Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
F74 — The naked man pretends to be dead.
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
OverviewUpon seeing a dangerous character, a man or woman undresses and pretends to be dead (or the character undresses the woman). Examining and sniffing the supposed corpse, the character finds what he takes to be a wound or signs of decay and leaves.
Berezkin category: Gender and sex
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.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| B51 | 97.07% | Thanks to a deliberate lie, Thunder did not learn from the bloodsucking insect that it had drunk human blood. |
| E30 | 95.44% | A man has no wife or a woman has no husband, and uses a wooden substitute as a spouse. |
| B75B1 | 95.26% | The character pushes his mother-in-law or wife into a hollow, and she turns into the creaking of trees or an echo. |
| M42 | 95.24% | The character takes his eyes out of his orbits and loses them. He usually regains his eyes later, makes new ones, takes away from another character, etc. See the M41 motif. |
| K8C5 | 94.96% | A zoomorphic character no larger than a fox allows itself to be swallowed by a bear and kills it by tearing it apart from the inside. |
| I112 | 94.94% | The boat is a living creature with a mouth, a fish. |
| M42A | 94.75% | The character (usually after losing his own eyes) inserts seeds or berries into his eye sockets and sees again. |
| J13 | 94.29% | Not one woman or girl, but two sisters (or more than two, but only two play an important role in the narrative) wander and meet an unwanted deceiver instead of a desired husband or fiancé, or encounter dangerous creatures. See motif J12. |
| K44 | 94.28% | The character kidnaps the boy or hides him from his mother or father, pretending to be his mother or father. The kidnapped boy learns the truth and leaves the kidnapper. |
| F67 | 93.83% | An old woman lives with her (adopted) daughter, niece or daughter-in-law. She (supposedly) turns into a man, marries a girl or tries to do so. |
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
31 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 31 traditions: Bulgarians, Balkarians, Finns, Swedes, Karachays, Balkar, Avar, Andi, Akhvakh, Kalmyk, Anatolia Turks, Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Tungus (Evenki) of China (Solon, Birar, Oroqen, Manegir), Evenks, Tungus (Evenki): Russian Far East, Evenks, Forest (Upper Kolyma) Yukaghir, Chuvans, Russian-speaking Creols of Markovo, Chukchi, Tahltan, Kaska, Wawenock, Abenaki, Penobscot, Naskapi, Blackfoot, Arapaho, Comanche, Plains Cree, Assiniboine, Crow, Kutenai, Jicarilla, Chiricahua, Mescalero, Lacandon, Ashaninca (Campa), Tacana, Greece
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How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
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