Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
H28A — The ashes of the burned turn into gnus.
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
OverviewWhen a character is burned, the smoke and sparks turn into mosquitoes and other blood-sucking insects that scatter throughout the world.
Berezkin category: Paradise Lost
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 4, Origin of death, diseases and hard life.
H28 has 3 other sub-motifs
RelatedH28. A creature that has been killed and destroyed (often burned) (usually a cannibal, a ferocious animal, or a powerful shaman) turns into stinging insects or other harmful, unpleasant, or dangerous creatures.
H28a. When a character is burned, the smoke and sparks turn into mosquitoes and other blood-sucking insects that scatter throughout the world.
H28b. Shorn hairs on animal skins or ash and smoke from burnt skins covered with wool turn into blood-sucking insects.
H28c. The character creates blood-sucking insects to influence the behaviour of a mating partner.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| D13I1 | 91.57% | The characteristics of a character can be determined by his teeth. By laughing and showing his teeth, the character reveals himself. |
| J66 | 90.42% | The character cuts or bites through bowstrings and other straps in advance, punctures boats, preventing opponents from fighting or pursuing him. |
| D13G | 89.88% | When the character starts laughing, people see his or her scary mouth (lots of teeth, human flesh on the teeth); they kill the monster or run away. |
| B64 | 89.40% | Bones in the bodies of fish are the result of fights, battles, military expeditions; they are arrows stuck in them (gill openings â from stuck arrows), or small bones â fragments of the original large bones. |
| B42B | 89.11% | In the cosmic hunting plot, the objects of pursuit are hoofed animals (elk, deer, mountain sheep). See motif B42. |
| I101 | 88.39% | The Big Dipper or several bright stars of another constellation are stakes, pillars supporting a platform, or some object is stretched, dried, or stored on these stakes. |
| B69 | 87.73% | Wishing to reward or punish a small rodent (chipmunk, marmot, squirrel), the character makes it striped, usually by running a paw or hand down its back. |
| I51B | 87.71% | The earth or sky is perceived as a large mammal or created from parts of its body. |
| F90 | 87.63% | A brother and sister marry. When the children born of this union learn of their origins, the marriage breaks down (the children kill their parents, the father kills or attempts to kill the children, the parents commit suicide, the wife/sister commits suicide after the death of her husband/brother, the wife/sister leaves her husband/brother). |
| L65 | 87.27% | An infant or small child turns out to be a demon and kills people. |
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
39 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 39 traditions: Akan, Ashanti, Akwapim; Ga (Accra), Kra, Twi (Chwi, Chi), Kirati (Kiranti): Rai (incl Thulung), Limbu, Newar, Croatians, Croats; Italians of Dalmatia (if the motif is absent among other Italians), Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Karelians, Armenians, Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Nenets, Nganasans, Southern Selkups, Northern Selkups, Kets, Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Ainu, Oroch, Uilta (Orok), Negidal, Chipewyan, Inland Tlingit, Iglulik, Tlingit, Haida, Heiltsuk (Bellabella), Oowekeeno, Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw), Nootka (Nu-chah-nulth), Makah, Bella Coola (Nuxalk), Malecite, Passamaquoddy, Carrier, Comox, Pentlatch, Tewa (San Juan, Santa Clara, San Ildefonso, Tesuque, Nambe; Hano), Tiwa (Taos, Picuris; Sandia, Isleta), Towa (Jemez), Tepecano, Tepehua, Totonac, Gulf Nahuatl, Mixtec, Trique, Cuicatec; Amuzgo, Chol; pre-Columbian Mayan iconography outside of Yucatan, Karijona, Mehinaku, Waura, Yaulapiti, Guarani of Paraguay and Brazil: Caygua, Mbia, Apapocuva, Nyandewa, Chiripa, China
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