The Mythology and Folklore Database
M78G - Sleep-related
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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
When the inhabitants of the house fall asleep, a joker (usually a tiny boy) ties them together in pairs so that when they wake up, they quarrel.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
M78 has 7 other sub-motifsM78. A tiny little man performs a series of tricks, mocks people he meets and opponents. M78a. A tiny little man emerges from the severed tail of a goat or sheep. M78b. Wishing a baby, a childless woman gives birth to many tiny boys. She or her husband kill them or throw them away, but she stays alone and helps their parents. M78c. A tiny little man emerges from a severed finger. M78d. A tiny boy (rarely a girl) comes from a pea (bean, seed) or from a spool of goat droppings, he is almost as tall as a pea. Or he was born after his mother ate a pea. M78e. A tiny boy comes from an animal's ear, compared in size to an ear, his name is “ear”. M78f. When a woman falls asleep, a joker (usually a tiny boy) places an embryo or the entrails of an animal or something similar next to her to make the woman herself or others think she has a miscarriage or that her viscera has fallen out. M78g. When the inhabitants of the house fall asleep, a joker (usually a tiny boy) ties them together in pairs so that when they wake up, they quarrel. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of M78's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| L90 | 98.87% | One lip (one fang, horn, etc.) of the creature reaches the sky, while the other drags along the ground. |
| L65A | 98.35% | A daughter is born, or people find a girl; she is a monster or turns into a monster and devours everyone. Her brother escapes (usually leaves, marries, returns), and she pursues him unsuccessfully. |
| K139 | 98.06% | A servant is so struck by the beauty of a girl (rarely: a boy) that he lets the meat or bread intended for his master burn. |
| M98 | 97.83% | The character counts the number of members in two huge and alternative sets (dead and alive, men and women, etc.). Usually numbers are distributed equally, and one term (or some) is endowed with the properties of both. By referring it to one of the sets, the character proves a thesis. |
| L125 | 97.83% | After meeting a beautiful woman, a man finds her in a situation where her inhuman nature is revealed. After that, the marriage falls apart. |
| I87A | 97.67% | A character of gigantic size turns out to be small in comparison with a character of even greater size, or the same character turns out to be small in some episodes and gigantic in others. |
| K38B | 97.63% | A snake or monster of aquatic-chthonic or indeterminate nature eats or maims the young of a bird or other flying creature – in most cases, the chicks of a huge bird. A man kills the snake (monster). See motif K38. |
| B46A | 97.57% | One of the stars of the Pleiades was separated from the others (usually stolen by the stars of the Big Dipper and identified with Alcor). |
| I85 | 97.30% | Polar Star – stake, nail, hitching post, etc. |
| M57D1 | 97.26% | bird consistently gives a person magical objects (or gives one, with which he receives the rest) or consistently fulfills his wishes. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 15 traditions: Western Sami, Eastern Sami (including Skolts), Western Ukrainians, Anatolia Turks, Kazakh, Kirghiz, Turkmen, Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Nanai, Lkungen (Straits; including Samish, Songish, Sooke, Lummi), Klallam, Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal), Eastern Ukrainians, Northern Ukrainians, Buryats: Eastern (trans Baikal), i.e. Khori, Terek Cossacks