Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
M90A4 — The jewel tree
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
OverviewA tree is described on which jewelry or ornaments hang instead of fruits; individual parts of the tree are made of different metals or (semi) precious stones.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 8, Queer and monstrous beings, creatures, objects and loci, folk beliefs related to particular phenomena and objects.
M90 has 9 other sub-motifs
RelatedM90. Someone asks a riddle about the material from which a particular item is made or originated. It is almost impossible to guess, but the character learns the secret, forcing the hero or heroine to fulfill the conditions set. (Usually requires a girl to marry him).
M90a. The girl will marry the person who guessed her name, or someone who will fit the ring, or someone who says what material a particular object is made of or originated, etc. The deceiver fulfills the condition.
M90a1. It is required to sew clothes from the skin of lice (fleas) or guess the origin of a large animal, a large skin, the contents of the box; the animal (skin) arose from lice (fleas), in the box - louse.
M90a2. It should be guessed that the plant grew from a part of the body of a man or a snake or from dirt scraped off from the body
M90a3. plant grows from a killed snake or part of a snake's body.
M90a4. A tree is described on which jewelry or ornaments hang instead of fruits; individual parts of the tree are made of different metals or (semi) precious stones.
M90a5. The story mentions the golden fruits (rarely leaves) of a tree, usually golden apples.
M90a6. Owning some apples ensures eternal youth.
M90b. The character was wrong when he claimed that the sun would never rise in the west or go down after midnight.
M90c. man agreed with another that he could take the first thing he touched from his house. The visitor is going to take his wife, but when he takes up the stepladder to go up to the woman, he is told to pick up the stepladder and leave.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| M156A | 97.22% | A dangerous animal is about to kill a human or another animal that helped it. The predator and its prey agree to ask passers-by (people walking or sailing by) which of them is right. Among those who respond are inanimate objects (most often trees). |
| K27ZZ1 | 95.80% | Several wives are thrown into a dungeon (banished), each gives birth to a child, but only one manages to save hers. The boy grows up and rescues the women. |
| M125 | 95.57% | One character lies to another, pretending to eat his own eyes. The other agrees to eat his own. The first character gouges out one of his eyes and gives him something tasty in its place. The character believes that this is the same eye that was gouged out and agrees to give up the second. |
| K90 | 95.51% | A person sees two opposing monsters or animals (usually of contrasting colours: red and black, black and white) and helps one of them, or one of the combatants helps the person. (Cf. ATU 156B, 738). |
| K92A | 95.48% | A girl who has been driven from her home or has become the wife of an insignificant pauper becomes rich and respected. |
| K61F | 95.42% | Fearing her husband's wrath, a childless woman pretends to have given birth. Her husband believes that he has a daughter or son, and after some time marries her off (marries him off). During the wedding ceremony, a doll or animal is placed under the veil (in the palanquin), but at the last moment, a supernatural character transforms the supposed bride (groom) into a girl or boy. |
| H49C | 95.39% | A tame bird (rarely: a domestic animal) shows visible aggression towards its owner (usually a falcon knocks a bowl out of the hands of a thirsty man). The man kills the bird (animal) and then discovers that they saved him from death. |
| F14 | 94.49% | The hero is born as a result of the union of a man with a stone or rock. |
| M78F | 94.48% | When a woman falls asleep, a joker (usually a tiny boy) places an embryo or the entrails of an animal or something similar next to her to make the woman herself or others think she has a miscarriage or that her viscera has fallen out. |
| M84C | 94.42% | Sleeping in a deserted place, a person finds himself among spirits. One of them explains that he has a guest, that is the same person. |
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
32 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 32 traditions: Akkad, Assyria, Babylonia, Arabs of Levant (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan); Bedouins of Sinai, Sangir Islands, Minahasa (incl. Tondano, Tentemboan), Bantik, Dusun, Murut, Kelabit, Tombonuwo, Bajau, Tidong, Bidayuh (incl. Maloh), Iban (Sea Dayak), Sakarram; Brunei, Santali, Turi, Mahli, Garo (Atchik), Kachari (Bodo, incl. Lalung), Dimasa, Tripuri, Riang (of Tripura), Khami, Riga, Mori, Nepali; Tharu, Hindi-speaking peoples and casts (incl. Teli, Parahiya; incl. Chhattisgarhi) of Northern and West-Central India, Dards (Kalash, Kho, Kohistani, Shina, Pashai), 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, Lithuanians, Uzbek, Persians, Ingush, Svans, Georgians, Armenians, Mordvins, Southern Altai: Altai proper (Altai-Kiji), Telengit, Altaians, Northern Altai: Chelkan, Kumanda, Tubalar, Altaians, Central Yakuts (Sakha), Nanai, Olcha (Ulch), Dogrib, Slavey, Sicuani, Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal), Chechens, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Dong, Maonan, China
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