μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Imitation of diagnosis by observation: ass's flesh. A doctor tells his patient that he has eaten too much chicken, and this the patient confesses. The doctor's son wants to know how the diagnosis was made. The doctor says that as he rode up he observed chicken feathers and made his conclusions. The son imitates. He sees an ass's saddle. Diagnosis: you have eaten too much ass's flesh.

The wise and the foolish. · Fools (and other unwise persons). · Foolish imitation. · Types of foolish imitation. · view the constellation · filed as J2412.4

Filed across the traditions
  • Italian Novella *Rotunda
  • India Thompson-Balys.
  • general *Wesselski Hodscha Nasreddin I 250 No. 167
  • general *Pauli (ed. Bolte) No. 792
Within the index

Filed under Foolish imitation of healing.

1 finer motif beneath it
Imitation of diagnosis by observation: stick under table
Filed beside it
Hot onion to the eye. A friend has cured his foot with this remedy Pulling out the eye so that the pain will cease. He has had a tooth pulled and the pain ceased Imitation of the prescription. A peasant envying a doctor's fee for giving him a plaster and predicting a son, poses as a doctor. He predicts a son for a eunuch and gives a plaster for heart disease Healing with the cherry tree. A man whose wife refuses to talk remembers that a priest drank black cherry juice whenever he lost his voice. He cannot get the cordial but concluding that a limb of the cherry tree will have the same effect beats his wife with is. She is cured Sick woman hung in well to cool off: drowned. Fool has cooled objects thus Foolish physician cauterizes "sick" cartwheel to stop it from creaking; burns it up instead Fool claims to cure goitre by striking. Has seen melon thus dislodged from camel's throat. (Cf. F952.3.1, F953.1.)
Carried in tale types

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