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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| m198b6 In m198 family | A fortune teller named Zhaba (Frog). | An authoritative character asks a person to guess what is in his box. The person says that now he, so-and-so, has been caught, or utters an exclamation. This exclamation or name sounds like "toad" or "frog," and the character believes that the person has a special gift. | 6 | 7 |
| m105a1 In m105 family | Allegedly killed children: two birds. | One of two birds, both of which (rarely: only one) are flightless, suggests that the other break its eggs. The other agrees, but then sees that the first has kept its eggs. | 5 | 16 |
| m187d In m187 family | Race: turtle (toad) - participant. | Participating in a race, the turtle or frog (toad) defeats its faster opponent. See motif M183. | 45 | 22 |
| m11d In m11 family | Salt from bodily secretions. | The character makes food taste good by adding salt to it. Another character learns that the cook extracts this salt from his own body (it is contained in his bodily secretions). | 8 | 7 |
| 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 |
| m195c In m195 family | The clever or lucky person solves riddles. | People of high status cannot determine the hidden difference between two or more outwardly similar objects or beings, or between two sides of the same object or being. Thanks to their own intelligence or chance, a person of low status does so. | 39 | 53 |
| M106a In M106 family | "I Myself" and "No One" in the Demon's House. | The character who caused the damage calls himself by a fictitious name such as "Nobody," "I Myself," etc. Usually, others decide that the victim himself is to blame for what happened. | 31 | 46 |
| M106b In M106 family | "Last Year" in the demon's house. | The character who caused harm to the antagonist calls himself by a fictitious name such as "Last Year," and the other antagonists understand this to mean that everything happened a long time ago and there is no point in looking for the culprit. | 13 | 20 |
| M53b In M53 family | A bag with songs | Trickster claims he's carrying songs in his bag. See M53 motif. | 0 | 0 |
| M113a In M113 family | A bird sees blood instead of water. | A certain type of bird cannot drink water from rivers and lakes because instead of water it sees blood, fire, etc. | 7 | 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 |
| M97 | A blind man asks trees, D1313.4. | Blinded or far from the target, the character walks, bumping into trees of various species and asking everyone a question or request. He eventually achieves his goal. | 32 | 43 |
| M38d3 In M38 family | A blurred lump of earth | The character, who is a lump of earth (oatmeal, salt), blurred in the rain or after going to get water. | 8 | 12 |
| M46b In M46 family | A born infant | The character turns into a tiny object or creature, swallowing or touching which a woman (usually a virgin) becomes pregnant and gives birth to a boy. He steals valuables or gets along with a woman. See M46 motif. | 40 | 45 |
| M144B In M144 family | A burnt tiger becomes striped. | The stripes on the tiger's skin appeared after it was burned. | 7 | 9 |
| M1b In M1 family | A caiman/crocodile carries a monkey. | A caiman/crocodile carries a monkey across a river. She manages to jump ashore and runs away from the caiman. | 11 | 13 |
| M165 | A coat for a wolf, ATU 102. | One zoomorphic character promises another to sew a coat (boots), asks him to bring sheep, eats them, and does not sew anything. | 38 | 46 |
| M8 | A destroyed obstacle | Some characters (not humans) are struggling to break a strong barrier that prevents access to the desired location or to a high-value object. See also M8A - M8D motifs; they are included in the M8 motif in the correlation tables. | 42 | 62 |
| M39a2a In M39 family | A fool buys spoons and a table | fool buys spoons and/or a table, tells the table to go on its own feet, throws away spoons because they rattle. The two episodes are usually combined. | 9 | 14 |
| M39a2b In M39 family | A fool salts the river | After buying salt or sugar, a fool pours them into a pond to salt or sweeten the water. | 9 | 11 |
| M39a4d In M39 family | A fool sells property to a lizard | Fool sells property a lizard and believes it will pay him. Trying to get his money, he finds treasure | 4 | 4 |
| M39a4e In M39 family | A fool sells property to a tree | Fool sells property to a tree (stump, pole, a cross in the countryside) and believes that it will pay him. Trying to get his money, he finds treasure | 21 | 24 |
| M39a4g In M39 family | A fool sells property to dogs | Fool sells property to the dogs and believes that they will pay him. Trying to get his money, he finds treasure | 12 | 10 |
| M39a3b In M39 family | A fool takes care of stumps | fool decides that stumps need hats, puts pots on the stumps. | 5 | 8 |
| M39a4 In M39 family | A fool turns to the shadow, (ATU 1681A) | fool takes his own shadow for a character chasing him and gives her his property. | 19 | 25 |
| 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 |
| M198b2 In M198 family | A fortune teller named Grasshopper. | An authoritative character asks a person whose name (or his wife's name) is the name of an insect (most often Grasshopper) to guess what is in his fist (in a box, etc.). The corresponding insect is there. The person says that now he, so-and-so, has been caught, while others think that he has guessed correctly. | 42 | 47 |
| M198b1 In M198 family | A fortune teller named Rak. | An authoritative character asks a man named Cancer to guess what is in a box (under a lid on a plate, etc.). There are crabs or crayfish inside. The man says that now he, Cancer, has been caught, while others think that he has guessed correctly. | 7 | 7 |
| M123b In M123 family | A girl ties her kidnapper to a boat. | The trickster deceives the girl into marrying him and takes her away in a boat. The woman asks to be allowed to go ashore to relieve herself, secretly ties the kidnapper's clothes to the boat and runs away. | 7 | 8 |
| M62d In M62 family | A hare in rotten skin | trickster wears rotten skin, pretends to be another animal, and says that the name (i.e. himself) has caused him to get sick. The animals are frightened, they do not dare to take revenge on the trickster for his tricks. See M62C motif. | 8 | 7 |
| M49 | A hero in someone else's skin | The hero meets a character from the enemy camp and, taking on his form, penetrates enemies. Usually, the hero kills the person he meets and puts on his skin. | 102 | 152 |
| M25 | A holiday in heaven, K1041 | To take part in a festival in heaven or visit a deity, a flightless character manages to climb high into the sky. He usually cannot go down the same way, falls and as a result dies, maims or metamorphoses. | 40 | 64 |
| M175 | A lion carcass behind a hyena. | The hyena sees the carcass of a larger predator behind it, does not realise that it is dead, and runs away in terror. | 5 | 6 |
| M29o1 In M29 family | A monkey is a loser and a loser | As a result of its stupidity or antisocial behavior, the monkey dies or suffers damage. See the motives in square brackets. | 39 | 25 |
| M66a In M66 family | A mountain of excrement | After eating a certain food, the trickster leaves a mountain of excrement that is larger than himself. | 7 | 11 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| M46a In M46 family | A picked up baby | The character turns into a baby, is picked up by the owners of valuables, and then steals valuables or converges with a woman. The baby is not a demonic creature and does not intend to kill those who pick it up (cf. Motive L60). | 42 | 53 |
| M70a In M70 family | A pierced old woman | A character on whom an old woman defecates or whose face blows the winds pierces her from below with a sharp object. See M70 motif. | 10 | 4 |
| 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 |
| M3b In M3 family | A severed rabbit tail | Trying to grab a hare, another animal tears off (bites) its tail. It's been short ever since. | 2 | 5 |
| M171b In M171 family | A shoulder blade without meat. | The character pretends to have brought meat on a shoulder blade and gives it to the hosts to cook. Taking a bare bone without meat out of the pot, he accuses the hosts of stealing the meat. | 16 | 20 |
| M84d In M84 family | A sick tree | A person hears trees talking, one of which is (fatally) ill and suffers. | 6 | 7 |
| M65a In M65 family | A squeaky tree | The trees are creaking in the wind. Hearing a creak, the character climbs a tree and gets stuck. See M65 motif. | 18 | 1 |
| M49a In M49 family | A substituted shaman | hero needs to penetrate unnoticed into the locus of dangerous creatures; he meets an old woman (usually a shaman, a doctor) going there, puts on her skin, and penetrates into dangerous ones in her guise creatures. | 47 | 84 |
| M58 | A trail or bush saves you from the heat | The earth is burning, the fire is chasing the character. A number of elements and objects refuse to cover him, saying they will burn or heat up; the last in the row shelters him. The earth cools down, the character leaves the shelter. | 16 | 25 |
| M29j In M29 family | A trickster is a waterfowl or marsh bird | See the motives in square brackets. | 14 | 9 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| M97B In M97 family | A woman asks the trees | 2 | 2 |
Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.