The Mythology and Folklore Database
M78A - The tail boy
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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
A tiny little man emerges from the severed tail of a goat or sheep.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
M78 has 7 other sub-motifsM78. A tiny little man performs a series of tricks, mocks people he meets and opponents. M78a. A tiny little man emerges from the severed tail of a goat or sheep. M78b. Wishing a baby, a childless woman gives birth to many tiny boys. She or her husband kill them or throw them away, but she stays alone and helps their parents. M78c. A tiny little man emerges from a severed finger. M78d. A tiny boy (rarely a girl) comes from a pea (bean, seed) or from a spool of goat droppings, he is almost as tall as a pea. Or he was born after his mother ate a pea. M78e. A tiny boy comes from an animal's ear, compared in size to an ear, his name is “ear”. M78f. When a woman falls asleep, a joker (usually a tiny boy) places an embryo or the entrails of an animal or something similar next to her to make the woman herself or others think she has a miscarriage or that her viscera has fallen out. M78g. When the inhabitants of the house fall asleep, a joker (usually a tiny boy) ties them together in pairs so that when they wake up, they quarrel. Click here if would you like to see a distrbution map combining all of M78's motifs? |
Top 10 Motifs with similar dispersal patterns
| Motif | Similarity | Motif Summary |
|---|---|---|
| B1C | 99.84% | Two creators agree that the older of them (the main creator) will be the one whose object is in a certain state (usually: whose tree or flower grows or blooms earlier). While one was asleep or absent, the other switched the objects and deceitfully achieved primacy. |
| K116B | 99.61% | In order to take possession of the girl, the antagonist creates a situation in which her relatives are forced to put her in a chest (barrel, sack, etc.) and leave her there. The girl is secretly replaced by a ferocious dog or other animal. When the antagonist opens the chest, the animal usually kills or mauls him. |
| B116C | 99.29% | In the past, the people possessed writing and knowledge, but these were lost, or the people missed the opportunity to acquire them. |
| I132 | 99.05% | A deer props its antlers against the sky, and a person climbs them to reach the upper world. Alternatively, a person finds themselves in the sky when they touch the deer's antlers. |
| K101C | 99.05% | The bride stipulates that she will only be with her husband during the day. The husband discovers that at night she meets with heavenly maidens (and usually flies away to dance in the sky). He follows her and in the end she stays with him on earth. |
| C6I | 98.92% | A zoomorphic character returns from the underworld covered in mud. He shakes himself off, or the mud is scraped off him, and earth emerges from it. |
| H49B | 98.41% | A man gives his dog to another man. The dog is of great use to him (it finds stolen goods and drives away thieves). The man who received the dog sends it back with a letter of thanks. The owner thinks that the dog has run away, kills it, and only then finds the letter. |
| E31A2 | 98.36% | The girl must be given to one of several men. She herself or someone else explains that one of the suitors can be called her father, another her brother (etc.), and only one can be her husband. |
| A37B | 98.29% | A small animal (marmot, rabbit, mole, frog) or a person who turns into such an animal tries to hit a target in the sky (a celestial body or a bird) with arrows and as a result loses their thumbs. |
| K56A8B | 98.29% | A virtuous girl (usually the daughter of a dog) wants to kill herself and puts her hand in a snake's hole. The snake does not bite her, but rewards her. |
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Map of Motif Dispersal
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This motif has been recorded in 12 traditions: Lepcha, 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), Bashkirs, Buryats: Western (cis Baikal), Mongols (Khalkha), Dongxiang, Baoan, Tuvinians of Tuva, Tuvans, Khakas, Forest (Upper Kolyma) Yukaghir, Central Tibetans (Yu Tsang, incl. Sikkim Tibetans, Tichurong of NW Nepal), Mustang, Bhutan