Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
H37A — Jumping over firewood, lighting a fire.
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
OverviewA character gives another the ability to easily light a fire. The latter uses it unnecessarily and loses it.
Berezkin category: Paradise Lost
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.
H37 has 2 other sub-motifs
RelatedH37. A magical item that makes hunting or fishing easy and reliable falls into the hands of a character who is unable to control it or abuses it.
H37a. A character gives another the ability to easily light a fire. The latter uses it unnecessarily and loses it.
H37b. One character gives another his power (usually a skunk gives his volley). The other wastes the resource unnecessarily to test its effect. Usually, when the need arises, the resource no longer works.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| E15B | 100.00% | Bird women sew the birch bark covering of the hero's boat. See motif E15. |
| E9AA | 100.00% | A man searches for a missing woman, who is a fox by nature, and comes to the burrow where she has hidden. Various bird or animal women come out of the burrow and offer themselves in place of the fox. Then they let him inside. |
| F51C | 100.00% | Upon learning that her unknown lover is her own brother, the girl shows him her genitals or bare breasts, offering him what he so desired. After that, she runs away, and he rushes after her. |
| K25A3 | 100.00% | The magical bird-wife flies away when she makes herself new feather clothing from feathers collected on the ground. |
| K8B | 100.00% | A raven finds itself in the belly of a whale; the woman inside asks it not to touch a certain organ of the whale (usually the heart) or a burning lamp. The raven breaks the prohibition, the woman disappears, and the whale dies. |
| M123A | 100.00% | A raven marries or tries to marry, pretending to be a chief and a handsome man. One day, someone notices that he is eating carrion. Usually, everyone is forced to take off their moccasins, and they see that the raven has a three-toed paw. The raven is banished in disgrace or hastens to leave on his own. |
| M123B | 100.00% | The trickster deceives the girl into marrying him and takes her away in a boat. The woman asks to be allowed to go ashore to relieve herself, secretly ties the kidnapper's clothes to the boat and runs away. |
| M162B | 100.00% | The character pretends to rub sour berry juice into his eyes. Another (always a bear) wants the same thing, goes blind, and the character kills him. |
| M17A | 100.00% | The mother or grandmother of a blind man or boy secretly eats (the meat or fish he has caught), pretending that there is no food in the house. |
| K54A | 99.71% | A man and a friendly giant live together. The friendly giant fights another giant and asks the man for help. The help consists of the man damaging the enemy's legs. |
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
8 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 8 traditions: Malecite, Passamaquoddy, Micmac, Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Eastern Swamy Cree, Plains Cree, Plains Ojibwa
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