μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Transformation to receive food.

Magic. · Transformation. · Miscellaneous transformation incidents. · Reasons for voluntary transformation. · view the constellation · filed as D655

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“Then they exchanged arrows, the Sun giving him four arrows of his own. The points of these arrows were made of coal." Now the young man began to climb the mountain. When he came up to the goats, he took one of the arrows, aimed it, and shot. It struck the animals, but fell down without killing it. The same happened with the other arrows. When he had spent all his arrows, they rushed up to him from the four sides, intending to kill him.”

Tales of the North American Indians, Tale 39 · served from our shelf  receiptuncorrected OCR — being verified against the scan

Attested across traditions
Scholars’ trail — 3references

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 300 n. 100, 310 n. 117c.
  • S. Am. Indian (Toba)Métraux MAFLS XL 124f
  • Africa (Hottentot)Bleek 57 No. 25, (Angola): Chatelain 145 No. 15.
Within the index

Filed under Reasons for voluntary transformation.

2 finer motifs beneath it
Transformation to buffalo so as to eat grassWitch transforms self to animal (hare, pig) so as to suck cows
Filed beside it
Transformation to reach difficult placeTransformation to escape difficult situationTransformation so as to rescueTransformation to travel fastTransformation to test heroesTransformation to be picked up (caught)Transformation to seek lost (or unknown) personTransformation to defeat enemies. (Cf. D615.)Transformation to steal. (Cf. K300.)Transformation to seduceMiscellaneous reasons for voluntary transformation
Keeps company with — shares receipted episodes
Sun father-in-lawAnimal bribed with food. (Sop to Cerberus.)Animal as guard of person or houseGuardian animals evadedTransformation: man to featherProtean beggar: Person assumes successive forms in order to begTransformation combat. Fight between contestants who strive to outdo each other in successive transformationsTransformation to reach difficult placeTransformation to escape difficult situationBurning magically evaded. (Cf. D1656.)Resuscitation by arrangement of members. Parts of a dismembered corpse are brought together and resuscitation follows. (Sometimes combined with other methods.)Resuscitated eaten animal. (Cf. E171.) An animal is eaten. When his bones are reassembled he revives

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