Fault-finding husband nonplussed. The wife has cooked so many dishes that when he complains, she can always supply another. Finally he says, "I had rather eat dung." She produces some — Mythoi

Motif

Fault-finding husband nonplussed. The wife has cooked so many dishes that when he complains, she can always supply another. Finally he says, "I had rather eat dung." She produces some.

The wise and the foolish. · Cleverness. · Clever practical retorts. · Retorts between husband and wife. · view the constellation · filed as J1545.3

Cited in the index

general *Wesselski Theorie 175
general Plattdeutsch: Wisser Plattdeutsche Volksmärchen (Jena 1922, 1927) II 98
general India (Kashmir): Knowles 245.

Within the index

Filed under Wife outwits her husband.

3 finer motifs beneath it

Which does the more work. Wife shows that she does many more tasks in one morning than the husband Where are the shoes? Fault-finding husband threatens to hit wife with shoes. She: "You will have to have some shoes first." Man who continually threatens to leave wife mortified when she tells him to go; pretends his buffalo is dragging him home (after he does leave)

Filed beside it

Will work when beaten. A wife whose husband has beaten her sends a rumor to the sick king that her husband is a skilled physician but will practice only when he is well beaten. He is seized and whipped Four men's mistress. A husband disguises as a priest to hear his wife's confession. She says that she has been mistress of a servant, a knight, a fool, and a priest; i.e., her husband when he was her servant, and later her knight. He had then been a fool for demanding her confession, and was a priest because he had heard it The exiled wife's dearest possession. A wife driven from home is allowed by her husband to take her one dearest possession. She takes her sleeping husband and effects reconciliation Husband tells wife in indecent posture to "lock up shop". She retorts that he has the key Wife by cleverness wins back fortune overbearing husband has foolishly lost and humbles him Clever laughter and response of wife stops husband from fondling maid Corpse to be cut in two for easy carrying. Husband who feigns death hears wife propose this. He upbraids her; she replies: "If you had really died I should have given myself up to be burnt." Wife shows deep water. Husband declares that he will drown himself. The wife shows him a deep spot in the stream

Carried in tale types

Fault-finding Husband Nonplussed · ATU 1408B 1 recorded variant

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