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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M75 | Taken from vultures | The character attracts and catches corpse eaters (usually birds) and as a result obtains valuables or returns something valuable (fire, woman, animals, etc.). | 74 | 134 |
| M75a In M75 family | Revenge for falling from heaven | The character lures a veteran to avenge his fall from the sky. Either the (potauatomi) shovel drops the character or leaves him on top to avenge being lured and caught. | 14 | 18 |
| M75b In M75 family | The animal in the carcass was carried away by a bird | A person hides in the skin or carcass of a large animal. A bird brings a skin or carcass to the nest without knowing what it brought the person. | 46 | 45 |
| M75b1 In M75 family | Marco Rich, ATU 930 | A person (usually of high status) learns that a poor boy who is born will inherit his property or become king. He tries to stop it, but what he predicted comes true. | 94 | 111 |
| M75b1a In M75 family | Intended wife, ATU 930A | A high-ranking person finds out that a (just born) poor or ugly girl is intended for him, or the girl herself finds out that she is destined to become a man's wife of high origin. A betrothed or someone else tries to kill a girl, but only hurts her and the prediction is fulfilled; if the girl is ugly, she becomes beautiful. | 33 | 39 |
| M75b2 In M75 family | Predetermined marriage: a bird tries to prevent | bird tries in vain to prevent the marriage, which she learned was inevitable when the future spouses were still children. | 17 | 16 |
| M75b3 In M75 family | Trojan horse: victory over enemies | Enemies are shown a life-size or larger image of a horse or bull. Not realizing that this is a ruse, they bring the figure to their own territory and are defeated as a result. | 7 | 19 |
| M75b4 In M75 family | The Trojan horse: getting a woman | To master a woman, the hero hides inside the hollow figure of a horse (bull, deer) or in an animal carcass. The character guarding the woman takes her to her. The hero gets outside and becomes a woman's lover. Or a woman hides inside the figure of a horse, which is taken to the man's chambers. | 35 | 22 |
| M75c In M75 family | Treasures on the mountain, ATU 936 | A person is offered to climb a rock or tree to get treasures. A return descent is not possible. Doomed to death, the hero remains alive. | 50 | 51 |
| M75d In M75 family | Vulture knife | A man bereaves vultures of their hunting weapons or amulets | 10 | 11 |
| M76 | A person climbing a tree has his leg cut off | A woman cuts off a man's leg when he climbs a tree; a man cuts off a woman's leg when she climbs a tree. See K13A motif. | 5 | 4 |
| M77 | Soiled bed | The character stains another's clothes or bed with sewage or something that looks like sewage, threatens to ruin the air and accuse the other, etc.; taking advantage of the victim's confusion, achieves the goal. | 62 | 103 |
| M78 | Tiny boy, ATU 700 | A tiny little man performs a series of tricks, mocks people he meets and opponents. | 101 | 121 |
| M78a In M78 family | The tail boy | A tiny little man emerges from the severed tail of a goat or sheep. | 13 | 17 |
| M78b In M78 family | Too many kids | 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. | 13 | 15 |
| M78c In M78 family | The boy is a severed finger | A tiny little man emerges from a severed finger. | 18 | 19 |
| M78d In M78 family | Pea child | 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. | 17 | 25 |
| 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 |
| M78f In M78 family | Substituted embryo | 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. | 21 | 23 |
| M78g In M78 family | Sleep-related | 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. | 15 | 11 |
| M79 | Reed Dancer, J1883 | A person joins the dancers; it turns out that the dancers are reeds or trees in the wind. | 9 | 13 |
| M80 | The partridge scares the offender, K932 | The character insults a partridge bird, kills or offends its chickens; the partridge suddenly takes off in front of the offender, he falls (usually into a lake or river). | 22 | 27 |
| M81 | Blind people | Wandering, the hero finds himself in a place where blind or blind (two or more) live. | 103 | 133 |
| M81a In M81 family | Vivid female ducks | The hero meets two blind women and makes them sighted. These women are birds (geese, ducks, hazel grouses, partridges). | 13 | 20 |
| M81b In M81 family | Don't go after a stuck arrow | The character is warned not to try to reach an arrow if it gets stuck in a tree. He breaks the ban and gets into trouble. | 10 | 14 |
| M81c In M81 family | Blind people in the sky | A person goes to heaven or (rarely) to the lower world, where he meets blind people (one or two), usually makes them sighted, and returns to earth himself. | 27 | 38 |
| M81d In M81 family | Healed blind people | A person meets (most often in the sky) one or two blind people and restores their sight. | 34 | 44 |
| M81e In M81 family | Don't herd cattle on giant land, ATU 314A, 321 | young man undertakes to herd cattle and is warned not to cross the borders of a giant, dragon, witch, etc. The young man violates the ban and kills a giant. | 40 | 47 |
| M81e1 In M81 family | A young man returns sight to old people, ATU 321 | A young man lives with an old man whose eyes or eyes were carried away by a giant. The young man goes to the giant, kills him, brings his eyes, the old man sees the light. | 27 | 25 |
| M81e2 In M81 family | It attracts people and animals | By playing an instrument or otherwise, a character is able to attract an animal or person far away from him. | 5 | 5 |
| 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 |
| M82 | Tail bells: tied voluntarily, J2155 | The character sees that something is tied to the other's tail. He also wants such a tail for himself, and as a result he suffers damage. | 10 | 16 |
| 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 |
| M83 | Who's older? ATU 80A* | Each character claims that he is older and appeared before this world or (Ingush) that his father was cosmic in size. | 86 | 124 |
| 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 |
| M83b In M83 family | Whose sleep better? ATU 1626 | Two (or more) characters agree to give food to whoever has the best dream. One talks about a feast he went to in a dream (or says he was in a different world), the second admits that he ate everything alone - he was sure that after the feast, the first one would not qualify for food (which someone who finds himself in a different world does not need food). | 56 | 41 |
| 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 |
| M84 | Revived from bones, E32, E33 | A person, animal, fish, or (rarely) a large fruit is killed and eaten. After a meal, what is eaten revives, usually after the bones (seeds) are put together. Cf. motive C16. | 96 | 142 |
| M84a In M84 family | A revived goat | After supernatural characters put the bones of a dead and eaten deer, cow, ram, or goat in its skin, the animal is whole (and usually comes to life). See M84 motif. | 45 | 41 |
| 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 |
| M84b1 In M84 family | A trip to the land of fish | A person enters a country from where fish come to people (and comes back). | 14 | 21 |
| M84b2 In M84 family | Birds eaten and animated | The character carefully preserves the bones of migratory birds eaten (not fish or animals) and the birds come to life again. (Episodes of reviving a domestic goose or rooster are not taken into account in everyday tales). | 7 | 10 |
| M84b3 In M84 family | Eaten and revived goose (Wondrous wondrous). | 2 | 4 | |
| M84c In M84 family | Spirit Guest | Sleeping in a deserted place, a person finds himself among spirits. One of them explains that he has a guest, that is the same person. | 14 | 17 |
| M84d In M84 family | A sick tree | A person hears trees talking, one of which is (fatally) ill and suffers. | 6 | 7 |
| M85 | Fox is bluffing, ATU 56A | character unable to climb a tree threatens to knock it down or climb a trunk if a bird or squirrel does not drop a cub or egg. The third character explains that the threat is untenable. | 88 | 159 |
| M86 | The boulder punishes the offender | A rock stalks or otherwise punishes a character when he unfairly insults her (usually takes away her property, see motive L33). | 21 | 20 |
| 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 |
| M88 | Involved in a dance | The character follows the dancing girls and dies. | 7 | 8 |
| M89 | Melted wax | A character is humiliated after an object or creature made of wax, resin, or excrement that he made himself or that he thought was strong melts warmly, the present. | 42 | 45 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.