Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif

M77 — Soiled bed

126 Myths, legends and folktales

126 Unique narratives for motif M77

61 Cultures & traditions where M77 is told

0 Sub-motifs of motif M77

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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 stains another's clothes or bed with sewage or something that looks like sewage, threatens to ruin the air and accuse the other, etc.; taking advantage of the victim's confusion, achieves the goal.

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.

Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Phylogeny

Motif	Similarity	Motif summary
I85	95.67%	Polar Star – stake, nail, hitching post, etc.
B46	95.59%	Each of the seven stars of the Big Dipper is an adult male.
B50	95.58%	A dangerous character wants to find out from a blood-sucking insect where it drank blood or whose blood (flesh) tastes better. Usually, the insect deliberately lies, or another character prevents it from telling the truth (by pulling out its tongue). As a result, the dangerous character chooses animals or plants as the object of its aggression, rather than people. (The motif is related to the story of Noah's flood (see motif C3); †: There are versions in which the motif is presented separately, as well as those in which it is included in the story of Noah's flood.)
M113A	95.50%	A certain type of bird cannot drink water from rivers and lakes because instead of water it sees blood, fire, etc.
M152	95.49%	Seeing a predator (a giant, etc.) approaching, the weak character pretends to thank the one who is leading the predator for his promise to bring prey, or his wife and children (rarely: he himself) begin to talk aloud about how they are going to eat the predator or how they have eaten his companions before.
K38	95.33%	For doing good to chicks (rarely: young of non-ornithomorphic flying creatures), their mother or father does a favour for the person.
I25	95.23%	The path to the house or the entrance to the character's house is guarded by dangerous creatures. The hero appeases them with gifts or words, they let him pass back and forth, sometimes punished for this by the owner.
I128	95.17%	The Big Dipper – a ladle, a scoop.
M57D1	95.02%	bird consistently gives a person magical objects (or gives one, with which he receives the rest) or consistently fulfills his wishes.
L93A	94.91%	The fox, jackal or coyote, resorting to cunning, helps the hero, heroine or people in general, saving them.

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Map of motif dispersal

Distribution

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Traditions

61 recorded

This motif has been recorded in 61 traditions: Berbers of Morocco and adjacent parts of Algeria, Soninke, Santali, Turi, Mahli, Bhuiya (now Aryans, originally Munda; Rahman 1955: 203), Baiga, Bhaina, Bhumia (subgroup of Baiga, incl Bharia, formerly Munda, now speak Indo-Aryan languages of neighboring groups), Chin-Naga: Ao, Mao, Sema, Zeme, Kolren, Kom, Lhota, Rengma, Angami, Kabui, Tangkhul, Koirenf, Maria, Muria, and other South-Central Dravidians: Binjhwar, Bacop, Bhattra, Bom, Jhoria (=Jhodia), Gadaba (in Koraput, neighbors of Munda-speaking Gadaba), Duruwa (Parji), Mehtar; Pardhan, Burusho (Hunza), Brahui, Miao (Hmong) and Yao of Southern China, Koreans, Portuguese, Portugal, Catalan, France, Albanians, Balkarians, Karelians, Eastern Sami (including Skolts), Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Yazgulami, Tajik, Persians, Bukhara Arabs, Cherkassians, Adyghe, Kabardin, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Nogai, Georgians, Crimean Tatars, Karaims, Kirghiz, Hui (Dungan) of Xinjiang, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan (Dungan texts from Southern and Eastern China are clustered with the Chinese ones), Turkmen, Bashkirs, Komi (Zyrians and Permyaks), Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Mongols (Khalkha), Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Nenets, Central Yakuts (Sakha), Nanai, Tagish, Inland Tlingit, Tahltan, Bering Strait Inupiat (incl. King Island), North Alaskan Inupiat, Tlingit, Haida, Tsimshian, Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw), Nootka (Nu-chah-nulth), Makah, Blackfoot, Arapaho, Gros Ventre, Arabs (literary tradition; incl. One Thousand and One Nights), Salars, Southern Altai: Teleut, Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Early Russian written sources, Buryats: Eastern (trans Baikal), i.e. Khori, Terek Cossacks, Comoros, Russian Federation

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