μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Tell-tale hand-mark. Clandestine lover is identified by paint marks left on his skin by his mistress.

Tests. · Identity tests: Recognition. · Recognition by bodily marks or physical attributes. · view the constellation · filed as H58

ask the rhapsode about this motif →

“Gradually both were lifted up and continued their course in the sky, the sister being transformed into the sun, the brother into the moon.® Whenever the new moon first appears she sings: Aningaga tapika, takirn tapika qaumidjatedlirpoq; qaumatitaudle. Aningaga tapika, tikipoq tapika. (My brother up there, the moon up there begins to shine; he will be bright. My brother up there, he is coming up there.)”

Tales of the North American Indians, Tale 2 · served from our shelf  receiptuncorrected OCR — being verified against the scan

Attested across traditions
Scholars’ trail — 5references

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.

  • IndiaThompson-Balys
  • HinduTawney I 15
  • N. Am. Indian*Thompson Tales 273 n. 1.
  • general *Type 950
  • general Köhler-Bolte I 200
Within the index

Filed under Recognition by bodily marks or physical attributes.

2 finer motifs beneath it
Disguised mistress identified by chalk marks left on back by loverClandestine lover identified by scratches left on face by lady
Filed beside it
Recognition by scar. (Cf. H56.)Recognition through brandingRecognition by wound. (Cf. H51.)Recognition by missing memberRecognition by ornaments under skinRecognition of transformed person (animal). (Cf. H48.)Recognition of other transformed personsRecognition of disenchanted person by physical attributesMarks of royalty. (Cf. H41, H171.5.)Identification by a hairRecognition by featherRecognition by physical attributes – miscellaneous
Keeps company with — shares receipted episodes
Pursuit of sun by moonMoon as a personBrother-sister incest
Carried in tale types

wander