Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
B47A — The cow's split hoof. 33.34.
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 cow steps on the Pleiades stars lying on the ground, which were demonic creatures. Some of the stars slipped through her split hoof.
Berezkin category: The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 7, Etiology of plants and animals and of their peculiar features, particular animals as protagonists of cosmological stories, metamorphoses, weather and calendar.
B47 has 1 other sub-motifs
RelatedB47. The Pleiades or another group of stars once appeared or regularly cause severe cold. (The heliacal setting of the Pleiades occurs in May-June; in the Northern Hemisphere, they are best seen in winter).
B47a. A cow steps on the Pleiades stars lying on the ground, which were demonic creatures. Some of the stars slipped through her split hoof.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K27V1 | 99.95% | The character must hit the eye of a needle with an arrow (the eye of a needle). |
| M188A | 99.89% | The character demands to be addressed as a ruler (usually sits on a pile of rubbish and demands to be recognised as king). One of the animals exposes him. |
| M83C | 99.85% | Animals argue who of them gets drunk easier. The last one falls down because he becomes drunk as soon as somebody talks about alcohol |
| M114B2 | 99.62% | A man (an authoritative character) asks a girl (a subordinate) a question about the number of routine actions she has performed (or small items she has), which no one counts. She asks a counter-question about the number of similar actions performed by the questioner. |
| K27Z2D | 99.43% | A conflict arises between a pair of birds (sparrows, pigeons, etc.), in which the male is more likely (and more often clearly) to be at fault. This episode serves as the starting point for a story about the relationships between people of noble origin. |
| M91B | 99.40% | A person manages to fraudulently sell or exchange ash for gold and money. Others are unsuccessfully offering ash for sale. |
| F100B | 99.23% | Thanks to her virtue, a woman is capable of doing what others cannot, but she succeeds only after she remembers a minor transgression she committed in her youth. |
| I27D | 99.23% | There is a certain black or red dog that (is associated with objects in the night sky and) negatively affects people's lives. |
| K138 | 99.23% | A person gains the ability to revive the dead by incarnating in their body. While they remain in it, their own body is dead. Another person takes the body of the first, leaving them with the body of an animal. |
| K155C | 99.23% | The father regularly weighs his daughter and learns of her pregnancy when she becomes heavier. |
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
7 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 7 traditions: Kazakh, Oirats (incl Torgouts, Derbets, Oilots), Mongols (Khalkha), Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Khakas, Southern Altai: Altai proper (Altai-Kiji), Telengit, Altaians, Northern Altai: Chelkan, Kumanda, Tubalar, Altaians
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