μῦθοι Mythoi
Motif

Exposure in boat. A person (usually woman or child) set adrift in a boat (chest, basket, cask).

Unnatural cruelty. · Revolting murders or mutilations. · Cruel abandonments and exposures. · view the constellation · filed as S141

ask the rhapsode about this motif →

““I am sure I saw it before you,” said the first speaker again, “and, therefore, it is mine.” “Well, you may have the box, but its contents shall belong to me,” replied the other. They picked up the box, and began to carry it, but finding it somewhat heavy and being anxious to know what it con- tained, they stopped to untie it. “If there are many things in there, I shall have some of them,”’ said the first speaker, who rued her bargain.”

— Tales of the North American Indians, Tale 40 · served from our shelf  receiptuncorrected OCR — being verified against the scan

Attested across traditions
On our shelf — the index’s citations, resolved to served chapters
Scholars’ trail — 34references

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.

  • BretonSébillot Incidents s. v. "enfant"
  • French CanadianBarbeau JAFL XXIX 14
  • SpanishEspinosa Jr. No. 116
  • ItalianBasile Pentamerone III No. 2, *Rotunda
  • GreekFrazer Apollodorus I 155, Grote I 86, *103, Fox 22, 33, 307 → on our shelf: The Library (Bibliotheca), BOOK II, ch. IV
  • EgyptianMüller 116
  • BabylonianSpence 16
  • Jewish*Neuman, bin Gorion Born Judas 2d ed. I 165, 372
  • India*Thompson-Balys
  • Buddhist mythMalalasekera II 103, 633
  • Japanese*Ikeda
  • ChineseFerguson 192
  • IndonesianDeVries's list No. 219
  • TongaGifford 154
  • TuamotuStimson MS (T-G. 3/45)
  • Marquesas*Beckwith Myth 502 n. 4
  • Eskimo (Cumberland Sound)Boas BAM XV 167, (Labrador): Hawkes GSCan XIV 152, (Ungava): Turner RBAE XI 261
  • N. Am. Indian*Thompson Tales 313 n. 131.
  • general *Types 590, 675, 708, 930
  • general BP I 489, II 236f., III 2
  • general **Cosquin Études 199ff., 215ff.
  • general Chauvin VII 95ff.
  • general *Hertel Zs. f. Vksk. XIX 83
  • general *Aarne FFC XXIII 60
  • general *Penzer II 4, VII 81 n. 1
  • general Dickson 35 n. 16, 41f. nn. 40, 42, 169f. n. 23
  • general *Krappe Balor 3ff., 17ff. nn. 57–60
  • general *Sparnaay 31ff., 50
  • general *Frazer Old Testament II 437ff.
  • general *Fb "å" III 1187b, "båd" IV 87a

Showing a bounded trail of 34 from 34 references.

Within the index

Filed under Cruel abandonments and exposures.

3 finer motifs beneath it
Man springs ashore and pushes companion in boat out to seaFather saves himself in storm and forgets his two children. They are abandoned in a boatExposure astride a log of wood floated down river
Filed beside it
Abandonment of agedPerson thrown into the water and abandonedAbandonment in forestAbandonment in desertAbandonment on an island. (Marooning.)Abandonment in pitAbandonment on mountainAbandonment in bonds that cannot be loosedChildren abandoned in box in potter's kilnAbandonment in stable
Travels with
King finds note with children in casket floated down river identifying them as his. (Cf. S141.)Ordeal by exposure. (Cf. S141, S331.)
Keeps company with — shares receipted episodes
Devastating fox. Monthly human sacrificeNuptial tabu. Man and wife forbidden intercourse for definite timeTransformation: man to stoneTransformation by putting on skin. By putting on the skin, feathers, etc. of an animal, a person is transformed to that animalTransformation by eating or drinkingPetrification by glanceTransformation to husband's (lover's) form to seduce womanMagic sandalsMagic capMagic cap renders invisible: tarnkappe. (Cf. D1067.2, D1361.16.)Magic sandals bear person aloft. (Cf. D1065.5.)Night magically lengthened
Carried in tale types

wander