μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Tortoise hurled on rock: half falls on land, half in water. Therefore amphibious.

Mythological motifs. · Animal characteristics. · Various causes of animal characteristics. · Animal characteristics: change in ancient animal. · view the constellation · filed as A2214.5

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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 African (Nigeria): Herskovits JAFL XLIV 448ff.
Within the index

Filed under Animal characteristics from dropping ancient animal from air.

1 finer motif beneath it
Tortoise dropped by eagle: hence cracks in his shell. (Cf. A2312.1.1.)
Filed beside it
Swallow thrown on his tail: cause of split tail. (Cf. A2378.5.1.)Ant thrown from heaven: hence narrow waist. God decides dispute between ant and spider in spider's favor. (Cf. A2355.1.2.)Unicorn thrown from ark and drowned: hence no longer existsCrab thrown to ground: breaks into small pieces. Hence crabs are smallBat falls from high perch due to extreme heat of sun's rays, breaks bones, etc. Hence peculiar feet and nose

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