The Mythology and Folklore Database
B72B - An offended child becomes a bird.
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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 girl or, less commonly, a boy turns into a bird after his mother (father, guardian) refuses to give him water or food or otherwise mistreats him.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
B72 has 4 other sub-motifsB72. Since the children do not give their mother water, she turns into a bird (usually a cuckoo) and flies away. B72a. Mother (stepmother, adoptive father) does not give food to a girl or (less often) a boy. The child asks migratory birds to take him with them, they give him bird clothing, he flies away with them, becoming a bird. B72b. A girl or, less commonly, a boy turns into a bird after his mother (father, guardian) refuses to give him water or food or otherwise mistreats him. B72c. Children run after their mother, injure themselves, and their blood stains plants, the ground, and the evening sky. B72d. A woman makes herself wings (beak, tail) from clothing accessories and turns into a bird or a flying creature. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of B72's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| M45A | 99.27% | A person is sleeping or pretending to be asleep or dead. Animals take him for a dead man - they mourn him, carry him to bury him, they are going to eat it, etc. A person beats the crowd and/or obtains benefits. |
| M147 | 98.20% | A weak animal tells a strong animal that everyone is afraid of him, the weak one, and suggests testing this. He walks in front of the strong animal, everyone runs away, and the strong animal believes that they are running away from the weak one. |
| L42D | 97.65% | A man runs away from a cannibal across the ice, the cannibal pursues him, licks the blood spilled on the ice, his tongue freezes, he dies, or falls to his death after slipping on the ice. |
| M99A1 | 97.62% | The character is going to pierce all the birds with their beaks (to string them on a rope) or cut them off altogether. |
| K29C | 97.59% | They hope to kill the hero by knocking a tree down on him or tying him to a tree. He comes back alive, dragging the tree behind him. |
| M3B | 97.59% | Trying to grab a hare, another animal tears off (bites) its tail. It's been short ever since. |
| B116A | 97.42% | A person or animal eats a sacred book or its remains. During the ritual, this knowledge is actualised in oral speech, in the sounds of a musical instrument made from part of an animal's body, or in parts of an animal's body used for divination. |
| K32E | 97.07% | A negative character, object or locus is contrasted with one or two positive ones, such as wood with gold and silver. |
| B43 | 96.70% | Elements of the landscape or parts of the universe are created from the body of the original being. |
| F89 | 96.61% | A sister and brother live alone. The brother refuses to commit incest. The sister resorts to cunning, as a result of which the brother mistakes her for a stranger and marries her. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 9 traditions: Kuki, Chiru, Falam (Hallam), Chin (Meitei =Manipuri, Khami, =Kumi), Lakher, Mizo (Lushei), Anal, Pawi (Lai), Purum, Koireng, Milhiem, Kolhen, Mru, Indian literary tradition (Vedic, Brahman, Purana, Indian Buddhism, Hinduism, Ramayana, Mahabharata, Panchtantra, Jatakas); iconography of Hindu temples, Bengali, Sinhalese; Vedda, Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Evens (Lamuts), Nanai, Negidal, Nivkh