μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif
In our texts — keyword-matched, unreviewed
Scholars’ trail — 7references

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.

  • SpanishEspinosa III 446
  • India*Thompson-Balys
  • Africa (Zulu)Callaway 164
  • American Negro (Georgia)Harris Nights 366ff. No. 65 (variant)
  • West IndiesFlowers 516.
  • general Wienert FFC LVI 52 (ET 117), 105 (ST 179)
  • general Halm Aesop No. 231
Within the index

Filed under Escape by false plea. A captive makes a request or proposes an action that permits him eventually to escape.

8 finer motifs beneath it
"Wait till I am fat enough to race you." Hero to be eaten by cannibals when he is fattened enough to beat them in a race. He runs awayCalf: "Wait till I grow up.""Let me catch you better game." Captured animal pretends to help captor bring more desirable victim. EscapesWait for the fat goat. Troll lets the first two goats pass on the bridge so that he may eat the biggest one. He is thrown in the waterRam promises to jump into wolf's belly. Gives him a hard knock. The stunned wolf thinks he has swallowed the ram. (Cf. K579.5.1.)Wolf is requested by horse to start eating from the rear; kicked to death"Soak me in the pond so that I will be juicy."Too dirty to eat. Trickster, cornered by leopard, leaps into swamp, then says he is too dirty to eat. Leopard smells of him and agrees
Filed beside it
Escape by equivocal oath. (Cf. K475.)Respite from death granted until particular act is performedExecutioner kept busy or interested until rescue comes. Sometimes until he changes his mindDeath cheated by moving bed. The man who has chosen Death as his godfather has his bed turned around when he sees Death standing at the foot of his bed. He thus escapes deathMan allowed to pick out tree to be hanged on. Cannot find oneEscape by persuading captor to talkRat persuades cat to wash face before eating: escapesEscape because of plea that leaves means of egress openThumbling in animal's belly persuades latter to go to his father's house for plunder: rescuedAss begs wolf to pull thorn out of foot before eating him: kicks wolf in mouthEscape by pretending to perform errand (do work) for captorEscape by pretending to dance so as to be untiedEscape from captor by means of flatteryEscape by asserting that captor will have ill luck after killing victimEscape by false prophecy: if corpses are buried in city, it will become a ruin: king releases condemned manTo get out of thieves' clutch, man reports high prices in another town
Carried in tale types

wander