The Mythology and Folklore Database
I15 - Creatures without mouths.
Please log on to view the narratives.
Motif Summary - Motifs with Simlar Dispersals - Map of Myth Distribution - List of Traditions - Myths |
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
Creatures without mouths. Usually, their mouths are cut open later.Berezkin category: Supernatural objects, objects and creatures
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part group 8, Queer and monstrous beings, creatures, objects and loci, folk beliefs related to particular phenomena and objects
I15 has 2 other sub-motifsI15. 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 |
|---|---|---|
| H32A | 95.58% | A young woman is the embodiment of fertility; she comes to live with people, and food becomes readily available. The woman is wronged, she leaves, and the superabundance ends. |
| K26 | 94.96% | Approaching an opening or making one, the character sees the world below (usually seeing the earth from the sky). See motif K25. |
| K27K | 94.12% | Test: to dive underwater for a long time or deeply. See motif K27. |
| J13 | 93.59% | Not one woman or girl, but two sisters (or more than two, but only two play an important role in the narrative) wander and meet an unwanted deceiver instead of a desired husband or fiancé, or encounter dangerous creatures. See motif J12. |
| K31 | 93.23% | The character makes a marine mammal or fish out of wood. It kills his enemies or drags them out to the open sea. |
| M46 | 92.80% | Some creatures steal or own valuables. To return (get) them, the character turns into a small object, from contact with which a woman becomes pregnant, or into a baby. A picked up or born baby takes on its true appearance and steals valuables (including making the girl who picked it up pregnant, if that was his goal). |
| H20 | 92.47% | 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}. |
| K10E | 92.38% | In the bird's habitat, the hero finds the people it has kidnapped and helps them return home. |
| J44 | 92.28% | The hero lures the enemy onto a rickety bridge. The enemy falls into the water, into the abyss (see motif J46). See motif J52. |
| B44C | 92.13% | The characters argue about whether there should be darkness or light, cold or warmth on earth. See motif B44. |
See more...
Please log on to view the narratives.
Map of Motif Dispersal
Click here for a clustered map
Drag the map around by clicking and using the mouse, use the wheel to zoom
This motif has been recorded in 23 traditions: Saibai, Dauan, Boigu, Badu, Waraber, Wet, Warei, Dauar, Badu, Moa, 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, Melanesians of southeastern New Guinea: Mekeo, Motu, Sinagoro, Koita (Koitapu), Mukawa (Are), Wagawaga, Taupota, Awaiama, Gelaria, Goodenough Bay, Bartle Bay, Wedau (Wamira village), Melanesians of the islands of Massim District ( =Milke Bay Province) to the east of New Guinea: Dobu, Rossel, Fergusson, Goodenough, Murua (Woodlark), Trobrian Islands, d'Entrecasteau Islands, Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Tagish, Inland Tlingit, Koyukon, Tanana, Gwich'in (Kuchin, Loucheux), Blackfoot, Mandan, Hidatsa, Western Sahaptin (Upper Cowlitz, Klikitat, Tenino, Umatilla, Yakima, Wallawalla), Nez Perce, Tillamook, Kalapuya, Western Shoshone, Gosiute, Zuni, Tzotzil, Choco: Embera, Nonama (Waunana), XVI century Dabaiba, pre-Columbian iconography of Sinu, Shuar, Achuar (Shiwiar), Botocudo