The Mythology and Folklore Database
B13A - Water rushes after a person.




54 Myths, Legends and Folktales
54 Unique Narratives for Motif B13A
32 Cultures & Traditions where B13A is told
0 Mythemes Indexed
1 Sub-Motifs of Motif B13A


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

A stream of water (with a predator in it) rushes after a character who is trying to escape from it.

Berezkin category: The Origins of the Characteristics of the environment

This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures


B13 has 1 other sub-motifs


B13.  A character deliberately or accidentally makes a riverbed by digging it out, drawing it on the ground or spilling water as he walks (cf. motif B13A: water rushes in the footsteps of a person against his will, he tries to run away from it).
B13a.  A stream of water (with a predator in it) rushes after a character who is trying to escape from it.

 Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of B13's motifs?



Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns

MotifSimilarityMotif Summary
F4498.66%In the community of the first ancestors, women and men quarrel, leave, kill, maim each other, etc.
F4298.59%Feeling wronged, men leave their wives or sisters.
F8898.46%Female genitals are initially fragrant or odourless, but then acquire an unpleasant odour (they do not acquire a fragrant odour).
F28B96.99%A woman uses a penis made of wax, wood, fruit or root. Usually her husband or male relative smears it with pepper, and the woman is maimed or killed.
F9696.85%A girl or wife rejects an unattractive man. He becomes handsome (usually after encountering a supernatural being), and those who treated him badly are punished.
E13A96.82%Sacred knowledge, objects and rituals were first obtained by humans from the inhabitants of the underwater world.
J6096.38%A woman conceives twins from two different fathers.
H24F96.38%The character has the ability to put a large amount of meat or fish into a bag or container that is easy to carry.
F40A95.44%A male character, androgynous, with a monstrous penis, single-handedly possesses all women, rules over them or leads away the first women.
F1295.26%A husband kills his wife by inserting her lover's severed penis into her body.

 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 32 traditions: Aka, Baka (Badjue) and other Western (Bantu speaking) Pygmies, Dan (=Gio), Guro (=Kweni, incl Gagu, Neio), Toura, Mano, Ngere, Beng, Guro , Central Vanuatu: Espiritu Santo, Araki, Aore, Maewo, Malekula, Vao, Efate (Vate), Nguna, Mae, Ambrim, Pentecost, Oba (=Aoba, East Ambae, Lepers'), Omba, SW Arunachal Pradesh: Sherdukpen, Tawang (Monpas), Aka (Hrusso), Miji, Sarsee (Tsuu T'ina), Nez Perce, Tillamook, Okanagon, Sanpoil, Natchez (incl Avoyel), Chumash, Yokuts, Northern Shoshone, Western Shoshone, Gosiute, Eastern Shoshone, Navajo, Hopi, Yuma proper (Quechan), Mohave, Maricopa, Paez, Guambia, Pijao; Ilama culture, Karijona, Andoque, Juruna, Xipaya, Bakairi, Kuikuro, Kalapalo, Calapalo, Kamayura, Crenye, Gaviões, Chamacoco (Ishir), Mataco, Nivakle (=Chulupi, Ashluslay, Ajlujlay), Chorote, Toba (incl Pilagá), Papua-New Guinea Southern Lowland Papuan groups (Trans New Guinea and unclassified): Gimi, Kiwai, Bina, Mawabula, Mawatta, Keraki, Gambadi (incl. Kwavaru), Purari River delta, Masingara, Wiram (=Suki), Ngain, Daga, Elema


Please log on to view the narratives.