Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
B54 — Splinters turn into fish. D441.10+.
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
OverviewWood chips, branches or pieces of bark that have fallen or been thrown into the water turn into fish and aquatic animals.
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.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| A20 | 94.98% | The Sun and the Moon (less often the Sun and a star, the Moon and a star) are brothers (sisters, brother and sister) who initially live on earth, but at the end of the story, as teenagers or young adults, ascend to the sky and become celestial bodies. |
| F28 | 93.78% | There is a separate penis character with whom the first women, Amazons, or simply some woman copulate. |
| F35 | 93.51% | A character offers another person the meat of his sexual partner, and the other person, unaware, eats or cooks it. |
| M75D | 93.01% | A man bereaves vultures of their hunting weapons or amulets |
| J37 | 92.81% | Transforming into a powerful bird or creating one, the hero lifts his opponent into the air and carries him away. |
| F28A | 92.31% | A penis grows out of the ground or out of the water in a lake. Women summon it as needed. |
| F9E1 | 91.89% | A woman's womb is dangerous because it contains a toothy or stinging animal (not just its mouth) or many such creatures. |
| L22 | 91.43% | Having broken some taboo, seen an unusual object or a strange character, people fall into a deep sleep; at night, while asleep, they are killed or maimed. |
| L22A | 91.31% | Having broken some taboo, seen an unusual object or strange character, people fall into a deep sleep and wake up in the morning blind. See motif L22. Among the Watut, Khmou and Trumai, a spirit eats out a person's eyes and they die immediately without waking up). |
| K27O2 | 90.96% | To destroy the hero, his opponents play ball with him, throwing a heavy dangerous object (a ball made of ice, bone, stone, iron, a walrus head, a biting skull, etc.). |
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
45 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 45 traditions: Bari (incl Fajulu), Kakwa, Stieng, Chrau, Sre (Koho), Maa, Mnong, Mansi, Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Chukchi, Asiatic Eskimo (Sirenek, Naukan, Chaplino), Central Yupik, Chugach, Bering Strait Inupiat (incl. King Island), North Alaskan Inupiat, Copper, Netsilik, Caribou, Iglulik, Polar Inuit, Baffin Land Inuit, West Greenland, Labrador Inuit (Koksoagmiut), Tzotzil, Cuna; XVI century data on Eastern Panama, Bari, Sicuani, Makiritare (Yecuana), Yanomamo (Yanoama): Yanomam, Yanomami, Locono, Wayapi, Emerillon, Napo (Quijo), Kanelo (“Jungle Kechua”), Chayahuita , Karijona, Barasana, Taibano, Macuna, Letuama, Tanimuca, Ufaina, Yahuna, Kabiyari, Yukuna (Yucuna), Baniwa (incl. Wakuenai), Bare, Piapoco, Curripaco, Siusi, Guarikena , Andoque, Yagua, Urubu (Urubu-Kaapor), Tenetehara, Paresi, Bororo, Umotina (Umutina), Caraja, Apinaye (Apinage, Apinaje), Guarani of Paraguay and Brazil: Caygua, Mbia, Apapocuva, Nyandewa, Chiripa, Kodiak, 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
If you wish to get access to data for projects and research, then please contact us, we do our best to help
How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
0009-0006-1672-4451
Where applicable, users should also cite the relevant original sources, catalogues, and classification systems, including Berezkin, ATU, Thompson, and other cited authorities, alongside the page accessed and the last time accessed.
Editorial annotations and database enhancements © Jonathan Fielder-White licensed under CC BY 4.0. Berezkin-derived narrative and metadata licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Full rights information can be found here.
All rights are reserved in the database structure, selection, arrangement, metadata, classifications, software, interface design, and original editorial content.
Important: The Folklore Database expressly reserves all rights in relation to text and data mining, automated extraction, scraping, machine learning, dataset creation, and the training, development, validation, or improvement of artificial intelligence technologies or systems. No part of this website or database may be scraped, copied, reproduced, harvested, downloaded in bulk, or otherwise used for AI training or commercial data extraction without prior written permission.
Designed and Developed by Jon Fielder-White.
© 2024–2026 Crecganford / Jonathan Fielder-White. All rights reserved.