m118a

Motif

Name_eng:

Forty thieves and jars with oil

Description:

Chief of thieves (demonic person) brings his men (other demons) into some people’s yard hiding them in empty jars, casks, etc. The plan to kill members of the household at night. A girl (a young woman; rare: somebody else from the family) gets to know about the danger and kills the thieves one by one (usually pouring boiling water into the jars)

Name_rus:

Сорок разбойников и кувшины с маслом

Description_rus:

Атаман (демон) привозит во двор чужого дома разбойников (других демонов), спрятав их в пустых кувшинах, бочках и т.п. Ночью они должны напасть на хозяев. Девушка или молодая женщина (реже сам хозяин) узнает об опасности и губит разбойников (обычно налив кипяток в каждый кувшин или бочку)

Motif type:

Adventures and tricks

Motif group:

10 Adventures

Motif analysis result:

1. Only those Old World motifs that are not found in America besides among the Aleuts, Eskimo and Northern Athabaskans.

Motif analysis result tradition count all:

ATU ID:

954(2)

Linked traditions:

Areal ID	Tradition
1.3.1.2	Tiv, Bamum (Bamun), Mungaka (Mgaka, Bali), Beba, Anaguta, Bete (Mbete, Karang), Ekoi, Nyang, Vute (Wute), Jukun, Chamba, Bamileke, Kwotto, Kirri; Denya (Nyang)
3.1.2.1	Arabs of Egypt
3.1.3.2	Kabylia and other Berber of Northern and Central Algeria: Beni Snous, Beni Menacer (incl Zuav), Shaui, etc.)
3.1.3.3	Berbers of Morocco and adjacent parts of Algeria
3.1.3.6	Algeria Arabs
3.1.3.7	Tunisia Arabs
3.3.1.1	Spain
3.3.1.2	Portuguese
3.3.1.3	Catalan
3.3.1.4	Aragon
3.3.1.5	Basques
3.3.2.1	Italians: Northwest (Mentona, Ticino, Valle-d’Aosta, Piemont, Liguria, Lombardia, Emilia–Romagna)
3.3.2.2	Sicily
3.3.2.3	Sardinia, Corsica
3.3.2.5	Maltese
3.3.2.6	Italians: Central (Toscana, Umbria, Marche, San-Marino, Lazio)
3.3.2.7	Italians: Southern (Abruzzo, Campania, Molise, Basilicata, Apulia, Calabria)
3.3.2.8	Italians: Northeast (Trentino – Alto Adige, Veneto, Venezia Giulia, Southern Tirol, Friuli, Istria)
3.3.3.2	French (northern France)
3.3.3.3	Wallons, Picardie
3.3.4.1	Ireland
3.3.5.1	Dutch, Flemish
3.3.5.2	Frisians
3.3.5.3	Germans: Northwest (Low- and Central German dialects): Schleswig-Holstein, Niedersachsen (Lower Saxony, incl. East Frisia and Oldenburg), Nordrhein-Westfalen, Hessen, Rheinland-Pfalz, Thüringen, Saxony-Anhalt, Sachsen
3.3.5.6	Germans – Southwest: Alsace (Elsass), Baden-Württemberg, Swabia, Switzerland
3.5.1.1	Greeks (modern)
3.5.1.2	Bulgarians
3.5.1.3	Macedonians
3.5.2.1	Albanians
3.5.2.2	Serbs, Monte Negro,
3.5.2.3	Bosnia Muslims
3.5.2.4	Croatians; Italians of Dalmatia (if the motif is absent among other Italians)
3.5.3.1	Hungarians
4.1.1.1	Poles
4.1.1.4	Czech
4.1.1.5	Slovakians
4.1.2.1	Ukrainians: Western dialects to the East of Carpathians
4.1.2.2	Ukrainians: Eastern dialects
4.1.2.5	Byelarusians
4.1.3.1	Russians: Central part of Russian ethnic territory as in A.D. 1500: Tver, Yaroslavl, Moscow, Kostroma, Vladimir, Ivanovo, Nizhny Novgorod, Ryazan, Tula, Kaluga, eastern part of Smolensk provinces (most of Smolensk province is Belorussian ethnic territory)
4.1.3.2	Russian Pomors (“seasiders): Arkhangelsk province without its southern part (Shengur district and Konosha dstrict), Karelia White Sea coast
4.1.3.3	Russians: Vologda province (incl. Belozersk, Kirillov and Cherepovets districts of form. Novgorod Province)
4.1.3.8	Russians: Olonets province/SE Karelia, southern part of Arkhangelsk province (Shenkur, Kargopol, Konosha districts)
4.2.1.2	Norwegians
4.2.1.3	Danes
4.2.1.4	Swedes
4.2.1.6	Faroe Islands
4.2.3.1	Finns
4.2.4.2	Estonians
4.2.4.4	Livonians
4.2.5.1	Latvians
4.2.5.2	Lithuanians
4.3.1.1	Komi (Zyrians and Permyaks)
4.3.2.1	Mari (Cheremis)
4.3.2.2	Mordvins
5.2.2.3	Anatolia Turks
5.3.2.2	Arabs of Levant (Syria, Palestine, Lebanon, Jordan); Bedouins of Sinai
5.3.2.3	Arabs of Iraq
5.3.2.5	Arabs (literary tradition; incl. One Thousand and One Nights)
5.3.2.5	Arabs (literary tradition; incl. One Thousand and One Nights)
5.3.2.6	Arabs of Kuwait, Bahrein, Qatar, Emirates, Oman,
5.4.2.7	Bukhara Arabs
5.4.4.2	Dards (Kalash, Kho, Kohistani, Shina, Pashai)