Berezkin Analytical Catalogue · Motif
K13D — Leg hanging in the sky.
Source data for narratives and traditions is drawn from Berezkin’s Analytical Catalogue. If you use this data, please acknowledge and link to it: Ю.Е. Березкин, Е.Н. Дувакин. Тематическая классификация и распределение фольклорно-мифологических мотивов по ареалам. Аналитический каталог.
Summary of motif
OverviewA group of boys reaches the sky, the last one's leg is cut off or torn off.
Berezkin category: Adventures: Acts of heroes
This is of motif type Cosmology and etiology and is part of group 2, Moon spots, stars, constellations.
K13 has 3 other sub-motifs
RelatedK13a. The character's leg (rarely: both legs) is cut off, bitten off, torn off, or damaged. The character ascends to the sky: to the moon; becomes the moon; turns into a star or constellation; becomes the sun; blood flowing from the leg colours the sky.
K13b. A man crosses a body of water on the back of a caiman. The caiman bites off his leg. The cripple undergoes a metamorphosis, turning into a constellation or an animal.
K13c. The cannibal's daughter takes revenge on her husband for her mother's death and manages to cut off his leg. See motif K13A.
K13d. A group of boys reaches the sky, the last one's leg is cut off or torn off.
Top 10 motifs with similar dispersal patterns
Phylogeny| Motif | Similarity | Motif summary |
|---|---|---|
| I5A | 100.00% | The tapir is associated with the upper world (thunder, sky, moon). |
| K19F | 100.00% | A star or many stars descend from the sky to work in the fields. See motif K19B. |
| M139 | 100.00% | The fox caught the birds and put them in a bag. Another character secretly replaced them with thorns. |
| B99 | 99.98% | A person or their head left on a tree turns into an insect nest. |
| L88 | 99.94% | A man kills a demon, but when he touches its remains some time later, it comes to life. |
| J11 | 99.94% | The son in his mother's womb asks her to pick flowers or fruit for him (usually when a woman picks flowers, she is bitten by an insect). See motif J9. |
| J15A | 99.89% | Setting off on a journey (usually in search of a fiancé, husband, or relatives), a woman finds herself in the lair or settlement of large dangerous predators - pumas or jaguars. See motif J15. |
| B28A | 99.89% | A character pinned to the ground by a rod, transported somewhere to the edge of the world and associated with an object that continues to influence people. |
| B32 | 99.89% | As a result of conflict with their husbands, women turn into fish. |
| J10 | 99.89% | A woman loses her way after being stung by a wasp (or bee, ant, snake). She slaps her stomach (either to kill the insect or to punish her unborn sons, because of whom she went to pick a flower and was stung; see motif J11). The offended sons fall silent, ceasing to show the way. See motif J9. |
See the 100 most similar distributions →
Map of motif dispersal
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Cite this map
Distribution of the traditions attesting motif K13D, ‘Leg hanging in the sky.’, as recorded in the Berezkin–Duvakin Analytical Catalogue of Folklore Motifs (4 traditions mapped). Geolocation and cartography by Jonathan Fielder-White, Folklore Database, release 1.26206.1 (25 July 2026), https://www.folkloredatabase.com/motif/K13D (accessed 8 August 2026). Basemap © OpenStreetMap contributors.
Traditions
4 recordedThis motif has been recorded in 4 traditions: Chamacoco (Ishir), Mataco, Caduveo, Mbaya, Guarani of Paraguay and Brazil: Caygua, Mbia, Apapocuva, Nyandewa, Chiripa
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