Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
L6A — Asks to be carried.
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
OverviewAn unremarkable, weak-looking character asks a person to carry him or her on their back, and then refuses to get off.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 10, Adventures.
L6 has 1 other sub-motifs
RelatedL6. The creature demands that the person carry it constantly, not allowing itself to be thrown off.
L6a. An unremarkable, weak-looking character asks a person to carry him or her on their back, and then refuses to get off.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| M96 | 90.37% | In order not to share with family members, the character pretends to have guests and eats everything himself. |
| E9C | 86.96% | Before meeting the hero, his beloved (wife, helper) has the image of a large hoofed mammal (buffalo, antelope, moose, etc.). |
| M53C | 84.88% | trickster, inviting birds to dance around him with their eyes closed, kills them one at a time and threatens to turn red at the one that opens their eyes; this is an empty threat, or for a bird that opens eyes and eyes have really turned red ever since. |
| M24 | 84.82% | turtle goes to war and/or is captured. See M23 motif. Cf. motif K77 “Verlioka”. |
| F93 | 84.74% | After a person performs a certain action, his penis begins to speak (often repeating what the person has said). |
| L15B1 | 84.65% | In the battle between positive and negative creators, the positive one chooses the deer horn as a weapon – usually because this is the only weapon that the enemy fears. |
| G30 | 84.59% | A long penis is cut into pieces, which turn into many edible plants or different types of trees. Cf. motif B53. |
| M26 | 84.59% | The character dives under waterfowl and ties a rope to their legs to catch them. Birds soar into the air, lifting the catcher with them. It later falls. |
| K48A | 84.49% | The hero's costume and/or headdress are decorated with live birds or animals. Usually, the antagonist steals the clothes and pretends to be the hero, but the birds and animals on his headdress remain silent or cry out differently. See motif K48. |
| L91 | 84.35% | Two or four young men go on a journey or return from one. Their path is blocked by a long creature that cannot be bypassed. They burn a passage through it. One eats roasted meat, turns into a snake himself, or dies. See motif L28. |
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
26 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 26 traditions: Yoruba; incl Ife), Nupe, Bini (Edo), Engenni, Chamba, Dakka, Kukuruku, Bushmen (all groups), Spain, Spaniards, Uzbek, Persians, Armenians, Anatolia Turks, Kazakh, Central Yakuts (Sakha), Eastern Cree, Tuscarora, Omaha, Ponca, Iowa, Arikara, Pawnee, Wichita; Spiro Mound iconography, Tonkawa, Plains Cree, Assiniboine, Oregon Athabaskans: Lower Umpqua, Tututni (incl Joshua), Upper Coquille, Galice, Tolowa, Natchez (incl Avoyel), Alabama, Koasati, Cherokee, Western Yakuts (Sakha): Olekma and Vilyuy Basins, Northwestern Yakuts (Sakha): Yessey, Anabar, Olenyok and Lower Lena Basins, Northeastern Yakuts (Sakha): Yana, Indigirka and Kolyma Basins
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