Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

I7C — Rain or dew – urine.

25 Myths, legends and folktales
25 Unique narratives for motif I7C
19 Cultures & traditions where I7C is told
3 Sub-motifs of motif I7C
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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

Overview

When a character in the upper world urinates, it rains (dew falls) on earth.

Berezkin category: Supernatural objects, objects and creatures

This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 3, Cosmogony, the earth and the sky, etiology of the elements, natural and biological phenomena (fire, water, soil, thunderstorms, dream, etc.), cataclysms and cosmic threats, spirits of nature.

I7 has 3 other sub-motifs

Related

I7.  The reptile produces rain and thunderstorms.
I7a.  Lightning is associated with a snake.
I7b.  Lightning – a crack in the sky through which the heavens are visible for a moment.
I7c.  When a character in the upper world urinates, it rains (dew falls) on earth.

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of I7’s motifs

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny
MotifSimilarityMotif summary
F9591.08%Two companions or brothers live together. One has a wife, whom he hides. The other suspects her existence, destroys her, or tries to get a wife for himself.
F8090.37%The first men and/or women have no genitals, then they acquire them.
D890.36%The first fire (or summer) is stolen from a large predator – a lion or leopard in Africa, a tiger in Asia, a bear in northern Asia and North America, and a jaguar in South America.
F4289.71%Feeling wronged, men leave their wives or sisters.
B3689.69%Birds, fish, and four-legged animals deliberately or accidentally smear themselves with colouring substances or divide parts of another's body among themselves, thereby acquiring their current appearance.
I3089.44%In the world of the dead, its master or mistress copulates with all new arrivals.
F43A89.09%In the community of the first ancestors, women kill, attempt to kill, or transform men.
B3789.04%The character decorates various birds (less often fish) and distributes fat to animals. Since then, the corresponding species have possessed their current characteristics.
F42A88.53%In the community of the first ancestors, young men or boys turn into birds or bats and fly away.
B1588.41%The river flows from the organs of a woman's body.

See the 100 most similar distributions →

Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

19 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 19 traditions: Malagasy, Lunda (Alunda), Papua-NewGuinea Highland Papuans:Trans New Guinea & unclassified:Chimbu,Gimi,KaugelHuli,Gadsup,Kuman,Kutubu,Foi (Foe),Kyaka,Kamano (Kafe),Mawatta,Kukukuku (=Anga,=Sambia;Manki,Nauti,Ejuti),Baruya,Kewa,Tembregak,Menya,Melpa,Wiru,Pondoma, Reindeer Koryak, Maritime Koryak (Alyutor), Chukchi, Central Yupik, Tahltan, Polar Inuit, Baffin Land Inuit, Okanagon, Sanpoil, Lower Chinook (Chinook proper), Cherokee, Cocama, Omagua, Kechua-speaking communities of Apurimac, Cuzco, Arequipa, Puno departments; Spanish sources of XVI-XVII centuries; Callawaya (Kechua with Pukina substratum), Ashaninca (Campa), Machiguenga, Tupari, Makurap, Sakirap, Ajuru (Wayoro), Itelmen

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