μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

The lizard hand. Man's hand is modeled on that of the lizard.

Mythological motifs. · Creation and ordering of human life. · Ordering of human life. · Arrangement of man's bodily attributes. · view the constellation · filed as A1311.1

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“He wanted our hands to be like his, but a lizard said to him: ‘“‘No, they must have my hand.” He had five fingers and Coyote had only a fist. So now we have an open hand with five fingers. But then Coyote said: ‘“‘Well, then they will have to die.”’”

— Tales of the North American Indians, Tale 10 · served from our shelf  receiptuncorrected OCR — being verified against the scan

Attested across traditions
Scholars’ trail — 2references

The index’s own references — the collections where scholars sighted this story-shape, tradition by tradition. Titles on our shelf are live links; the rest is the frontier, not yet shelved.

  • N. Am. Indian*Thompson Tales 288 n. 59
  • Calif. IndianGayton and Newman 56.
Within the index

Filed under Origin of hands and feet.

Filed beside it
Why God changed right hand into left. Man loses hand with which he gives devil a box on earsOrigin of fingernails
Keeps company with — shares receipted episodes
Misplaced genitalia. Originally genitals are misplaced. They are properly arranged by the culture hero

wander