The Mythology and Folklore Database
B38E - The gull's rump.




7 Myths, Legends and Folktales
7 Unique Narratives for Motif B38E
4 Cultures & Traditions where B38E is told
25 Mythemes Indexed
5 Sub-Motifs of Motif B38E


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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

The character kicks a loon or other waterfowl. Since then, it has had a flattened tail and finds it difficult to walk on land.

Berezkin category: The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment

This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 7, Etiology of plants and animals and of their peculiar features, particular animals as protagonists of cosmological stories, metamorphoses, weather and calendar


B38 has 5 other sub-motifs


B38.  The character decorates birds or animals, or they decorate each other. Some are dissatisfied with the result.
B38a.  Two birds agree to paint each other. One of them does not become more beautiful as a result and often becomes uglier. See motif B36A.
B38b.  Two quadrupeds (or a quadruped and another creature) adorn each other themselves or are adorned by someone else.
B38c.  The raven and the loon paint each other.
B38d.  The Raven and the Owl paint each other.
B38e.  The character kicks a loon or other waterfowl. Since then, it has had a flattened tail and finds it difficult to walk on land.

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Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns

MotifSimilarityMotif Summary
M91D99.27%The character deceives others by passing off the dead as alive, directing suspicions of murder to innocent people, etc. When a shaman (less often a shaman) is ready to discover the truth, he succeeds in it kill and avoid being charged with murder.
B45B99.07%The bull or cow is the embodiment of cold, the reason why winter is cold.
I5698.66%Moving between worlds, the same living person is visible to some and invisible to others.
B11A98.65%The mammoth, represented as an underground fish-like creature, creates rugged terrain on wet ground and digs river beds.
K52C198.65%Demonstrating his power, a shaman, sorcerer or other character with magical abilities causes the dwelling in which he and other people are located to begin to fill with water. Sometimes it is said that this water is an illusion. One episode: the magical specialist orders those present to catch the birds or fish that have appeared with the water, or they begin to catch them on their own initiative; when the water disappears, people see that they are holding not caught animals, but their penises or something else.
B68A98.47%Birds quarrel, and the one who claimed high status cripples the weak one. For this, the others order her to carry the crippled one on her back.
J27B98.47%An infant is thrown into a lake or river and occasionally comes ashore. In addition to his earthly parents, he has a father (and mother) in the underwater world. He does not want to part with them, nor do they want to let him go.
I56A98.35%When a person who has entered another world touches the local inhabitants, they become ill or die.
M108A98.11%A lonely elderly couple adopts a trickster. He steals from them (and runs away).
B7497.98%The eyes of the capercaillie or black grouse turned red from tears.

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Map of Motif Dispersal

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This motif has been recorded in 4 traditions: Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Nganasans, Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Oregon Athabaskans: Lower Umpqua, Tututni (incl Joshua), Upper Coquille, Galice, Tolowa


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