M116 — The undead father helps with advice, ATU 981.

People must kill their fathers (or mothers; Nyoro: deprive them of power and property; Baluchi: do not take them with you on a journey). One young man hides his father, and his wise advice helps to avoid trouble.

Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes

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

M11.  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.
M11a.  The character gives others the fish extracted from his body.
M11b.  A woman feeds a man with good-quality meat or fat, which she cuts from her own flesh or extracts from her body, and stops doing so when he learns about the source of the food.
M11c.  Without harming himself, a male character cuts off, pierces, roasts, holds over a fire, etc. a part of his body (or his wife's body). The character cooks the meat, fat, etc. obtained in this way and treats his guest to it. This food is not perceived as unclean (cf. motifs M11B and M38).
m11d.  The character makes food taste good by adding salt to it. Another character learns that the cook extracts this salt from his own body (it is contained in his bodily secretions).

This motif has been recorded in 65 traditions: Arabs of Levant (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan); Bedouins of Sinai, Arabs of Libya, Ganda, (Ba)Nyoro, Nyankole, Masaba (Gisu), Luia (=Luyia, Haya, Luhya, Bantu Kawirondo; incl. Vugusu, Maragoli), Bemba (Wemba, Babemba; incl Ambo, Lala, Lamba, Bisa), Holoholo, Kaonde, Susu, Dan (=Gio), Guro (=Kweni, incl Gagu, Neio), Toura, Mano, Ngere, Beng, Guro , Songhai, Koreans, Ireland, England, British, Bretons, Spain, Spaniards, Maltese, Sicily, Sicilians, Sardinia, Corsica, Sardinians, Corsicans, France, Dutch, Flemish, 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, Poles, Slovakians, Slovaks, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Macedonians, Balkarians, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Croatians, Croats; Italians of Dalmatia (if the motif is absent among other Italians), Slovenians, Slovenes, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Lithuanians, Latvians, Setu, Swedes, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Nogai, Tats, Armenians, Gagauz, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Uyghur, Kazan (Middle Volga) Tatars, Bashkirs, Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Mongols (Khalkha), Daur (Daghur), Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Plains Ojibwa, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Buryats: Eastern (trans Baikal), i.e. Khori, Lutsi (Ludza), Frisians, Bosnians, Burkina Faso, Ghana, Berbers of Algeria, Nigeria, Egypt, Lebanon, Montenegro, China, Japan, Russian Federation