The Mythology and Folklore Database
M199A - Squeezing brains out of the ground.




36 Myths, Legends and Folktales
35 Unique Narratives for Motif M199A
14 Cultures & Traditions where M199A is told
96 Mythemes Indexed
0 Sub-Motifs of Motif M199A


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 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 man buried something soft and liquid in the ground, and when he stamped on it (shot an arrow into it) and the buried object splashed onto the surface, he said that he had squeezed the brain (innards) out of the earth.

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

MotifSimilarityMotif Summary
K27Z799.82%The character promises to fulfil a request if the other person reveals the secret behind someone's strange behaviour.
N2099.66%fairy tale text ends with a formula that says that the characters have achieved their desires, goals and/or happiness, or that God has fulfilled their wishes.
K99A399.61%A person sees the sun, moon and stars (all together or some of them) in a dream. At the end of the story, the meaning of the dream becomes clear: these are people who love or worship him (often two wives and a child).
M199J99.60%A giant puts a man on his shoulders to carry him across a river. Believing that the man is strong, he asks why he is so light. The man replies that if he puts all his weight on the giant, the giant will not be able to carry him. The giant pricks him with an awl (knife, nail) and asks him not to put all his weight on him again.
L65A199.50%A demonic character successively devours parts of the horse on which the hero arrived, each time returning to the hero and then leaving to devour another part. (Often asks whether the hero arrived on a three-legged, two-legged or one-legged horse).
M198A299.47%A person determines, based on characteristics invisible to others, that a valuable item (a gemstone, an expensive sword) has a flaw and is of little value.
B73A99.34%A girl (a young man, a girl with her brother; two little brothers) searches for a lost horse, cow, sheep and, as a result (alone or with her brother; both brothers), turns into a bird (usually a cuckoo) with a characteristic call.
L125A99.34%The woman with whom the man has come together is a creature of a non-human nature. This becomes clear after she suffers from thirst at night and, finding no water in the house, takes on her true form, turning into a snake, separating her limbs from her torso, etc.
K27Z7A99.33%A man is going to kill the person who found out why he severely punished his ex-wife.
H55A99.28%Finding himself in another world, a man sees a husband and wife trying to cover themselves with a single blanket, which is not big enough for them, or they do not have enough room for two on the bed. See motif H55A.

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Map of Motif Dispersal

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This motif has been recorded in 14 traditions: Greeks (modern), Balkarians, Uzbek, Tajik, Karachays, Balkar, Kalmyk, Crimean Tatars, Karaims, Anatolia Turks, Kurds, Kara Kalpak, 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), Turkmen, Mongols (Khalkha), Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Chechens


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