μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

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

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

Filed across the traditions
  • India *Thompson-Balys
  • Indonesia Coster-Wijsman 66 No. 111.
  • general *Type 1287
  • general *BP III 149 n. 1
  • general *Wesselski Hodscha Nasreddin I 267 No. 261
  • general *Clouston Noodles 28ff., 192
  • general *Field Pent Cuckoo 8
  • general Köhler-Bolte I 112
  • general Christensen DF XLVII 181ff. – Swiss: Jegerlehner Oberwallis 317 No. 153
Within the index

Filed under Absurd inability to count.

3 finer motifs beneath 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? Culture hero throws coconuts to various islands, but forgets one he stands on: hence none now on that island
Filed beside it
Are there nine or ten geese? Ten men are called in; each is to take a goose. If all have a goose, there are ten. One man is left without one. Numskull: "You should have taken one before they were all gone." Three girls distressed by seemingly impossible task of going and returning together – one in half month, other in fifteen days, other in seven plus eight days The interrupted calculation. While the merchant is making calculations, he asks the age of his youngest daughter, the elder daughter, and the mother, and always adds this to the number he has reached Keeping the measure by stretching out the arms. Numskull goes to buy goods for his wife Numskulls buy things in common: each pays full price
Carried in tale types

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