Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
I27A — Settlements and dog trails.
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 souls of dead dogs go to a special place in the afterlife and/or go to the afterlife along a special path.
Berezkin category: Supernatural objects, objects and creatures
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 8, Queer and monstrous beings, creatures, objects and loci, folk beliefs related to particular phenomena and objects.
I27 has 4 other sub-motifs
RelatedI27. The dog and/or (rarely) the domestic cat is the master, guardian of the land of the dead, guide on the way there; dogs live on the way to the land of the dead. (For indirect evidence and similar beliefs, see also Benson 1991).
I27a. The souls of dead dogs go to a special place in the afterlife and/or go to the afterlife along a special path.
I27b. A dog carries a person across a river to another world. See motif I27.
I27c. Dogs with two spots above their eyes stand out and are usually called two- or four-eyed.
I27d. There is a certain black or red dog that (is associated with objects in the night sky and) negatively affects people's lives.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| B57 | 91.14% | Blood spurting from a killed or wounded person or animal colours the sky (dawn, northern lights) or other natural objects (moon, vegetation) red. |
| L15C | 86.00% | A dangerous character asks the hero how he can be killed, what he is afraid of. The hero lies, saying that the named object does not harm him. |
| J12L | 82.96% | The murderer pretends to mourn the victim along with everyone else. The deception is revealed, and the murderer is pursued. See motif J12. |
| M62B | 82.68% | Two or more characters aim their weapons at the hero in between, but they hit each other. |
| I2 | 82.59% | Lightning bolts fly from the eyes or mouth {specified} of a creature embodying a thunderstorm. See motif I1. |
| B36C | 81.39% | Animals receive meat and fat rendered from a certain creature or obtained in some other way. Some received a lot, others remained thin. |
| M60 | 80.21% | After injuring a demon (robber), the hero goes to his locus. There he, or (rarely) his assistant, pretends to be a doctor and finishes off an opponent. |
| L15C1 | 79.84% | A dangerous character naively reveals what he fears or what his life consists of, and the hero takes advantage of this. |
| J22B | 78.52% | A woman is cut or torn in half, and two new ones appear. |
| J22E | 76.20% | The second character emerges from the afterbirth of the first. |
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
25 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 25 traditions: Maori, Moriori (Chatam Islands), Iranian literary tradition (including Avesta, Pahlevi scripts, Sah-nameh, Marzban-nameh); Zoroastrians of Iran, Indian Parsees, Zoroastrianism, Tofa (Karagas), Oroch, Uilta (Orok), Nivkh, Reindeer Koryak, Maritime Koryak (Alyutor), Chukchi, Central Yupik, Inland Tlingit, Ingalik (Der Hit’an), Tlingit, Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Five Nations Iroquois (Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga), Plains Ojibwa, Alabama, Koasati, Creek, Seminole; Tuskegee; iconography of Kentucky Hopewell, Choctaw, Chicasaw, Urarina, Shipibo, Conibo, Setebo, Yabuti, Amniapä, Kumana, Wari (Aikana), More (Itene), Mundurucu, Curuaia
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