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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.

All motif categories

Showing 751–800 of 3,494 · Page 16 of 70

Ref ▲	Title	Summary	Traditions	Narratives
F23	Cause of menstruation: sexual intercourse.	Blood spilled during sexual intercourse or artificial defloration at the time of creation is the reason why menstruation occurs to this day.	23	27
F24	Cause of menstruation: bite.	Women lose blood when they are bitten by fish, snakes, etc.	10	11
F25	The reason for menstruation: someone else's blood.	Women have been stained with someone else's or their own blood, or with blood-like paint, ever since women began menstruating.	28	38
F26	Cause of menstruation: loss of sacred objects.	The transfer of sacred musical instruments (horns, trumpets) from women to men is associated with the onset of menstruation in women.	6	10
F27	Girls and water spirits.	It is dangerous for girls or women to approach water (water creatures drag them away or swallow them; a girl who approaches water dies; she becomes pregnant by a snake; through her fault, a flood or other disaster occurs; water spirits themselves come to a girl who has her first period).	49	86
F28	Monstrous penis.	There is a separate penis character with whom the first women, Amazons, or simply some woman copulate.	18	25
F28a In F28 family	A monstrous penis grows out of the ground.	A penis grows out of the ground or out of the water in a lake. Women summon it as needed.	13	21
F28a1 In F28 family	Jumping penis.	The living penis is a dangerous creature that attacks people.	10	11
F28a2 In F28 family	Penises grow in the field.	The owner of the field, either intentionally or having misheard the question, replies that he grows penises. After that, penises grow in the field instead of crops.	5	5
F28a3 In F28 family	Pleasant for girls, dangerous for others.	A girl (woman) possesses an object that is pleasant (useful). Once in the hands of others, it becomes harmful (dangerous).	14	14
F28a4 In F28 family	Penises on plants.	The fruits or stems of plants are penises.	7	7
F28A5 In F28 family	The penis and vulva as separate beings.	The penis and vulva (in the singular or plural) are separate beings and characters.	8	6
F28b In F28 family	Penis made of wax.	A woman uses a penis made of wax, wood, fruit or root. Usually her husband or male relative smears it with pepper, and the woman is maimed or killed.	14	18
F28c In F28 family	Bear penis in the hands of an old woman.	A woman masturbates with the penis of a large animal that one of the men killed while hunting.	14	18
F28d In F28 family	Children are born from a wooden penis.	By masturbating with an artificial penis, a woman conceives children.	17	18
F29	A girl sits on the ground.	A girl (woman) sits on the ground and copulates with a snake, worm or eel that crawls out of the ground towards her. This usually happens when she is busy with housework (cooking, weaving, etc.).	24	39
F29a In F29 family	The worm is scalded with boiling water.	To kill a woman's lover, who has the appearance of a worm or snake and crawls into her vagina from under the ground, boiling water, resin or hot coals are poured on him.	12	17
F30	The snake lover.	A girl or woman takes a snake, eel, moray eel, lizard or worm as a lover or spouse. People kill or maim the lover, the woman and/or their offspring, or she herself turns into a snake. Cf. motif K76B (the snake-husband becomes and remains a handsome man). See motif F29.	139	246
F30a In F30 family	Child-worm.	A woman nurses a worm (caterpillar, reptile, fish) instead of a child; people kill the monster.	18	27
F31	Snake egg.	A girl or woman becomes pregnant, without knowing it, by a reptile when she unknowingly touches a dead reptile or when a liquid that has leaked from the reptile gets inside her (usually when the contents of a snake egg accidentally flow between her legs).	15	19
F32	The snake son gathers fruit.	Small children or a single infant, who temporarily transform into adult men and/or emerge from their mother's womb, or a snake living in a woman's womb, climb a tree and help her gather fruit, bark, tree mushrooms, etc.; or a father discovers his daughter's connection with a snake when he climbs a tree to gather fruit for her.	31	46
F33	Connection with a water creature.	A woman or group of women take a water animal or water monster as their lover. The husband(s), brother(s) or (adopted) children of the woman(s) kill or maim the lover and (in some cases) the woman(s).	68	102
F34	Connection with terrestrial quadrupeds.	A woman takes a large land animal as her lover. Her husband, brother or (adopted) children kill or maim the lover and (sometimes) the woman herself. Sometimes there is mention of a group of women and their husbands. (Unlike motif K102, "The Demon's Mistress," the lover is not dangerous to the hero and plays a passive role, and the woman, if she becomes hostile and dangerous, does so only after the lover's death. Unlike motif K76, the woman and her husband/lover of non-human nature are clearly evaluated negatively).	90	143
F34a In F34 family	The common husband of the first women.	All women of the community of the first ancestors or all Amazons have a common lover of non-human nature or simultaneously mate with animals of a certain species, summoning them with a conventional signal.	18	33
F34b In F34 family	Lover of non-human nature.	A girl, woman or group of women voluntarily take as their lover a penis that exists as a special creature, snake, moray eel, lizard, worm, crab, large aquatic animal or aquatic monster, or large terrestrial mammal. People kill or maim the lover, the woman and/or her offspring, or she herself loses her human nature. The woman's behaviour is condemned.	156	315
F35	Feeding meat from a lover.	A character offers another person the meat of his sexual partner, and the other person, unaware, eats or cooks it.	99	139
F35a In F35 family	Feeding meat from a relative.	The character, unaware of this, eats or prepares meat (slowly kills) a member of his household (a relative, rarely a servant or spouse) or feeds it to his acquaintances, or uses its bones for household needs.	182	295
F36	Children against the lover.	(Adopted) children of a woman or man kill the lover (or spouse of non-human nature) of their father or (adoptive) mother.	41	35
F37	Calabash on the water.	To summon her lover, the character taps on a calabash placed on the water.	14	22
F38	Women and secret knowledge.	Women were the keepers of secret knowledge, shrines, or ritual objects that are now forbidden to them; they attempted to regain this knowledge or these objects.	65	135
F39	Women's time.	In the past or in distant lands, women dominated men, were the active party in marital relations, and engaged in male activities. Men engaged in female activities. Later, the situation changed. Either women missed the opportunity to gain superiority. See motif F38.	57	61
F40a In F40 family	The common husband of the first women.	A male character, androgynous, with a monstrous penis, single-handedly possesses all women, rules over them or leads away the first women.	40	54
F40b In F40 family	A man in a village of women.	A single man finds himself in a village of women. Usually, he is forced to satisfy a woman against his will, or each woman demands to have sex with him.	62	78
F40c In F40 family	The patriarch kills the boys.	An authoritative man systematically kills the boys born to his wives or his sister.	16	23
F41	Husbands kill wives.	Ancestral men kill women who behave contrary to social norms.	14	24
F42	Men leave.	Feeling wronged, men leave their wives or sisters.	20	32
F42a In F42 family	Men turn into birds.	In the community of the first ancestors, young men or boys turn into birds or bats and fly away.	9	21
F43	Disappearance of women.	The women of the community of the first ancestors kill or abandon the men.	28	46
F43a In F43 family	Women kill men.	In the community of the first ancestors, women kill, attempt to kill, or transform men.	19	28
F43b In F43 family	Women hide underground.	Leaving the men, the women of the community of the first ancestors hide in a hole underground.	5	11
F43c In F43 family	Husbands of women - animals.	The husbands of the first women, Amazons or single women are small animals - usually flying foxes.	8	12
F44	Quarrel between men and women.	In the community of the first ancestors, women and men quarrel, leave, kill, maim each other, etc.	46	73
F45	Amazons.	There are or were settlements where only women lived or live (cf. motifs F8, F45C).	156	256
F45a In F45 family	Intentional conception by the wind.	A woman or female animal conceives by deliberately exposing her genitals to the wind.	19	41
F45a1 In F45 family	Accidental conception by the wind.	A woman, against her will, conceives from the wind.	7	9
F45b In F45 family	Conception by the sun.	A woman gives birth to a son conceived by (the rays or light of) the sun.	27	30
F45C In F45 family	Men without wives.	There were men who lived separately from women. See also motif F8.	3	4
F46	One for all.	At the beginning of time, two or more men (human-animals) had only one woman.	23	30
F46a In F46 family	Woman in a tree.	Men (human-animals) discover a woman at the top of a tree and copulate with her there.	10	14
F47	People made of pieces of flesh.	Pieces of a creature cut into many parts or a lump of living flesh are scattered or dispersed. After that, people emerge from them. Cf. motifs E38A and K98.	22	54

Showing 751–800 of 3,494 · Page 16 of 70

Tradition and narrative counts are the stored catalogue totals for each entry.