μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Tabu: offending supernatural wife. Upon slight offence the wife leaves for her old home.

Tabu. · Tabu connected with supernatural beings. · Tabu: offending supernatural relative. · view the constellation · filed as C31

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“Immediately the herd rushed upon the man and trampled him into the dust. Then they all ran away except the calf-boy, his mother, and an old bull. These three mourned together for the fate of the unfortunate man. After a time the old bull requested that they examine the ground to see if they could find a piece of bone. After long and careful search they succeeded in finding one small piece that had not been trampled by the buffalo.”

Tales of the North American Indians, Tale 57 · served from our shelf  receiptuncorrected OCR — being verified against the scan

Attested across traditions
Scholars’ trail — 8references

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.

  • Irish mythCross
  • EnglishChild I 21, 485a, II 496b, 509a, IV 440b
  • India*Thompson-Balys
  • JapaneseIkeda
  • N. Am. Indian*Thompson Tales 340 n. 223a
  • Eskimo (Cumberland Sound)Boas VAM XV 180
  • MaoriDixon 58, 72.
  • general *Hoffman-Krayer Zs. f. Vksk. XXV 120 n. 4
Within the index

Filed under Tabu: offending supernatural relative.

12 finer motifs beneath it
Tabu: looking at supernatural wifeTabu: mentioning origin of supernatural wife. (Cf. C33.1, C35.1.)Tabu: disobeying supernatural wifeTabu: blaming supernatural wifeTabu: boasting of supernatural wifeTabu: calling on supernatural wifeTabu: lousing supernatural wifeTabu: striking supernatural wifeTabu: revealing secrets of supernatural wife. (Cf. C420)Tabu: giving garment back to supernatural (divine) wifeTabu: reproaching supernatural wife about her sistersUnfaithful husband loses magic wife
Filed beside it
Tabu: offending supernatural husband. (Cf. C36.)Offending supernatural childTabu: offending animal wifeTabu: offending animal husband. (Cf. C32)Tabu: offending other animal relatives
Travels with
Immediate return to other world because of broken tabu. (Cf. C31, C31.4, C327.)
Keeps company with — shares receipted episodes
Tabu: offending animal wifeResuscitation by sweatingRecognition of transformed person among identical companions. Prearranged signals

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