The Mythology and Folklore Database
B50 - Whose blood is sweeter?
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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
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.)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
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| I22C | 96.81% | The character safely slips, sails or flies through the opening, which then slams shut, but the edge of the stern of the boat, the tail of an animal or bird, the body of a riding animal, the hero's companion or his own heel is crushed, torn off, etc. |
| M77 | 95.58% | 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. |
| I25 | 95.31% | 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 | 93.11% | The Big Dipper – a ladle, a scoop. |
| B46C | 93.00% | Each of the stars of the Big Dipper is a separate character (people or animals). |
| B83 | 92.88% | A character attempts to lift a small object or creature, which turns out to be gigantic and unliftable. Cf. motif I87ab. |
| B46 | 92.79% | Each of the seven stars of the Big Dipper is an adult male. |
| K27W | 92.00% | The task giver demands that a dangerous creature be brought to him or that something belonging to a monster or deity be brought to him. The hero fulfils the task, but the beast, monster, deity or the object itself kills the task giver. See motif K27. |
| L72B | 91.83% | Fleeing for his life, the character throws small objects behind him, which turn into powerful obstacles in the path of his pursuer. One of the objects thrown is a whetstone. (In one of the Udmurt variants, the objects thrown destroy the obstacles in the character's path). See motif L72. |
| I46A | 91.71% | The rainbow is associated with a woman, usually an elderly one. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 49 traditions: Poles, Slovakians, Slovaks, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Abaza (Abazins), Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Karachays, Balkar, Ossetians, Ingush, Nogai, Mingrelians (Megrelians), Laz, Kalmyk, Crimean Tatars, Karaims, Uyghur, 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, Mari (Cheremis), Chuvash, Udmurt, Forest Nenets, Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Oirats (incl Torgouts, Derbets, Oilots), Mongols (Khalkha), Khakas, Southern Altai: Altai proper (Altai-Kiji), Telengit, Altaians, Evens (Lamuts), Tahltan, Tanana, Eyak, Nootka (Nu-chah-nulth), Makah, Micmac, Western Ojibwa (Chippewa), Naskapi, Plains Cree, Plains Ojibwa, Shuswap, Thompson (Nlaka'pamux), Kalapuya, Shasta; Chimariko, Maidu, Nisenan, Konkov, Yaruro