Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
D13D — Making the hidden one laugh.
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
OverviewOne character tries to make another character, who is hiding somewhere in the house, laugh in order to find them.
Berezkin category: Fire and Laughter
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 11, Tricks and competitions won thanks to deception, absurd and obscene behavior.
D13 has 11 other sub-motifs
RelatedD13. A character loses their values (gives them away) and/or suffers damage/is healed/is transformed if they laugh or hear laughter.
D13A. To amuse the owner of fire or the Sun, others dance indecently, imitate copulation, display their genitals, or publicly relieve themselves.
D13B. Menstruation passes from men to women after women laugh at an old man.
D13c. Two companions or brothers live together. The older one has a wife, whom he hides. To discover her, the younger one, left alone in the house, makes her laugh.
D13d. One character tries to make another character, who is hiding somewhere in the house, laugh in order to find them.
D13e. Hunters perish because they laughed at the killed (and revived) animal.
D13f. Laughter causes the appearance or spread of fire or the sun. Usually, the owner of fire or the sun loses it after bursting into laughter.
D13g. When the character starts laughing, people see his or her scary mouth (lots of teeth, human flesh on the teeth); they kill the monster or run away.
D13h. Those who have entered the world of the dead should not laugh.
D13hh. 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.
D13i. The character amuses the audience in order to identify the deceiver and thief by his broken tooth. The latter laughs and gives himself away.
D13i1. The characteristics of a character can be determined by his teeth. By laughing and showing his teeth, the character reveals himself.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| E5D | 90.27% | The first people to arrive on earth and settle within a limited space are threatened by a predator or monster. |
| E17 | 89.68% | People get the idea of ornamentation of vessels, baskets, bodies, etc., or of a sign system after someone manages to see a pattern on the body of a zoomorphic or supernatural creature or make an imprint of it. |
| I24 | 89.31% | A snake (or fish) forms a bridge across a river. |
| H24G | 89.09% | A woman returned from the other world or obtained there disappears when a man opens the vessel in which she is kept prematurely. |
| H1E | 89.05% | A certain character is the first to enter the world of the dead, after which all people follow the same path; he paves the way to the world of the dead; the first to die becomes the master or guardian of the afterlife. |
| F5B | 88.02% | The character (listed in square brackets in the list of ethnic groups) offers another woman. Not having one or not wanting to give her away, he makes a bride out of wood, snow, etc., turns an animal into a girl, sends a servant instead of his daughter, turns himself into a woman, or confesses to the lie when the trouble is over. See motif E8. |
| I62 | 87.25% | The Milky Way is a heavenly river, a body of water, a chain of creatures floating in the water. |
| G23 | 86.85% | The origin of various (more than two) creatures or objects is explained by the metamorphosis of a living creature or part of its body. {Only texts of an aetiological nature are taken into account. For statistical purposes, all texts with motifs G23A and G23B are also included in motif G23}. |
| B53 | 86.73% | The character's enormous genitals are cut off (usually cut into pieces), thrown away, and transformed into snakes or other creatures or objects. |
| F18A | 86.32% | The penis of a male character is much longer than normal or becomes so. During intercourse, it usually crawls towards the woman like a snake. (Only texts with a focus on authenticity are included, not anecdotes). |
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
17 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 17 traditions: Rotuma, Tuvalu (Ellice), Mari (Cheremis), Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Udeghe, Uilta (Orok), Negidal, Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Menominee, Lushootseed (Puget Sound: Puyallup, Nisqualmi, Snuqualmi, Duwamish, Muckleshoot, Snohomish, Skagit), Okanagon, Sanpoil, Wapishana (incl Ataroi); Mapidian; Taruma, Ticuna (Tucuna), Mundurucu, Curuaia, Umotina (Umutina), Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal)
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