μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Determination of span of life.

Mythological motifs. · Creation and ordering of human life. · Ordering of human life. · Determination of span of life. · view the constellation · filed as A1320

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“Henceforth the winters will be about this length, but they will be variable. I will tell you of the gaxewisa month, when people will meet together and talk. At that time of the year people will ask questions (or propound riddles), and others will answer. If the riddle is answered correctly, then the person who propounded it must answer, “Fool-hen.’’ Raven chose this word because the fool-hen has a shorter beak than any other game- bird.”

Tales of the North American Indians, Tale 11 · served from our shelf  receiptuncorrected OCR — being verified against the scan

Attested across traditions
Scholars’ trail — 1reference

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.

  • general *Köhler-Bolte I 42. N. Am. Indian: *Thompson Tales 288 n. 60b.
Within the index
5 finer motifs beneath it
Men and animals readjust span of life. At first, thirty years are given to all animals and to man. For the animals it is too long, for man too short. Man is given a portion of animals' lives. Years 1–30 vigorous (man's own); 30–48 burdens and blows (ass's); 48–60 no teeth (dog's); 60–70 foolish (monkey's)Determination of relation between birth-rate and death-rateLong span of life for first manShort span of life for first menWhy babies die so easily
Keeps company with — shares receipted episodes
Determination of seasonsTheft of the seasons. Certain seasons are lacking. A culture hero steals the season from a monster and brings it to his people

wander