Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
L48 — Demons devour their own kind.
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 hero (usually somewhere on high ground - on a tree, rock, at the edge of a precipice or well) kills and/or throws one of his opponents down from there. The other opponents do not recognise their comrade and believe that the slain man is the hero they are pursuing.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| K10 | 96.86% | A monstrous bird (bat) attacks people, heroes engage in battle with it. See motifs K10A – K10G. |
| C34 | 95.75% | The flood begins after people kill (harm, maim) some kind of creature (usually aquatic). |
| L5C | 95.73% | The monster head pursues celestial bodies, people, or attaches itself to someone else's body. See motif L5. |
| F34B | 95.53% | A girl, woman or group of women voluntarily take as their lover a penis that exists as a special creature, snake, moray eel, lizard, worm, crab, large aquatic animal or aquatic monster, or large terrestrial mammal. People kill or maim the lover, the woman and/or her offspring, or she herself loses her human nature. The woman's behaviour is condemned. |
| F53 | 95.53% | An unattractive man marries, but hides his face. When he is seen, the marriage is dissolved. |
| F35 | 94.38% | A character offers another person the meat of his sexual partner, and the other person, unaware, eats or cooks it. |
| B29 | 94.10% | People turn into animals, birds or stones, living beings acquire their current characteristics at a general meeting, festival, after a festival, after performing a ritual or after defeating a common enemy. |
| F33 | 93.92% | A woman or group of women take a water animal or water monster as their lover. The husband(s), brother(s) or (adopted) children of the woman(s) kill or maim the lover and (in some cases) the woman(s). |
| M11 | 93.75% | The character gives others food extracted from his or someone else's body or contaminated with bodily secretions, without revealing the source of the food. |
| F51 | 93.75% | Someone under cover of night/incognito approaches a person of the opposite sex. The marriage partner deliberately (to determine who it is) or accidentally (thereby exposing the visitor) makes a mark on his/her body (clothing). See motif A31. |
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
41 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 41 traditions: Bemba (Wemba, Babemba; incl Ambo, Lala, Lamba, Bisa), Holoholo, Kaonde, Toraja (Toradja), To Mori, Baree (=Eastern Toraja), Eastern Arunachal Pradesh: Abor (incl Minyong, Shimong, Padam, Pasi, Panggi), Apa Tani (Apatani), Bori, Bugun, Dafla (=Nyishi, Nisi, Nishing, incl Tagin), Gallong (=Galo, Adi), Mishmi, Ireland, 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, Pashto, Ainu, Asiatic Eskimo (Sirenek, Naukan, Chaplino), Tutchone, Tagish, Kaska, Beaver, Eastern Cree, Sauk (Sak, Mesquakie), Fox, Kickapoo, Blackfoot, Wichita; Spiro Mound iconography, Plains Cree, Crow, Klamath, Modoc, Tunica, Upland Yuma: Walapai, Havasupai, Yavapai, Navajo, Jicarilla, Zuni, Popoloca; Tlapanec, Tzutujil, Gulf Nahuatl, Cuiva, Pemon: Arekuna (incl. Kamarakoto), Taulipang (Taurepan), Wayapi, Emerillon, Colorado (Tsachila), Shuar, Achuar (Shiwiar), Aguaruna, Huambiza, Amahuaca, Cashinahua, Sharanahua, Yaminahua, Yawanahua, Capanahua), Harákmbet (=Mashco), Mehinaku, Waura, Yaulapiti, Nambikwara, Caraja, Botocudo, Biloxi
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