The Mythology and Folklore Database
I45A - Do not look at the moon or stars.
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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
Pointing at or staring at the moon or stars will cause illness (death) or the pointing finger to rot or wither.Berezkin category: Supernatural objects, objects and creatures
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 8, Queer and monstrous beings, creatures, objects and loci, folk beliefs related to particular phenomena and objects
I45 has 2 other sub-motifsI45a. Pointing at or staring at the moon or stars will cause illness (death) or the pointing finger to rot or wither. I45b. If you point your finger or stare intently at a rainbow, you will fall ill, or the finger you pointed with will rot or wither away. I45c. Those who count stars are destined for misfortune and illness. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of I45's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| M29B2 | 96.67% | As a result of its stupidity or antisocial behavior, the bear dies or suffers damage. See the motives in square brackets. |
| L57A | 96.21% | The enemy takes possession of part of the character's body (remains). Another (usually resorting to trickery) returns what is missing, and the character comes back to life or recovers. |
| M29B | 95.95% | Fox (a), Jackal, Coyote (or Wolf when, apparently, we mean a steppenwolf, i.e. the same coyote). See the motives in square brackets. |
| J51 | 95.60% | The character is dismembered or eaten; he is revived from his remains, but since one of his bones was broken, swallowed or carried away (or a drop of blood or a piece of flesh was lost), the revival fails, or the character remains defective in some way. |
| M84 | 95.54% | A person, animal, fish, or (rarely) a large fruit is killed and eaten. After a meal, what is eaten revives, usually after the bones (seeds) are put together. Cf. motive C16. |
| K29A | 95.41% | The hero demonstrates his magical abilities or cunning by remaining alive in a hot bath, oven, fire, or among burning vegetation. |
| K102A2 | 95.32% | The mother seeks to destroy her son (children) because he interferes with her love affair. Cf. motif L86: Children flee from their demon mother. |
| K27S | 95.19% | Competition: running, racing. See motif K27. |
| I22C | 95.18% | 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. |
| A32E | 94.85% | On the lunar (rarely: solar) disc, a character holding an object or animal is visible. See motif A32D. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 21 traditions: Duala (Douala), Basa (Basaá), Kwiri (Kweli), Isubu, Sora (Savara, Saora), Parenga, Early Chinese written sources, 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, Poles, Czech, Czechs, Latvians, Livonians, Estonians, Western Ukrainians, Russians: Central part of ethnic territory as in A.D. 1500 (Tver, Yaroslavl, Moscow, Kostroma, Vladimir, Ivanovo, Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan, Tula, Kaluga, Smolensk provinces; in case of absence in other areas also Russians in Vyatka, Perm, Kazan provinces), Nogai, Kalmyk, 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), Khakas, Japanese folklore outside of Ryukyu, Tsimshian, Bannock, Western Shoshone, Gosiute, Jicarilla, Mescalero