μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Liar brings about fight between dupes.

Deceptions. · Deception into self-injury. · Persons duped into injuring each other. · view the constellation · filed as K1084

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“She began to sew her moccasins, and all at once she stuck the awl in one of her fingers. The woman threw it away, and it came back and said: “Brother Turtle, I hurt a woman badly. She was using me while she was sewing her moccasins, and I stuck one of her fingers; she threw me away.” “Well done, brothers, now it is my turn,’ said the turtle. The turtle went into camp, and people saw him and said: “What does this mean?”

Tales of the North American Indians, Tale 38 · served from our shelf  receiptuncorrected OCR — being verified against the scan

Attested across traditions
Scholars’ trail — 3references

The index’s own references — the collections where scholars sighted this story-shape, tradition by tradition. Titles on our shelf are live links; the rest is the frontier, not yet shelved.

  • Irish mythCross
  • India*Thompson-Balys
  • West IndiesFlowers 535.
Within the index

Filed under Persons duped into injuring each other.

4 finer motifs beneath it
Trickster tells lies to fishes and causes them to fightLiar brings enmity between friendsTrickster attempts to bring friends to fight. (Plans that one kill the other.)Calumniators try to bring friendly kings to fight, but fail at last
Filed beside it
Blind men duped into fightingOgres (large animals, sharp-elbowed women) duped into fighting each other. Trickster strikes one so that he thinks the other has done itUndesignated present starts quarrel for its possessionWoman makes trouble between man and wife: the hair from his beard. She tells the wife to increase her husband's love by cutting a hair from his beard. Also tells the husband that his wife will try to cut his throat. He kills his wifeWoman induces men to fight over her and kill each otherFalsified message brings about a warDissension aroused in army by casting suspicion on general. A general destroys everything except what belongs to the general of the enemy. Thus he brings about suspicion that the two leaders are in leagueBrothers duped into killing each other by slander that one of them is father to the other's childGoddess arouses heroes' jealousy and eternal fightingTreacherous counselor persuades king's son to woo his father's young bride whom he is sent to get, and as he tells the king that he is her lover both are killed
Keeps company with — shares receipted episodes
Trickster's burnt flesh becomes gum on treesTransformation to be put in food-bagTransformation to seduceMagic treasure animal killed. (Goose that laid the golden egg)Magic garment (robe, tunic)Magic reawakening of memory. (Cf. D1360, D1910.)Killed game revives and flies awayDisintegration: man eats himself up or dismembers himselfPerson eats self upTrickster joins bulrushes in a dance. He thinks they are dancing when he sees them wavingPerson frightened into falling down a cliffDeceptive scratching contest

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