The Mythology and Folklore Database
K24B - Dancing in magical clothes.




31 Myths, Legends and Folktales
31 Unique Narratives for Motif K24B
21 Cultures & Traditions where K24B is told
88 Mythemes Indexed
3 Sub-Motifs of Motif K24B


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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 magical wife deceives her naive mother-in-law into giving her wonderful clothes or some other item that enables her to leave the human world.

Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes

This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures


K24 has 3 other sub-motifs


K24.  Women (rarely men) possessing magical powers and usually coming from another world (from the sky, from under water, they are winged creatures, bird-people, animal-people; rarely: a girl of higher social status than the hero) take off their clothes (feather coverings, etc.) or part of them. The character hides the clothes (one of them), forcing him (rarely her) to fulfil his (rarely her) desire.
K24a.  A man, usually of non-human nature, hides the clothes or sits on the clothes of an ordinary earthly girl. To get her clothes back, she is forced to enter into a romantic relationship with him. Traditions in which the character is a snake or dragon (ATU 425M) are marked with an asterisk*.
K24b.  A magical wife deceives her naive mother-in-law into giving her wonderful clothes or some other item that enables her to leave the human world.
K24c.  A young man comes to an old man (less often – to an old woman), who teaches him how to get a magical wife by hiding her bird clothes. Usually, the young man gives away the clothes for the first time and lives with the old man until the girls fly back.

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Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns

MotifSimilarityMotif Summary
L100D99.18%A man or several men pursue the love of a beautiful woman. Having agreed in advance with her husband, she pretends to agree, arranging a date (with each) for a specific time. Before the first suitor's desires are satisfied, the second arrives. The woman hides the first, then the second, and so on. The husband enters and the couple mocks the admirers who find themselves in a humiliating position.
K27Z399.17%The character taught the cat (monkey, dog) to hold a candle (lamp) or to extinguish it on command. Seeing a mouse (rat), the cat rushes after it and as a result drops (does not extinguish) the candle.
K12399.06%A boy, a young man, or, less commonly, a girl deliberately or accidentally offends an elderly woman (or a cripple). She utters words that cause him or her to want to do something dangerous (most often to find a marriage partner).
K9498.86%Those who eat a miraculous bird, fish, animal or fruit gain wealth and power.
K13198.81%Certain characters argue over the possession of magical objects, but the objects go to the hero. Usually, he suggests that the disputants race each other or asks them to let him try out the objects, after which he hides, taking the objects with him.
F9G98.69%A powerful woman defeats and kills her suitors. The hero or his assistant defeats her (usually on their wedding night, subduing her with rods or a whip). The hero marries the heroine.
C30A98.51%A man borrows money on the condition that if he fails to repay it by a certain date, he will have to give the lender a certain amount of his own flesh. The lender cannot cut off the flesh, because he is unable to fulfil the formally logical but essentially absurd demand made of him.
J62C98.45%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.
K9998.36%A person dreams about an upcoming celebration for himself or a member of his family (rarely: he daydreams about it). Either another person buys the dream and becomes the protagonist of the story, or the person who saw it hides its content from everyone, or he is persecuted for excessive conceit, as evidenced by the content of the dream. The meaning of the dream is revealed at the end of the story. Often, the young man ascends to the throne and marries the heiresses of two kingdoms (in the dream, these were two suns or the sun and the moon).
J3298.30%Someone regularly steals livestock (horses, sheep, etc.) or crops (apples, hay, peas, flowers, etc.). Those who undertake to guard them (usually the older brothers) fail to catch the thief, and only the hero (usually the younger brother) discovers him.

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Map of Motif Dispersal

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This motif has been recorded in 21 traditions: Mehri; Harsusi, Jibbali (Shahri, Shauri), Arabs of Iraq, Iraqi, Algeria Arabs, Mindanao and Sulu: Blaan (Bilaan), Bagobo, Bukidnon, Cotabato, Hiligáynon, Binukid, Magindaan (=Magindanao: main Muslim population), Mandaya, Mansaka, Manobo (Agusan, Ata, Dibabawon, Sarangani, Ilianen), Maranao, Samal, Subanon (=Subanun), Subanen, Tboli, Mikir (Karbi), Hindi-speaking peoples and casts (incl. Teli, Parahiya; incl. Chhattisgarhi) of Northern and West-Central India, Poles, Hungarians, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Macedonians, Balkarians, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Albanians, Balkarians, 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), Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Crimean Tatars, Karaims, Kurds, Mordvins, Arabs (literary tradition; incl. One Thousand and One Nights), Tunisia


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