The Mythology and Folklore Database
M149A - Contract with a tiger.
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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
The character, either recklessly or against his own will, finds himself bound by a contract with a predator, which he cannot or does not want to fulfil, or which he breaks. The predator intends to eat him, but the character remains alive.Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 11, Tricks and competitions won thanks to deception, absurd and obscene behavior
M14 has 1 other sub-motifsM14. A man brutally murders his wife (rarely: children, fiancée, sister) and/or eats her flesh himself, or brings her flesh to her relatives (if he kills children, he brings the flesh to his wife). M14a. To take revenge on his wife or her relatives for (allegedly) causing him offence, the husband roasts his wife alive. See motif M14. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of M14's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| L128 | 99.19% | When a demonic character or predator reveals who he is, the hero or herbivorous animal responds by calling himself a name that implies his superiority over his opponent. |
| A23D | 99.18% | Animals argue about which of them should start the cycle of 12 months or years. The mouse wins the primacy. |
| K145A | 98.76% | A person is predicted to die at the hands of an animal. He is killed (or attempted to be killed) by a living image of an animal or a statue in the form of an animal that falls on him. |
| L44 | 98.46% | A demon or powerful beast demands that a person or weak animal show certain parts of their body. The person shows parts of a large animal's body or certain objects. The opponent decides that the hero is more frightening and powerful than them. |
| K100E | 98.07% | Fairy tales act as separate characters: they usually try to harm people, believing that a certain person does not treat them with due respect. Cf. motif L94d, "The Tale with a Tail". |
| M145 | 97.79% | One character (usually zoomorphic) shows another his reflection in a body of water. The latter believes that a beast resembling him is challenging his seniority, invites him to visit, etc.; usually throws himself into the water and perishes. |
| M157A3 | 97.50% | A character demands that another provide him with offspring or milk from a male animal. |
| M152A | 96.89% | A strong predator (a giant cannibal) and a weak predator are tied together with a rope to feel more confident. The strong one flees and drags the weak one behind him. |
| C31C | 96.87% | The bat turns out to be smarter and wiser than other living creatures. |
| I50C | 96.87% | Describes a hoofed animal with a second set of legs on its back that runs either normally or upside down. This makes it tireless. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 11 traditions: Torricelli family: Valman, Samap, Arapesh (Upper, Coastal), Monumbo, Lilau, Ngaimbom; Moando (Banara); Menya, Olo, Tjam, Ede, Jörai (Jarai), Bhuiya (now Aryans, originally Munda; Rahman 1955: 203), Baiga, Bhaina, Bhumia (subgroup of Baiga, incl Bharia, formerly Munda, now speak Indo-Aryan languages of neighboring groups), Kashmiri, Dhanwar, Catalan, Latvians, Estonians, Tajik, Ossetians, 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)