Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
H21A — Do not touch the big fish.
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 fish are concentrated in a small container, from which the owner takes as many as he needs. Another character opens the container, breaking the rules, and the fish escape.
Berezkin category: Paradise Lost
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks 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.
H21 has 1 other sub-motifs
RelatedH21. The character controls animals or fish; a boy, young man or girl knows his secret or serves as bait themselves; another character forces the boy (girl) to reveal the secret and/or help him in the same way that he or she helped the first character, or leads the boy to go fishing but kills him, or the boy himself starts hunting, breaking the rules; as a result, the boy or girl is killed or carried away by animals or fish. See motif H18.
H21a. The fish are concentrated in a small container, from which the owner takes as many as he needs. Another character opens the container, breaking the rules, and the fish escape.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| B34 | 99.34% | After the vessel of night is opened, a person caught by the onset of darkness turns into a bird or animal. |
| L88 | 99.07% | A man kills a demon, but when he touches its remains some time later, it comes to life. |
| B99 | 99.06% | A person or their head left on a tree turns into an insect nest. |
| J15A | 99.06% | Setting off on a journey (usually in search of a fiancé, husband, or relatives), a woman finds herself in the lair or settlement of large dangerous predators - pumas or jaguars. See motif J15. |
| I5A | 99.01% | The tapir is associated with the upper world (thunder, sky, moon). |
| K13D | 99.01% | A group of boys reaches the sky, the last one's leg is cut off or torn off. |
| K19F | 99.01% | A star or many stars descend from the sky to work in the fields. See motif K19B. |
| M139 | 99.01% | The fox caught the birds and put them in a bag. Another character secretly replaced them with thorns. |
| L7A | 99.01% | A character who sticks to another creature and refuses to let go, first sticking to a human, then to an animal, or first sticking to an animal, then to a bird. |
| B24 | 98.98% | People who have entered into conflict or violated a prohibition are transformed into wild boars or peccaries. |
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
12 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 12 traditions: Sepik-Ramu stock: Abelam, Yatmul, Aibom, Ayom (incl Tembregak, Asai-river pygmies), Tangu, Porapora (Ambakich), Rao and other groups of Middle Ramu and Upper Keram River tribes; Kwanga, Watam, Kaian, Gamei, Awar; Kire (Lower Ramu), Central Vanuatu: Espiritu Santo, Araki, Aore, Maewo, Malekula, Vao, Efate (Vate), Nguna, Mae, Ambrim, Pentecost, Oba (=Aoba, East Ambae, Lepers'), Omba, Sarsee (Tsuu T'ina), Sicuani, Wapishana (incl Ataroi); Mapidian; Taruma, Karijona, Tupari, Makurap, Sakirap, Ajuru (Wayoro), Ayoreo, Chamacoco (Ishir), Mataco, Chorote, Toba (incl Pilagá)
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