The Mythology and Folklore Database
M164 - Traces in one direction, ATU 50A.
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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
The character refuses to enter the predator's lair when he sees that all the tracks lead inside, but not outside.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
M16 has 1 other sub-motifsM16. The wife or relatives (often the mother) of the sick person do not care for him. He recovers, and those who treated him badly are punished. Cf. motifs F62 and F96. M16a. A character (usually a loon) restores a person's sight and/or health by diving into the water with them. See motif M16. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of M16's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| M141B | 98.42% | An insignificant event (a falling leaf, acorn, etc.) is taken by an animal as the beginning of a catastrophe (the end of the world, war, the falling of the sky, etc.) and it flees. Other animals join the fleeing animal. |
| K119A | 98.20% | An animal saves a human, does him a favour, and he humiliates or kills it. See motifs K119, M161. |
| K80C2 | 98.13% | Two (or more) people find (steal) valuables. Unwilling to share, one kills the other, but dies himself, poisoned by the poison that the victim manages to slip into his food. |
| M74B | 98.02% | The character adjusts so that the sign that identifies the thief who ate supplies or who should be eaten is not on him, but on another character (smears with leftovers or with the secretions of your body of another, replaces secretions, etc.). |
| L42G | 97.92% | The stepmother, and more often the father (usually at the insistence of his new wife), leaves the children in a deserted place or sends them into the forest. They end up in the house of a cannibal or cannibals, all (or at least one of them) survive and achieve success. |
| E31C | 97.90% | Several men, each possessing a unique skill, bring a (kidnapped) girl from a distant country. |
| M130C | 97.82% | When a lion (tiger, bear, elephant, human) is trapped, a mouse or rat frees it (usually by gnawing through the ropes). |
| M154A | 97.79% | One of the domestic animals (usually a donkey) persuades another to pretend to be sick. After that, the advisor has to work for both of them. Then he tells the pretend sick animal that the owner is going to slaughter him, and the animal rushes to work. |
| M39A1 | 97.70% | character misunderstands the first instruction, promises to do the right thing next time; literally follows a memorized rule that does not correspond to the new situation; so multiple times. |
| M57D | 97.69% | A person consistently receives magical items that bring wealth. Others replace them or take them away. A person returns what has been taken - usually by receiving another wonderful object (baton, whip) that hits the kidnappers. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 35 traditions: Arabs of Egypt, Berbers of Morocco and adjacent parts of Algeria, Nuba, Acoli (Acholi), Lur (Alur, Luri), Lango, Somali, Amhara; Zay, Harari; Silte, Gogot, Chagga (Jagga; incl Wasu), Pare, Digo, Khoekhoe (=Hottentot; incl Nama, Korana); Damara, Bahnar, Bana, Sedang, Por, Ireland, Spain, Spaniards, Portuguese, Portugal, Catalan, France, Dutch, Flemish, 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, Hungarians, Ancient Greece, Lithuanians, Latvians, Estonians, Western Ukrainians, Persians, Ossetians, Ingush, Dargin (Dargwa), incl. Müregin, Khürkilin, Kubachi, Tats, Kazakh, Turkmen, Arabs (literary tradition; incl. One Thousand and One Nights), Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Early Russian written sources, Frisians, Berbers of Algeria