Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
L87 — He who has tasted blood becomes a cannibal.
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 character accidentally tastes blood or human flesh, after which he devours himself and/or others.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| F55A | 96.08% | A demonic character persuades a woman to expose a certain part of her body, because that is the only place where a certain object should be placed. The demon kills the woman, tearing off that part of her body. Usually, the woman uses or names various locations, and the character rejects each one in turn until he finds the right one. |
| K23 | 94.83% | Birds attack inhabitants of another world or a person who has entered another world. See motif K22. |
| B87A | 94.38% | A dim star next to the second star of the handle of the Big Dipper (Tibetans: Little Dipper) Ursa Major â dog. |
| K27XY | 94.04% | Several men (animals), each of whom can do something better than the others, work together to accomplish difficult tasks set before them by their opponents. The competition is not intended to find a worthy suitor for a girl or to get rid of an unwanted suitor. Cf. motif K27o3 (Competition between two teams). |
| F72 | 93.76% | A woman asks a man to tie her up before intercourse so that it looks like she is being raped. |
| A32B | 93.33% | The figure or imprint of a toad or frog is visible on the lunar disc; the moon is associated with this animal. |
| J59A | 92.98% | After shooting an arrow (rarely: throwing a ball), a person flies on it, behind it or in front of it, or sends another person on the flying arrow. Cf. motif J59. |
| K22 | 92.96% | The inhabitants of a distant land, who differ from (ordinary) people, occasionally fight off enemies of a non-human nature who attack them. |
| L119 | 92.82% | The hero and antagonist fight in the air, tearing off each other's limbs. Usually, their allies on the ground try to preserve the limbs of their leader and destroy those of their enemy. |
| F10 | 92.74% | A woman has a second mouth (usually in her vagina) with sharp teeth. A man inserts or throws a stone, bone, stick, etc. into this mouth, knocking out the teeth or extracting toothy animals from it in this way. |
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
30 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 30 traditions: Karen, Pa-O, Padaung, Kayah, Santali, Turi, Mahli, Northern Munda of Kharwar branch: Birhor, Ho, Mundari, Kol, Asur (including Agaria, Kol, Birjhia), Bhumij, Bhuiya (now Aryans, originally Munda; Rahman 1955: 203), Baiga, Bhaina, Bhumia (subgroup of Baiga, incl Bharia, formerly Munda, now speak Indo-Aryan languages of neighboring groups), Basques, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Macedonians, Balkarians, Anatolia Turks, Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Tungus (Evenki) of China (Solon, Birar, Oroqen, Manegir), Evenks, Tungus (Evenki): Russian Far East, Evenks, Western Tungus (Evenki), Western Siberia Tungus (Evenki): Sym River, Ket River, Five Nations Iroquois (Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga), Nez Perce, Oregon Athabaskans: Lower Umpqua, Tututni (incl Joshua), Upper Coquille, Galice, Tolowa, Kutenai, Cherokee, Wintu, Patwin, Nomlaki, Maidu, Nisenan, Konkov, Northern Shoshone, Western Shoshone, Gosiute, Eastern Shoshone, Chamacoco (Ishir), Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal), Ilimpii Tungus/Evenki, Yerbogachen Tungus/Evenki, Tungus/Evenki of Nercha - Chita area, Japan
If you wish to get access to data for projects and research, then please contact us, we do our best to help
How to cite: Fielder-White, J. (2026). The Folklore Database. https://folkloredatabase.com
0009-0006-1672-4451
Where applicable, users should also cite the relevant original sources, catalogues, and classification systems, including Berezkin, ATU, Thompson, and other cited authorities, alongside the page accessed and the last time accessed.
Editorial annotations and database enhancements Š Jonathan Fielder-White licensed under CC BY 4.0. Berezkin-derived narrative and metadata licensed under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0. Full rights information can be found here.
All rights are reserved in the database structure, selection, arrangement, metadata, classifications, software, interface design, and original editorial content.
Important: The Folklore Database expressly reserves all rights in relation to text and data mining, automated extraction, scraping, machine learning, dataset creation, and the training, development, validation, or improvement of artificial intelligence technologies or systems. No part of this website or database may be scraped, copied, reproduced, harvested, downloaded in bulk, or otherwise used for AI training or commercial data extraction without prior written permission.
Designed and Developed by Jon Fielder-White.
Š 2024â2026 Crecganford / Jonathan Fielder-White. All rights reserved.