The Mythology and Folklore Database
B38B - Two animals adorn each other.
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Motif Summary - Motifs with Simlar Dispersals - Map of Myth Distribution - List of Traditions - Myths |
Source Data from Berezkin's Analytics Catalogue, if using this data please acknowledge and link to it here:
Ю.Е. Березкин, Е.Н. Дувакин. Тематическая классификация и распределение фольклорно-мифологических мотивов по ареалам. Аналитический каталог.
Summary of Motif
Two quadrupeds (or a quadruped and another creature) adorn each other themselves or are adorned by someone else.Berezkin category: The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 7, Etiology of plants and animals and of their peculiar features, particular animals as protagonists of cosmological stories, metamorphoses, weather and calendar
B38 has 5 other sub-motifsB38. The character decorates birds or animals, or they decorate each other. Some are dissatisfied with the result. B38a. Two birds agree to paint each other. One of them does not become more beautiful as a result and often becomes uglier. See motif B36A. B38b. Two quadrupeds (or a quadruped and another creature) adorn each other themselves or are adorned by someone else. B38c. The raven and the loon paint each other. B38d. The Raven and the Owl paint each other. B38e. The character kicks a loon or other waterfowl. Since then, it has had a flattened tail and finds it difficult to walk on land. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of B38's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| B16B | 100.00% | The sea is salty because a wolverine or a fox bathed in it or urinated in it. |
| A31A | 99.65% | Upon learning that her husband or lover has committed an act incompatible with accepted norms, a woman cuts off her breast and shows it to him. |
| M94A | 99.09% | The demonic character kills his victims, provoking them to slide down the mountain. |
| M123D | 97.98% | A bird from the corvid family is rejected after its mate or relatives discover that it eats carrion or filth. |
| M123C | 97.68% | A non-migratory bird sets off south with migratory birds, but is unable to reach its destination. |
| I123 | 97.62% | Altair with a small neighbouring star from the constellation Aquila or Vega with a similarly faint star are considered to appear during or immediately after the winter solstice, although they are actually visible before that. |
| B38C | 96.37% | The raven and the loon paint each other. |
| F91 | 95.58% | A man finds or breeds monstrous worms to eat his wife. |
| K51 | 95.21% | The husband feigns death, disappears or leaves home for a long time. The wife learns that he has married another woman, finds and, as a rule, kills her husband and/or rival, who often turns out to be a creature of non-human nature. |
| K27N3C1 | 94.87% | The inhabitants of the polar bear village – relatives of his wife – set the hero difficult tasks and trials. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 13 traditions: Central Yakuts (Sakha), Forest (Upper Kolyma) Yukaghir, Chipewyan, Athna, Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), North Alaskan Inupiat, Mackenzie Delta, Copper, Netsilik, Caribou, East Greenland (Angmassalik, Kulusuk), Eyak, Greenland