μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Bear fishes through ice with tail: hence lacks tail. (Cf. A2378.2.4.)

Mythological motifs. · Animal characteristics. · Various causes of animal characteristics. · Animal characteristics: change in ancient animal. · view the constellation · filed as A2216.1

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Scholars’ trail — 5references

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.

  • EsthonianAarne FFC XXV 146 No. 42
  • FlemishDeMeyer FFC XXXVII 86 No. 78
  • JapaneseIkeda.
  • general *Type 2
  • general Dh III 49. – Finnish: Aarne FFC VIII 14 No. 78
Within the index

Filed under Animal characteristics: members bitten or cut off.

Filed beside it
Devil pulls off goats' tails: hence lack tails. (Cf. A2378.2.2.)Moon splits hare's lip with hatchet: hence hare-lip. (Cf. A2211.2, A751.5.1, A2342.1.)Bush-rat bites off tortoise's tail: hence tortoise's short tail. (Cf. A2378.4.4.)Hawk's tail cut in two by sword as he is being transformed. Cause of his forked tail. (Cf. A2378.5.2.)God as falcon has tail cut off: hence falcon's short tailFormerly animals have ears like elephant's: hare bites them off
Travels with
How bear lost tail. (Cf. A2216.1.)

wander