The constellation
J1453 It's better to fight in the shade. Soldier tells captain that the enemy are so numerous that their arrows darken the sun. Captain: "Good, it will be more comfortable fighting in the shade."
A constellation is one motif’s neighborhood in the record — the story-shapes filed around it, the tale types that carry it, and the texts where it is witnessed, every line a receipted link. Click a motif to travel. Click a text to read it. The entry · wander
● motif
● tale type
● on the shelf
● attested
The same sky, in words
filed under
- Repartee – miscellaneous · J1440 entry
filed beside
- God of the earth. Question from the king: "Who are you?" "I am God." "Make my eyes larger." "I am only God of the earth and have power only below the girdle." · J1441 entry
- A cynic's retorts · J1442 entry
- The fools in the city. Man ordered to number the fools in the city replies, "It is easier to number the wise men." · J1443 entry
- They gave it away themselves. A wandering actor rewarded by a city with a coat of their color gambles it away. When upbraided about giving away their present he replies that they hadn't wanted to keep it themselves · J1444 entry
- The forgotten traditions. A man has been told by a seer that there are two ways in which a believer may be distinguished. But he has forgotten one of them and the seer had forgotten the other · J1445 entry
- Aaron's censer. A man strikes a priest with a cane: "This is Moses' staff." The priest shoots with a pistol: "This is Aaron's holy censer." · J1446 entry
- The favored swine. Dog reproaches sow that Venus will not allow those who have eaten swine to enter her temple. Sow says that it is because the goddess abhors those who kill swine · J1447 entry
- The contagious yawns. A husband planning to punish his wife, who has yawned in church at the same time as a man, sees his error when his wife in the woods calls out, "The squirrels hop from bough to bough as the yawns from mouth to mouth." · J1448 entry
- Who gets the beehive. Badger: "I was a hundred years old when grama grass first grew." Crane: "My daughter was a hundred years old when grama grass first grew." Wolf: "I am only eight years old, but we shall see who gets the beehive." · J1451 entry
- Why he was thin. Philosopher explains that with his own blood he was nourishing as large a population as that of the Roman Emperor (lice) · J1452 entry