The Mythology and Folklore Database
K160A - The demon's answers to his wife's questions, ATU 461.
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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
A woman living in the house of a supernatural character hides a man who has come to her and asks the character questions, the answers to which the man must find out.Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures
K16 has 1 other sub-motifsK16. Taking the form of a bird, bat, insect, small animal, or fish, the man enters the young woman's home (her father's house). K16a. In an effort to show that he is a good hunter, a man regularly walks in front of a girl, pretending to carry prey. Once he slips, and the imaginary prey turns out to be a scarecrow stuffed with ashes or a bundle of termites. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of K16's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| K27G | 99.78% | The character is ordered to bathe in (hot) milk, in boiling water, to jump into the fire; he remains unharmed, while his opponent usually perishes. |
| K103B | 99.71% | A cow (goat) miraculously spins or weaves: it chews tow, turning it into thread, orders the yarn to be wound onto its horns, put into its ear, etc. |
| L96 | 99.62% | The character has the ability to transform into animals or objects. Sold in this form, he achieves his goal and becomes human again. |
| M135B | 99.58% | The wolf (rarely a bear, jackal, or fox) approaches various domestic animals in order to eat them, but, agreeing to fulfil their request, remains hungry and usually beaten, and in conclusion blames himself ("Am I a mullah to read?" etc.). In the Persian version, the fox tells him this. |
| L42G1 | 99.43% | Father (stepfather) takes children into the forest and slips away unnoticed. To make the children think he is nearby chopping wood, father hangs a board, pumpkin, etc. on a tree, which bangs against the trunk in the wind. |
| M135A | 99.34% | A wolf (or, less commonly, another predator) approaches various (more than one type of) domestic animals (animals and humans) in order to eat them, but, agreeing to fulfil the request, remains hungry and is usually beaten. |
| M137 | 99.32% | A weaker predator tries to imitate a stronger one, but cannot perform the actions that the strong one performs easily. |
| M91C5 | 99.25% | The person himself or his little son goes to the bazaar to sell a cow (or another large pet). The crook convinces him that it is a sheep (or another animal that is smaller and cheaper). Each of the crook's friends confirms the score or gives an even lower grade. A man at a loss sells a cow for the price of a sheep. |
| J62C | 99.23% | In order to destroy the young man, the antagonist arouses in his sister (rarely: in him himself) a desire to possess wonderful objects, the attempt to obtain which is deadly dangerous. The young man sets off to obtain the objects. |
| M114B1 | 99.22% | When answering the question of what is the sweetest (fattest, fastest, etc.), a clever person names abstract concepts and entities (while a foolish person names specific objects or creatures). |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 51 traditions: Songhai, Tuareg, Kachin (Singpho), Chak, Bengali, Punjabi, Seraiki (Multani), Nepali; Tharu, Marathi (incl. Bhamta; incl. Mumbai area), Hindi-speaking peoples and casts (incl. Teli, Parahiya; incl. Chhattisgarhi) of Northern and West-Central India, Portuguese, Portugal, Basques, Catalan, Maltese, France, 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, Serbs, Monte Negro, Balkarians, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Albanians, Balkarians, Latvians, Estonians, Finns, Karelians, Western Sami, Norwegians, Swedes, Danes, Danish, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, 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), Yagnobi, Persians, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Ossetians, Mingrelians (Megrelians), Laz, Georgians, Kalmyk, Crimean Tatars, Karaims, Gagauz, Anatolia Turks, Azeris (Azerbaijanis), 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), Bashkirs, Mari (Cheremis), Chuvash, Udmurt, Komi (Zyrians and Permyaks), Kiliwa, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Tunisia