Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
E26 — Those who have become fish are turned back into humans.
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
OverviewPeople, or only women, go underwater and turn into fish. Men catch them with fishing gear. Those who are caught become human (women) again. (Narratives about the transformation of only one caught fish into the hero's wife are not included; see motif F7).
Berezkin category: The origins of people and culture
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 5, Origin of human beings, ethnic groups, etiology of human anatomy, strange body configuration, ways of behavior, marriages before the establishment of the present norms.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| H35 | 99.29% | Human teeth are made of fragile material. Usually, the motif explains the aetiology of toothache. |
| F24 | 98.77% | Women lose blood when they are bitten by fish, snakes, etc. |
| C1 | 98.57% | In the past, a catastrophic shift in the layers of the universe occurred or will occur in the future. Among the variants (sometimes combined): the sky fell to the earth; the present earth or underground world swapped places with the sky; the earth turned upside down; it fell into the underworld; the layers of the universe successively collapsed onto the earth or will swap places in the future. |
| H30 | 98.02% | When meeting two women (together or one after the other), the hero must or may choose one. Usually, he chooses either the less beautiful or the dangerous one, bringing trouble or misfortune upon himself or upon people in general. |
| H8 | 97.79% | Unable to bring themselves to touch something unclean, poisonous, dangerous or hot, people lost their immortality (var.: did not receive the blessings that came to Europeans). |
| L7 | 97.63% | While chasing a person, spirit, monster or beast, mistakenly chases after a large two-legged object passing by, usually an animal. |
| B22A | 97.59% | Boys climb a tree to eat fruit and refuse to throw the fruit down to the tapir, who tries to kill the boys. |
| E9K | 97.59% | The husband or wife is the embodiment of honey or a human bee. |
| F84 | 97.59% | A guest or younger brother has sexual intercourse with the wife of the host or older brother. Wanting to demonstrate long abstinence, the character sprinkles ash on the head of his penis or smears it with fruit juice. |
| F29 | 97.56% | A girl (woman) sits on the ground and copulates with a snake, worm or eel that crawls out of the ground towards her. This usually happens when she is busy with housework (cooking, weaving, etc.). |
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
9 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 9 traditions: Mongols (Khalkha), Guajiro, Baniwa (incl. Wakuenai), Bare, Piapoco, Curripaco, Siusi, Guarikena , Ticuna (Tucuna), Parintintin; Villa Bella (tribal affiliation unknown), Mundurucu, Curuaia, Cayapo (incl. Kubenkranken, Pau d’Arco, Shikrin or Xikrin), Craho, Suya, Txukarramae
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How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
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