Culture hero throws coconuts to various islands, but forgets one he stands on: hence none now on that island

Motif

Culture hero throws coconuts to various islands, but forgets one he stands on: hence none now on that island.

The wise and the foolish. · Fools (and other unwise persons). · Absurd absent-mindedness. · Absurd inability to count. · view the constellation · filed as J2031.3

Filed across the traditions

Cook Islands Beckwith Myth 104, cf. 270.

Within the index

Filed under Counting wrong by not counting oneself. Numskulls conclude that one of their number is drowned.

Filed beside it

Numskulls count selves by sticking their noses in the sand. They then count the holes There are ten horses; then when he is mounted there are only nine. Why?

ask the rhapsode about this motif · search the shelf for “coconuts” · wander