μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Life token. (Cf. E760.) Object (animal, person) has mystic connection with the life of a person, so that changes in the life-token indicate changes in the person, usually disaster or death.

The dead. · The soul. · Life index. · view the constellation · filed as E761

Attested across traditions
Filed across the traditions
  • Breton Sébillot Incidents s. v. "danger"
  • India *Thompson-Balys
  • N. Am. Indian *Thompson Tales 317 n. 149, *Hultkrantz 338–340, (California): Gayton and Newman 69
  • S. Am. Indian (Quiché) Alexander Lat. Am. 173
  • Africa (Kaffir) Theal 81, (Basuto): Jacottet 212, 218 Nos. 31, 32.
  • general *Type 303
  • general **Polivka The Life Tokens in Folk-Tales, Custom, and Belief (Národopisny Vestnik Ceskoslovansky XII [Prague, 1917])
  • general *Chauvin V 87 No. 27 n. 1, V 295, VII 98 No. 375 n. 1
  • general Penzer I 130, III 272 n. 1, X 210
  • general Clouston Tales I 169ff.
  • general Jacobs' list s. v. "Life index"
  • general *BP I 545, II 392
  • general *Hartland Legend of Perseus II 1–54
  • general **Nelson The Life-Index, a Hindu Fiction Motif (Studies in Honor of Maurice Bloomfield) 211ff. – Irish myth: Cross
  • general Oceanic (New Hebrides, Torres Straits, New Guinea, Indonesia): Dixon 133 n. 5
Within the index

Filed under Life Index. Object or animal has mystic connection with person. Changes in one correspond to changes in the other.

7 finer motifs beneath it
Blood as life token Life token: staff stuck in ground Life token: tree (flower) fades Life token: object darkens or rusts Life token: object breaks (bursts) Life token: troubled liquid. (Cf. D1242.) Life token – miscellaneous
Filed beside it
Life dependent on external object or event. Person's life is mystically connected with something else and comes to an end when that thing is destroyed Object dies or stops when owner dies Affinity of person and object
Travels with (Thompson’s cf.)
Life Index. Object or animal has mystic connection with person. Changes in one correspond to changes in the other
Keeps company with — shares receipted episodes
Thunderbird. A mythical giant bird usually thought of as a thunder-god Roc. A giant bird which carries off men in its claws Helpful animal. See also entire section B300–599, especially B350 Grateful animals Helpful wild beasts – felidae Animal nurse. Animal nourishes abandoned child Bat rescues man from height. Bat lets him down in a spider-web basket Magic footwear Magic arrow Magic ball Magic bone gives advice. (Cf. D1013.) Miraculous speed from magic object
Carried in tale types

ask the rhapsode about this motif · search the shelf for “connection” · wander