Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

B98B — The Bat and funerals.

12 Myths, legends and folktales

12 Unique narratives for motif B98B

11 Cultures & traditions where B98B is told

3 Sub-motifs of motif B98B

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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

Overview

The Bat comes into conflict with other creatures in connection with someone's death or funeral.

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.

B98 has 3 other sub-motifs

B98.  The bat (rarely: ostrich) tries to join either the beasts or the birds, or finds itself excluded from both.
B98a.  The bat becomes an outcast among other creatures (usually after trying to join either the animals or the birds).
B98b.  The Bat comes into conflict with other creatures in connection with someone's death or funeral.
B98c.  The heavenly deity could have healed the bat's mother or child, but did not do so, and they died.

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of B98’s motifs

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny

Motif	Similarity	Motif summary
B2G	100.00%	The chameleon walked on the ground when it had not yet hardened.
B98C	100.00%	The heavenly deity could have healed the bat's mother or child, but did not do so, and they died.
C30B	100.00%	In response to the claims of an animal or spirit, a person offers to remove their traces from the field or to walk without leaving any traces. The spirit is unable to do so.
D13HH	100.00%	A person visiting another world should not laugh or show surprise when seeing strange things. Those who break this rule will perish or suffer harm.
E1B1	100.00%	A man who has married an unusual girl is warned that she must not perform certain tasks or eat certain foods. Other members of his household ensure that the young woman breaks the prohibition, and as a result she dies or disappears.
E31B	100.00%	Several women participate in reviving a dead man and argue about who did more to revive him.
F73A	100.00%	The vulva is an unhealed wound on the body of the first women, or the first humans did not copulate because they thought that the vulva was a wound.
H1BB	100.00%	One character refuses to resurrect another's beloved dog, and this conflict is linked to the loss of the ability to resurrect people.
H31	100.00%	God summons several characters, including man and the heavenly bodies, and makes man mortal and the heavenly bodies immortal.
H36I	100.00%	The goat or sheep is to blame for the fact that man is mortal. See motif H36.

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Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

11 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 11 traditions: Tonga, Songe (Kisonge), Bena-Matembo, Sakata, Kete, Luba-Kasai, Bena (Bene) Lulua; (Bena-)Kanioka, Congo (Koongo, Bacongo; incl Vili, Fioti, (Ma)Yombe, MuKunyi), Ndombo, Luango (Loango), Zombo (Sambo), Laadi (Laari), (Ba)Fioti, Woyo (Kiwoyo), Ronga, Yambasa, Banen (Tunen), Tiv, Bamum (Bamun), Mungaka (Mgaka, Bali), Beba, Anaguta, Bete (Mbete, Karang), Ekoi, Nyang, Vute (Wute), Jukun, Chamba, Bamileke, Kwotto, Kirri; Denya (Nyang), Yoruba; incl Ife), Nupe, Bini (Edo), Engenni, Chamba, Dakka, Kukuruku, Kru: Kru proper, Sapo (Sapã), Grebo, Kran (Krahn, Guere-Krahn; incl. Putu, Tchien), Bete, Neyo, Wobe, Devoin (Dey), Belle (Kuwaa), Bassa, Sikon, Northern Gur (Oti-Volta): Mamprussi, Dagomba, Dagari (Dagara; incl Lodaga), Bassari, Mosi, Nankanse, Konkomba, Moba; Ditammari, Nyende, Bulsa (pl Builsa, Bulo), Congo

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