65 motifs match “themselves”  ·  back to the chapters

• Cliff from lovers' leap. Lovers in despair throw themselves from a high place. This becomes a cliff. A968.2
• Why the center of man's eye is black: blackened by spirits to make themselves invisible. A1319.7
• Man must labor for a living: at first everything too easy. Full crops produce themselves, trees drop sugar etc. A1346.2
• Why women keep washing themselves. St. Andrew, sent to get salt to keep people clean, gets drunk and forgets. There is only enough for men. A1372.10
• Vegetable lamb. Generated from ground. Umbilical cord is in the ground and the lambs will die if it is forcibly severed. They are frightened into severing it themselves and then live. Vertebrae of the neck planted to produce new ones. B95
• Horses determine road to be taken. They are left to pick out the road themselves and to stop at the destination. B151.1.1
• Shut in with elephants, blackbird orders ants to burrow themselves into the elephants' brains. B524.1.8
• Birds save man from hunger by pitching themselves to roast in fire he has made. B531.5
• "We three" – "For gold" – "That is right" devil's bargain. Three brothers have agreed to say only these things. They incriminate themselves. C495.2.1
• "We three" – "For gold" – "That is right": phrases of foreign language. Three travelers know each one phrase of a foreign language. They incriminate themselves. C495.2.2
• Transformation flight. Fugitives transforms themselves in order to escape detection by the pursuer. D671
• Gods have power to transform themselves. D698
• Stones remove themselves. (Cf. D931.) D1641.2
• Stones prostrate themselves before certain persons. (Cf. D931.) D1648.3
• Magic turned against the makers, so that they are bewildered and kill themselves. D1783.5
• People magically continue hurting themselves. Try to drive ox but drive themselves; to stab it but stab themselves; etc. D2184
• Revenants want to warm themselves. E578.1
• Ghosts warm themselves around fire. E578.2
• Demons amuse themselves by plaguing souls in hell. E752.1.2.1
• Life token: trees prostrate themselves. E761.3.4
• Life token: stones prostrate themselves. E761.5.5.1
• Life token: sheaves prostrate themselves. E761.5.6
• Tuatha Dé Danann, conquerors of Ireland, are overcome by invaders. (Maic Milid, "Milesians," Gaels) and betake themselves into hills. F211.0.2.1
• Fairies dance by themselves in fairy ring. F261.1.1
• Fairies warm themselves. F266
• Single-footed people lie on their backs and shade themselves from sun with their soles. F551.5
• Frogs cast themselves into oven-flames and devour bread. F989.24
• Demons marry among themselves. G302.7.2
• From the parings of man's nails devils make little caps for themselves. G303.25.5.1
• Inspection test for suitors. Suitors for princess's hand must present themselves for public inspection. (Cf. H362, T55.7.) H311
• Question (on quest): How can mice rid themselves of cats? (Answer: tie on bell.) H1292.10
• Reeds bend before wind (flood). Save themselves while oak is uprooted. J832
• Unsuccessful fishermen console themselves that their earlier high hopes balance up their disappointment. J866.1
• Doves in net console themselves because they think trapper's tears are from pity for them. J869.1
• Opposing wise men humble themselves and become friends. J917
• Gods help those who help themselves. Ox driver must put his shoulder to the wheel before Hercules will help him. J1034
• Wives prevent war by placing themselves and their children between two armies. J1112.4
• King to smoker: "Even donkeys will have nothing to do with tobacco." Smoker: "Donkeys don't know how to enjoy themselves." J1289.20
• Asking the large fish. Parents serve boy a small fish and keep back a large one for themselves. Knowing this, the boy puts the fish to his ear. He says that he has asked the fish a question; the fish cannot answer but tells him to ask the large fish under the bed. J1341.2
• They gave it away themselves. A wandering actor rewarded by a city with a coat of their color gambles it away. When upbraided about giving away their present he replies that they hadn't wanted to keep it themselves. J1444
• To give the accounting afterward. A nobleman embezzles money from the public treasury. When counsellors urge an accounting, he replies that he is ready as soon as they have themselves made an accounting of all their transactions. They are ready to let well enough alone. J1627
• Sickle punished by being tied in top of a tree. The men hang themselves in the attempt. J1865.1
• Numskulls try to kill mosquitoes with bows and arrows: only injure themselves. J2131.0.1
• Fools try to frighten one another, but get scared themselves and both flee. J2632
• Two cheats exchange articles as genuine and both find themselves cheated. (Cf. K306.) K421.3
• Person holds hat just outside shelter; enemies shoot at it, either giving away their position or putting themselves at a disadvantage in having to reload. K631.3
• Camel induced to offer himself as sacrifice. Other animals feign to offer themselves to the lion as food. The lion eats the camel. K962
• Shipwrecked men call themselves by false names. K1831.1
• Men enjoy themselves too much: disease created. L482.5
• Prophecy: parents will humble themselves before their son. (Vaticinium.) M312.2
• Persecution by bad luck. Wishing to escape it, the luckless couple build themselves a new home. Scarcely do they establish themselves in the new home, when bad luck addresses them from the hearth: "I have already waited for you here three days." N250.2
• "Friendship without refusal." Friends bind themselves each to grant every desire of the other. P319.7
• Poor host and his wife kill themselves because they are unable to entertain expected guests. P336.1
• Captured animals avenge themselves. Q385
• Punishment: small catch of fish for child-murderers. Fisherman and his wife have always caught three fishes. From greed they kill their child in order to have more fish for themselves. But they thereafter catch but two fishes. (Cf. Q211.4.) Q553.5
• Faithful servant locks his master and his friend up in a little house built from wood from their wrecked ships; they falsely think themselves betrayed. R53.4
• Fathers thrust sons above water even as they themselves drown. R153.3.5
• Saints (monks) sacrifice themselves (to avert plague). S263.5.1
• Monks sacrifice themselves (to save king and princes from pestilence). S263.5.2
• Children ten and twelve years old betroth themselves. T61.5.2
• Lovers forbidden to marry starve themselves to death. T87
• Husband and wife kill themselves so as not to be separated. T211.3
• Substitute for a child. Aged, childless couple carve themselves a child from wood, or make one from snow, clay, and the like. T677
• Saint's bones for lack of worship remove themselves from church. (Cf. D1641.) V143
• Humor concerning sex. [Note: Thousands of obscene motifs in which there is no point except the obscenity itself might logically come at this point, but they are entirely beyond the scope of the present work. They form a literature to themselves, with its own periodicals and collections. In view of the possibility that it might become desirable to classify these motifs and place them within the present index, space has been left from X700 to X749 for such motifs.] X700