μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Tree to upper world.

Marvels. · Other world journeys. · The upper world. · Access to upper world. · view the constellation · filed as F54

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“The little birds who built their nests in the sticks of the hawk’s nest tried their best to carry him down to the ground, but could not lift him, and so he staid on. Finally one day he saw coming, a long way off, an old woman bent over, and with a stick in each hand. She came to the bottom of the tree where the young man was, and began to climb, and climbed until she reached the young man, and then she turned out to be Spider.”

— Tales of the North American Indians, Tale 52 · served from our shelf  receiptuncorrected OCR — being verified against the scan

Attested across traditions
In our texts — keyword-matched, unreviewed
Scholars’ trail — 12references

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.

  • EgyptianMüller 176
  • SumatraDixon 160
  • TongaGifford 25, 39, Beckwith Myth 482
  • Hawaiiibid. 232
  • Samoaibid. 486
  • N. Am. Indian*Thompson Tales 332 n. 200
  • AfricaWerner African 136f.
  • general Type 1960G
  • general *BP II 511
  • general Köhler-Bolte I 322
  • general S. Solymossy Revue des études hongroises VI (1928) 311–336 No. 2. – Breton: Sébillot Incidents s. v. "branche", "paradis"
  • general S. Am. Indian (Cariri): Lowie BBAE CXLIII (1) 559, Métraux MAFLS XL 26, (Langua): Métraux ibid. 106, (Toba): Métraux ibid. 45
Within the index

Filed under Access to upper world.

2 finer motifs beneath it
Tree stretches to skyPlant grows to sky. (Jack and the Beanstalk)
Filed beside it
Sky-rope. Access to upper world by means of a ropeLadder to upper worldAscent to upper world on arrow chain. Hero shoots arrows which join one another in the air to form a chainMountain reaches to skySky-window. An opening into the sky gives access to upper worldRoad to heavenTower (column) to upper worldAccess to upper world – miscellaneous
Keeps company with — shares receipted episodes
Culture heroes brothersStretching objectsSpecial kinds of sky-rope
Carried in tale types

wander