Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
B56 — The crocodile's fiery tongue.
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 crocodile/caiman is left without a tongue after swallowing or losing the fire (which it previously possessed); something associated with heavenly fire (lightning, sunbeams, etc.) emerges from the crocodile's severed tongue.
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.
B56 has 1 other sub-motifs
RelatedB56. The crocodile/caiman is left without a tongue after swallowing or losing the fire (which it previously possessed); something associated with heavenly fire (lightning, sunbeams, etc.) emerges from the crocodile's severed tongue.
B56A. The reptile's tongue is cut off or mutilated (no association with fire). See motif B56.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| F19 | 99.99% | After copulating with a frog, a man's penis is crippled (unless otherwise stated: it becomes long, see motif F18A). |
| M9A | 99.99% | A character who eagerly sucks honey from a hollow and/or gets stuck in a hollow turns into a tree frog. See M9 motif. |
| A1A | 99.70% | Before the sun appeared, the world was lit by a large bird with bright colours (a parrot or toucan). |
| A26 | 99.70% | The bird embodies the sun, daylight; it can be caught, released, killed. |
| B25 | 99.70% | Characters who climb trees or vines and then fall turn into wild pigs or other game animals. |
| B75D | 99.70% | The sound of leaves or grass rustling in the wind has been heard since the time of creation. |
| F29A | 99.70% | To kill a woman's lover, who has the appearance of a worm or snake and crawls into her vagina from under the ground, boiling water, resin or hot coals are poured on him. |
| J12C | 99.70% | A girl meets her fiancé at a dance and then follows in his footsteps. See motif J12. |
| K8F | 99.70% | The swallowed one discovers a living deer in the belly of the monster. See motif K8A. |
| I54 | 99.30% | Inside a snake or other aquatic creature are aquatic animals or live fish; an aquatic monster gives birth to fish, is the master of fish; turns into many fish. |
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
15 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 15 traditions: Ngbakka, Mbum (incl Mbai), Mundang, Fali, Tupuri, Maya (=Bali), Nyong, Tepehua, Totonac, Gulf Nahuatl, Chol; pre-Columbian Mayan iconography outside of Yucatan, Chorti, Bribri, Cabecar, Terraba; Chiriqui (AD 800-1500) iconography, Guajiro, Piaroa, Sanema, Yanomamo (Yanoama): Yanomam, Yanomami, Wapishana (incl Ataroi); Mapidian; Taruma, Akawai, Baniwa (incl. Wakuenai), Bare, Piapoco, Curripaco, Siusi, Guarikena , Urubu (Urubu-Kaapor), Mundurucu, Curuaia
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