The Mythology and Folklore Database
B75B1 - Sounds of the era of creation: the voice of a wife or mother-in-law.




9 Myths, Legends and Folktales
9 Unique Narratives for Motif B75B1
6 Cultures & Traditions where B75B1 is told
45 Mythemes Indexed
4 Sub-Motifs of Motif B75B1


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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

The character pushes his mother-in-law or wife into a hollow, and she turns into the creaking of trees or an echo.

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


B75 has 4 other sub-motifs


B75a.  The voice of a character who once lived can still be heard (most often it is an echo; A1195, The origin of Echo).
B75b.  The creaking or crackling of trees is the voice of a transformed character.
B75b1.  The character pushes his mother-in-law or wife into a hollow, and she turns into the creaking of trees or an echo.
B75c.  The sound of the surf or water on the rapids has been heard since the time of creation.
B75d.  The sound of leaves or grass rustling in the wind has been heard since the time of creation.

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Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns

MotifSimilarityMotif Summary
M42A98.55%The character (usually after losing his own eyes) inserts seeds or berries into his eye sockets and sees again.
E3096.72%A man has no wife or a woman has no husband, and uses a wooden substitute as a spouse.
B5196.08%Thanks to a deliberate lie, Thunder did not learn from the bloodsucking insect that it had drunk human blood.
M8795.37%The character comes to a place that is abandoned or seems to have been abandoned by the inhabitants. He tries to take or touch things, but invisible owners prevent him from doing so, or the things themselves hurt him.
F7495.26%Upon seeing a dangerous character, a man or woman undresses and pretends to be dead (or the character undresses the woman). Examining and sniffing the supposed corpse, the character finds what he takes to be a wound or signs of decay and leaves.
L31A95.26%An object descends from the sky. Children playing climb into it or stick to it, and it carries them away to the sky. See motif L31.
M42B95.07%After losing his eyes, the character makes new ones out of resin or wax, sees again (often this is an episode on the way to finding good eyes, while tar eyes do not see well).
I11294.87%The boat is a living creature with a mouth, a fish.
F5894.74%The character spends the night with a group of women, concealing his nature and/or intentions. In the end, he is either identified and punished, or he slips away to continue his mischief.
M3294.70%The character swallows food or water, or his own entrails, pieces of flesh flow out and fall out of his ass.

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Map of Motif Dispersal

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This motif has been recorded in 6 traditions: Inland Tlingit, Eyak, Haida, Tsimshian, Maue (Mawe), Yughs


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