Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

L43 — Dangerous characters devour refuse.

61 Myths, legends and folktales

61 Unique narratives for motif L43

48 Cultures & traditions where L43 is told

0 Sub-motifs of motif L43

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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

Characters dangerous to the hero (demons, robbers, merchants) mistake excrement, insects, snakes and other disgusting things (not intended for food) for something pleasant (edible).

Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits

This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny

Motif	Similarity	Motif summary
B102	92.56%	Clouds are formed from smoke rising from the ground.
H7G1	92.53%	A man (usually looking for a godfather for his newborn son) rejects God (the saints) and the devil, but praises Death: it treats everyone without prejudice (or is richer than everyone else).
M38A1	92.10%	The character imitates the sisters' sons-in-law or husbands, or the wife's brothers (shoshone's) or wives (comox and chalkomel). {ATU combines a motive with another}.
I102	89.88%	The Milky Way – a tree, the trace of a tree.
F86	89.43%	A character calls another character of non-human nature (a mate or ward) with a conventional signal; the other character sees this, makes the same signal or utters the same words, takes on the appearance of the character they have come to replace, kills those who come out to meet them, or makes use of their sexual services.
L39	87.94%	By force or deception, the character forces another to climb down from the tree in order to harm him.
I122	86.78%	The Pleiades – a beehive, a nest, a cluster of bees or wasps.
F20	86.67%	After copulation, the man and woman are unable to break their embrace.
L49	86.64%	Individual parts or pieces of a character's body are successively thrown down. (In American variants, those below usually mistake them for game, honey, or fish).
H28B	85.47%	Shorn hairs on animal skins or ash and smoke from burnt skins covered with wool turn into blood-sucking insects.

See the 100 most similar distributions →

Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

48 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 48 traditions: Batak (Toba, Dairi), England, British, Bretons, Spain, Spaniards, Catalan, Aragon, Sicily, Sicilians, France, Germans: North (Low- and Central German dialects): Schleswig-Holstein, Mecklenburg, Pommern, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony, incl East Frisia and Oldenburg), Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Thüringen, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen, Brandenburg, Rügen, Slovenians, Slovenes, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Armenians, Anatolia Turks, Bashkirs, Udmurt, Komi (Zyrians and Permyaks), Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Mongols (Khalkha), Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Nenets, Athna, Bering Strait Inupiat (incl. King Island), North Alaskan Inupiat, Assiniboine, Maidu, Nisenan, Konkov, Ute, Western Keres (Acoma, Laguna), Eastern Keres (Cochiti, Sia, San Felipe, Santo Domingo, Santa Ana, Paguate, Seama), Kogi (Cagaba), Sanha, Creols of Aritama Valley, Wapishana (incl Ataroi); Mapidian; Taruma, Pemon: Arekuna (incl. Kamarakoto), Taulipang (Taurepan), Wayapi, Emerillon, Kabiyari, Yukuna (Yucuna), Tariana, Andoque, Amuesha, Shipibo, Conibo, Setebo, Cashibo, Tacana, Mundurucu, Curuaia, Rikbaktsa, Kayabi, Nivakle (=Chulupi, Ashluslay, Ajlujlay), Toba (incl Pilagá), Buryats: Eastern (trans Baikal), i.e. Khori, Bosnians, Russian Federation

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How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com

0009-0006-1672-4451
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