The constellation
J2373 The tailless and earless ass. Just lain down to sleep, a man is awakened by a neighbor announcing that his she-ass has borne a young one without ears or tail. The man lies awake all night wondering how the ass will keep the harness on
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
- Inquisitive fool · J2370 entry
filed beside
- Children ask parents too difficult questions. Get no answers · J2370.1 entry
- Absurd scientific speculations · J2371 entry
- The judge wants to know how the theft was committed. The witness tells. The judge: "You are wonderful; I have tried it thirty times and succeeded only once." · J2372 entry
- How the first man killed himself. The second fool imitates the first who leaps from a palm tree by means of a looped rope. The first kills himself. The second wants to see just how it happened and kills himself too · J2374 entry
- Curiosity satisfied: riding the ox's horns. As his ox, who has enormous horns, is asleep, the fool gets on the horns. The ox wakes and throws him off. When he comes to his senses, the fool says, "I had a hard time, but my curiosity is satisfied." · J2375 entry
- Testing the evidence by experiment: biting the ear off. The accused pleads that the plaintiff bit his own ear off. The judge takes time for consideration, tries to bite his own ear, but falls down and breaks his head · J2376 entry
- The philosophical watchman. A master sets his servant to keep watch over his horse at night. He soon asks the servant if he is asleep. "No, I was thinking of who created so many stars in the sky." The second time the servant answers, "No, I was thinking of who dug the sea. Where did he put the soil?" The third time: "I was wondering who would carry the saddle now that the horse is stolen." · J2377 entry
- What will the robber do? A man curious as to what a robber is going to do waits to intervene and goes back to sleep · J2378 entry
- Question: did the man ever have a head? A man's head is snatched off by accident and his companions do not see what has happened. Debate: did he ever have a head? · J2381 entry
- How did the cow get on the pole? A fool hides his purse on a pole on a cliff. A rascal substitutes cow-dung for the money. The fool is interested only in how the cow could have reached the purse · J2382 entry