Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M184 — The slow overtakes the sleeping, ATU 275A.
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 swift-footed and slow characters agree to race each other. The swift-footed is confident of victory and takes his time, while the slow one stubbornly moves towards the goal and arrives first.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part of group 11, Tricks and competitions won thanks to deception, absurd and obscene behavior.
M18 has 2 other sub-motifs
RelatedM18. The character turns into an object of fishing or hunting and presents himself as a target. The fisherman or hunter does not harm them, but they take away what they use: arrows, darts, harpoons, hooks, bait; or they catch fish, having turned themselves into hooks; or they are caught but escape death by taking on human form again.
M18a. The character becomes the object of fishing or hunting, presenting himself as a target for enemies. Numerous arrows, darts, and harpoons stick into his body without causing harm, and he carries them away. See motif M18.
M18b. The character turns into a fishing object in order to carry away the hook with which he is caught or the spear with which they try to harpoon him, or he turns into a hook to catch fish. See motif M18.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| K33C | 98.18% | A young man obtains a girl who is inside a fruit or (rarely) a flower, stem, leaf, or egg. |
| I141 | 97.97% | The wand is an instrument for performing actions whose results cannot be explained rationally. |
| M185A | 97.77% | Birds, animals and fish compete to see which of them can run or swim fastest or climb highest. A weak character secretly clings to the winner and wins. There are 3 key versions: A. Birds argue about which of them will fly higher or arrive first. The winner is the one whose victory seemed unlikely, ATU 221A. See motif A23C.B. A fast and a slow animal (insect) agree to compete in speed or long jump. The slow one secretly clings to the fast one, ATU 275B. See motif M185.C. Two fish (fish and whale, dolphin, squid and dolphin, etc.) agree to race each other. The weaker one secretly clings to the tail (fin) of the stronger one and wins, ATU 250. See motif M186A. |
| M38D7 | 97.73% | Person who represents something fat (a sausage, a piece of fat, etc.) prepares a rich soup adding to it its own fat. Another person tries to repeat the trick and dies |
| I110A | 97.71% | Orion (rarely - another constellation) - plough. |
| F28A3 | 97.53% | A girl (woman) possesses an object that is pleasant (useful). Once in the hands of others, it becomes harmful (dangerous). |
| K33D | 97.48% | A man discovers that a beautiful girl is hiding under the guise of an ugly hag or under the skin of an animal. |
| K115 | 97.33% | When a character hides in a shelter, a spider immediately weaves a web at the entrance. Enemies decide that no one has entered the cave or room for a long time and leave. |
| I110 | 97.11% | Constellations are associated with agricultural tools or with people engaged in agricultural work (most often ploughing and haymaking). See motifs I110A (plough), I110B (haymaking). |
| M143 | 97.07% | Finding himself in a pit or well, one character persuades another to climb down to him, thanks to which he gets out, leaving the other at the bottom. |
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: Tonga, Hausa, Niue, Northern Luzon: Apayao, Bontoc, Nabaloi (Ibaloi), Ifugao, Igorot (highland people, not specified), Ilocan, Ilongot, Isneg, Kalinga, Kankanay, Tingian (Tinggian, Bilongan Itneg); Ibanag, Kasiguran Agta, Keley-i Kallahan, Portuguese, Portugal, Catalan, Sardinia, Corsica, Sardinians, Corsicans, Dutch, Flemish, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Croatians, Croats; Italians of Dalmatia (if the motif is absent among other Italians), Albanians, Balkarians, Ancient Greece, Estonians, Ingush, Armenians, Anatolia Turks, Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Plains Ojibwa, Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal), Tonga (Tsonga; incl, Soli, Sala, Lenje), Arabs (literary tradition; incl. One Thousand and One Nights), Senufo, Bedja, Early Russian written sources, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Berbers of Algeria, China, Japan
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