Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
B7A — Spit-out water.
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
OverviewSomeone possesses water or a drink. Another character swallows what is hidden, runs away and spits out what is hidden, making the water or drink available to everyone.
Berezkin category: The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 3, Cosmogony, the earth and the sky, etiology of the elements, natural and biological phenomena (fire, water, soil, thunderstorms, dream, etc.), cataclysms and cosmic threats, spirits of nature.
B7 has 3 other sub-motifs
RelatedB7a. Someone possesses water or a drink. Another character swallows what is hidden, runs away and spits out what is hidden, making the water or drink available to everyone.
B7b. The sea (flood, river) flows out of a small container.
B7c. Fresh water, which its sole owner hides in a vessel or pond, is scattered throughout the world.
B7d. Water pours from a broken bone, flooding the earth.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K87B | 98.64% | A woman is picking berries, steps in bear droppings, and scolds the bears. The offended bear takes her away and marries her. |
| K10F | 98.26% | The character turns the children of a flying monster into ordinary eagles or owls. |
| K27Y1 | 98.04% | The character believes or pretends that arrowheads should be made of bark, coal, grass, and similar materials. |
| K1D | 97.65% | The hero's wife's brothers try to kill him by leaving him on an island. |
| M46 | 97.17% | Some creatures steal or own valuables. To return (get) them, the character turns into a small object, from contact with which a woman becomes pregnant, or into a baby. A picked up or born baby takes on its true appearance and steals valuables (including making the girl who picked it up pregnant, if that was his goal). |
| M81B | 96.86% | The character is warned not to try to reach an arrow if it gets stuck in a tree. He breaks the ban and gets into trouble. |
| J65 | 96.73% | After the attack by enemies, a woman and her daughter remain. She rejects the marriage proposals of animal suitors and agrees to give her daughter to the heavenly deity (the Sun). The children from this marriage take revenge on their enemies. |
| M53A | 96.73% | raven gathers seals or other marine mammals around and deceives them into killing them. |
| L66 | 96.65% | To help the hero, a small animal digs an underground passage beneath the lying monster, and the hero strikes it from below. |
| M64 | 96.43% | The character comes to the owner of valuables (food, fire) and pretends that he already owns them. As a result, valuables are made available (littoral is exposed at low tide, salmon spreads in waters, 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
16 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 16 traditions: Scandinavians: early written sources ("Edda"; Saxo Grammaticus etc.); Gothland picture stones; Ancient Germans (Late Bronze Age in Scandinavia), Komi (Zyrians and Permyaks), Reindeer Koryak, Maritime Koryak (Alyutor), Tutchone, Tagish, Inland Tlingit, Tahltan, Eyak, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Heiltsuk (Bellabella), Oowekeeno, Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw), Nootka (Nu-chah-nulth), Makah, Kamayura
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