Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M89 — Melted wax
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 is humiliated after an object or creature made of wax, resin, or excrement that he made himself or that he thought was strong melts warmly, the present.
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.
M89 has 1 other sub-motifs
RelatedM89. A character is humiliated after an object or creature made of wax, resin, or excrement that he made himself or that he thought was strong melts warmly, the present.
M89a. Only horned animals are allowed to attend the festival. The hyena makes fake horns for itself, exposed.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K8E | 95.52% | The character penetrates inside the creature through the anus. |
| M28 | 94.14% | When able to take off, the character takes off but falls or stays in a remote place from where he can no longer take off. |
| D4A | 91.65% | Fire is stolen from its original owner, returned to people by the thief, or (the motif of theft is not expressed) brought with difficulty from a distant place. |
| L61 | 90.60% | The character eats himself, guts himself, or kills himself in order to be eaten. |
| I28 | 90.16% | Wild or domestic animals live inside a mountain, in a cave or in the underground world, or once came out of there into our world; often animals take on human form underground and have an owner. See motif H18. |
| M8A | 89.92% | Animals, and more often birds, find it difficult to break through a rock from the outside or inside, make a hole in the tree, in the body of an absorber creature, tear fetters, etc., to help a character or get out of the confined space by yourself. The list <b><i>includes</i></b> groups whose texts deal with the exit of the first ancestors to earth from a confined space. |
| H10 | 89.77% | People are mortal, as they are likened to a stone thrown into water; they usually miss the opportunity to resemble organic matter that floats in water. |
| A5 | 89.68% | The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (rarely) has no gender. |
| H18 | 89.35% | Hunted animals were concentrated in one place. A certain character creates them there or allows them to scatter. |
| I1 | 89.33% | Creatures that cause or embody rain and/or thunderstorms are birds or winged anthropomorphic characters. {Traditions in which birds are associated with thunderstorms and rain, but Thunder itself is not a bird, are marked with an asterisk (*). |
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: Shone (Shona, =Mashona, =Karanga), Makoni (Shoni dialect), Remba (=Hungwe, Wahungwe); Zezuru, Rozwi, Ndau (Vandau), Ila (Baila), Swahili, Midjikenda (incl Giryama), Nyika, Duruma; Ngindo, Kiluguru and other Islamic groups of the Eastern Coast of Africa, Gogo, Kaguru, Luguru, Zigula, Taveta, Shambala (Sambala), Bondei, Taeta, Dabida; Zaramo, Bemba (Wemba, Babemba; incl Ambo, Lala, Lamba, Bisa), Holoholo, Kaonde, Batak (Toba, Dairi), Sicily, Sicilians, Chukchi, Aleuts, Haida, Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Algonquin, unspecified Algonkians of the Midwest (probably Old Algonquin), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Menominee, Blackfoot, Plains Ojibwa, Assiniboine, Comox, Pentlatch, Lower Chehalis, Upper Chehalis, (Lower) Cowlitz, Tillamook, Coos, Kutenai, Wappo, Wintu, Patwin, Nomlaki, Navajo, Jicarilla, Lenca, Napo (Quijo), Kanelo (“Jungle Kechua”), Shuar, Achuar (Shiwiar), Aguaruna, Huambiza, Chayahuita , Shipibo, Conibo, Setebo, Mundurucu, Curuaia, Mehinaku, Waura, Yaulapiti, Makka, Mataco, Toba (incl Pilagá), Ofaie, Scythians, Scythe, Greece
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