The Mythology and Folklore Database
K24A - A supernatural man hides a woman's clothes.
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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
A man, usually of non-human nature, hides the clothes or sits on the clothes of an ordinary earthly girl. To get her clothes back, she is forced to enter into a romantic relationship with him. Traditions in which the character is a snake or dragon (ATU 425M) are marked with an asterisk*.Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures
K24 has 3 other sub-motifsK24. Women (rarely men) possessing magical powers and usually coming from another world (from the sky, from under water, they are winged creatures, bird-people, animal-people; rarely: a girl of higher social status than the hero) take off their clothes (feather coverings, etc.) or part of them. The character hides the clothes (one of them), forcing him (rarely her) to fulfil his (rarely her) desire. K24a. A man, usually of non-human nature, hides the clothes or sits on the clothes of an ordinary earthly girl. To get her clothes back, she is forced to enter into a romantic relationship with him. Traditions in which the character is a snake or dragon (ATU 425M) are marked with an asterisk*. K24b. A magical wife deceives her naive mother-in-law into giving her wonderful clothes or some other item that enables her to leave the human world. K24c. A young man comes to an old man (less often – to an old woman), who teaches him how to get a magical wife by hiding her bird clothes. Usually, the young man gives away the clothes for the first time and lives with the old man until the girls fly back. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of K24's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| K27E | 97.93% | The character is offered to eat or drink an unusually large amount or poison. |
| M40 | 94.86% | The character is sent to get something relatively low in value. He asks for something else and shouts to whoever sent him to confirm the assignment. Usually, a weaker character comes to a stronger wife or son and tells her (him) that her husband (his father) told him to surrender to him, feed him, marry him, etc. {It is highly likely that American versions are borrowed after Columbus}. |
| M180 | 94.35% | A zoomorphic character invites another to visit, but serves food in such a way that the other cannot take it in his mouth. The other, inviting the first to visit, puts him in a similar position. |
| M169 | 94.23% | In the presence of an authoritative figure, one of the subordinates plots against another. The latter says that the problem can be solved by maiming the former (usually using a part of his body as medicine). The schemer is killed or maimed. |
| H7 | 93.78% | Death (as well as illness and old age) is a special character, distinct from the lord of the underworld. It takes away a person's soul or otherwise causes their death. |
| M74B | 93.49% | The character adjusts so that the sign that identifies the thief who ate supplies or who should be eaten is not on him, but on another character (smears with leftovers or with the secretions of your body of another, replaces secretions, etc.). |
| M154 | 93.46% | A man who has learned the language of animals laughs when he hears them talking. His wife or mother-in-law (rarely someone else) demands that he explain what is going on. The man is ready to comply with his wife's demand, even though he knows he will die if he reveals the secret. Usually, he hears the domestic animals condemning their master's stupidity and decides not to say anything. |
| M124 | 93.44% | The character buries the tail (head, ears) of a domestic animal, claiming that it has fallen into the ground. Usually, he asks others to pull on the tail (head), and when it "breaks off," he accuses others of stealing the animal. |
| M179A | 93.42% | One character deceives another or, in the absence of the other, occupies his dwelling and refuses to return it. |
| K61A | 93.42% | In order to find out the exact number, a specific object in a certain set, the name of a specific character, or the reason for a certain phenomenon, the character tries to surprise (or unintentionally surprises) the owner of such knowledge. The latter begins to talk to himself, involuntarily revealing the necessary information to the hero standing nearby. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 30 traditions: Zulu, Swazi, Northern Gur (Oti-Volta): Mamprussi, Dagomba, Dagari (Dagara; incl Lodaga), Bassari, Mosi, Nankanse, Konkomba, Moba; Ditammari, Nyende, Bulsa (pl Builsa, Bulo), Tenda (incl Bedik, Basari), Biafada, Nalu, Pajadinka, Badyara (Badiaranke), Sandawe, Trans-New Guinea and unclassified Papuan groups of Irian Jaya: Mejprat, Arandai-Bintuni, Inanwatan-Berau, Papua of Gelvink (Cenderawasih) Bay, Kamoró, Marind Anim, Sawi, Mafore; Korowai; Kwerba; Momina, Eipo, Yale, Awyu, Lepcha, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Romanians, Moldavians, Aromanians, Moldovans, Lithuanians, Latvians, Finns, Vepsians, Swedes, Western Ukrainians, Byelarusians, Belarusians, Russians: Central part of ethnic territory as in A.D. 1500 (Tver, Yaroslavl, Moscow, Kostroma, Vladimir, Ivanovo, Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan, Tula, Kaluga, Smolensk provinces; in case of absence in other areas also Russians in Vyatka, Perm, Kazan provinces), Tajik, Karachays, Balkar, Crimean Tatars, Karaims, Hui (Dungan) of Xinjiang, Gansu, Shaanxi, Shanxi, Inner Mongolia, Qinghai, Kyrgyzstan, Kazakhstan (Dungan texts from Southern and Eastern China are clustered with the Chinese ones), Mari (Cheremis), Chuvash, Chukchi, Shuswap, Twana (Skokomish), Tillamook, Oregon Athabaskans: Lower Umpqua, Tututni (incl Joshua), Upper Coquille, Galice, Tolowa, Tzotzil, Berbers of Algeria