The Mythology and Folklore Database
I15A - Vertical incision of the mouth.

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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

Due to ignorance or haste, the mouth of anthropomorphic creatures is first cut vertically.

Berezkin category: Supernatural objects, objects and creatures

This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 5, Origin of human beings, ethnic groups, etiology of human anatomy, strange body configuration, ways of behavior, marriages before the establishment of the present norms

I15 has 2 other sub-motifs I15.  Creatures without mouths. Usually, their mouths are cut open later. I15a.  Due to ignorance or haste, the mouth of anthropomorphic creatures is first cut vertically. I15a1.  The demonic character has vertical slits for eyes.  Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of I15's motifs?

Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns

Motif	Similarity	Motif Summary
L74	97.02%	A bear or other powerful character tears off and carries away another character's hand. A third character steals the hand and returns it to the one from whom it was torn off.
G1	96.02%	In order to acquire or regain values (land, soil, cultivated plants, sun, fire, shamanic knowledge, luck), people lure or steal the son or daughter of a certain character.
L59	95.32%	A woman eats the best food or eats fruit before it is ripe; as punishment, she undergoes metamorphosis.
K27D	90.17%	The test: to stay alive in a room full of predatory, poisonous and other dangerous creatures. See motif K27.
I18	89.97%	Visiting the world of people without an anus or mouth (the underworld, if not otherwise), the hero or heroine enters or attempts to enter into sexual relations with the local inhabitants. See motif I14.
I7A	88.19%	Lightning is associated with a snake.
K22C	86.60%	Inhabitants of another world who are birds (bird-people) are afraid of birds or animals that are not dangerous to ordinary people, but which regularly attack them.
K10F	86.41%	The character turns the children of a flying monster into ordinary eagles or owls.
I15	86.41%	Creatures without mouths. Usually, their mouths are cut open later.
H20	85.03%	All the fish or (rarely) molluscs were concentrated in one place. A certain character allows them to escape or deliberately releases them into rivers or the sea. {In some cases, the theme of the spread of fish concentrated in a small container is difficult to separate from the theme of the spread of water. In any case, neither of these exist in Africa}.

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Map of Motif Dispersal

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Terrain Minimal Countries

This motif has been recorded in 2 traditions: Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), Blackfoot

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