Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
C30D — Not to spill a drop of urine.
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 character agrees that his locus will be contaminated with excrement, but only on condition that not a drop of urine is spilled. It turns out to be impossible to fulfil this condition.
Berezkin category: Disasters
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 11, Tricks and competitions won thanks to deception, absurd and obscene behavior.
C30 has 4 other sub-motifs
RelatedC30. In order to free himself from an obligation, the character sets a condition that is formally logical and uncomplicated, but in reality impossible to fulfil.
C30a. A man borrows money on the condition that if he fails to repay it by a certain date, he will have to give the lender a certain amount of his own flesh. The lender cannot cut off the flesh, because he is unable to fulfil the formally logical but essentially absurd demand made of him.
C30b. 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.
C30c. A man promises to drink the sea (to count how many drops of water there are in the sea), but asks his opponent to first separate the sea water from the water of the rivers flowing into the sea.
C30d. The character agrees that his locus will be contaminated with excrement, but only on condition that not a drop of urine is spilled. It turns out to be impossible to fulfil this condition.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| I38A | 96.21% | The husbands of human women are dogs or dog-headed creatures. |
| L81D | 95.64% | Two cripples with different physical disabilities quarrel and fight, and as a result become whole and healthy. |
| L44B | 95.56% | The blind and deaf (lame) began to live together, helping each other. After being mortally frightened or fighting, both (less often, one of them) got rid of their disabilities. |
| M151 | 95.20% | A dangerous character pretends to be dead or absent, or pretends to be an inanimate object. The potential victim says aloud that the deceased (object or place â house, burrow, log, etc.) should do or say something. The character does so, revealing himself. |
| M152A | 94.64% | A strong predator (a giant cannibal) and a weak predator are tied together with a rope to feel more confident. The strong one flees and drags the weak one behind him. |
| L93B | 94.12% | The hare or rabbit, resorting to cunning, helps the hero or heroine, saving them. |
| H49B | 93.43% | A man gives his dog to another man. The dog is of great use to him (it finds stolen goods and drives away thieves). The man who received the dog sends it back with a letter of thanks. The owner thinks that the dog has run away, kills it, and only then finds the letter. |
| M110 | 92.27% | Upon learning that it is being transported by water to be eaten, the land animal explains to the transporter that it has forgotten on the shore the organ without which the meat is not tasty, which must be used as medicine, etc. The transporter agrees to return for this organ, and the animal runs away. |
| H6BB | 92.03% | A character is sent to deliver a certain object or substance to people, the possession of which is essential to them. The messenger loses these objects or brings others. Usually, this refers to the ability to be reborn after death. Traditions not related to the explanation of human mortality are marked with an asterisk*. |
| M167 | 91.69% | In the dark, a person mistakes a tiger (lion, demon) for another person or a domestic animal (bull, ox). |
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
4 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 4 traditions: Khmu (Kammu), Puoc, Telugu (incl. Yanadi, Chenchu), Hindi-speaking peoples and casts (incl. Teli, Parahiya; incl. Chhattisgarhi) of Northern and West-Central India, Comoros
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