Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
H46A — The dog and the ear of corn.
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 possibility of using cereals for food is determined by the behaviour of the dog in the era of creation. See motif H46.
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.
H46 has 1 other sub-motifs
RelatedH46. A character (usually God) is about to deprive people of their food (most often grain), but does not do so for the sake of the dog (and/or cat; rarely for the sake of birds). Either God gave the ear of corn to the dog, and the man took it for himself.
H46a. The possibility of using cereals for food is determined by the behaviour of the dog in the era of creation. See motif H46.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K56C | 99.06% | A man loses his axe. A spirit or chief offers him a golden one, but the man says that the axe is not his and for this he receives axes of gold and silver as a reward. Another man deliberately loses his ordinary axe, seeking to obtain a golden one, but suffers a fiasco. |
| M113 | 98.93% | In summer, during the height of the heat, or constantly, birds of a certain species are not allowed to drink from ponds and springs. It is generally believed that they drink only rainwater and cry out, begging for rain. See motif M112. |
| I13C | 98.86% | Reptiles possess a treasure that humans take or try to take. Usually it is a crown, a precious stone, or horns on a snake's head. |
| K33G | 98.83% | The person who eats the fruit (leaf, etc.) grows horns (long nose, etc.) or turns into an animal, while the other fruit (leaf, etc.) returns to its normal appearance. |
| K79 | 98.79% | Finding himself in a helpless situation, a man sees how a small animal finds a cure for itself or another animal. The man uses the same cure, saves himself or saves another. |
| L19B2 | 98.76% | A creature with nine heads is mentioned â either singly or at the end of a series of creatures with fewer heads. |
| L37A | 98.69% | On the way to a powerful being, a person meets characters who ask him to ask questions on their behalf (usually to find out the cause of their misfortunes). |
| K2A | 98.69% | The character is sent down to the underworld (into an abyss, a well, etc.). After he sends the treasures (women) he has obtained back up, his envious companions cut the rope, but he manages to return to earth. See motifs K38, K39, K74. |
| M114 | 98.47% | The character is asked to make (or actually makes) a rope or other object out of sand, ash, smoke, etc. |
| M91B1 | 98.47% | A man is going to sell a pet skin. On the way, he gets big money by deception or by chance. Usually, upon return, a person says that he received money for the skin, after which others slaughter their livestock and try unsuccessfully to sell the skins for money they are not worth. (In India, the hero sometimes supposedly sells not skin, but beef, which is forbidden to brahmanas). |
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
23 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 23 traditions: Karen, Pa-O, Padaung, Kayah, Miao (Hmong) and Yao of Southern China, France, Poles, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Latvians, Setu, Karelians, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Armenians, Kazakh, Hui (Dungan) of Xinjiang, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan (Dungan texts from Southern and Eastern China are clustered with the Chinese ones), Khakas, Central Yakuts (Sakha), Manchu, Sauk (Sak, Mesquakie), Fox, Kickapoo, Lele, Tobanga, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, China, Russian Federation
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