Search
Motifs — first 20 of 30
- Why women laugh much. When Eve sees her first child she laughs over its smallness. A1372.2
- Origin of insects: released from sack. God places them in a sack and gives it to hare to carry to stream. He must not look in the sack. When he does so the insects escape. The hare laughs and this is the cause of his split lip. A2003
- Rabbit laughs: cause of hare-lip. (Cf. A2216.3, A2234.4, A2342.1.) A2211.2
- Why zabi's eyes are narrow: because he laughs so hard. A2332.3.2
- Bean laughs till it splits: cause of black stripe. (Cf. A2793.1, F1025.1.) A2741.1
- Statue laughs and reveals crime. D1639.4
- Person who never laughs. F591
- Prince who never laughs. F591.1
- Man whose entrails are visible when he laughs. F594
- Mountain laughs. F755.1.1
- Bean, straw, and coal go journeying. Coal burns straw in two and falls into the water. Bean laughs until it splits. F1025.1
- Devil laughs (weeps) when men weep (laugh). G303.4.8.8
- Devil writes down names of men on a hide in church. Woman laughs when she sees him. G303.24.1.3
- Roses from lips as sign of royalty. Princess laughs roses. H71.4
- Ordeal by holy water. If simpleton closes his eyes to holy water he is possessed; if he laughs he is merely an idiot. H222.2
- The laughing ass. King has trickster's horse's tail cut off. Trickster retaliates by cutting off part of upper lip of king's ass. At trial the animals are brought forth. Everyone laughs at the ass. Trickster: "If everyone laughs at the ass, how could the ass help laughing at her companion without a tail?" Freed. J1169.5
- Owner laughs at thief who finds nothing in house. J1392.4
- Poem for poem: all for all. A poet gives the emperor a poem, hoping for a reward The emperor later gives the poet a poem in return. The poet thereupon sends the emperor two pennies, saying that this is all the money he has. The emperor, seeing that he is defeated in the exchange, laughs and becomes the poet's friend. J1581.1
- Literal numskull laughs at his child's death. J2461.3
- Laughing contest: dead horse winner. The ogre tries to laugh as long as the dead horse with a grinning mouth. Laughs till he dies. K87.1