Soqotri



Tradition title rus: 
Сокотра
Areal ID: 
5.3.3.3
Tradition analysis result motif count all: 
65.00
Tradition analysis result motif count cosmo: 
14.00
Motifs: 

Motif

a4


Name_eng: 
Female sun
Description: 

The Sun is female, the Moon is male or (more rare) also female




Motif

b94


Name_eng: 
Talking trees
Description: 

Trees (and animals) could talk and asked people not to cut or kill them




Motif

e9


Name_eng: 
The mysterious housekeeper
Description: 

Person observes traces of some activity that takes place in his (rare: her) house in his (her) absence and then takes by surprise the responsible one




Motif

f16


Name_eng: 
Men and women: exchange of anatomical characteristics
Description: 

Initially men possessed women's biological traits and vice versa (beard, menses, breasts, bearing children)




Motif

f28a1


Name_eng: 
Jumping penis
Description: 

Alive penis exists as a separate being able to move and attack people




Motif

f70


Name_eng: 
Potiphar's wife: false accusation of sexual abuse
Description: 

Woman makes vain overtures to young man and/or falsely accuses him of sexual abuse. Her husband believes that the young man is guilty, kills or tries to kill him




Motif

f70a


Name_eng: 
Disordered clothes as evidence against innocent man
Description: 

To accuse a man or boy of (sexual) abbuse, a woman tears her clothes, smears or scratches her body pretending to be attacked




Motif

f70b


Name_eng: 
Revenge of a rejected woman
Description: 

A woman revenges on a man who rejected her love but necessary not pretends to be an object of sexual harassment from his part




Motif

f70c


Name_eng: 
The castrated youth becomes a man again
Description: 

A young man is castrated but his member is restored by magic (and he marries happily)




Motif

f70d


Name_eng: 
A disgraced informer
Description: 

A castrate or girl pretends to be a man or a cripple girl conceles her injury or a man pretends to be a girl. Some person gets to know about it and plans to expose the deception. At the last moment the hero or heroine magically becomes a real man (or girl; gets back the lost members) and the informer is disgraced




Motif

h7


Name_eng: 
The personified Death
Description: 

Death (also Old Age, Disease, etc.) is a particular person not identical with the Master of the Dead. He kills people usually carrying away their souls




Motif

k27f


Name_eng: 
The task: to get a woman
Description: 

A task-giver asks the hero to get for him a particular woman




Motif

k27n


Name_eng: 
Difficult tasks of the in-laws
Description: 

A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage




Motif

k27nn


Name_eng: 
Envious minister
Description: 

Not the powerful person himself but his official or adviser tries to get rid of the hero and suggests that the person should give the hero difficult tasks




Motif

k29a


Name_eng: 
Surviving in a fire
Description: 

Hero demonstrates his supernatural abilities remaining alive in a burning hot chamber, stove, bonfire, among burning vegetation




Motif

k32


Name_eng: 
The false wife
Description: 

An ugly, old, lazy, etc. woman or (in Chaco) a male trickster comes to man under disguise of his wife or bride who is driven out, confined to the underworld, killed, etc.




Motif

k33


Name_eng: 
Drowned woman remains alive
Description: 

A young woman is transformed into an animal, pushed into the water, into the underworld or she herself has to plunge into water (acquire animal form). Her connection with the human world is not completely lost, however, and usually she is helped to return to the people




Motif

k33a


Name_eng: 
Younger brother transformed into animal
Description: 

Siblings (most often younger brother and elder sister) leave their home. One of them (most often the brother, most rare several brothers) turn into animal (usually an ungulate) or (rare) a bird but (in the most cases) ultimately acquires his or her human form again




Motif

k57


Name_eng: 
Cinderella
Description: 

A girl who conceals her beauty and/or is poor and oppressed by her stepmother puts on a splendid attire and comes incognito to a feast where a man of high status falls in love with her. He marries her after identifying her by an object given to her or lost by her or (rare) seeing how she changes her clothes




Motif

k75a


Name_eng: 
Thrown apple hits the chosen one
Description: 

Boy or girl selects one person among many throwing an object (usually an apple) into him or her. This way a girl makes a choice of a husband, a young man of a bride, a boy identifies his father




Motif

k80c


Name_eng: 
The cranes of Ibycus
Description: 

Person becomes a victim of a murder. Just before dying he or she calls on some birds (celestial bodies, animals, plants, etc.) to bear witness for the crime. Getting to see these birds (this plant, the Sun, the Moon, etc.) the murderer reveals himself without thinking. Or the birds, being the only witnesses, bring the investigators to the murderers.




Motif

k84


Name_eng: 
Sisters married to animals
Description: 

Young man gives his sisters to the first bridegrooms who claim them. These are demons or animals who usually later help him




Motif

k100


Name_eng: 
A faithful servant
Description: 

A man gets to know about dangers that threaten another man (and often about turning into stone of anybody who would warn about these dangers). He helps the man to escape the dangers though his behavior seems strange or hostile




Motif

l9a


Name_eng: 
Sharp leg
Description: 

Person's leg is injured intentionally or by chance. The loss of one leg does not bother him. He uses the sharpened bone as a thrust weapon




Motif

l37b


Name_eng: 
Secrets accidentally overheard
Description: 

Person accidentally overhears secrets of animals or demons and thus gets to know the causes of his and other people's misfortunes




Motif

l85


Name_eng: 
One-sided people
Description: 

One-sided people have one leg and/or also one arm, one half of a head, etc. The second leg is not cut or burned off, preserved as a stump but is absent completely




Motif

m90


Name_eng: 
Snake gives a correct answer of what material the object is made
Description: 

Somebody suggests to guess what sort of material a certain object is made of. Another person (usually a monster) gets to know the secret and the hero or the heroin must do what they have promised




Motif

m160


Name_eng: 
Unkind words are more painful than wound
Description: 

A strong predator animal and a man become friends. The animal hears how the man or his wife complains about him (e.g. criticizes the bad smell of his mouth) and asks the man to strike him with an axe, knife and the like. Later he comes to demonstrate his healed wound and explains that the physical wound can be healed unlike the psychological one. Or the animal dies because of his wounded feelings as soon as he understands that the man betrayed him




Motif

k33a1


Name_eng: 
Children born in a well
Description: 

A woman is thrown into a well (pond, hole, etc.) or transformed into a water bird. Being in water, she gives birth to a son (children) or she had been thrown together with her baby. Ultimately she and her children are saved




Motif

m90b


Name_eng: 
The sunrise in the West
Description: 

Person was wrong being sure that the Sun cannot rise from the West




Motif

k33a1


Name_eng: 
Children born in a well
Description: 

A woman is thrown into a well (pond, hole, etc.) or transformed into a water bird. Being in water, she gives birth to a son (children) or she had been thrown together with her baby. Ultimately she and her children are saved




Motif

l85e


Name_eng: 
One-leg people
Description: 

Person has only one leg (and one arm) but has no problems with moving. Unlike motif L85 (one-sided people), the person’s body is complete




Motif

h7c


Name_eng: 
The unfinished prayer
Description: 

Death promises to take a man after he has finished a prayer. The man begins to pray but does not finish his prayer and the Death cannot take him




Motif

j28b


Name_eng: 
A hot scone
Description: 

A youth gets to know that a woman (usually his mother) conceals from him important information about his father, brothers or bride. He causes her pain (usually putting hot scone, handful of hot grain, etc. into her hand) making her tell him the truth




Motif

k143


Name_eng: 
Hero is a fowler
Description: 

Protagonist of the story is a bird-catcher (bird-hunter) or a son of a bird-catcher (bird-hunter)




Motif

k27hh


Name_eng: 
To sort grain
Description: 

A task: to sort a large amount or small particles of different kind (usually seeds of different plants) mixed in container or to count such particles or to pick up the spilled grains




Motif

f9


Name_eng: 
A dangerous woman
Description: 

For different reasons, sexual contact with a woman is deadly dangerous for a man




Motif

f9f


Name_eng: 
Asmodeus
Description: 

Demon (snake) regularly kills woman’s husbands during the first night, the woman herself being ignorant about the reason of their death




Motif

l100c


Name_eng: 
Duped visitors of a chaste woman
Description: 

When a man comes to a beautiful woman she tricks him by asking to finish some trivial task, keeping him by her magic in an awkward or ridiculous position until daylight. Episode is repeated next nights with other or (rare) the same suitor. Usually the first suitor being ashamed tells the other that everything was nice, so all of them are humiliated the same way




Motif

m197


Name_eng: 
The effectiveness of fire
Description: 

Seriously or demonstrating absurdity of the situation, a person tries to cook something using a fire (a source of light) that is far away from the object to be cooked




Motif

k136a


Name_eng: 
Girl’s hair picked up from a river
Description: 

A man finds the woman’s hair that was carried by water and decides to marry its owner




Motif

k33h


Name_eng: 
The cat, the dog and the magic object
Description: 

A man obtains an object that fulfills his wishes. The object is stolen but brought back by the animals (which had been saved by the man before)




Motif

k144


Name_eng: 
The predestined death because of an animal
Description: 

A certain animal or (rare) man is predicted to become a cause of death of a certain person. When this animal (man) is already dead himself or itself or is faraway, its (his) remains or image becomes the cause of the person’s death




Motif

k27 (motif is not in the correlation table)


Name_eng: 
Competitions and difficult tasks
Description: 

Person is suggested to fulfill tasks that are mortally dangerous or cannot be fulfilled without supernatural helpers or capacities. The person fulfills the tasks and remains alive. A contest between persons has form of a competition or game in which the loser is deprived of his status or life




Motif

k102a


Name_eng: 
Father was right
Description: 

A person gives order to kill the young man’s sister (mother, wife). The young man saves her but later regrets about it




Motif

l100d


Name_eng: 
The entrapped suitors
Description: 

A pretty, faithful wife is courted by one or several men, one of them usually a clergyman. With her husband’s consent, she invites the suitor(s) to a private rendezvous. Before the first man’s wishes are gratified, the next one arrives and then the husband himself. The suitor or suitors are caught in an uncomfortable position and then killed, punished in some other manner, ridiculed, made to pay ransom, to work, etc.




Motif

a6


Name_eng: 
The Sun and the Moon are females
Description: 

Both the Sun and the Moon are considered to be females (incl. cases when the gender is not directly specified but both emerge from parts of the body of a female person)




Motif

m198


Name_eng: 
Wise brothers (the king is bastard)
Description: 

When three brothers (rare: a person) are Invited to khan (judge, king, etc.) and served delicious food, they claim that the food and drink have a taste (smell) of a corpse, dog, goat etc. and/or their host is of a low descent or a bastard. Investigation confirms that their deduction was correct




Motif

k67b


Name_eng: 
Bargain not to become angry
Description: 

Person of a low social position (a man) makes an agreement with a person of high social position (an ogre) that the master must never become angry with the servant. The servant abuses the master until the latter erupts in anger and has to be severely punished or to pay a great fee




Motif

m90a2


Name_eng: 
From what did the plant grow?
Description: 

It should be guessed that the plant grew from a part of the body of a man or a snake or from dirt scraped off from the body




Motif

k67c


Name_eng: 
Skin ribbon ripped off from the back
Description: 

Person agrees that under certain conditions another may rip off some skin from his back or cut off his ears, nose, etc.




Motif

k27z2b


Name_eng: 
The killed doll
Description: 

Complicated relations between a poor girl and a prince lead to his attempt to kill his bride in the nuptial night. The girl puts a doll in her bed, the prince pierces it with a sword and takes the sweet juice (honey, sugar) with which the doll was filled for the blood. He repents his deed but the real girl appears and the couple is happy




Motif

k100g


Name_eng: 
The son must be sacrificed
Description: 

To revive or to cure his friend (rare: himself) or to fulfill a vow person is ready to sacrifice his small (young) son (children). The son revives or the supernatural powers are satisfied with the very willingness of the person to commit sacrifice




Motif

k116


Name_eng: 
Choice of companion
Description: 

To choose a companion, the youth suggests each of the candidates to make something simple (to eat the served food, to set off). The chosen one demonstrates that he cares for the hero while others keep in mind only their own interests




Motif

m198a


Name_eng: 
Wise brothers (the strayed camel)
Description: 

Three or four brothers (rare: one man) see the track of a domestic animal and are able to deduce how it looked like (lame, had no tale, carried oil and honey, etc.) or they deduce how the man who had stolen the animal looks like




Motif

k27z4a


Name_eng: 
A cripple claims his leg back
Description: 

A cripple tells that he lost his leg (eye) because of his visitor’s father. The visitor’s wife (or he himself after receiving a good advice) asks the cripple to give him another leg (eye) for comparison or brings him a leg of a dead person claiming money for it




Motif

k80c4


Name_eng: 
Mute witnesses of the crime
Description: 

In a deserted place, a man kills another. After some time he is exposed thanks to circumstances and facts that do not seem important and do not report on the crime directly (the victim’s last words; objects or live beings that were or appeared on the place of the murder). (All texts that contain motifs K80c, K80c1, K80c3, K80c4, also contain a more general motif K80c4)




Motif

f28a2


Name_eng: 
A field of penises
Description: 

The owner of a field answers (intentionally or because he does not hear well) that he is cultivating penises. After this penises grow on his field instead of plants




Motif

k179


Name_eng: 
Bride purchased for her weight in gold
Description: 

An object (usually the bride) purchased for the sum of money equivalent (or bigger) than its weight in gold (silver) or a heap of valuables as high as the corresponding person




Motif

l40c


Name_eng: 
Pays for the bridle and claims the camel
Description: 

Thanks to ambiguity of the saying, person pays for a cheap object but claims the much more valuable




Motif

f62


Name_eng: 
Incognito at the feast
Description: 

An (ostensibly) sick (ugly, weak, poorly clad) person remains at home when others go to the feast. The person comes by himself or herself looking like a handsome man or beautiful girl. The man (woman) does not recognize him (her) and feels against her (him) sexual interestю (All texts with motif k57, Chinderella, are also included into f62)




Motif

l9


Name_eng: 
Sharp body members
Description: 

Body members of a person has the form of cutting or piercing weapon




Motif

f28a3


Name_eng: 
Nice for the girl, dangerous for the people
Description: 

An object possessed by a girl (woman) is nice (useful) for her but getting to somebody’s hands it becomes harmful (dangerous)




Motif

b125


Name_eng: 
Animals exchange their organs
Description: 

During the time of creation particular species of animals (rare: plants) exchanged certain organs or traits or one animal borrowed an organ from another one but never brought it back. Thence the characteristics of these animals now. In rare cases the back exchange and restoring of the initial situation or the passing of certain organ from one animal to another without compensation are described




Motif

f28a4


Name_eng: 
Plants (fruits) as penises
Description: 

Penises are fruits or shoots of plants





Similar traditions based on Cosmology and Etiology motifs:
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 5 Tradition: Mongols (Khalkha)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 5 Tradition:
Karelians
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 5 Tradition:
Lithuanians
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 5 Tradition:
Kazakh
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition:
Five Nations Iroquois (Seneca, Mohawk, Onondaga, Oneida, Cayuga)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition:
Lower Chehalis, Upper Chehalis, (Lower) Cowlitz
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition:
Xipaya (Shipaya)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition:
French (northern France)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition:
Western Sami
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition:
Paresi

Similar traditions based on Adventures and Tricks motifs:
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 4 Tradition:
Georgians
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition:
Greeks (modern)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition:
Bhuiya (now Aryans, originally Munda; Rahman 1955: 203), Baiga, Bhaina, Bhumia (subgroup of Baiga, incl Bharia, formerly Munda, now speak Indo-Aryan languages of neighboring groups)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition:
Albanians
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition:
Armenians
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition:
Nogai
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition:
Biu-Mandara: Margi, Kilba, Bura, Kera, Karekare (Kerri-Kerri), Bachama, Zulgo, Giziga, Hdi, Kapsiki, Mandara (incl Mukulehe, Matakam), Mofu (Mofu-Gudur), Somrai (Sibine, Shibha)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition:
Karachays, Balkar
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition:
Nilgiri Hills: Toda, Kota, Kurumba (Kuruba), Badaga, Maravar, Pulaya, Adiya, Kadar, Irula
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 2 Tradition:
Sicily