μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Transformation flight. Fugitives transforms themselves in order to escape detection by the pursuer.

Magic. · Transformation. · Miscellaneous transformation incidents. · Magic flight. · view the constellation · filed as D671

ask the rhapsode about this motif →

“Then he rolled over and pretended to go to sleep again but looked out through his eyelashes. By and by he saw a very small but handsome girl coming along. Her skin clothes were very clean and neat, and her leggings were ornamented with porcupine quills. Just as she reached out to shake him he said, “I have seen you already.” Now the girl stood still and said, “I have come after you. My grandmother has sent me to bring you to her house.””

— Tales of the North American Indians, Tale 53 · served from our shelf  receiptuncorrected OCR — being verified against the scan

Attested across traditions
Scholars’ trail — 14references

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.

  • EnglishChild V 499 s. v. "transformations"
  • GreekGrote I 182
  • JewishNeuman
  • ArabianBurton Nights V 353
  • India*Thompson-Balys
  • JapaneseIkeda
  • Philippine (Tinguian)Cole 75, 17 n. 1
  • Eskimo (Greenland)Rasmussen I 327, 367, III 124, Rink 195, (Cumberland Sound): Boas BAM XV 182
  • N. Am. Indian*Thompson Tales 334 n. 205b
  • JamaicaBeckwith MAFLS XVII 274 No. 86. – Africa (Kaffir): Theal 98, (Zulu): Callaway 21, (Basuto): Jacottet 206 No. 30, Casalis Les Bassoutos (Paris 1859) 349.
  • general *Types 313, 325, 327
  • general **Aarne Die magische Flucht (FFC XCII)
  • general *Fb "and" IV 12b, "rose" III 80a. – Irish myth: *Cross
  • general S. Am. Indian (Sharanti, Comacan, Mashacalí): Horton BBAE CXLIII 3 294, (Mundurucu): Horton ibid. 3 281
Within the index

Filed under Magic flight.

3 finer motifs beneath it
Fugitive transforms self to stone. Thrown to safety by pursuerFugitive transformed by helper to escape detectionReversed transformation flight. Transformed pursuer. Koryak: Jochelson JE VI 363
Filed beside it
Obstacle flight. Fugitives throw objects behind them which magically become obstacles in pursuer's pathReversed obstacle flight. Magic obstacles raised in front of fugitiveMagic flight with the help of a he-goat. Speaking he-goat saves the girl promised to the devilSea turns to ice to permit flight
Travels with
Transformation to elude pursuers. (Cf. D671, D672.)
Keeps company with — shares receipted episodes
Obstacle flight. Fugitives throw objects behind them which magically become obstacles in pursuer's pathReversed obstacle flight. Magic obstacles raised in front of fugitiveLadder to upper worldAscent to upper world on arrow chain. Hero shoots arrows which join one another in the air to form a chainBridge to otherworld
Carried in tale types

wander