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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 ▲ |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M53c In M53 family | Reddened eyes | trickster, inviting birds to dance around him with their eyes closed, kills them one at a time and threatens to turn red at the one that opens their eyes; this is an empty threat, or for a bird that opens eyes and eyes have really turned red ever since. | 17 | 30 |
| M87 | In a house where you can't see the owners | The character comes to a place that is abandoned or seems to have been abandoned by the inhabitants. He tries to take or touch things, but invisible owners prevent him from doing so, or the things themselves hurt him. | 24 | 30 |
| M91c5 In M91 family | Unprofitable sale, ATU 1551 | The person himself or his little son goes to the bazaar to sell a cow (or another large pet). The crook convinces him that it is a sheep (or another animal that is smaller and cheaper). Each of the crook's friends confirms the score or gives an even lower grade. A man at a loss sells a cow for the price of a sheep. | 46 | 30 |
| M91c7 In M91 family | Tell them I'm dead | When enemies come to kill a person, he pretends to be dead. | 30 | 30 |
| M102 | Without a head and a leg. | The character believes that another has temporarily separated his head or leg from himself, asks to do the same to him, and dies or is maimed. | 25 | 31 |
| M120a In M120 family | Weeping corpse eater, ATU 37, Th. K931. | The character pretends to be a mourner and eats (treats the body disrespectfully) the deceased. | 15 | 31 |
| M120b In M120 family | A nurse with a pleasant voice. | The character is looking for a nanny (nurse, wet nurse, shepherd, husband) and consistently rejects those whose voice he does not like. He settles on the one with the most beautiful voice, but the choice turns out to be unsuccessful (usually the nurse eats the child, the sick person, the sheep, etc.). | 20 | 31 |
| M128 | Colourful animals, ATU 1036. | Having agreed with his opponent that he would get animals with certain external characteristics or behaving in a certain way, the hero takes all or almost all of them when the livestock is divided. | 37 | 31 |
| M138 | The lifespan of humans and animals, ATU 173. | At first, everyone was given 20 or 30 years. For animals, this is a long time, but for humans, it is short. Humans received part of the lifespan of animals. | 40 | 31 |
| M177 | And he had no heart, ATU 52. | A weak predator eats part of its victim's body and explains to the strong one that this part did not exist at all (otherwise he would not have come to a place where he knew he would be eaten). | 35 | 31 |
| M195a In M195 family | Where is the upper end of the stick? | A character sends a long object that either looks the same at both ends or is inside a small object, and asks which end of the object is the top and which is the bottom. The guesser gives the correct answer. | 24 | 31 |
| M24 | The turtle is going to war | turtle goes to war and/or is captured. See M23 motif. Cf. motif K77 “Verlioka”. | 24 | 31 |
| M39a6i In M39 family | The servant hid part of the gift, ATU 875A | 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. | 42 | 31 |
| M137 | A weak predator imitates a strong one, ATU 47D. | A weaker predator tries to imitate a stronger one, but cannot perform the actions that the strong one performs easily. | 36 | 32 |
| M141 | Animals in a pit, ATU 20A. | Several animals of different species find themselves in a pit from which they cannot escape. They devour each other, and the last one manages to escape. | 29 | 32 |
| M179 | Bark and ice huts, ATU 43. | Two zoomorphic characters live nearby, one's house is destroyed, he asks the other to shelter him. Usually he breaks in and drives out the owner, strong animals fear the invader, while weak or small ones drive him away. | 16 | 32 |
| M29z In M29 family | Beardless (Aldarkose) | hero of the story is a character named “Beardless” or Aldar-Kose (Aldar is a “deceiver”, a braid is “beardless”). | 31 | 32 |
| M38b In M38 family | Silly wives imitate a sorceress, ATU 898 | 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. | 35 | 32 |
| M42b In M42 family | Resin eyes | After losing his eyes, the character makes new ones out of resin or wax, sees again (often this is an episode on the way to finding good eyes, while tar eyes do not see well). | 26 | 32 |
| M57d2 In M57 family | The tree makes wishes come true | The man was about to cut down a tree. It himself, or the creature living on it or in it, asks not to do so and fulfills the person's wishes. | 25 | 32 |
| M94b In M94 family | The wolf under the mill wheel | The character is lured to look under the mill wheel, he dies or is maimed. | 17 | 32 |
| M101b In M101 family | Man past, future, present, ATU 157. | A large predator wants to see a human being. First, it meets a child and learns that this is a future human being, then an old man – a former human being. The encounter with a present human being (a hunter, a soldier) ends badly for the beast. | 37 | 33 |
| M123 | The raven marries the goose. | A bird of prey or scavenger (raven, owl, hawk, coyote) marries (or attempts to marry) a partner who (or whose brothers) are geese or other waterfowl. The marriage is disrupted or proves unsuccessful. | 24 | 33 |
| M130c In M130 family | The Lion and the Mouse, ATU 75. | When a lion (tiger, bear, elephant, human) is trapped, a mouse or rat frees it (usually by gnawing through the ropes). | 50 | 33 |
| M136b In M136 family | Cuts the branch he is sitting on, ATU 1240. | A man cuts the branch he is sitting on and similar variants (cuts the rope he climbed up on; climbs onto a dry branch that breaks; climbs onto a tree that has been cut down in order to fell it). | 33 | 33 |
| M30d In M30 family | Holds to a stick carried by birds, ATU 225A | To get into the air, a character without wings (usually a turtle or a frog) grabs a stick with the ends held in their beaks by two birds. | 27 | 33 |
| M39e In M39 family | Under which tree? ATU 1543D* | When reviewing the dispute, the judge asks about the secondary circumstances of the case. The offender is exposed by showing that he knows (or, on the contrary, does not know) about them. | 30 | 33 |
| M56b In M56 family | Bring tears and skins | A weak character is tasked with bringing the skin (paw, tears, etc.) of animals that are stronger than him or are difficult to catch. He cunningly performs the task. Usually a rabbit or hare completes the task, but does not receive the reward he expected. {In the New World, the motive is from African Americans}. | 30 | 33 |
| M65b In M65 family | Lost loot | Having resorted to deception, the character kills the game, but the thieves take the loot. See M53 motif. | 30 | 33 |
| M114a In M114 family | Stone coat. | The character is offered to sew clothes or shoes from stone or iron, or to remove the skin from the stone. | 28 | 34 |
| M167a In M167 family | The tiger frightened by Twilight. | A strong predator mistakes an unfamiliar word for the name of a creature that is stronger than him and flees. | 23 | 34 |
| M181 | Two people are going to a festival. | Two characters are invited to a festival. (On the way and) upon arriving at the destination, one deceives the other. | 28 | 34 |
| M198a3 In M198 family | Who stole the ruby? | One of the brothers secretly takes valuables belonging to all of them or is illegitimate. The brothers come to an authoritative figure to determine who is the thief or illegitimate child. Usually, the figure tells a story and determines the culprit based on the reaction of those who have come. | 37 | 34 |
| M29o In M29 family | Trickster - Monkey | See the motives in square brackets. | 53 | 34 |
| M39f In M39 family | There was a hat, a head - I don't remember, ATU 1225 | A fool is left headless (usually trying to get into a bear's den). When asked whether the deceased had a head, wife or someone else, they say that there was a hat (beard), but they definitely do not remember the head. | 51 | 34 |
| M66 | The root eaten, J2154 | After eating certain foods frivolously or rubbing his body with his spine, the character suffers from itching, diarrhea, or an irrepressible eruption of intestinal gases. | 24 | 34 |
| M83a In M83 family | He cries for dead children | The characters are arguing which one is older. After some people tell us how long they were born, the latter says that this and that happened in his memory at that time. | 19 | 34 |
| M84b In M84 family | The dice are thrown into the water | An animal, bird or fish that is killed and eaten comes to life after its bones are thrown into the water. See M84 motif. | 32 | 34 |
| M106e In M106 family | For a long winter, ATU 1541. | A man says that provisions have been made for the winter, in case of need, etc. In the absence of the owner, a man enters the house and claims that his name is Winter (Ramadan, Necessity, etc.). The woman thinks that her husband meant this man and gives him all the provisions. | 45 | 35 |
| M136a In M136 family | Carrying light in bags, ATU 1245. | People try to bring light, darkness, smoke, etc. into or out of a room. | 50 | 35 |
| M136c In M136 family | The fool takes the prediction of death seriously, ATU 1313A. | Based on indirect signs or someone's words, the fool believes that he has died and lies motionless. | 55 | 35 |
| M197a In M197 family | The big cauldron gave birth to a small one, ATU 1592B. | A man took a cauldron (pot) and returned it with a small cauldron. The owner of the cauldron agreed that the big cauldron gave birth to a small one. The next time, the man did not return the cauldron: he died. The owner had to agree. | 46 | 35 |
| M29v In M29 family | The dwarf deer is a cunning winner | The character defeats or deceives strong opponents using cunning. The protagonists are dwarf ungulates, usually duker or deer - taxonomically distant from each other, but similar in appearance. In some publications on African traditions, it is difficult to determine which animal we are talking about, but it is certain that these are small cloven-hoofed animals, usually (always?) dukers. See the motives in square brackets. | 35 | 35 |
| M29z1 In M29 family | Anthropomorphic trickster (miscellaneous). | purely anthropomorphic character, or a character who bears the name of an animal or plant but does not act zoomorphic in the course of his adventures. See the motives in square brackets. {Data not fully entered} | 32 | 35 |
| M32 | Indigestion | The character swallows food or water, or his own entrails, pieces of flesh flow out and fall out of his ass. | 28 | 35 |
| M118a In M118 family | Forty Robbers and Jugs of Oil, ATU 954(2). | The chieftain (demon) brings robbers (other demons) to the courtyard of someone else's house, hiding them in empty jugs, barrels, etc. At night, they are supposed to attack the owners. A girl or young woman (less often, the owner of the house) learns of the danger and destroys the robbers (usually by pouring boiling water into each jug or barrel). | 64 | 36 |
| M154a In M154 family | The ox, the donkey and work, ATU 207A. | One of the domestic animals (usually a donkey) persuades another to pretend to be sick. After that, the advisor has to work for both of them. Then he tells the pretend sick animal that the owner is going to slaughter him, and the animal rushes to work. | 42 | 36 |
| M178 | The Lying Goat, ATU 212. | The owner successively sends others to graze the goat (herd of goats). The goat eats grass to its heart's content, but each time replies to the owner that it has been kept on a starvation diet. The owner is outraged and kills or drives away the shepherds. Convinced of the goat's deceitfulness, he decides to kill it. Either the owner begins to skin the live goat, or the goat runs away. In most versions, both motifs are combined. | 39 | 36 |
| M17b In M17 family | Wife deceives blind man. | The wife directs the blind man's arrow at game, lies that he has missed, and eats the meat herself. | 29 | 36 |
| M195 | Two horses: which one is older? | The character must guess which of the two horses or cows is older. He does this by knowing the behavioural characteristics of these animals. | 25 | 36 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.