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Berezkin/Duvakin Catalogue of Motifs
English translation, enhancements and additional metadata by Jonathan Fielder-White
Source: Berezkin and Duvakin's Analytical Catalogue · Original catalogue (Russian)
About the catalogue and its sources
Unless otherwise stated, narrative and tradition data comes from Berezkin and Duvakin's Thematic classification and distribution of folklore and mythological motifs by area (Analytical catalogue).
Original Berezkin/Duvakin catalogue (Russian)
The English translation uses AI assistance alongside manual verification. Errors may occur; consult the original source when in doubt.
M - Adventures: Tricks and episodes
| Ref | Title | Summary | Traditions | Narratives ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M162a In M162 family | Cuts off his genitals. | The character pretends to eat his own genitals. Another believes him and castrates himself. | 13 | 8 |
| M168a In M168 family | The master is taken seriously, ATU 93. | An animal or bird that regularly feeds on the fruits of a farmer's harvest or lives in his field continues to do so until the very last moment, when the threat to its life becomes obvious. Usually, a bird with chicks (a fox with fox cubs) does not leave the field (vineyard) where the harvest has ripened until the owner's children (workers) and he himself take up the sickle or begin to cut the vines. | 21 | 8 |
| M199m In M199 family | My grandmother's distaff. | A man explains to a demon that the heavy objects lying by the roadside, such as a harrow or a millstone, are just things used by his grandmother or mother, such as a spindle or a comb. | 7 | 8 |
| m203b In m203 family | The cat is associated with spirits. | A person learns that a cat familiar to him and living in the human world also belongs to the world of spirits. | 5 | 8 |
| M204a In M204 family | Did not notice the money, closing his eyes. | Gold is placed in a person's path so that they can take advantage of it. At that moment, the person accidentally closes their eyes and walks past. | 8 | 8 |
| M29d In M29 family | Trickster - Mink | See the motives in square brackets. | 12 | 8 |
| M29m In M29 family | The Trickster is the Rat | See the motives in square brackets. | 22 | 8 |
| M29n In M29 family | Trickster - Mouse | See the motives in square brackets. | 13 | 8 |
| M29r In M29 family | Trickster - Porcupine | See the motives in square brackets. | 18 | 8 |
| M37 | Shattered with an axe | Although the character's head or entire body is cut in two with an ax or split with a stick, the character remains unharmed. Cf. motive J22. | 9 | 8 |
| M38d5 In M38 family | Cereals talking to each other, ATU 293E* | Two or three types of cereals talk to each other, act together, etc. | 9 | 8 |
| M38e In M38 family | Mushroom and oak, ATU 293B* | mushroom (pumpkin) thinks that it is as durable as a tree. | 16 | 8 |
| M39a3b In M39 family | A fool takes care of stumps | fool decides that stumps need hats, puts pots on the stumps. | 5 | 8 |
| M39a4b1 In M39 family | A foolish woman throws away her yarn | Foolish woman throws her yarn ways (into the water, into the bush) and believes that somebody with weave it | 7 | 8 |
| M39e2 In M39 family | Oracle tree, ATU 1543E* | Two people hid their valuables together, and one of them secretly took them. He suggests asking the tree that grew in this place for clarification and hides his father in a hollow to broadcast from there. The tree is set on fire and the deception comes out. | 9 | 8 |
| M57c1 In M57 family | Gold-producing bear | A man fights a bear or (Malayali) leopard and makes another person believe that this animal is defecating with gold. | 9 | 8 |
| M81f In M81 family | A blind liar is robbed, ATU 1577 | 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. | 15 | 8 |
| M82a In M82 family | Tail bells: tied unnoticed | One animal person inconspicuously ties rattles to the tail of another. The latter thinks that he is pursued and runs in panic | 5 | 8 |
| M83c In M83 family | Who gets drunk faster | Animals argue who of them gets drunk easier. The last one falls down because he becomes drunk as soon as somebody talks about alcohol | 7 | 8 |
| M88 | Involved in a dance | The character follows the dancing girls and dies. | 7 | 8 |
| M106d In M106 family | My name is "Son-in-law". | By saying that his name is "Son-in-law" ("Husband," "Uncle," etc.), the character deceives others. The victims find no sympathy, since as a relative he has the right to behave in this manner. | 8 | 9 |
| M114g In M114 family | The long-bearded goat and the tall camel. | Only the boy, the young man, answers the questions of the authoritative character wisely. When he asks why someone older and taller was not sent to him, the boy says that the goat has the longest beard and the camel is taller than everyone else. | 9 | 9 |
| M114h In M114 family | Building a house in the air. | An authoritative character orders a house to be built in the air. A man finds a clever way out of the situation. | 9 | 9 |
| M123a In M123 family | Three-toed paw. | A raven marries or tries to marry, pretending to be a chief and a handsome man. One day, someone notices that he is eating carrion. Usually, everyone is forced to take off their moccasins, and they see that the raven has a three-toed paw. The raven is banished in disgrace or hastens to leave on his own. | 6 | 9 |
| M133 | The wind as saviour. | Cumulative tale: a bird is injured by a thorny plant and asks for it to be punished, but everyone refuses because someone else has failed to do something; the last to be asked is the wind, which blows and causes all the characters to perform the necessary actions one after another. | 13 | 9 |
| M13B In M13 family | Sausage sticks to the nose. | People are promised the fulfilment of two (three, four) wishes. Without thinking, they wish for something they do not want at all. The last wish is spent on returning to the original state. | 7 | 9 |
| M144B In M144 family | A burnt tiger becomes striped. | The stripes on the tiger's skin appeared after it was burned. | 7 | 9 |
| M147b In M147 family | The fox gets rid of fleas, ATU 63. | To get rid of fleas, the fox (jackal) takes a bunch of moss (hay, grass) in its mouth and dives into the water. The fleas, in order not to drown, move closer and closer to its head and then fall onto the moss or hay. The fox leaves the bunch in the water and comes ashore. | 17 | 9 |
| M170a In M170 family | The sinful camel. | The predator accuses the herbivore of sin and eats it. | 7 | 9 |
| M177a In M177 family | The one who looks away eats. | One zoomorphic character teaches another to remain silent, to look at him or away when a third character asks who ate the best piece. It is a trap: the third character decides that the second is guilty. | 10 | 9 |
| M192a In M192 family | Dried belts. | The character agrees to have a freshly removed skin put on him or to be wrapped in wet belts. The skin or belts cause suffering or death (usually because they dry out and shrink). | 9 | 9 |
| M197d In M197 family | Shortened stick, ATU 926C.2. | To find the thief, a man gives sticks to the assembled crowd and says that the thief's stick will become longer overnight. The thief cuts off the end of his stick and is thus discovered. | 9 | 9 |
| M198b3 In M198 family | The collapsed mosque. | A supposed fortune teller accidentally finds the missing items, is rewarded and brought close to the ruler. One day, for some reason, he rudely pushes him (or people in general) out of the room. Immediately afterwards, the roof of the building collapses. Since then, no one has doubted the fortune teller's abilities. | 9 | 9 |
| M29c In M29 family | Trickster - Jay | See the motives in square brackets. | 10 | 9 |
| M29j In M29 family | A trickster is a waterfowl or marsh bird | See the motives in square brackets. | 14 | 9 |
| M29y In M29 family | Trickster - Wren | See the motives in square brackets. | 10 | 9 |
| M39a5 In M39 family | Kills goats that have eaten pears | fool led the goats to the fruit tree and killed them because they ate the fruit he had thrown. | 7 | 9 |
| M56d In M56 family | Fill the vessel with flies | The character promises to fill the vessel with small flying living creatures. He bets with them that they will not be able to fill the vessel. Creatures climb inside, the character closes the lid. Cf. K60B motif. | 8 | 9 |
| M61a1 In M61 family | The character quarrels birds | The character (always a raven) provokes a seagull to quarrel with another bird, telling each one that the other was hostile or offensive towards her. | 5 | 9 |
| M78e In M78 family | Baby ear | A tiny boy comes from an animal's ear, compared in size to an ear, his name is “ear”. | 5 | 9 |
| M92 | Glued lashes | Something red is glued to the character's eyelashes, he thinks it's a fire. | 8 | 9 |
| M105a In M105 family | Allegedly murdered children. | A character hides his children, but tells another that he has killed them. The other believes him and kills his own children. See motif M104. | 6 | 10 |
| M112b In M112 family | Animals build a road, ATU 55. | Animals that do not see the sun (moles, shrews, earthworms) refuse to build the road with everyone else and are punished for it. | 13 | 10 |
| M117 | Head under the wing, ATU 56D. | A fox or other predator asks a bird what it does when the wind blows. The bird shows how it puts its head under its wing, and the fox catches it. | 13 | 10 |
| M120c In M120 family | Shared children. | Two animals agree to raise children together. One of them eats the other's children, continuing to pretend that the children are shared and that it does not matter which ones are missing. | 9 | 10 |
| M15 | Tied to a tree. | A man ties a girl or young woman to the top of a tree or places her on the treetop as if on a stake. People try to rescue her. | 7 | 10 |
| M152c In M152 family | The lion and the donkey at the ford. | The weak companion of a large predator pretends to be strong and brave. When he is carried away by the river or drowns in a swamp, and the predator pulls him out, the companion pretends to be angry (for preventing him from catching fish, etc.). | 9 | 10 |
| M164a In M164 family | The smell from the lion's mouth, ATU 51A. | Asking animals whether his mouth really smells bad (or his lair is dirty), the predator (lion, wolf) kills both those who answer honestly and those who flatter him. The cunning one says he cannot answer because he has a cold (he forgot his glasses). | 19 | 10 |
| M188a In M188 family | Jackal on the throne. | The character demands to be addressed as a ruler (usually sits on a pile of rubbish and demands to be recognised as king). One of the animals exposes him. | 9 | 10 |
| M198a2 In M198 family | Stone with a wormhole. | 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. | 11 | 10 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.