Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
K133 — The exhausted horse.
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 man notices that his horse (donkey) looks tired and learns that an animal or demonic creature is riding it. Cf. motif M182a.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
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.
K13 has 3 other sub-motifs
RelatedK13a. The character's leg (rarely: both legs) is cut off, bitten off, torn off, or damaged. The character ascends to the sky: to the moon; becomes the moon; turns into a star or constellation; becomes the sun; blood flowing from the leg colours the sky.
K13b. A man crosses a body of water on the back of a caiman. The caiman bites off his leg. The cripple undergoes a metamorphosis, turning into a constellation or an animal.
K13c. The cannibal's daughter takes revenge on her husband for her mother's death and manages to cut off his leg. See motif K13A.
K13d. A group of boys reaches the sky, the last one's leg is cut off or torn off.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| N7 | 99.89% | fairy-tale text ends with a formula that says that three apples fell from the sky or tree, at least one of which went to the narrator. Or it is said that someone give/should give the narrator one or three apples. |
| K27X4 | 99.76% | The character is told to climb a tree (pole, mountain, etc.) while holding a full open vessel in his hand and not spilling a drop from it. |
| C33A1 | 99.25% | A bird of prey flies to the chained character every day and pecks at his internal organs. The character recovers overnight, and the cycle repeats itself. |
| I95A | 99.23% | Orion (probably always Orion's Belt) is Libra. |
| B105 | 98.86% | The father-in-law or mother-in-law catches the daughter-in-law in a situation she is ashamed of (with her hair down, bathing, etc.). Out of shame, she turns into a bird (usually a hoopoe) or a turtle. |
| K90A | 98.76% | Seeing two snakes of contrasting colours fighting, a man tries to strike one, but accidentally hits the other. The relatives of this snake gather to punish him, but upon learning what happened, they reward him. |
| K99A3 | 98.69% | A person sees the sun, moon and stars (all together or some of them) in a dream. At the end of the story, the meaning of the dream becomes clear: these are people who love or worship him (often two wives and a child). |
| M199J | 98.62% | A giant puts a man on his shoulders to carry him across a river. Believing that the man is strong, he asks why he is so light. The man replies that if he puts all his weight on the giant, the giant will not be able to carry him. The giant pricks him with an awl (knife, nail) and asks him not to put all his weight on him again. |
| K27Z7 | 98.60% | The character promises to fulfil a request if the other person reveals the secret behind someone's strange behaviour. |
| K95A | 98.57% | The lovers are buried in the same grave or nearby. Two plants grow in this place, reaching towards each other, and between them is a thorny bush, embodying the character who separated the lovers. |
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
21 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 21 traditions: Kafir, or Nuristani: Prasun; Kati (incl. Paruni), Ashkun (Ashunu), Waigali, Lithuanians, Uzbek, Tajik, Abaza (Abazins), Ossetians, Rutul, Tsakhur, Avar, Andi, Akhvakh, Kumyk, Terekemen, Tats, Armenians, Anatolia Turks, Kurds, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Bashkirs, Mari (Cheremis), Chuvash, Southern Altai: Altai proper (Altai-Kiji), Telengit, Altaians, Northern Altai: Chelkan, Kumanda, Tubalar, Altaians, Tlingit, Russian Federation
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