36 motifs match “imitate”  ·  back to the chapters

• God drops water from his finger and the drops become angels. Lucifer imitated God and created devils. A52.0.7
• Raven attempts to imitate dove: punished with awkward gait. A2232.10
• Lizard's tail imitated from snake's. A2272.2
• Person imitates witch by putting ointment in eye: eye blinded. (Cf. F361.3.) G242.8
• Witch causes man to strip naked and imitate a jockey riding himself. G269.21.3
• God changes an angel into the devil, because he tried to imitate God in creating the world. G303.1.1.3
• Man imitates cock crowing: devil is deceived. G303.16.19.4.1
• Ogre deceived into stabbing himself. He imitates the hero who has stabbed a bag of blood. G524
• Crow tries to imitate partridge's walk. Only spoils his own. J512.6
• How the first man killed himself. The second fool imitates the first who leaps from a palm tree by means of a looped rope. The first kills himself. The second wants to see just how it happened and kills himself too. J2374
• Alleged return from land of dead with bags of gold persuades dupe to try to imitate. J2411.5
• Sister of goddess tries to imitate her feat of being cooked without harm and dies in the attempt. J2411.6.1
• Imitation 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 flesh. J2412.4
• The dog imitates a wolf. Wants to kill a horse. He asks the cat: "Is my back bristled, etc." The horse kills him with a kick. (Cf. K1121.) J2413.5
• Raven tries to imitate dove's step but breaks his bones. J2413.9
• Foolish imitation of lucky man. Because one man has had good luck a numskull imitates and thinks he will have equal luck. He is disappointed. J2415
• Crab tries to imitate bird who lays egg in pot of boiling water. Falls in instead of being rewarded. J2415.3
• Fairies help forgotten child, but strangle child trying to imitate good luck. J2415.4
• Ascetic imitates Brahmin's practices. Brahmin goes to heaven, ascetic to hell. J2415.5
• Pig sees goat return decked with ornaments and plenty of food; goes out and imitates trick played by goat but is beaten instead. J2415.6
• Poor man foolishly imitates rich. J2416
• To imitate the leader. He slips and all fall to floor. J2417.2
• Deceptive eating contest: hole in bag. The hero slips his food into a bag and makes the ogre believe that he is the greater eater. (In many versions the hero cuts open the bag; the ogre imitates and kills himself.) (Cf. K82.1.) K81.1
• Seven devils' wives imitate ritual of death and resuscitation done over hero; not having the real water of life and death, the seven enemy devils are killed. K113.0.1
• Animal's cry imitated to distract owner's attention from his goods. Meantime rascal steals an animal. K341.7
• Baby's cry imitated to distract owner's attention from his goods. K341.7.0.1
• Wolf announces dawn prematurely to collect debt. The contract is to be fulfilled at daybreak. The wolf imitates the cock and crows, but is caught. K494
• Fatal game: throwing from cliff. Spider throws its young; other animal imitates. K854
• Wolf brings cake from the window-sill. He imitates the fox in so doing, but rings a bell, so that he is beaten. K1022.4
• Dupe imitates trickster's thefts and is caught. K1026
• The oath on the iron. The trickster takes an oath by touching iron (a trap). The dupe imitates but hits the iron so hard that he gets caught. K1115
• The woman as cuckoo on the tree shot down. The anger bargain is to cease when the cuckoo crows. The ogre's wife climbs the tree and imitates the cuckoo. She is shot down. K1691
• A man in place of a cuckoo. A cruel master commands his serf to climb a tree and imitate the cry of the cuckoo; he shoots the "cuckoo." K1691.1
• Deceptive nocturnal noise. Wood-spirits imitate falling of trees, etc. K1887.2
• Trickster hides in bag in order to be carried. His father imitates and is beaten. K1892.1
• Bogey imitates mother and kills child. K2011.1.2