Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
L89 — One secretly feeds another.
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
OverviewOne person, wishing to harm another, secretly gives him certain food to eat or a certain object to use. As a result, the other person dies (usually undergoing a metamorphosis). Cf. motif K82a.
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 |
|---|---|---|
| C12A | 97.72% | The dog warns of an impending global flood or fire and advises what to do. |
| I70 | 97.72% | Trees or reeds grow on the back or head of a reptile. |
| E20 | 95.66% | When a certain person enters the water, the fish die. A plant grows from parts of his body or on his grave, from which fish poison (timbó) is made. |
| M73A | 95.39% | Two (animal) persons compare their feces (with different purpose). One of them gets to exchange them |
| K27YY2 | 94.36% | The hero is sent to bring the chick of a dangerous bird. |
| L84 | 93.99% | The character attempts to chop down a tree with an axe made of obviously unsuitable material. Cf. motif K27g5. |
| F47B | 93.66% | In order to create new people (new women) to replace those who have been destroyed, the character leaves something (feathers or pieces of flesh) in each empty hut (in the hearth, in the hammock, in the village), from which new people (new women) appear. |
| B65 | 93.02% | A mischievous character imitates other animal-people. As a result, his belly is torn open and his spilled intestines turn into vines. |
| B59 | 92.58% | A group of people (usually children, brothers or sisters) play, dance, rise to the sky and turn into the Pleiades or another small constellation. |
| F47A | 92.54% | Men use each part of the body of a single woman for copulation, or each man takes a part of her body cut into pieces. |
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
18 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 18 traditions: Sinhalese; Vedda, Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Menominee, Sauk (Sak, Mesquakie), Fox, Kickapoo, Plains Ojibwa, Caddo, Tunica, Guiana Kariña, Kaliña, Galibi, Machiguenga, Cashibo, Tacana, Mehinaku, Waura, Yaulapiti, Kuikuro, Kalapalo, Calapalo, Nambikwara, Nivakle (=Chulupi, Ashluslay, Ajlujlay), Terena (Tereno)
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 © 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.
© 2024–2026 Crecganford / Jonathan Fielder-White. All rights reserved.