The Mythology and Folklore Database
L40A - A woman mistakes a young man's reflection for her own.
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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
An unattractive woman sees the reflection of a young man sitting in a tree in the water and thinks that she has become beautiful.Berezkin category: Adventures: Monsters and evil spirits
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures
L40 has 3 other sub-motifsL40. The character discovers (rarely: cannot discover) another person on a tree or rock, noticing their reflection or shadow. See motif L39. L40a. An unattractive woman sees the reflection of a young man sitting in a tree in the water and thinks that she has become beautiful. L40b. To make the character come closer, absurd actions are performed in front of him. The character does not understand the deception and comes closer to explain how to act correctly. L40c. Relying on the ambiguity of the statement, the buyer of a cheap item claims rights to a much more valuable one. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of L40's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| K18B | 99.12% | Men or women approach the little boy one after another or take him in their arms. The person who makes the boy stop crying is recognised as his parent. See motif K18. |
| F56 | 98.98% | Upon seeing the vagina of his mother, daughter, daughter-in-law, sister, niece, or mother-in-law, a man or boy thinks about incest or commits it. |
| J22A | 98.07% | Two men or a brother and sister emerge from a single body or embryo cut in half, or the second emerges from a part of the body or from the secretions of the first. Cf. motif M37. |
| F45B | 97.22% | A woman gives birth to a son conceived by (the rays or light of) the sun. |
| F21 | 97.18% | While the character copulates with a woman, she turns into a tree or a rock. His penis gets stuck in her. |
| J53A1 | 97.07% | The children of the murdered man kill the murderer's children, luring them to a place where they perish from heat or smoke. |
| J53B | 96.98% | Two women live together, both have children. One of them leaves the house with the other, kills her, brings her meat home and starts cooking it. The children of the deceased notice their mother's breasts (in California – eyes or liver), or the mother's breasts themselves turn to her children. |
| F55 | 96.70% | Not understanding what her interlocutor of the opposite sex wants, a woman or girl names or shows various objects and body parts. The interlocutor is satisfied when she names or exposes her genitals. Cf. motif f55a. |
| K58A | 96.36% | The character brings water for irrigation or a fish river to the place where the girl agrees to meet him, and does not bring water if she refuses. (The parallel between the myths of Peru and Oregon was first noted in Lehmann-Nitsche 1935a; 1936). |
| M103 | 96.36% | One character asks another how her (his) children acquired valuable qualities (became beautiful, obedient, etc.). The other replies that children must be baked in ashes, kept in fire, burned, etc. The first character does so, and her or his children die or are maimed. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 5 traditions: Kwakiutl (Kwakwaka'wakw), Nootka (Nu-chah-nulth), Makah, Bella Coola (Nuxalk), Carrier, Iranxe