Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M99 — The threat to exterminate birds, AA 981.1.
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
OverviewThe character is going to abuse all birds or (less commonly) animals, but after hearing wise advice, he abandons his intention.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
M99 has 2 other sub-motifs
RelatedM99. The character is going to abuse all birds or (less commonly) animals, but after hearing wise advice, he abandons his intention.
M99a. The character is going to build a house (tower, etc.) from the bones or feathers of birds.
M99a1. The character is going to pierce all the birds with their beaks (to string them on a rope) or cut them off altogether.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| M98 | 99.17% | The character counts the number of members in two huge and alternative sets (dead and alive, men and women, etc.). Usually numbers are distributed equally, and one term (or some) is endowed with the properties of both. By referring it to one of the sets, the character proves a thesis. |
| L39D | 98.66% | A boy climbs a tree to pick fruit. A demonic character asks him to share, but not to throw the fruit on the ground, but to pass it from hand to hand. He grabs the boy and carries him away. |
| K77B2 | 98.61% | The goat (goat, ram, etc.) responds to the predator's questions in the sense that parts of its body are weapons and other objects designed to kill the questioner, or that the goat is actually armed. |
| K82 | 98.46% | A man's wife or another woman tries to destroy his sister. |
| K93B2 | 98.25% | A childless woman conceives a child after eating a fruit (usually an apple; in northern traditions also cabbage, eggs, peas, etc., in India â mangoes). |
| K38 | 97.72% | For doing good to chicks (rarely: young of non-ornithomorphic flying creatures), their mother or father does a favour for the person. |
| M39A6D | 97.51% | One of the relatives or spouses transfers a text or object to the other through third parties. Only the recipient understands the meaning of the words or the item handed over, saves the sender and/or destroys his enemies. |
| K27Q | 97.41% | Task: to obtain the milk of a wild animal or milk possessed by a dangerous creature. See motif K27. |
| M152 | 97.40% | 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. |
| L90 | 97.27% | One lip (one fang, horn, etc.) of the creature reaches the sky, while the other drags along the ground. |
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
42 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 42 traditions: Arabs of Levant (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan); Bedouins of Sinai, Berbers of Morocco and adjacent parts of Algeria, Algeria Arabs, Tunisia Arabs, Hausa, Sindhi, Sinhalese; Vedda, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Macedonians, Balkarians, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Albanians, Balkarians, Norwegians, Danes, Danish, Western Ukrainians, Abaza (Abazins), Cherkassians, Adyghe, Kabardin, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Karachays, Balkar, Ossetians, Nogai, Tats, Georgians, Armenians, Kalmyk, Talysh, Kara Kalpak, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Mansi, Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Oirats (incl Torgouts, Derbets, Oilots), Mongols (Khalkha), Darkhad, Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Shor, Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal), Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Buryats: Eastern (trans Baikal), i.e. Khori, Bosnians, Russian Federation
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