The Mythology and Folklore Database
F27 - Girls and water spirits.
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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
It is dangerous for girls or women to approach water (water creatures drag them away or swallow them; a girl who approaches water dies; she becomes pregnant by a snake; through her fault, a flood or other disaster occurs; water spirits themselves come to a girl who has her first period).Berezkin category: Gender and sex
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 5, Origin of human beings, ethnic groups, etiology of human anatomy, strange body configuration, ways of behavior, marriages before the establishment of the present norms
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| E6 | 97.68% | When a woman of childbearing age (she is menstruating, miscarrying, pregnant, with a child, or simply fat) tries to pass from one world to another, the connection between the worlds is severed forever. |
| A27 | 97.35% | The light and/or heat of the sun and/or moon is contained in their crowns, necklaces or clothing (made of feathers or animal teeth). |
| F40A | 97.25% | A male character, androgynous, with a monstrous penis, single-handedly possesses all women, rules over them or leads away the first women. |
| L3 | 97.24% | The demon takes on human form and comes to his wife (less often to another woman). Usually, the woman (alone or with a child) runs away and/or kills the monster, either by herself or with someone's help. |
| M5 | 97.23% | Once in a situation where his life depends on the will of a demon or animal, the hero feels like insulting or hitting him. See M1 motif. |
| K13A | 97.08% | The character's leg (rarely: both legs) is cut off, bitten off, torn off, or damaged. The character ascends to the sky: to the moon; becomes the moon; turns into a star or constellation; becomes the sun; blood flowing from the leg colours the sky. |
| L24 | 96.96% | Demons (or one of them) attack people and then hide. People destroy the demons' lair and kill all or most of them by spreading a smoky fire around the demons' refuge. |
| F12 | 96.55% | A husband kills his wife by inserting her lover's severed penis into her body. |
| G13 | 95.96% | Before the advent of cultivated plants, people ate rotten or soft wood (ceiba – Ceiba L., balsa – Ochroma (Bombax) Sw.); some people eat rotten wood. |
| K13C | 95.60% | The cannibal's daughter takes revenge on her husband for her mother's death and manages to cut off his leg. See motif K13A. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 31 traditions: Arnhem Land: Enindhilyagwa (Groote Eilandt), KuTiwi, Yulengor, Mara, Oenpelli, Murngin, Roper River, Maung, Murinbata, Murngin (Duwal), Millingimbi, Goulburn Island, Ngulugwongga, Yirrkalla, Voctoria River Downs, Alawa, Anu, Kunwinjku, Torricelli family: Valman, Samap, Arapesh (Upper, Coastal), Monumbo, Lilau, Ngaimbom; Moando (Banara); Menya, Olo, Batak (Toba, Dairi), Miao (Hmong) and Yao of Southern China, Armenians, Tlingit, Lenape (Delaware), Wawenock, Abenaki, Penobscot, Twana (Skokomish), Yuki (Yuki proper, Coastal Yuki, Huchnob), Pomo, Hopi, Zuni, Choco: Embera, Nonama (Waunana), XVI century Dabaiba, pre-Columbian iconography of Sinu, Yupa (Yukpa), Sicuani, Waiwai, Kofan, Desana, Siriano; Tatuyo, Bara, Tuyuca, Cubeo, Maue (Mawe), Kamayura, Paresi, Caraja, Mocovi; Kechua of Santiago del Estero with probable Guaikuruan substratum; Abipon, Ayoreo, Mataco, Chorote, Terena (Tereno) , Manao, Katawishi (Teffe lake); groups of uncertain affiliation mostly from Rio Jamunda, Scythians, Scythe