μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif
Scholars’ trail — 1reference

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.
Within the index

Filed under Physical phenomena misunderstood.

10 finer motifs beneath it
Mushrooms shrink in water. Fool kills his wife because he thinks that she has eaten part of themBoiling milk thought to be overflowing. Simpleton lets it run overBoiling pumpkin thought to be talkingBoiling pot on the floor thought to be self-cookingFish dancing about in cooking pot appears to be many. Cook eats one; none leftHandful of black pepper taken into mouth instead of cooking it in foodSavory tea. The peasant entertains a priest at tea. Making it, puts in all the tea, six pounds of sugar, a piece of bacon, etcSheep's head has eaten dumplings. Small boy is at home to watch the dinner. Runs into church, calls out to his mother that the sheep's head has eaten all the dumplings (or butted them out of the pot)All the beans cooked for one meal. They fill the roomNumskull thinks boiling pot is threatening him: breaks pot
Filed beside it
Animal cries misunderstoodOther sounds misunderstoodNumskull stays till he has finished. As he is making water he hears a brook flowing and mistakes what it is. He waits for a day and a halfDid the calf eat the man? A fool, liking the shoes on the feet of a man hanged on a gallows, cuts off the swollen feet in order to carry off the shoes. In the room in which he sleeps that night is a newborn calf. The next morning the man takes the shoes but leaves the feet. Peasants agree that the calf has eaten the man all but the feet. They burn the house to destroy the calfFool thinks gold is being destroyed when snails crawl over itFool thinks belly is speaking to him; stabs himself. Other animals are shouting at himAnimal's action misunderstoodPhysical phenomena misunderstood – miscellaneous

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