Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

B13A — Water rushes after a person.

54 Myths, legends and folktales

54 Unique narratives for motif B13A

32 Cultures & traditions where B13A is told

1 Sub-motifs of motif B13A

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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

Overview

A stream of water (with a predator in it) rushes after a character who is trying to escape from it.

Berezkin category: The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment

This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.

B13 has 1 other sub-motifs

B13. A character deliberately or accidentally makes a riverbed by digging it out, drawing it on the ground or spilling water as he walks (cf. motif B13A: water rushes in the footsteps of a person against his will, he tries to run away from it).
B13a. A stream of water (with a predator in it) rushes after a character who is trying to escape from it.

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of B13’s motifs

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny

Motif	Similarity	Motif summary
F44	98.66%	In the community of the first ancestors, women and men quarrel, leave, kill, maim each other, etc.
F42	98.59%	Feeling wronged, men leave their wives or sisters.
F88	98.46%	Female genitals are initially fragrant or odourless, but then acquire an unpleasant odour (they do not acquire a fragrant odour).
F28B	96.99%	A woman uses a penis made of wax, wood, fruit or root. Usually her husband or male relative smears it with pepper, and the woman is maimed or killed.
F96	96.85%	A girl or wife rejects an unattractive man. He becomes handsome (usually after encountering a supernatural being), and those who treated him badly are punished.
E13A	96.82%	Sacred knowledge, objects and rituals were first obtained by humans from the inhabitants of the underwater world.
J60	96.38%	A woman conceives twins from two different fathers.
H24F	96.38%	The character has the ability to put a large amount of meat or fish into a bag or container that is easy to carry.
F40A	95.44%	A male character, androgynous, with a monstrous penis, single-handedly possesses all women, rules over them or leads away the first women.
F12	95.26%	A husband kills his wife by inserting her lover's severed penis into her body.

See the 100 most similar distributions →

Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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🌐 Open as Airocean (Dymaxion) map ↗

Traditions

32 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 32 traditions: Aka, Baka (Badjue) and other Western (Bantu speaking) Pygmies, Dan (=Gio), Guro (=Kweni, incl Gagu, Neio), Toura, Mano, Ngere, Beng, Guro , Central Vanuatu: Espiritu Santo, Araki, Aore, Maewo, Malekula, Vao, Efate (Vate), Nguna, Mae, Ambrim, Pentecost, Oba (=Aoba, East Ambae, Lepers'), Omba, SW Arunachal Pradesh: Sherdukpen, Tawang (Monpas), Aka (Hrusso), Miji, Sarsee (Tsuu T'ina), Nez Perce, Tillamook, Okanagon, Sanpoil, Natchez (incl Avoyel), Chumash, Yokuts, Northern Shoshone, Western Shoshone, Gosiute, Eastern Shoshone, Navajo, Hopi, Yuma proper (Quechan), Mohave, Maricopa, Paez, Guambia, Pijao; Ilama culture, Karijona, Andoque, Juruna, Xipaya, Bakairi, Kuikuro, Kalapalo, Calapalo, Kamayura, Crenye, Gaviões, Chamacoco (Ishir), Mataco, Nivakle (=Chulupi, Ashluslay, Ajlujlay), Chorote, Toba (incl Pilagá), Papua-New Guinea Southern Lowland Papuan groups (Trans New Guinea and unclassified): Gimi, Kiwai, Bina, Mawabula, Mawatta, Keraki, Gambadi (incl. Kwavaru), Purari River delta, Masingara, Wiram (=Suki), Ngain, Daga, Elema

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How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com

0009-0006-1672-4451
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