Tuesday, July 12, 2016

C145. Baer (p. 138). Why Mr. Cricket Has Elbows on his Legs

This is Chase145.

Types ATU0280A the ant and the lazy cricket
Motifs B0147.3.1.1 crickets are good omens
she proposes:
A2371.2 why cricket has unjoined legs
A2433.5 why cricket lives in chimneys
Notes

Thompson has a Native American verion of lazy grasshopper; humans criticize his laziness and transform him into his current state

Rattray has Ashanti story where crick'ets appearance "is the result of his falling into a fire he made to cook his bgrain of corn" (Baer dismisses this connection, but it seems to me a good one)

conclusion: "for the main incident of the tale I have found nothing similar from written nor oral sources. It may be this is an example of what Parsons referred to as "one of those quasi-individualistic pieces of embroidery with familiar material.""

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