μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif
Within the index

Filed under Types of foolish imitation.

8 finer motifs beneath it
Hot onion to the eye. A friend has cured his foot with this remedyPulling out the eye so that the pain will cease. He has had a tooth pulled and the pain ceasedImitation 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 diseaseImitation 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 fleshHealing 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 curedSick woman hung in well to cool off: drowned. Fool has cooled objects thusFoolish physician cauterizes "sick" cartwheel to stop it from creaking; burns it up insteadFool claims to cure goitre by striking. Has seen melon thus dislodged from camel's throat. (Cf. F952.3.1, F953.1.)
Filed beside it
Foolish imitation of miracle (magic)Foolish imitation by an animal. Tries to go beyond his powersFoolish imitation of lucky man. Because one man has had good luck a numskull imitates and thinks he will have equal luck. He is disappointedPoor man foolishly imitates richFoolish imitation of leader

wander