Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
D6A — Crocodile and fire.
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 crocodile/caiman is the temporary or original owner of fire or lightning.
Berezkin category: Fire and Laughter
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.
D6 has 1 other sub-motifs
RelatedD6a. The crocodile/caiman is the temporary or original owner of fire or lightning.
D6b. The one who is burned turns into a crocodile/caiman.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| J22D | 97.33% | Foreigners or animals of two different species emerge from a single person or animal cut in half. |
| F37 | 97.30% | To summon her lover, the character taps on a calabash placed on the water. |
| K13B | 97.29% | A man crosses a body of water on the back of a caiman. The caiman bites off his leg. The cripple undergoes a metamorphosis, turning into a constellation or an animal. |
| B66 | 96.87% | Characters climb to the sky using a rope or chain of arrows; when it falls to the ground, it turns into forest vines. See motif J47. |
| C15 | 96.87% | A monstrous jaguar (puma) is locked in a cave or tree trunk. |
| C34A | 96.87% | A supernatural character goes with people to catch fish or lives on the sand by the river; he is buried in the sand or thrown into the river, into a swamp, or otherwise persecuted. Usually, he himself or his father sends a flood. |
| H32B | 96.87% | A girl and/or boy, who are the children of a deity, come to live with humans, leading to an abundance of food/resources. Due to the hurt they have caused, the children return to their own world, and human life becomes difficult or meagre. |
| L1D | 96.87% | The jaguar-werewolf kills most people and is killed by the woman who survives. |
| G7 | 96.82% | The first ancestors need to cut down a giant tree or (rarely) a rock. Their axes become blunt or break, and/or they obtain a special axe suitable for such work. If not otherwise: a tree with cultivated plants at the top, see motif G5A. |
| G8C | 96.45% | The first ancestors try to cut down a tree (less often a high rock) to get useful plants hanging on the branches (at the top) or water or fish in the trunk. The damage disappears as soon as the workers are distracted from their work, or periodically. |
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
18 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 18 traditions: 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, Kimberley Plateau: Gwini, Roebuck Bay, Forest River tribes, Drysdale River tribes, Njulnjul, Ungarinyin, Unambal, Bad (Baada), Forest (Upper Kolyma) Yukaghir, Tepehua, Totonac, Gulf Nahuatl, Chontal, Chol; pre-Columbian Mayan iconography outside of Yucatan, Bribri, Cabecar, Terraba; Chiriqui (AD 800-1500) iconography, Cuna; XVI century data on Eastern Panama, Choco: Embera, Nonama (Waunana), XVI century Dabaiba, pre-Columbian iconography of Sinu, Sanema, Yanomamo (Yanoama): Yanomam, Yanomami, Akawai, Barasana, Taibano, Macuna, Kabiyari, Yukuna (Yucuna), Baniwa (incl. Wakuenai), Bare, Piapoco, Curripaco, Siusi, Guarikena , Tariana, Manao, Katawishi (Teffe lake); groups of uncertain affiliation mostly from Rio Jamunda
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