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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 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| M60b In M60 family | Imaginary doctor: finishing off the victim | The deceiver, promising to cure a wounded or sick person, finishes him off and eats him or offers a remedy that is only worse for him. | 48 | 92 |
| M53d In M53 family | Imaginary enemies | The character pretends to be enemies coming; when people run away in fear, the character takes what the deceived people owned. | 19 | 23 |
| M96 | Imaginary guests | In order not to share with family members, the character pretends to have guests and eats everything himself. | 12 | 12 |
| M91a In M91 family | Imaginary murder (blood bubble) | The character pierces a container of animal blood or other red liquid, simulating murder or suicide. Cf. motifs K10C (wrapped in giblets) and M199H (Giant's ripped belly). | 90 | 117 |
| M60 | Imaginary physician: finished off enemy, K824, K1955 | After injuring a demon (robber), the hero goes to his locus. There he, or (rarely) his assistant, pretends to be a doctor and finishes off an opponent. | 38 | 64 |
| M38a1 In M38 family | Imitates relatives or wives, ATU 552B, J2411.3. | The character imitates the sisters' sons-in-law or husbands, or the wife's brothers (shoshone's) or wives (comox and chalkomel). {ATU combines a motive with another}. | 26 | 36 |
| M157 | Impossible births, (ATU 875E). | The character claims that a man, male animal or object gave birth (or had a period), or that an animal of one species gave birth to a young of another species, or that a woman gave birth to an animal or inanimate object. | 154 | 234 |
| 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 |
| M171c1 In M171 family | In exchange for a bast shoe. | The character has only a bast shoe with him (or he pretends that he had a bast shoe). He asks for a place to stay for the night, and in the morning he claims that he had something more valuable with him. At each new place to stay, he continues to exchange something less valuable for something more valuable. | 12 | 14 |
| M171c In M171 family | In exchange for a thorn, ATU 2034F. | At the request of a character, another character removes a thorn from his body (cuts off the tip of his tail, etc.). The thorn (tip of the tail) disappears, or when it is removed, the character is wounded. As a result, he receives something more valuable than what he has lost. | 20 | 23 |
| M62a In M62 family | Incitement to quarrel (action) | The hero quietly damages each of the two characters; they accuse each other, quarrel, fight. | 73 | 69 |
| M61 | Incitement to quarrel (by words), K1084, ATU 1577 | The character provokes a quarrel by telling each of his opponents how one of them allegedly used hostile or offensive language towards the other. | 53 | 51 |
| 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 |
| M38 | Inept imitation | Person sees how others act using magic or according to their animal nature. He or she imitates their actions and gets into trouble. Actions are not heroic deeds, competitions or tests and refer to everyday activity, mostly to providing and cooking food | 203 | 348 |
| M38a In M38 family | Inept imitation: visiting, Th J2425 | On a visit, the character sees how the owner acts with magic or techniques that suit his nature (in Africa, too, deception). He imitates their actions but fails. Actions are not tests or competitions and are not related to performing feats. This is mainly getting or preparing food. | 150 | 265 |
| M163b In M163 family | Inheritance brings good luck. | A father leaves his son (each of his sons) something of little value as an inheritance. The son goes to a country where such objects or animals are unknown and sells what he has received for a large sum of money. | 23 | 24 |
| M153 | Inscription on a hoof, ATU 47B. | A hoofed animal asks a predator to examine its hoof under various pretexts, and then kills or maims it with a kick. | 98 | 121 |
| M121 | Insects as spies. | A louse or other similar creature (flea, tick, firefly) is sent to follow a certain character. | 7 | 8 |
| 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 |
| M109c In M109 family | Invisibly tied tail. | A character is invisibly tied by the tail and tries to break free (successfully or unsuccessfully). Cf. motif M109. | 6 | 6 |
| M88 | Involved in a dance | The character follows the dancing girls and dies. | 7 | 8 |
| M39e1 In M39 family | Iron eaten and boy kidnapped, ATU 1592, 1592A | A person appropriates property. The owner or his assistant puts the kidnapper in such a position that he is forced to return everything (usually the victim kidnaps the child of the deceiver). {Apparently, all references in Ting 1978 do not refer to Chinese, but to Tibetans; Uther 2004 refers to the Dagestan text in Levin 1978, No. 52, but it is not clear which group we are talking about; there is also a deaf reference to the “Code of Japanese fairy tales - Tsukan”, it needs to be checked}. | 44 | 36 |
| 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 |
| M131 | It's not a tail, it's a root, ATU 5, ThR5. | The character does not show that he has been caught by the tail or by the leg. The other thinks he has grabbed the root and lets go of the first one. (The variant is similar in meaning, although formally different. The American variants are most likely of African origin, but the turtle as a trickster is local, while in African variants the hare acts as the trickster). | 86 | 99 |
| M38d In M38 family | Item characters die one after another, ATU 85, 295 | Two or more characters, which are small objects or small animals, live or travel together and die one by one while committing protozoa actions. | 55 | 61 |
| M188 | Jackal in the dyeing workshop. | The character is honoured after accidentally acquiring an unusual appearance – getting paint on himself or attaching an object to himself that he cannot remove. | 17 | 21 |
| 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 |
| M29w In M29 family | Jaguar (ocelot, puma) is a loser and a loser | As a result of their stupidity or antisocial behavior, a jaguar (puma, ocelot) dies or suffers damage. See the motives in square brackets. The character is named if it is a puma or ocelot; otherwise, a jaguar. | 53 | 38 |
| M6A In M6 family | Journey to the end of the night | 12 | 15 | |
| M127b In M127 family | Jug on a tail, ATU 68A. | A character attaches a vessel or part of a vessel to their body, lowers it into the water, and the vessel pulls them along. | 26 | 29 |
| M39g1 In M39 family | Jump into pants, ATU 1286 | fool does not pull pants or boots over his feet, but jumps in them from above. | 32 | 24 |
| M100b In M100 family | Jumping off a cliff. | One of the characters persuades another to jump from a high cliff or tree, because, allegedly, the other's ancestor did so. The other jumps, crashes or falls into the clutches of the first. | 12 | 15 |
| M24a In M24 family | Kills a woman, captured | turtle man goes to war, kills people (usually a woman). He gets caught or killed. In his animal form, he continues to live on. See M24 motif. | 1 | 1 |
| 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 |
| M193a In M193 family | Kolobok, ATU 2025. | A woman baked a flatbread (pancake, pie, dough figure). It rolled away (ran away). On its way, it encounters various people and/or animals who want to eat it. It rolls away from each of them, but a fox (rarely another animal) eats it. | 28 | 18 |
| M99a1 In M99 family | Leaky beaks of birds | The character is going to pierce all the birds with their beaks (to string them on a rope) or cut them off altogether. | 7 | 11 |
| M91b1 In M91 family | Leather sold, (ATU 1535) | A man is going to sell a pet skin. On the way, he gets big money by deception or by chance. Usually, upon return, a person says that he received money for the skin, after which others slaughter their livestock and try unsuccessfully to sell the skins for money they are not worth. (In India, the hero sometimes supposedly sells not skin, but beef, which is forbidden to brahmanas). | 68 | 85 |
| M29w3 In M29 family | Leo is a loser and a loser | As a result of its stupidity or antisocial behavior, the lion dies or suffers damage. See the motives in square brackets. | 115 | 75 |
| M90a1 In M90 family | Lice skin, H522.I.I,ATU857. | It is required to sew clothes from the skin of lice (fleas) or guess the origin of a large animal, a large skin, the contents of the box; the animal (skin) arose from lice (fleas), in the box - louse. | 72 | 63 |
| M129 | Loss of birthright, K1988. | A parent intends to transfer primogeniture (royalty, other privileges) to a chosen son. Another son or brother comes under the guise of the chosen one and receives primogeniture. | 14 | 16 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| M90a In M90 family | Marry a guesser | The girl will marry the person who guessed her name, or someone who will fit the ring, or someone who says what material a particular object is made of or originated, etc. The deceiver fulfills the condition. | 65 | 65 |
| M52 | Mascara fresheners | The character (by deception) kills an ungulates. He asks another to refresh the carcass, looks for a knife to do it, or a fire to fry the meat. The other freshens the carcass, gives fire or a knife, but takes or tries to take all the meat for himself. | 38 | 44 |
| M134b In M134 family | Measuring the wolf. | When a predator is about to eat a person, the person asks to be measured first and strikes the predator with an (imaginary) measuring instrument. | 16 | 20 |
| M11b In M11 family | Meat extracted from the body. | A woman feeds a man with good-quality meat or fat, which she cuts from her own flesh or extracts from her body, and stops doing so when he learns about the source of the food. | 4 | 6 |
| M39a2d In M39 family | Meat is planted | Fools plant meat, horns, or bones in the hope of raising animals. | 9 | 5 |
| M169 | Medicine from a wolf's skin, ATU 50. | In the presence of an authoritative figure, one of the subordinates plots against another. The latter says that the problem can be solved by maiming the former (usually using a part of his body as medicine). The schemer is killed or maimed. | 54 | 62 |
| 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.