The Mythology and Folklore Database
M38B - Silly wives imitate a sorceress, ATU 898
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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 first wife, rejected or taken later than others, performs certain actions with the help of magic. Other wives try to imitate her but are killed, maimed, or disgraced.Berezkin category: Adventures: Tricks and episodes
This is of motif type Adventures and tricks and is part group 10, Adventures
M38 has 20 other sub-motifsM38. Person sees how others act using magic or according to their animal nature. He or she imitates their actions and gets into trouble. Actions are not heroic deeds, competitions or tests and refer to everyday activity, mostly to providing and cooking food M38a. On a visit, the character sees how the owner acts with magic or techniques that suit his nature (in Africa, too, deception). He imitates their actions but fails. Actions are not tests or competitions and are not related to performing feats. This is mainly getting or preparing food. M38a1. The character imitates the sisters' sons-in-law or husbands, or the wife's brothers (shoshone's) or wives (comox and chalkomel). {ATU combines a motive with another}. M38a2. The hen (other bird) cooks her own eggs and serves them to other animal persons (who imitated her with disastrous consequences) M38b. The first wife, rejected or taken later than others, performs certain actions with the help of magic. Other wives try to imitate her but are killed, maimed, or disgraced. M38b1. After the wedding, the wife is silent until her husband says certain words that indicate her origin. {In North Africa, the Pyrenees and the Arabs of Western Asia, the motive is very popular, which suggests that the list of traditions in which it is known may include some records that have so far been supported only with links to pointers, but not by the texts themselves}. M38b2. Each of the three brothers comes to his father with his wife (fiancée). The younger brother or his fiancée is considered worthless, but the girl turns out to be a sorceress and surpasses the brides of her older brothers in everything. M38b3b. Mighty bird (more rare other creature/mythological person) helps a man (rare: a woman) because he (she) warms/covers from bad weather its/hers nestlings (children) M38c. blacksmith (supposedly) forges a person, rejuvenating or revitalizing him. M38c1. The character (supposedly) forges a person, rejuvenating or reviving him, the other unsuccessfully tries to imitate him. M38c2. To shove a horse or donkey, Jesus (the saint) cuts off his leg, nails a horseshoe to his hoof, and attaches his leg back. The other character tries to imitate in vain. M38c3. A conceited smith attempts to rejuvenate an old woman (man). His magic helper tries to save the victim but all that he do is to transform the woman into an animal, usually a monkey M38d. Two or more characters, which are small objects or small animals, live or travel together and die one by one while committing protozoa actions. M38d1. bubble-head, the straw leg, the hair-neck are successively dying, trying to act like ordinary people. M38d2. Several characters (usually three), which are small objects, go traveling and must cross the river. This fails. M38d3. The character, who is a lump of earth (oatmeal, salt), blurred in the rain or after going to get water. M38d4. Several characters that embody small objects (and a squirrel with them) travel together. The needle penetrates the body of a large animal and kills it. (In the Baltic-Finnish texts, the needle first finds items that others find useless, but after the animal was caught, everything found turned out to be in demand for cooking meat). M38d5. Two or three types of cereals talk to each other, act together, etc. M38d6. Several characters embody small objects and die one at a time. The last one left laughs and rejoices so much that he bursts with laughter (breaks his head, etc.). M38d7. Person who represents something fat (a sausage, a piece of fat, etc.) prepares a rich soup adding to it its own fat. Another person tries to repeat the trick and dies M38e. mushroom (pumpkin) thinks that it is as durable as a tree. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of M38's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| M81F | 99.79% | blind beggar robs an honest man. He watches him and, when he enters the house, takes everything the blind man has accumulated. He often takes money accumulated by other blind people as well. |
| K56A8C | 99.20% | A young man brings an animal to his home, and it turns into a girl. Imitating him, another man marries a dog (pig), but it remains an animal. |
| K27Z2B | 99.18% | The complicated relationship between a simple girl and a prince leads to the prince intending to kill his bride on their wedding night. The girl substitutes a doll for herself, the prince stabs the doll with his sword, mistakes the spurting juice (syrup, honey) for blood, and repents of the murder. The real girl appears, and the young couple are happy. |
| K56F2 | 99.09% | In order to divide a certain number (often five) of eggs equally among people of different sexes, a cunning woman takes into account that each of the men already has two eggs. |
| K33A8 | 98.93% | A woman transformed into a dove by the machinations of a rival tries to establish contact with her children or husband. |
| M39A6I | 98.02% | A person sends food or things to another and tells the messenger to give the recipient some words that the messenger does not understand. On the way, he stole or ate some of what he was supposed to bring. From the messenger's words, the recipient understands what exactly was transferred and accuses him of stealing. |
| K33H1 | 97.33% | The hero's wife (mother, servant) is unaware of the magical properties of an object kept in the house and exchanges it for something more attractive, but in reality incomparable in value. |
| K107C | 97.31% | A magical spouse who arrives in the form of a bird or appears in some other way meets a woman. Jealous sisters (stepmother, brother, etc.) wound him (usually by placing razors, glass shards, etc. in his path). The wounded young man disappears, and the woman goes in search of him. |
| M39A5B | 97.01% | The wife throws fish into the furrows or into the beds. My husband believes that the fish ended up there on its own, he is mistaken for a madman. |
| K157A | 96.87% | In order to find a missing husband (wife, saviour), the character regularly gathers random people to tell stories (usually keeping a shop, bathhouse, etc. for this purpose). From the conversations, it becomes clear that one of the visitors is the person they are looking for, or his story helps to find the missing person. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 26 traditions: Aramaic (Syrians), Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Algeria Arabs, Swahili, Midjikenda (incl Giryama), Nyika, Duruma; Ngindo, Kiluguru and other Islamic groups of the Eastern Coast of Africa, Bengali, Kashmiri, Spain, Spaniards, Portuguese, Portugal, Catalan, Sicily, Sicilians, Hungarians, Bulgarians, Balkarians, Macedonians, Balkarians, Albanians, Balkarians, Uzbek, Persians, Abkhaz, Abkhazians, Georgians, Crimean Tatars, Karaims, Gagauz, Anatolia Turks, Arabs of Kuwait, Bahrein, Qatar, Emirates, Oman,, Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, Lazio), Morocco, Tunisia