The Mythology and Folklore Database
B64D - Arrow bones.
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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
Certain bones in the bodies of living creatures (usually birds and fish) are arrows shot into them.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
B64 has 4 other sub-motifsB64. Bones in the bodies of fish are the result of fights, battles, military expeditions; they are arrows stuck in them (gill openings – from stuck arrows), or small bones – fragments of the original large bones. B64a. Fish and birds fight (usually by shooting arrows at each other). Since then, fish have had many small bones in their bodies and/or birds' legs have taken on their current form. B64b. Two types of fish shoot arrows at each other. Since then, the fish have had many small bones in their bodies, or some of their bones have split in two. B64c. Fish, together with other earthly creatures, wage war on the inhabitants of the sky. Falling to the ground, they break their bones, which is why fish have many small bones in their bodies. See motif B64. B64d. Certain bones in the bodies of living creatures (usually birds and fish) are arrows shot into them. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of B64's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| K63 | 98.33% | A man comes to people who hunt humans or catch fish-people. For them, these are wild animals or fish. |
| I84 | 98.30% | The Milky Way – ski tracks. |
| K56A8A | 97.68% | A girl goes to another world, behaves correctly, returns with an animal or an object, inside which her groom is found. Usually, another girl behaves incorrectly and suffers damage. |
| L5G | 97.68% | Only the head remains of one of the sisters. It rolls after the other sister or sisters, or they take it with them; in the end, the head finds a place where it wants to settle. |
| I55A | 97.63% | Stars – lakes on one of the heavenly tiers. |
| K89A | 97.63% | Having escaped danger, the girl or boy goes with their sister or brother. The sister or brother is crippled, rejects a number of places where they are to be left, and remains in the last place offered. See motif K89. |
| F81 | 97.57% | The character does not recognise his reflection in the water, thinks that a person (usually a woman, with whom he immediately falls in love) is looking at him, and jumps into the water. (Cf. J1793, "Diving for a woman's reflection"; among the Kwinolts, diving for a real reflection of a woman; among the Menominee, diving for a woman in the water). |
| L42K | 97.57% | A demonic character regurgitates an axe (adze) to cut down a tree. |
| M140A | 97.53% | The fox cunningly ties up the wolf or man and runs away. |
| M74AB | 97.36% | Travelling in a boat or on a sledge, animal person (always the fox) steals food supplies or ruins objects and accordingly to his deeds, names different places. These names seem strange to the person’s companions (“River of broken arrows” and the like) |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 22 traditions: Western Sami, Eastern Sami (including Skolts), Eastern Khanty (Ostyaks), Nenets, Kets, Central Yakuts (Sakha), Dolgans, Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Tungus (Evenki) of China (Solon, Birar, Oroqen, Manegir), Evenks, Tungus (Evenki): Russian Far East, Evenks, Western Tungus (Evenki), Western Siberia Tungus (Evenki): Sym River, Ket River, Oroch, Nivkh, Forest (Upper Kolyma) Yukaghir, Tagish, Bering Strait Inupiat (incl. King Island), North Alaskan Inupiat, Lkungen (Straits; including Samish, Songish, Sooke, Lummi), Klallam, Ilimpii Tungus/Evenki, Yerbogachen Tungus/Evenki, Tungus/Evenki of Nercha - Chita area