The Mythology and Folklore Database
M127A - The bird tricks the fox, ATU 223.
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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
In response to a character's request to make him laugh or feed him, a bird sits on a person's or animal's head or on a fragile object. Another person tries to knock the bird down, kills or maims the person on whom the bird has landed, or breaks the object. Alternatively, the bird distracts the person's attention, and during this time the character eats the food that the person was carrying.Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 11, Tricks and competitions won thanks to deception, absurd and obscene behavior
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| I35A2 | 99.44% | Thunder is heard when stones or large vessels are rolled, dragged or overturned in the sky. |
| N27C | 99.42% | It is claimed that the bird has no milk and/or breasts |
| M152B | 99.37% | When seeing a herbivorous ungulate (usually a donkey) for the first time, a large predator thinks that it is strong and dangerous. The herbivore's subsequent behaviour usually convinces the predator that its first impression was correct. |
| K27SS | 99.36% | A strong man must overtake a woman, often an old woman. This is difficult or impossible to achieve. |
| N27B | 99.24% | It is said that someone is only lacking bird’s milk or that somewhere the only thing missing is bird’s milk |
| M149 | 99.21% | A strong enemy is ready to kill the hero (a human or a weak animal). Someone, seemingly unaware of this, loudly announces that the hero's enemy is being sought in order to kill him. The hero is saved. Usually, the enemy asks not to be betrayed, saying that he is a stump, a log, etc. This allows him to be treated as such – thrown, chopped, etc. (ATU data not entered; plot 154 includes several independent motifs; which of them are present in the traditions referred to by ATU cannot be determined without referring to the original sources). |
| M84A | 99.03% | After supernatural characters put the bones of a dead and eaten deer, cow, ram, or goat in its skin, the animal is whole (and usually comes to life). See M84 motif. |
| K56A9 | 99.01% | When a small animal (usually a mouse) rings a bell, beats a drum, etc., a blind or distant antagonist believes that these sounds are made by the hero (heroine). Thanks to this, the hero (heroine) is saved. |
| K77B1 | 98.85% | When they see predators, domestic animals consciously or accidentally behave in such a way that the predators flee in fear. |
| I87AA | 98.82% | Describes a giant bull (rarely: horse): head in one field, body in another; a bathhouse on its tail, a lake on its back; people standing at its head and tail have to walk a long way to meet each other; etc. Usually the bull is killed and eaten (by people in Baltic-Finnish traditions and in Olonets antiquity; by birds in most southern traditions). |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 44 traditions: Swahili, Midjikenda (incl Giryama), Nyika, Duruma; Ngindo, Kiluguru and other Islamic groups of the Eastern Coast of Africa, Southeast Australia: Kamilaroi, Yualarai (Ualarai, Euahlayi), Milpulo (Mailpurgu), Wuradjeri (Wiradjurim, Wiradjeri, Wurundjeri, Yarra, Yarra Yarra), Wongaibon (Wonghibon), Noongahburrah (Narran, Narran River), Kurnai, and many others (see file 0.doc), Punjabi, Seraiki (Multani), Early Chinese written sources, Koreans, Spain, Spaniards, Basques, Catalan, Sardinia, Corsica, Sardinians, Corsicans, Slovakians, Slovaks, Hungarians, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Macedonians, Balkarians, Albanians, Balkarians, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, 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), Uzbek, Sarikoli, Yagnobi, Tajik, Abaza (Abazins), Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Karachays, Balkar, Ossetians, Ingush, Georgians, Crimean Tatars, Karaims, Kara Kalpak, 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), Mordvins, Chuvash, Udmurt, Komi (Zyrians and Permyaks), Mongols (Khalkha), Khakas, Kumaoni (Central Pahari), incl. Garhwali, Berbers of Algeria