The servant to improve on the master's statements. The wooer makes boasts to the girl and the servant always doubles the master's boast. Finally the master says, "I have poor eyesight." – The servant, "You don't see at all." (Or the master coughs and apologizes; the servant says that he coughs all night.) — Mythoi

Motif

The servant to improve on the master's statements. The wooer makes boasts to the girl and the servant always doubles the master's boast. Finally the master says, "I have poor eyesight." – The servant, "You don't see at all." (Or the master coughs and apologizes; the servant says that he coughs all night.)

The wise and the foolish. · Fools (and other unwise persons). · Literal fools. · Literal obedience. · view the constellation · filed as J2464

Filed across the traditions

French Canadian Barbeau JAFL XXIX 24.
general *Type 1688
general *Pauli (ed. Bolte) No. 221
general Scala Celi 126b No. 688
general Bolte Zs. f. Vksk. IX 88 No. 46

Within the index

Filed under Literal obedience.

Filed beside it

Disastrous following of misunderstood instructions. (To burn land, then sow seed. Opposite done.) What should I have done (said)? The mother teaches the boy (the man his wife) what he should say (do) in this or that circumstance. He uses the words in the most impossible cases and is always punished Foolish bridegroom follows instructions literally The foolish bride Disastrous following of instructions Literal following of the count Instructions followed literally – miscellaneous

Carried in tale types

The Servant to Improve on the Master's Statements · ATU 1688 1 recorded variant

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