The Mythology and Folklore Database
M40 - Distorted instructions
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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 is sent to get something relatively low in value. He asks for something else and shouts to whoever sent him to confirm the assignment. Usually, a weaker character comes to a stronger wife or son and tells her (him) that her husband (his father) told him to surrender to him, feed him, marry him, etc. {It is highly likely that American versions are borrowed after Columbus}.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
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| K27E | 97.11% | The character is offered to eat or drink an unusually large amount or poison. |
| M57A | 95.54% | Instead of the usual secretions from the human body, beads, flowers, gold and other valuables pour in. |
| K24A | 94.86% | A man, usually of non-human nature, hides the clothes or sits on the clothes of an ordinary earthly girl. To get her clothes back, she is forced to enter into a romantic relationship with him. Traditions in which the character is a snake or dragon (ATU 425M) are marked with an asterisk*. |
| K37 | 94.29% | In order to return or obtain a wife, son or husband (in Africa also a domestic animal or object), a person must identify her or him among several identical people or animals (objects). |
| L72 | 94.05% | While fleeing, the character throws small objects behind him, which turn into powerful obstacles in the path of the pursuer, or (rarely) the pursuer creates such obstacles in the path of the fugitives. (Cf. SUS 1979, No. 313H = AA 313I, p. 114: escape by throwing magical objects, an episode in various types of fairy tales). |
| M109 | 93.86% | A zoomorphic character sits down, lowering his tail (penis) so that something edible will stick to it, but as a result he is left without a tail (penis) or dies. Cf. motifs M109A, M109C. |
| M57A2 | 93.79% | Instead of common body discharges a a man urinates, spits, etc. beads, flowers, gold and other valuables; valuables are produced by the very presence of particular male person. See motif m57a |
| I45A | 93.68% | Pointing at or staring at the moon or stars will cause illness (death) or the pointing finger to rot or wither. |
| M106 | 93.67% | The character calls himself by a fictitious name, which others understand not as a proper name, but as a common noun with a specific meaning. |
| F62 | 93.67% | A (supposedly) sick (weak, unattractive, poorly dressed) character is left alone when others leave for the festival; he (she) arrives there later in the guise of a handsome man or beautiful woman; those who arrived earlier do not recognise him (her) and take an interest in him (her). (This motif is also found in texts containing the motif k57, Cinderella). |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 47 traditions: Algeria Arabs, Arabs of Sudan, Sudanese, Amhara; Zay, Harari; Silte, Gogot, Swahili, Midjikenda (incl Giryama), Nyika, Duruma; Ngindo, Kiluguru and other Islamic groups of the Eastern Coast of Africa, Safwa, Mkulwe, Ngonde, Kinga, Nyakusa, Nyamwanga, Batak (Toba, Dairi), Lampung (Lampong); South Sumatra Malays (incl. Bengkulu), Burmese, Intha, Palaung (De Ang, Deang), Garo (Atchik), Kachari (Bodo, incl. Lalung), Dimasa, Tripuri, Riang (of Tripura), Khami, Riga, Mori, Kachin (Singpho), Chak, Mikir (Karbi), Malayali; Kannikaran, Nepali; Tharu, Portuguese, Portugal, Basques, Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Russians: Central part of ethnic territory as in A.D. 1500 (Tver, Yaroslavl, Moscow, Kostroma, Vladimir, Ivanovo, Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan, Tula, Kaluga, Smolensk provinces; in case of absence in other areas also Russians in Vyatka, Perm, Kazan provinces), Yagnobi, Karachays, Balkar, Kalmyk, Crimean Tatars, Karaims, Anatolia Turks, 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), Mansi, Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Tungus (Evenki): Baikal region, Evenks, Evens (Lamuts), Oroch, Chukchi, Wichita; Spiro Mound iconography, Kiowa, Natchez (incl Avoyel), Alabama, Koasati, Navajo, Jicarilla, Chiricahua, Mescalero, Pima, Papago, Tzotzil, Kekchi; Mopan, Guajiro, Lisu, Lolo (incl. Bai), Achang, Yi, Axi, Nasu, Jino, Taungyo, Lao, Salars, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio)