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.

  • U.S.Baughman.
Within the index

Filed under Absurd disregard of natural laws.

1 finer motif beneath it
Boots sent by telegraph. A peasant hangs boots and an accompanying letter on a telegraph wire, expecting them to reach the city
Filed beside it
Money tested by throwing it into a stream to see if it will swim. Good coins are supposed to swim, counterfeit to sinkAbsurd practices connected with cropsNumskull tries to dig up a well (spring). He wants to take it homeA hole to throw the earth in. Numskull plans to dig a hole so as to have a place to throw the earth from his excavationHow he looks in his sleep. A man stands before mirror with his eyes shut to see how he looks in his sleepAbsurd ideas about the deadPorridge in the ice hole. They put meal in the boiling current of the ice hole and then, one after another, they jump in to taste the porridgeHow far his voice will reach. A numskull cries from a tower and then runs away to see how far his voice will reachHolding in the heat. A numskull ties yarn around the stove to keep the heat from escapingExamining the sundial by candle-light. Numskull tries to find the time of nightTrying to get fruit from fruitless treeWarming hands across the river. Numskull stretches out his hands toward the fire across the riverAs tired as if he had walked. So says the numskull after riding to town on his stick horseDrying snow to make saltFire and water mixed to make sacrifice. Fool told that he needed only the twoDemand that murderer restore life to victim

wander