Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
B8 — The frog hides the 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
OverviewThe frog hides the water (usually drinks up a lake or river). Thanks to another character, the water returns to the body of water(s). (Among the Khan, Upper Tanana, and Varikho, the motif is not cosmogonic).
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.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| L1A | 95.03% | A young woman turns into a bear (in Asia, a tigress) and attacks her close relatives or husband. |
| D4N | 94.00% | A boy or (among the Kutené) a woman cries, demanding the absent elements - summer, fire, rain. See motif D4A (demand for summer). |
| B44F1 | 93.47% | In the dispute over whether the world should be light (warm), the bear is on the side of darkness (and cold); or the world is plunged into darkness because the bear hides the sun in his house. |
| K27P | 93.34% | The antagonist sends the hero to places where he is attacked by dangerous creatures; the hero kills them and brings them to the antagonist. The creatures turn out to be relatives, pupils or helpers of the antagonist, whom he (or his close relatives) mourns or revives. See motif K27. |
| L67 | 93.27% | Having dug an underground passage to a lying monstrous hoofed animal, a small animal gnaws the wool from the place on the skin where the heart beats; the hero thrusts a spear or arrow into this place. See motif L66. |
| B44C | 93.08% | The characters argue about whether there should be darkness or light, cold or warmth on earth. See motif B44. |
| L66 | 93.08% | To help the hero, a small animal digs an underground passage beneath the lying monster, and the hero strikes it from below. |
| B97 | 92.90% | The character rewards (rarely punishes) a bird living by the water, determining its current appearance (crest, beak, feather colouring). |
| K27Y | 92.79% | The hero is sent or, knowing the danger, goes himself to obtain various (at least two) materials for making a bow and arrows (shafts, feathers, bowstring, flint for arrowheads, paint for colouring arrows, resin and fibres for attaching the arrowhead or feather to the shaft, etc.). See motif K27. |
| B42C | 92.71% | In the cosmic hunting plot, the object of pursuit is a bear. See motifs B42 and B42P. |
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
14 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 14 traditions: Southeast Australia: Kamilaroi, Yualarai (Ualarai, Euahlayi), Milpulo (Mailpurgu), Wuradjeri (Wiradjurim, Wiradjeri, Wurundjeri, Yarra, Yarra Yarra), Wongaibon (Wonghibon), Noongahburrah (Narran, Narran River), Kurnai, and many others (see file 0.doc), Arnhem Land: Enindhilyagwa (Groote Eilandt), KuTiwi, Yulengor, Mara, Oenpelli, Murngin, Roper River, Maung, Murinbata, Murngin (Duwal), Millingimbi, Goulburn Island, Ngulugwongga, Yirrkalla, Voctoria River Downs, Alawa, Anu, Kunwinjku, Andamanese, Upper Tanana (Nebesna), Tanacross, Han, Malecite, Passamaquoddy, Micmac, Wawenock, Abenaki, Penobscot, Huron (incl Wyandot), Nez Perce, Tillamook, Kalapuya, Pomo, Toba (incl Pilagá)
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