The Mythology and Folklore Database
B44D - Black and white beast - night and day.
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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
Night and day alternate because the slain beast was black and white, spotted.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
B44 has 7 other sub-motifsB44. The first ancestors (usually human-animals) argue about how long the year, winter, night, or other periods of time should last, and whether cold and darkness should be replaced by warmth and light. B44a. Characters argue about the number of discrete units of time that determine the duration of a certain period of time (most often winter or night). See motif B44. B44b. The number and/or nature of the alternation of fingers, claws, feathers, hairs, and stripes on animal skins determines the number of time intervals in the calendar or daily cycle. See motif B44. B44c. The characters argue about whether there should be darkness or light, cold or warmth on earth. See motif B44. B44d. Night and day alternate because the slain beast was black and white, spotted. B44e. First ancestors (usually birds or animals) argue with each other about the length of time periods in the calendar or daily cycle, or about the desirability of the dominance of cold and dark or warm and light times. See motif B44. B44f. In the dispute over whether the world should be bright, the fox is on the side of light (almost always against the bear). B44f1. In the dispute over whether the world should be light (warm), the bear is on the side of darkness (and cold); or the world is plunged into darkness because the bear hides the sun in his house. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of B44's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| I37E | 100.00% | Tree mushrooms cry out like people. |
| K27V | 100.00% | The character must hit the bird with an arrow or a stone. (Cf. motif K27M, where it is not the accuracy of the archer that is important, but the unusual appearance of the creature that needs to be caught). |
| L1C | 100.00% | Those fleeing from the monstrous bear ascend to the sky and turn into stars. |
| M29D | 100.00% | See the motives in square brackets. |
| J39 | 99.93% | The antagonist makes the woman his slave. Other characters secretly come to her and kill a small animal or bird for her. The antagonist suspects that the woman could not have caught the game herself, but she insists that she did. |
| I105 | 99.76% | One of the constellations is associated with the hand (with five marked fingers). |
| L1B | 99.53% | A young woman turns into a monstrous bear and kills most people except her younger sister (Ojibwa: the younger sister of her former husband). Their brothers (or one brother) return from hunting and kill the bear, or she dies while chasing them. Cf. motif L65D. |
| M37 | 99.23% | Although the character's head or entire body is cut in two with an ax or split with a stick, the character remains unharmed. Cf. motive J22. |
| L33F | 98.98% | A rock or boulder pursues a character. The character calls for help, and the nightjar splits the rock into pieces. |
| K1H | 98.88% | The character finds himself inside a tree trunk or inside a rock; someone frees him by making a hole from the outside. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 3 traditions: Pawnee, Wichita; Spiro Mound iconography, Caddo