Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M26 — Ducks carry the catcher (grabbed by the legs)
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 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.
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.
M26 has 1 other sub-motifs
RelatedM26. 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.
M26a. The character catches birds by feeding them bait tied to a rope, which they swallow one by one, or by shooting several birds with one bullet, or by soldering birds drunk and tying up. Birds usually take off and carry away a catcher holding a rope.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| G30 | 100.00% | A long penis is cut into pieces, which turn into many edible plants or different types of trees. Cf. motif B53. |
| H37B | 99.89% | One character gives another his power (usually a skunk gives his volley). The other wastes the resource unnecessarily to test its effect. Usually, when the need arises, the resource no longer works. |
| M53C | 99.70% | 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. |
| K48A | 99.35% | 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. |
| M24 | 99.18% | turtle goes to war and/or is captured. See M23 motif. Cf. motif K77 “Verlioka”. |
| L91 | 99.08% | 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. |
| M13A | 98.52% | A deity and a human meet so that the former can fulfil the latter's request. As a result, the human is turned to stone. Usually (except for the Squamish), one of the supplicants wants eternal life and is turned to stone. See motif M13. |
| F93A | 97.62% | A man's penis begins to talk incessantly, falling silent only after his mother-in-law takes it in her hand. |
| F45A1 | 97.01% | A woman, against her will, conceives from the wind. |
| K104 | 97.01% | The youngest of the brothers stays at home, wounds a red swan or duck, and follows its trail. |
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
15 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 15 traditions: Lenape (Delaware), Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Eastern Ojibwa (Missisauga, Timagami and other groups in eastern Ontario), Northern Ojibwa (=Severn Ojibwa, Sandy Lake Cree), Menominee, Potawatomi, Five Nations Iroquois (Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga), Plains Ojibwa, Carrier, Western Sahaptin (Upper Cowlitz, Klikitat, Tenino, Umatilla, Yakima, Wallawalla), Caddo, Natchez (incl Avoyel), Alabama, Koasati, Cherokee, Ute
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