Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

M7 — Waiting for transport

48 Myths, legends and folktales

48 Unique narratives for motif M7

26 Cultures & traditions where M7 is told

4 Sub-motifs of motif M7

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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

Overview

The character goes to the lower world, to the sky, to the country on the horizon, etc. and waits for someone to give him a ride to his goal. Usually, some animals/birds or celestial bodies follow by, and the last (often the Sun or Month) delivers.

Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes

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

M7 has 4 other sub-motifs

M7.  The character goes to the lower world, to the sky, to the country on the horizon, etc. and waits for someone to give him a ride to his goal. Usually, some animals/birds or celestial bodies follow by, and the last (often the Sun or Month) delivers.
M7a.  Birds or animals take the character into their boat, but take on a zoomorphic appearance and leave their passenger in the water (after he breaks a ban). (It is significant that the boat or raft only appears to be artifacts, but is actually the bodies of the corresponding birds or animals, or it is an ice floe; cf. Motive M31).
M7a1.  Person gets to a place from which he is unable to come out. Several (more than two) different celestial bodies rise and move near him or above him. He puts attention to them (and asks their help)
M7b.  zoomorphic character (usually a fox) finds himself in a place he can't get out of, and consistently asks for help from animals (fish) passing by or approaching him. The latter helps.
M7c.  zoomorphic character is waiting to be transported across the water. Animals or fish consistently offer help. The character only accepts the latter's help - he was waiting for him to eat.

🌐 See a combined distribution map for all of M7’s motifs

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny

Motif	Similarity	Motif summary
G23A	98.32%	Parts of the body and organs of living beings are transformed into various plants (teeth into corn, testicles into yams, etc.).
E27	96.07%	People arise from drops of blood from a wounded anthropomorphic creature.
M44B	93.06%	The character discovers that someone is stealing game or fish from his trap, mountain, etc. or ravages his garden, vegetable garden, field; he or his messengers wait and catch the thief. The kidnappers are women, or the aquatic animal is the kidnapper, but when caught, it gives the hero a woman.
I43A	92.74%	A giant reptile, serpent, fish, or chain of fish stretches across the earth and/or supports the sky. Usually associated with the Milky Way, sometimes with a rainbow.
I125	91.80%	Hyades (sometimes, possibly, Pleiades or Orion) – jaw or severed head of a large animal or anthropomorphic creature.
M1B	91.74%	A caiman/crocodile carries a monkey across a river. She manages to jump ashore and runs away from the caiman.
B55	91.63%	Fish grow on tree branches or tree leaves turn into fish.
A12E	90.75%	The spider attacks the sun or moon (usually causing lunar eclipses).
I133A	90.09%	There is a constellation that represents a bird and corresponds to several large constellations in European traditions (mainly equatorial, rather than circumpolar).
G20	89.34%	Edible (cultivated or wild) plants emerge from the body of an old woman, a young woman or a girl.

See the 100 most similar distributions →

Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

26 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 26 traditions: Aka, Baka (Badjue) and other Western (Bantu speaking) Pygmies, Melanesians and Papuans of Central Solomons: Vella la Vella (Bilua language), Shortland islands (Mono language), San Cristobal, Saint Georgia, Eddystone, Vangunu, Southern Solomons: southern part of Santa Ysabel (Bughotu), Guadalcanal, San Cristobal, Malaita, Ulawa, Gilbert Islands, Nauru, Banaba (Ocean island), Tuvalu (Ellice), Ponape, Ngaik, Mwoakil (Mokil), Kusaie (Kosrae), Marshall Islands, incl Ailinglapalap, Arno, Jaluit, Kili, Lae, Maloelap, Majuro, Ratak, Wotho, Ujae, Jaluit (=Jalooj), Namdrik, Toraja (Toradja), To Mori, Baree (=Eastern Toraja), Minahasa (incl. Tondano, Tentemboan), Bantik, Bidayuh (incl. Maloh), Iban (Sea Dayak), Sakarram; Brunei, SW Arunachal Pradesh: Sherdukpen, Tawang (Monpas), Aka (Hrusso), Miji, Indian literary tradition (Vedic, Brahman, Purana, Indian Buddhism, Hinduism, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchtantra, Jatakas); iconography of Hindu temples, Sinhalese; Vedda, Oroch, Yana, Choco: Embera, Nonama (Waunana), XVI century Dabaiba, pre-Columbian iconography of Sinu, Guajiro, Sicuani, Makiritare (Yecuana), Trio, Pemon: Arekuna (incl. Kamarakoto), Taulipang (Taurepan), Wayapi, Emerillon, Barasana, Taibano, Macuna, Kabiyari, Yukuna (Yucuna), Ticuna (Tucuna), Shipibo, Conibo, Setebo

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