuer, usually raping her. {In ATU, motifs f83a and f83b are described as one plot type, ATU 36. The degree of their plot connection can only be determined by having the original texts}. |
| M38D2 | 99.55% | Several characters (usually three), which are small objects, go traveling and must cross the river. This fails. |
| L100G | 99.51% | A servant serves his master a roasted bird, one of whose legs has already been eaten. He tells him to look at the chickens, geese, etc., which are standing on one leg. When they run away, it becomes clear that they all have two legs. Usually, the servant says that if the master had scared the roasted goose, it would have shown its second leg too. |
| M154A1 | 99.48% | A man who understands the language of animals hears the mare say that she is carrying four (three): she has a foal in her belly, and the woman in the saddle is also pregnant. |
| L37C1 | 99.47% | The happiness (misfortune, hardship, etc.) of each person is represented by specific characters with whom they interact. |
| C30C | 99.47% | A man promises to drink the sea (to count how many drops of water there are in the sea), but asks his opponent to first separate the sea water from the water of the rivers flowing into the sea. |
| K100B | 99.46% | A person helps to bury a dead man (pays his remaining debt, honours a saint). The revived dead man (saint) helps him overcome difficulties. See motif K100A. |
| M114D1 | 99.44% | The character demands that chicks be hatched (from boiled eggs), a chicken be raised, and it be cooked within a day. Another character responds with equally absurd demands. |
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
18 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 18 traditions: Somali, Lithuanians, Latvians, Setu, Karelians, Vepsians, Western Sami, Eastern Sami (including Skolts), Western Ukrainians, Bashkirs, Mordvins, Komi (Zyrians and Permyaks), Daur (Daghur), Lkungen (Straits; including Samish, Songish, Sooke, Lummi), Klallam, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Terek Cossacks, Russian Federation
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