Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
F27 — Girls and water spirits.
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
OverviewIt is dangerous for girls or women to approach water (water creatures drag them away or swallow them; a girl who approaches water dies; she becomes pregnant by a snake; through her fault, a flood or other disaster occurs; water spirits themselves come to a girl who has her first period).
Berezkin category: Gender and sex
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 |
|---|---|---|
| E6 | 97.68% | When a woman of childbearing age (she is menstruating, miscarrying, pregnant, with a child, or simply fat) tries to pass from one world to another, the connection between the worlds is severed forever. |
| A27 | 97.35% | The light and/or heat of the sun and/or moon is contained in their crowns, necklaces or clothing (made of feathers or animal teeth). |
| F40A | 97.25% | A male character, androgynous, with a monstrous penis, single-handedly possesses all women, rules over them or leads away the first women. |
| L3 | 97.24% | The demon takes on human form and comes to his wife (less often to another woman). Usually, the woman (alone or with a child) runs away and/or kills the monster, either by herself or with someone's help. |
| M5 | 97.23% | Once in a situation where his life depends on the will of a demon or animal, the hero feels like insulting or hitting him. See M1 motif. |
| K13A | 97.08% | The character's leg (rarely: both legs) is cut off, bitten off, torn off, or damaged. The character ascends to the sky: to the moon; becomes the moon; turns into a star or constellation; becomes the sun; blood flowing from the leg colours the sky. |
| L24 | 96.96% | Demons (or one of them) attack people and then hide. People destroy the demons' lair and kill all or most of them by spreading a smoky fire around the demons' refuge. |
| F12 | 96.55% | A husband kills his wife by inserting her lover's severed penis into her body. |
| G13 | 95.96% | Before the advent of cultivated plants, people ate rotten or soft wood (ceiba – Ceiba L., balsa – Ochroma (Bombax) Sw.); some people eat rotten wood. |
| K13C | 95.60% | The cannibal's daughter takes revenge on her husband for her mother's death and manages to cut off his leg. See motif K13A. |
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
48 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 48 traditions: Kosa (Xosa, Xhosa), Tiv, Bamum (Bamun), Mungaka (Mgaka, Bali), Beba, Anaguta, Bete (Mbete, Karang), Ekoi, Nyang, Vute (Wute), Jukun, Chamba, Bamileke, Kwotto, Kirri; Denya (Nyang), Torricelli family: Valman, Samap, Arapesh (Upper, Coastal), Monumbo, Lilau, Ngaimbom; Moando (Banara); Menya, Olo, Melanesians of the islands of Massim District ( =Milke Bay Province) to the east of New Guinea: Dobu, Rossel, Fergusson, Goodenough, Murua (Woodlark), Trobrian Islands, d'Entrecasteau Islands, Batak (Toba, Dairi), Viet, Muong, Miao (Hmong) and Yao of Southern China, Armenians, Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Inland Tlingit, Tlingit, Lenape (Delaware), Wawenock, Abenaki, Penobscot, Yuchi, Twana (Skokomish), Yuki (Yuki proper, Coastal Yuki, Huchnob), Pomo, Hopi, Zuni, Choco: Embera, Nonama (Waunana), XVI century Dabaiba, pre-Columbian iconography of Sinu, Yupa (Yukpa), Sicuani, Waiwai, Akuriyo (incl Turaekare), Guiana Kariña, Kaliña, Galibi, Wayapi, Emerillon, Siona, Secoya, Coreguaje, Kofan, Desana, Siriano; Tatuyo, Bara, Tuyuca, Letuama, Tanimuca, Ufaina, Yahuna, Cubeo, Maue (Mawe), Ashaninca (Campa), Tupari, Makurap, Sakirap, Ajuru (Wayoro), Mehinaku, Waura, Yaulapiti, Kamayura, Paresi, Caraja, Mocovi; Kechua of Santiago del Estero with probable Guaikuruan substratum; Abipon, Ayoreo, Mataco, Nivakle (=Chulupi, Ashluslay, Ajlujlay), Chorote, Toba (incl Pilagá), Terena (Tereno) , Ache (Guayaki), Yamana (Yaghan), Alacaluf, Manao, Katawishi (Teffe lake); groups of uncertain affiliation mostly from Rio Jamunda
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