The constellation
J2355 Numskull talks about his secret instructions and thus allows himself to be cheated. Told not to serve a man with a red beard or to keep sausage for the long winter, etc
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
beneath it
filed near
- Foolish boasts get man into trouble. Man boasts to boss that his brother can do twice the work he does. The boss hires him. The two brothers tell him their father can do as much work in a day as the boys can do in a week. The boss fires them, tells them to send their father to work for him. (Cf. H915, H916, N455.4.) · J2353.1 entry
- The wife multiplies the secret. To prove that a woman cannot keep a secret the man tells his wife that a crow has flown out of his belly (or that he has laid an egg). She tells her neighbor that two crows have flown. Soon he hears from his neighbors that there were fifty crows · J2353 entry
- His brother cannot pray either. One brother receives the sacrament; the other is refused it because he cannot pray. He replies that his brother cannot pray either and thus deprives him also of the sacrament · J2352.1 entry
- Talkative man betrays his companion. When his faults are pointed out he maintains that he is better than his companion, who is immediately investigated · J2352 entry
- Fool loses magic objects by talking about them · J2355.1 entry
- Boy talks about his secret instructions and brings his father's theft to light. He is to avoid his companions lest they smell what he has been eating · J2355.2 entry
- Fool's talking causes himself and companions to be robbed. Thieves stumble over him as he lies on the ground. "What is this, a log?" The fool: "Does a log have five annas in its pocket?" When they have robbed him he says, "Ask the merchant in the tree if my money is good." They rob the merchant · J2356 entry
- Tortoise speaks and loses his hold on the stick. He is being carried through the air by a bird · J2357 entry