Twins/Zwillinge: A Broader View. A Contribution to Stith Thompson’s Incomplete Motif System—A Case of the Continuation of Pseudoscientific Fallacies †

Abstract

Explaining the rationale and main objectives for his motif system; Stith Thompson declared that it emulates what “the scientists have done with the worldwide phenomena of biology” (Thompson 1955, I, p. 10). In this respect; the underlying principles for motif identification and indexing are comparable to those devised by anthropologists at Yale for “categorizing” culture materials into 78 macro-units and 629 subdivisions thereof used to establish “The Human Relations Area Files” (HRAF). By comparison, 23 divisions (chapters) make up the spectrum of sociocultural materials covered in Thompson’s Motif-Index system. Thompson’s cardinal themes are divided into 1730 subdivisions permitting more specificity of identification (El-Shamy 1995, I, xiii). Historically; the disciplines of “anthropology” and of “folklore” targeted different categories of the human population; with “folklore” assigned to populations stratified into “social classes” (Dorson 1972, pp. 4–5: For details, see El-Shamy: “Folk Groups” (1997b, pp. 318–322, in: T.A Green, gen. ed. 1997c, p. 321); El-Shamy 1980, p. li; compare El-Shamy (1997a), p. 233 (“African hunter”). The limitations Thompson placed on the goals of his motif system (along with its tale-type companion) were triggered by the fact that “folklore” was; then; primarily interested in literature (prose and verse). The sociocultural milieu surrounding the creation of the literary forms occupied minor roles. Considering that a folktale is a “description of life and/or living” including all five universal culture institutions; the relevance of the contents of folktales are of primary significance for understanding the community in which they were born and maintained (El-Shamy 1995, I, p. xiii). Consequently; for the present writer; a folktale is considered a sixth (universal) culture institution. Also; because Thompson’s Motif-Index sought global coverage; many regions and national entities didn’t receive adequate attention: significant fields of human experience are missing or sketchily presented. This article offers two cases as examples of: (1) How editors of folklore publications ignore novel ideas incompatible with established trends; and (2) Samples of the spectrum of current psychosocial issues addressed in an expanded Thompson’s System (with more than 26,000 new motifs and 630 tale-types added).

1. Introduction1

Impressions and impressionistic studies, regardless of well-meaning underlying motivation, lead only to the creation of fallacies, which in turn generate harmful social, cultural and psychological constructs. Hasan El-Shamy. “Motif Index of Alf Laylah wa Laylah: Its Relevance to the Study of Culture, Society, the Individual, and Character Transmutation.” El-Shamy (2005a). (This situation represents a case of glorifying the character of Sheherzade, the supposed raconteuress of The Thousand Nights and a Nights, whose character as described in the Nights represents the opposite of that claimed by promoters of “liberating Moslem Women”).

As a cross-cultural phenomenon, the international folktale may be viewed as akin to the five universal culture institutions: familial, economic, political, religious and educational. Scholars developed a slew of theories about cultures, nations, and psychological processes on basis of the folktale. The following study presents an example of some of the “research methods” and “results” involved in of some of these theories. The multiplicity of human living situations described below and the stark interconnectedness among its constituents both horizontally (societies, locations, etc.) and vertically (from antiquity to the present time and likely into the future) invite examining the extent to which the various “cases” presented in the Supplementary Section (Pt.II) are true embodiment of actual life and living. In this regard “Example 7: Social Processes: Political and Familial” may be presented as a fact of how Arab-Islamic affairs are faring on the world stage today (2020): with the Sîrah of the treacherous ez-Zîr Sâlim as a heroic behavioral model (El-Shamy 1985).

Why Hold the Folktale to Be a Sixth Culture Institution:

There is, at least on a theoretical abstract level, a tendency to recognize the centrality of the folktale in a culture and the viability of Thompson’s Motif Index in treating that genre as literature:

In the year 1988, El-Shamy presented the findings of his long-standing research:

Although the concept of a tale type has been associated with the Finnish School’s research method and its ‘historical’ and ‘geographic’ distributional objectives, it would be a serious error to limit the concept to such a narrow field of academic interest. Actually, in the study of a folk narrative, an adequate substitute for ‘tale type’ as a device for the practical identification of the contents of texts and their classification has not yet been introduced.

(El-Shamy 1988a, p. 158. Ital., added)

In the year 1995, while defining the criteria that should concern a folklorist’s work as “social science” (in contradistinction to “art”), it was stated that, in spite of some minor drawbacks,

these issues, theoretical or otherwise, can be treated most effectively within inclusive contexts of representative data, and by benefiting from past scholarship. Thompson’s Motif-Index of Folk-Literature [(1955–1958)] constitutes meticulously executed treatments of virtually infinite variations that traditional cultures offer.

(El-Shamy 1995: GMC-A, vol. 1, p. x. Ital. added; and El-Shamy 1997a)

Notably, Alan Dundes—who championed the negative attitude towards Aarne-Thompson’s “Tale Type” (“The Historical-Geographical School”) along with the research of its followers and devised the Proppian structural model in its stead (Dundes 1964; also see Peter Gilet (1998), and El-Shamy’s review (El-Shamy 2001)—changed his stand on typology in a manner that reflects El-Shamy’s views. Thus, according to Dundes’ (1997) revised stand:

“It must be said at the outset that the six-volume Motif-Index of Folk-Literature and the Aarne-Thompson tale type index constitute two of the most valuable tools in the professional folklorist’s arsenal of aids for analysis. This is so regardless of any legitimate criticisms of these two remarkable indices, the use of which serves to distinguish scholarly studies of folk narrative from those carried out by a host of amateurs and dilettantes.”

(Dundes 1997, p. 195. Ital., added)

Thus, with the merits of the “motif” and “tale-type” recognized, and the universality of the international folktale assumed, certain folklore genres were seen as absent in given cultures. Among these genres is the “proverb” argued not to be present among the American Indians (Greenway 1964, p. 84). However, more recently the concept of “Homo Narratus” emerged to distinguish human beings from all other creatures (Davis et al. 2019). Yet, folklorists, especially in the USA, have largely bypassed Thompson’s unique Motif-Index (which is, perhaps, the only major work that is based fully on folklore research). As some recent published folktale anthologies show, typology is subordinated to forewords or similar editorial non-narrative add-ons (e.g., see: El-Shamy 2017, pp. 103–31).

Regrettably, folklore field data and studies are seldom cited in other disciplines. In her review of El-Shamy’s Tales Arab Women Tell […] (1995), Patricia Geesey observed that aspects of family life including the brother-sister relations “are not always sufficiently studied by anthropologists.” (Geesey 2003, pp. 285–86); also Dundes (1987, pp. 42–46), applies Oedipal symbolisms to Luke Skywalker and Princess Lia, who prove to be brother and sister, in the motion picture “Star Wars,” but ignores El-Shamy’s published studies on the “Brother-Sister Syndrome”. (e.g., El-Shamy 1976b, 1979, 1981b).

The impact of the Oedipal theory on the study of the folktale is dramatically illustrated by the lack of objectivity in Allan Johnson and Douglass R. Price-Williams’ Oedipus Ubiquitous (1996); (Type AT 931, Oedipus. As foretold by the prophecy, the hero kills his father and marries his mother). For a detailed objective (inductive) examination based on the authors’ data for this theme in Africa and the Middle East, see (El-Shamy 1999, pp. 14–18, 2013, pp. 32–37); also see (El-Shamy 2020b, and El-Shamy 2013, esp. pp. 40–44).

As the present essay demonstrates, especially through newly generated motifs (and tale-types), folktales/narratives cover the entire spectrum of human life and living. In this respect, an international folktale” is the narrative-text elicited by tradition-bearer(s) regardless of whether it is classified as “fragment”, “distorted”, “composite/contaminated”, etc. Editorial acts introduced into a tale’s text so that it may conform to a “theory—such as suppression of pertinent data, altering the nature of an act or of identification of a character, or of syntax of events, etc.–are detrimental to the requirements of objectivity and ethical neutrality (El-Shamy 1999, 2001, esp. pp. 156–57).

An authentic recurrent “fragment”, for example, may be as significant in revealing social or psychological issues as a “full” authentic text. Texts contained in early published anthologies (collections) represent “literature” based on folklore: they were subjected to editorial changes and improvements that constitute the publisher’s/editor’s views more than those of the actual folk tale-teller’s; typically, they lacked information about narrators and the conditions under which the text was collected. These missing data are a basic facet of treating folklore as “Folkloric Behavior” (El-Shamy 1967). For example, in Type HeS 705A$, Born from Pregnant Man, Raised by Bird (Animal): the Falcon’s (Kite’s) Daughter. (A man’s mother mutilates his wife and takes her place in bed) provides a vivid example. It is typically (a “normal form”) narrated by females, and—occasionally—by young males who have not been fully re-socialized into the sub-culture of adult male groups; it is based on Motif T412, “Mother-son incest”, which would indicate an underlying Oedipal situation.

A systemic omission (cf. suppression) of this Oedipal factor occurs when adult males tell this tale. Also, the pattern of demographic distribution of the tale tends not to substantiate the Oedipal interpretation. The mother-son incest in HeS 705A$ appears among various age, ethnic-racial, social-classes, regions, economic and religious groups, but it fails to appear under normal narrating conditions among adult males in these groups who would, logically, be the ones who harbor it. (For further details see: El-Shamy 1984, pp. 1211–18).

Twins constitute a distinct category of siblings. Yet, they are still brothers, sisters or brother-and-sister, a kinship tie that plays a critical role in the shaping of the lives of individuals and social groups in the broadest sense.2 Giving birth to twins is a biological phenomenon with universal psychological and social consequences (“twinship”). From a psychophysiological perspective, twins are identified as either:

1. “Fraternal twins” who “develop from two separate fertilized eggs, [...], hence are genetically no more alike than ordinary sibs,”

or

2. “Identical twins” who were “formed by the division of a single fertilized ovum [...], and developing in one chronic. Such twins are presumed to have identical heredity or genetic structure, where as fraternal twins are no more closely related than ordinary sibs. Identical twins are always of the same sex.3

In classical (comparative) folklore scholarship, the first category is depicted by the general Motif: T685, “Twins”. The second is represented by Motifs: F577.2, “Brothers identical in appearance”; T685.3, “Twins who look exactly alike”; and—to a lesser extent, P251.5.2, “Two brothers confusingly like each other”, P253, “Sister and brother”, and a host of related themes such as: A1552.1, “Why brothers and sisters do not marry”; N365.3.1, “Brother and sister unwittingly in love with each other”; and T415.3, “Lovers reared as brother and sister learn to their joy that they are not related”.4

The social significance of the birth of twins varies according to the parent’s gender (man or woman/father or mother), and the gender of the newborns (male or female), as well as the prevailing social and cultural values of the community to which the parents belong and in which the twins would be enculturated (socialized).5 On bases of available traditional data, it would be safe to assume that folk traditions indicate that both parents would prefer male twins. For example, it was reported that among the Amazigh Berbers of North Africa, a woman who gave birth to twins “was regarded as full of baraka, or blessedness,”6 she was also accorded high social status and address as “lalla, (my lady)”. Meanwhile, a woman that gives birth to triplets would be regarded as holy.7 At an Amazigh wedding celebrations, women wished the bride the gift of giving birth to male twins”.8

For the mother who gives birth to female twins the matter may be fraught with hazards and strenuous labor in caring for the newborns.9 Also, beliefs in many parts of the less sophisticated world that birth of two or more infants in one pregnancy betrays the mother’s infidelity (adultery) with sex partner(s) beside her husband:

Often twins are thought to be the offspring of adultery. In more sophisticated communities, twins are attributed to superior virility on the part of the father. But among less sophisticated peoples, twins are often destroyed and the mother must be thoroughly cleansed. Twin fruits, like double almonds or twin bananas, are not eaten for fear that twins will result; similarly, the birth of twins may indicate illegitimacy, (Moscito Indians of Nicaragua).10

In South America

It is reported that formerly the Miskito Indians of Nicaragua killed the female of twins, or left both exposed to die, since the father believed that he could not be the parent of more than one child at a time. Hence, his wife had borne him an illegitimate child., However, it is apparent that twins are no longer killed, but it is often believed that they have magical powers, both for good and evil.11

Similarly, in West Africa and [Africans in the] New World [...], belief in the cult of twins, where found, or the abhorrence of twin births, is part of a generalized attitude toward children born with any kind of abnormal characteristics.12

The linking of the birth of twins to the mother’s infidelity motif seems to be confined to the less advanced world. Such an attitude is also found among more sophisticated groups in Europe. In one case constituting an International Tale-type (from France),

[A] woman gives birth to twins, and her envious neighbor announces that the woman therefore must have had intercourse with two men. Adultery is combined with the ‘monstrous’ birth of twins. Despite the good woman’s virtue, her husband begins to mistrust her, and he guards her as if she were in prison. Ironically, the neighbor herself becomes pregnant with twins.13

Thompson’s Motif-Index identifies this cause-effect theme as Motifs: T586.3, “Multiple birth as result of relations with several men” and T587.1, “Birth of twins an indication of unfaithfulness in wife”, as its moral side. Both themes are basic to the plot of Tale-type AT/ATU 762, Woman with Three Hundred and Sixty-five Children.14 Thompson’s Motif-Index (1955–1958) assigns no tale-type to this Motif. Notably, according to patterns of the tale’s distribution, both Thompson’s AT and Uther’s ATU’s The Types of International Folktales (2004) agree that Tale-type 762 has been so far reported only from European populations.15

The earliest recorded occurrence of the theme of multiple male agents for the same pregnancy of a female seems to be the ancient Egyptian myth of “Gods (and goddesses) sired by different fathers born in one pregnancy” (new Motif A164.5.1$). This is also the case with its companion themes of “Multiple births in the same pregnancy (twins, triplets, quadruplets, etc.) with unusually long time intervals separating the births” (T586.5.0.1$), and “Five babies born during five successive days” (T586.5.0.1.1$).16

A related Motif, “Twin brother and sister” (new Mot. T587.0.1$) is a recurring central theme of Tale-type AT 707, “The Three Golden Sons [...]” in Middle Eastern oral tales. Although the motif of the birth of twin brother-and-sister appears once in the Thousand and One Nights (without being associated with Tale-type 707),17 neither the belief concerning unchastity, nor the accompanying moral value have, so far, been reported from the lore of Egypt or other neighboring regions, Islamic or Christian. However, a similar belief is reported from early Jewish para-religious traditions from the second century A.D. onwards according to which we learn of the existence of demons as Ashmedai or Samael:

These are patently trickster figures and connect with the myth of twins. For Samael fathered Cain, while Adam fathered Abel: Eve bears both brothers.18

Under the Islamic creed of prophets’ ^Cismah (immunity from errancy), it is highly unlikely for a Moslem, Arab or non-Arab, to believe that it was possible that Eve, whom God created to be Adam’s wife, could have been impregnated by a demon and given birth to a demonic creature.19

It is interesting to note that modern medical research indicates that the folk-belief that twins may be a product of separate agents for the same act of impregnation (biological fathers) is not totally without merit. Under the headline, “Texas Mom gives birth to twins but with different fathers,” a news report states that

[...] this was as a result of their mother cheating on her partner, [...,] and as a result produced a one-in-a-million double conception.20

True to the psychological definition for “Identical twins” cited above,21 the toddlers in that Texas case are of the same gender (male) and look exactly alike.

On a broader level, the concept of twinship as expressed in verbal lore and as applied in daily social practices may be grouped into three major divisions: biological, quasi biological, and social:

2. Biological Twins

2.1.a. Siamese

2.2.b. Male twins (brother-brother)

2.3.c. Female twins (sister-sister)

2.4.d. Cross-gender twins (sister-brother)

          Systemic associations

2.5.e. Twin siblings as opposites

          Twins and the “Double”

3. Quasi-Biological Twins

3.1.a. Male-male, half brothers

3.2.b. Paternal cross-cousins (male-female/cross-gender-cousins)

3.3.c. Maternal-cousins (males)

3.4.d. Supernatural twins and counterparts/spirits (‘Akhkh/’Ukht, Kâ/Bâ).

          Cf. The Double

4. Social Twinship (“Blood Brothers,” As If Twins)

4.1.a. Blood brothers. (No case of blood sisters seems to be readily found).

4.2.b. Milk siblings. (No case of milk sisters seems to be readily found).

          Cf. 2.4d, above.

5. Concluding Event: Twins and Martyrdom

          Martyr Wants his Twin Sister as Wife

2. Biological Twins

2.1. a. Siamese Twins

The theme of the Siamese twins (Motif F523, “Two persons with bodies joined. Siamese twins”) occurs only sporadically in international narrative traditions. Although “twins” do occur, Siamese twins seems to be absent from major tale-type indexes such as Aa-Th, ATU, and Kilpple’s, Arewa’s (Arewa 1980; Klipple [1938] 1992), and El-Shamy’s DOTTI. Thompson’s Motif-Index presents two motifs related to the Siamese twins phenomenon: one as a mythological matter (A1225.1, “First couple organically united. Like Siamese twins”),22 while the other as a marvel (F0523, “Two persons with bodies joined. Siamese twins”).23 With reference to the mythological, an ancient Egyptian account provides themes that may be viewed as archetypal (or Urformen) for such a notion about original creation (comparable to the Semitic “Genesis” and para-Islamic al-khalq al-’awwal/’the Original Creation’). These are new Motifs: A626.1$, “Embrace of twin brother Geb (the earth) and his twin sister Nut (the sky) broken by their father Shu (the atmosphere)”;24 A654.2.1.1$, “Air (atmosphere) created to separate earth from sky”; and A625.2.1.1$, “Heaven and earth originally layers of one mass: ripped (peeled) apart by deity”.25

In Islamic dogma (Seventh Century A.D.), Koran states that the Skies and Earth (planet) were joined together before God clove them asunder.26 One of the few reports on the “Siamese twins” that may be in existence in Arab-Islamic folklife is found in al-Ibshîhî (ca 1388–1446); it is cited as one of the “Marvels of Creation by The Creator.”27 Al-Ibshîhî also describes a “Surgery to amputate one twin conjoined from the waist down with another” (F668.9.3$).28 Although the theme of “Siamese twins” does not seem to occur in international tale-types, it may be assumed to recur in “urban legends” and local memorates (personal experience narratives), as is the case with al-Ibshîhî’s report. For example, a recent B.B.C. news report stated: “Cameroon conjoined twins help spread Islam.” Interviews with residents of Babanki Tungo village revealed that the birth of conjoined twin boys was first seen as bad omen (message from God).29 Then “successful separation by Saudi surgeons transformed the fate of the two identical boys from curse to blessing.”30

2.2. b. Male Twins (Brother-Brother)

Interaction among siblings, brothers or sisters—biological or social (twinship)—is a basic theme that recurs in narrative traditions worldwide. This fraternal interaction involves a broad spectrum of situations ranging from the affectionate and protective to the hostile and murderous. (See, “Union of Opposites,” n. 79, below).

An example of the affectionate-protective bond between male twins is portrayed in AT/ATU 303, The Twins or Blood-Brothers. It is worth noting here that Aarne and Thompson equate the psychosocial “blood”-brotherhood with the biological brotherhood (“twin”).31 Besides, AT/ATU 303, the Type Index designates a number of tale-types based on brother as rescuer of one or more of his siblings. These include: 312, The Giant-killer and his Dog (Bluebeard). The brother rescues his sisters; 312A, The Brother Rescues his Sister from the Tiger [(Hyena, Ogre, etc.)]; and 312D, Brother Saves his Sister and Brothers from the Dragon [(Ogre)].32

The basic plot of AT/ATU 0303 may be summarized as follows:

Two brothers born simultaneously, helpful animals (usually domestic) are born at the same time.33 One brother sets out for adventure and is faced with mortal danger. Upon being warned by a life token, the other brother sets out to save him and is successful.34

There are other international tale-types based on the same cluster of themes (“motif complex”) but without the twinship component. One of these is AT 318, “The Faithless Wife. Batu/Bata: the Egyptian ‘Two Brothers’ Tale”. The inaugural cardinal theme in the ancient text is a typical rural familial setting. It may be summarized as follows:

A nuclear family of farmers composed of a man, his wife, and the man’s younger brother live together. The wife seeks to seduce the younger brother but he rejects her advances and reprimands her. She tells her husband that his brother attempted to rape her. The husband seeks to kill his younger brother as punishment. The younger brother flees and reveals that he was falsely accused. As proof of his innocence he castrates himself.35 He travels to a foreign land where he lives alone. [Subsequently, drastic experiences follow].

Variations on this theme of brother as rescuer: Tale-type AT 303A, Six Brothers Seek Seven Sisters as Wives; and the new 303B$, Six Jealous Brothers against their Youngest: to whom Does the Extra Bride Belong?; and 303C$, The Brothers’s Wager with Princess (Maiden, Woman): Telling an All-lies-tale (or the like). Only one escapes enslavement; and 1920J$, Wager on Self and Property: Telling Tale with no Truth (an All-lies-tale).36 The theme of a brother saving brother(s) occurs also as a regional subtype of AT 707 that does not involve sister(s), (designated as new Tale-type 707C$, Infants Cast away, (by Jealous Co-wives, Mother-in-law, Slave, etc.), and Subsequently Reunited with their Parents, (which is the dominant pattern in South Arabia and eastern sub-Saharan Africa), (see n. 49, below). The brother as rescuer motif occurs also in AT/ATU 567A, “The Magic Bird-Heart and the Separated Brothers. [Faithless mother, faithful servant-woman]”, where one of the two fleeing brothers is successful, and then rescues the other less fortunate one.

2.3. c. Female Twins (Sister-Sister)

Beside AT 711, The Beautiful and the Ugly Twin/(ATU 711, The Beautiful and the Ugly Twin sisters), the theme of twin sisters does not seem to be a common occurrence in folk narrative traditions.37

Thompson’s Motif-Index does not include a motif for this kinship relation. However, the theme of “Sisters confusingly alike, usually twin sisters”, recurs in narrative lore (designated as new Motif: P252.9.1$).38 The only major occurrence of this theme is in Tale-Type AT/ATU 711, as presented in the Aarne-Thompson Type Index, the plot speaks of a childless queen giving birth to

Two girls, a very beautiful one and one deformed (with an animal’s head). The ugly sister Always assists the handsome one, and is at last to marry a prince. On the wedding day she is transformed and becomes as pretty as her sister.

Distributional data in type indexes, especially Uther’s, show that this tale-type (AT 711) is confined to Europe, and appears only sporadically in its cultural extensions in the New World. Turkey, whose lore straddles both European and Middle Eastern traditions, is the only country outside the European/western world where Type 711 has been reported.

2.4. d. Cross-Gender Twins (Sister-Brother)

Twin brother and sister appear frequently across the entire spectrum of world folk traditions. It is also an archetypal building block in religious and para-religious dogma and myths; once a myth is told it becomes apodictic truth of absolute certainty as religious faith (Eliade 1987, p. 95). In ancient Egypt, Geb-and-Nut, Osiris-and-Isis, and Set-and-Nephthys, among others, are examples of divine twin brother-sister marriages.39 In certain cases, love between the cross-twins is reported to have been prenatal (new Motif: A164.1.0.1$, “Twin sister and brother in love even when in mother’s womb”.40

Other famous twin brother and sister deities who became husband and wife include the Greek Apollo and his twin sister Artmis.41 In Metamorphoses, the Roman poet Ovid (born in 43 BCE) presents a myth about Byblis and her twin brother Caunus:

Byblis falls into a consuming love for her twin brother Caunus. When her erotic love is not welcomed, she writes him a letter citing many gods who were siblings and together as husband and wife. The brother, disgusted with the idea of incest, flees to foreign lands. But the lovesick sister, in tears, pursues him across many countries. When she arrives in Phoenicia, her torrential tears dissolve her, and she turns into a spring. The city in which this transformation takes place is named Byblis after her.42

In Semitic religions the theme of twin brother-and-sister as descendants of Adam and Eve on Earth accounts for the origins of a number of pivotal psychocultural factors affecting the development of basic human character traits (“modal personality”). One of these is designated as new Tale-type 758C$, “Origin of Sibling Rivalry: conflict between siblings of the same sex began when one was favored over the other”; and its companion new Motifs: A1297.1$, “Cain killed Abel in order not to lose own twin sister as wife”; A1388.2$, “Hatred begins when a daughter of Adam and Eve (^CUnâq, Lilith) discovers that she cannot marry because she has no twin brother to exchange for a husband with other brother-sister twins”.43 From a psychoanalytic perspective the marriage between cross-gender twins serves as an escape from the notion that Adam’s sons multiplied via marital relations with their mother (i.e., “an Oedipal setting”).44

In literature, androgynous mergings often occur between male and female twins. As pointed out above, opposite-sex twins are a recurring symbol in literary works: “Throughout European literature, from the Greeks onward, the ‘identity’ of these twins has been continually stressed, as have in more outspoken periods, the incestuous impulses of the pair”45 In book 3 of the epic poem The Faerie Queene (1590–1596), Edmund Spenser describes opposite-sex twins enclosed in their mother’s womb displaying an urge toward union with each other. Another literary work that portrays the strong attraction between opposite-sex twins is John Barth’s novel The Sot-Weed Factor (1960, p. 117), in which Anna is driven toward fusion with her twin brother, Ebenezer. In a manner that recalls the love letter that the Roman Byblis of Crete wrote to her brother, Anna evokes a comparison with Aristophanes’ version of the ancient split of the whole into parts that eternally seek each other:

Your sister is a driven and fragmented spirit, friend; the one half of her soul yearns but to fuse itself with yours, whilst the other half recoils at the thought. It’s neither love nor lust she feels for you, but a prime and massy urge to Coalescence [...]. As Aristophanes maintained that male and female are displaced moieties of an ancient whole, and wooing but their vain attempt at union, so Anna [...] repines willy-nilly for the dark identity that twins share in the womb, and for the well-nigh fetal closeness of their childhood.46

Similarly, the hero of Lord Byron’s “Manfred” (1817) sees his own likeness in his twin sister, for whom he expresses a passionate love.47

One of the most salient illustrations of the relationship between “cross-gender twins” in folklore, is that depicted in AT 707, The Three Golden Sons, especially in Middle Eastern folk traditions.48 There is evidence indicating that Tale-type 707 is predominantly narrated by females. Consequently, it appears only rarely in male-oriented tale collections such as The Thousand Nights.49

Although Galland’s intrusive text does not involve cross-gender twins, two cases in the (authentic) Alf Laylah wa Laylah (Thousand and One Nights) do involve twin brother and sister (El-Shamy 2006a; see n. 51, below). The first is an epic-like sîrah, in which an elder brother driven by fear of loss of right to kingship [...] harbors murderous intentions toward his yet to be born younger half brother (from the father). Two cross-gender twins (Nuzhat al-Zamân and her twin brother Daw’ al-Makân) are born hours apart. The elder brother is told that only a girl was born. The twins treat each other with love and affection but get separated at a young age while traveling together for pilgrimage. The sister ends up in an unwitting incestuous marriage to her elder half brother, the self-declared enemy of her own twin brother. The marriage is dissolved and a cover-up is devised. Coincidence brings the twins together when they happen to travel in the same caravan, and the sister hears her twin brother chanting a love poem bemoaning the absence of his beloved sister.50

The second case is a mythical account of “The Creation of Iblis (i.e., Satan/Lucifer)”:

Seven pairs of twin brothers and sisters were born to mythical creatures. The Lord ordered that the brothers marry their twin sisters. Six pairs obeyed the supposedly divine command, but one brother refused the arrangement. As punishment, he was transformed to a worm that became Iblises.51

In cultures with moral codes that do not allow socialization between young men and women,52 the non-erotic side of the twin brother-sister tie plays a cardinal role in the emotional growth of each. This aspect is expressed in a Lebanese rendition by a female Christian informant. The raconteuse expressed the emotional attachment between a young woman (the heroine) and her twin brother who is facing mortal danger: “Either I will die with my brother and then we are redeemed/delivered, or [...] I cannot stay alone.” Then, she bewails a foreseen grim fate of living without him: “With whom am I supposed to chat [i.e., interact]? Truly, I have no one except this brother!”53

C.J. Jung and his disciples recognize the centrality of the role of the brother-sister ties, twins in the present case, in the process of the development of the ‘Self’ as the most important archetype. Other archetypes involved in the process include the “Shadow,” the “Anima”/”Animus”, and “marriage quaternio”/(an exchange marriage involving two pairs of cross-siblings).54 A collateral aspect of the Shadow archetype is an ‘instinct’ that Jung labeled “kinship libido” (which is incestuous).55 Jung asserted that the practical solution is a lesser form of still endogamous [brother-sister] marriage: “The best compromise is therefore a first cousin” (Jung 1966, p. 224). Such an endogamous arrangement is considered the preferred form of marriage among many groups, especially Arabs—regardless of religious persuasion.56

Systemic Associations

The theme of sister rescuing or restoring to life her brother, often her twin, is a cardinal theme in AT/ATU 707 and in the Isis-Osiris account (part of which recurs in modern time and is designated as new Tale-type 318B$, Murdered Person (Lover, Husband, Brother) Brought Back to Life through Repeated Reincarnations (Transformations).57 As already stated elsewhere, Types AT 315/590/590A are actually variations (subtypes) on the same plot: betrayal of a male family member by his female counterpart: brother by sister, son by mother, husband by wife, respectively.58

Translations of the text of the ancient Hieroglyphic account of AT 318 indicate the plausibility of how the female character can be perceived as a wife, a consort, a companion or even a sister (i.e., AT 315/590A). So it would be useful to inquire as to who was Batu’s “faithless” female in the text “scribe In-na[/Ennana], the lord of the papyrus-roll” wrote down nearly 3300 years earlier (i.e., AT 318)?

As reported above,59

Batu severs his phallus so as to prove that he is innocent. He travels to a faraway land and lives alone. Phrâ-Harmakhis [a deity] takes pity on him and orders deity Khnumu to “fashion a marriageable woman for Bata so that he does not (have to) live alone. Thereupon Khnum made for him a house-companion …”60 Batu “desired her exceedingly ….” Batu and his wife/companion live together [presumably in a sexless manner for he was a “eunuch”]. She conspires with a potent male (pharaoh, king, etc.) against Batu. Batu is killed. A life token warns his brother of this happening. The brother rescues Batu and resuscitates him. The faithless female is punished.61

A significant overlap between the tale-type complex of AT 315/590/590A on the one hand, and Tale-types AT 318B$ and AT 707:IIIc,d on the other, is formed by the episode dealing with the sister restoring her twin brother to life; (usually when two brothers are involved only one is a twin). In 318B$, Isis retrieves the corpse of Osiris, her twin brother and husband, out of a tree trunk (cf. petrification),62 while in 707 the sister—twin or non-twin—salvages the body of her brother(s) from a state of petrification. The common affective (emotional) denominator in AT 315, 707 and, by inference, 318 and 720,63 is that the brother and his sister (twins or non-twins) end up together, often living alone.64

With reference to brother-sister relationship, “twins” in the present case (AT 315), it has been observed:

The most important sub-Saharan African text [of Type 315/590A, 318B$] is found among the Zande of southern Sudan; it appears in Evans-Pritchard, No. 32. In this story a sister plots against her twin brother and has him killed. She then plants the bones, which are gradually transformed into a man whom she marries. [emphasis added].65 (On “African folklore”, see: (Dorson 1972).

This Zande story manifests characteristics not found in other variants and may well prove to be one of the oldest oral forms of this narrative. It may also provide the missing link between modern renditions of the part dealing with bringing back to life a dismembered person found in this tale-type and its ancient Egyptian counterpart found in the myth of Isis and Osiris.66

Notably, the Egyptian account is found among various east African groups who tell it with astonishing fidelity to the corresponding portions of the ancient text. Kamba texts titled “The Man Who Was Killed by His Brothers, but Came to Life Again,” and “The Brothers Sun and Moon and the Pretty Girl” provide vivid examples.

In the first text a wife regrows into a man the toes of her husband who was murdered by his brothers. She begets twin sons by him. The twins help him [their father] kill his culprit brothers.

In the second, a sister flees to escape marriage to her brother (AT Tale-Type: 313E*, Girl Flees from Brother who Wants to Marry her); she marries a youth whom the chief kills, but she resuscitates him and punishes the chief and the whole village with petrification [(a major feature of AT 707)].67

The independent finding by an African folktale scholar confirms this early conclusion about the brother-sister bond. Contrasting European traditions to native African lore, Sigrid Schmidt notes that “the young Western hero crowns his career by a marriage with a princess [...]. By contrast, the African hero saves his sister from dark forces and succeeds in taking her home.”68

2.5. e. Twin Siblings as Opposites

In the case of birth of male twins (brothers), Voegelin observed that one is usually the culture hero, the other opposes him or represents some other way of life.69

An example of this “opposites” male twins is found among Awlâd Ali Tribe of the Northwest coast of Egypt. The tribe is structured into two sibs (moieties): “‘Awlâd ^CAlî Al-’Abyad (Sons of Ali-the-White)” and “‘Awlâd ^CAlî Al-’Ahmar (Sons of Ali-the-Red)”. The rationale for the names is that the founders were “born together” (i.e., as twins); at their birth, one was calm and consequently he was of white/fair color/complexion, the other was agitated and consequently he was of red/flushed color/complexion. The descendants of each reflected the physical and personality attributes of their ancestor: one fair complected and tranquil/serene, while the other red-complected and tense/agitated.70

Twins and the “Double”

Fear of twins is closely connected to the belief in the “Double”, one of C.G. Jung’s archetypes. The Double may be thought of as a duplicate of an individual or a part of a divided individual”.71 It can be detected in all forms of social behavior, especially expressive culture such as folklore, elite literature, popular entertainment, mythologies, etc. Some argue that the source of the Double as a phenomenon of duplication may be the “twin-cult”, which are superstitious fears and related rituals associated with the birth of twins.72

The concept of the “opposite” overlaps with that of “supernatural twins and counterpart spirits of a person” (See 2.c, below).

The opposition between good and evil is the essence of the Double. In ancient Egypt, Osiris and Set represented good and evil. As characters they are typically labeled as such, or by closely related synonyms such as “Noble and Vile” or “Truth and Falsehood”. They are often personified in mythology as twins.73 Another example from ancient Zoroastrianism of the second millennium BCE., Ahura Mazda, “Lord Wisdom,” the supreme god, fathered twins, Spent a Mainyu, “Holy Spirit,” and Angra Mainyu, god of lies and darkness. The struggles between these two deities are told in the hymns of the Avesta, the holy book of the Zoroastrians.74

In the New world, among the Onondaga of the Iroquoian tribes in the American Northeast, there is a story of how good and evil people came into the world, again involving twins. The daughter of the first woman gave birth to two sons, the first males on earth. One was born the normal way and the other from her armpit. The armpit child, who would engender evil people, killed his mother and blamed it on his brother.75

The wife of the creator or culture hero is killed by jaguars who find twins in her womb. The jaguar mother brings up the twins, who later learn from some animal that the jaguars whom they regard as their relatives are the murderers of their mother. They take revenge and then, after performing several miraculous deeds, climb to the sky by means of a ladder of arrows to become Sun and Moon.76

As to the characters of the twins themselves, these are nearly always dissimilar. Sometimes the clever brother is the sun and his stupid twin the moon. But in many adventures the clever twin is rescued by the stupid. In Spanish literature this formula has seldom been used with more success than in Don Quixote and Sancho Panza.77

Once there were two brothers: one is rich and hardworking, the other poor and idle. The idle tries to borrow money from the rich, but is sent packing. After a series of deceptive sales/exchanges the rich brother begs to be put into a sack and thrown into the sea so as to get riches as his brother did. This is done, and so rich brother perishes.78

The nature of the association between opposites is explored in Jung’s archetype “Coniunctio Oppositorum”. This archetype has become a unifying symbol or a symbol of the creative union of opposites.79

3. Quasi Biological Twins

This concept deals with the establishment of twin sibling-like bonds between two persons or more, (designated as new Motif: T587.5$, “Quasi twinship (as if twins)”. It is comparable to Motif, B311, “Congenital helpful animal. Born at same time as master and (usually) by same magic means)”.

3.1. a. Male-Male, Half Brothers

New Motif: T587.5.2$, “Quasi twin brothers: born at the same time to same father from different mothers”.

An example of quasi twinship in this category of kinship relations is the two sons of Patriarch Abraham: Isaac and Ishmael. They were born simultaneously: Ishmael seated by Abraham in lap, Isaac next to himself.80 Another example is that of princes al-Amjad and al-As^Cad, the two sons of Hasan of Basrah.81 They are half brothers from the father by different Mothers:

They grew up side by side till they reached the age of seventeen,82 eating and drinking ‘together and sleeping in one bed, nor ever parting at any time or tide; wherefore all the people envied them. Now when they came to man’s estate and were endowed with every perfection, [...].

But it came to pass, by confirmed fate and determined lot, that love for As’ad (son of Queen Hayat al-Nufus) rose in the heart of Queen Budur, and that affection for Amjad (son of Queen Budur) rose in the heart of Queen Hayat al-Nufus [(i.e., each’s stepmother)].83

3.2. b. Paternal Cross-Cousins (Male-Female/Cross-Gender-Cousins)

(See C.G. Jung’s “marriage quaternio,” n. 54, above).

The example for this pattern of twinship is exemplified in the romance titled “Nûr al-Dîn ^CAlî and Son” in Thousand and One Nights, where two cross-gender Afrits discuss the beauty of two cross-gender human youths located in different parts of the world. Upon telling her demon companion of the beauty of the human lad, he retorts:

By Allah, O my sister, the damsel I speak of is fairer than this; yet none but he [the lad] deserveth her, for they resemble each other like brother and sister or at least [paternal-]cousins.84

The narrative describes marriage practices some of which are codified as new Motifs: T587.5.1$, “Quasi twin brother and sister: son and daughter born at the same time to brothers impregnating their wives on the same night. (Usually the wives are sisters)”; M146.4.1$, “Brother and brother arrange marriage of their unborn children (paternal-cousins) to each other”;85 T416$, “Paternal-cousin (bint-^Camm) as substitute for sister”; and T106$, “Paternal-cousin is preferred as spouse”. (Also, see n. 56, p. 13, above).

3.3. c. Maternal Cousins (Males)

Claude Lévi-Strauss writes about a myth of hero twins among the Indians of British Columbia. In this myth two sisters give birth each to a son. Even though the mothers are different, the boys are perceived of as twins because they were born at exactly the same time, under the same circumstances (from a moral and psychological point of view), therefore making them twins (p. 28). Lévi-Strauss claims that this weakens the hero twin character because the twins are not biological brothers, but rather cousins. This does not, however, negate the intention of their being twins.86

3.4. d. Supernatural Twins and Counterparts/Spirits (‘Akhkh/’Ukht, Kâ/Bâ)

Cf. The Double

Another category of twinship takes place in the spiritual (psychological) world. It is believed that when a human being is born a corresponding supernatural being (of jinn-type) is born (or comes into being) simultaneously. The supernatural being is assigned a variety of names depending on the nature of its relationship with its human counterpart. The being dies with the corresponding human’s death. One of these names is ‘Ukht (sister)/’Akhkh (Brother), Qarîn (Counter-spirit), etc. Although that being is not labeled taw’am (twin), the perceived ‘facts’ about its birth, pattern of interaction with its human counterpart, and death assert its quasi twinship to the human person.87 The belief in the existence of such a being is powerful and widespread. It has its roots in Egyptian antiquity. In the early 1900s, Egyptologist-anthropologist W. Blackman observed:

The modern idea that the karîn is born at the same time as its human counterpart calls to mind the reliefs in the temple of Luxor [...] depicting the god Khnum modelling the royal child and its ka and their simultaneous birth.88

A rare occurrence of this supernatural being in a loving role toward her human brother is reported in a tale from Southern Arabia. In this text a young man’s black spirit “rafîgah/Sister” helps him serially marry three of his paternal -cousins. He ignores and abandons the first two, but the third succeeds in winning him as husband due to the approval of his “rafîgah/Sister”. The “Sister” declares that she is given the young man up because she is both ugly and sick with smallpox. She also bestows her property (palm-date garden and house) on the couple.89

Although the text incorporates numerous traditional themes and episodes, it seems to be more of an individualistic composition by its female narrator than a folktale with communal circulation.

4. Social Twinship (“Blood Brothers,” As If Twins)

The title of this category of social interaction is based on the ritual of the mixing of blood by causing wound(s) and/or drinking some of the intended twin’s blood.

4.1. a. “Blood Brothers”

It seems that blood brotherhood is limited to males (no blood sisters can be readily found).

Beside AT/ATU 303, The Twins or Blood-Brothers. Thompson identifies the theme of blood brotherhood as Motif: N766, “Unwitting adultery with blood-brother’s wife”; AT/AUT 1364, The Blood-brother’s Wife. [...] [When teller of own adulterous adventure discovers that the listener is the woman’s husband he claims it was a dream. His account is thus disregarded]—(new Motif: K501$, “Incriminating evidence (confession) discredited by ruse”). In this tale actual seduction by the “blood-brother” of his “brother’s” wife takes place (presumably with her identity unknown to him). The plot deals with how the truth was camouflaged and the consequences of the treachery evaded.

Another variation on this theme is the act of “drinking blood” of a friend in order to form strong “twin-like”/“twinship” bond as in some communities in sub-Saharan Africa. Burton explains the reason as to why this specific aspect of the ritual is not practiced by Moslems:

“Moslems, however, cannot practice the African rite of drinking a few drops of each other’s blood. This, by the by, was also affected in Europe, as we see in the Gesta Romanorum, Tale lxvii, of the wise and foolish knights who ‘drew blood (to drink) from the right arm.”90

The religious counterpart to “blood brotherhood” is establishing “Covenant of brotherhood under God (^Cahd Allâh)”—(new Motif: P351.1$). Such a covenant is typically formed among members of Sufi (mystic) brotherhoods. Examples are: T300.1$ (formerly, T301.0.1$), “‘Bebrothering’ between man and woman: chaste, brother-sister-like”;91 F302.0.3$, “Jinn-’mikhawiyyah’ (‘bebrothering’): jinniyyah (fairy, jinn-woman) as a man’s foster-sister”;92 and W164.2.1.1$ (formerly, W164.2.1$), “Woman attending call of nature slights a man (by immodesty): he abducts her. She apologizes and he ‘bebrothers’ her”.93

4.2. b. Milk Siblings (No Case of Milk Sisters Seems to be Readily Found)

Cf. 2.4.d, above

Scanty occurrences of milk cross siblings appear in narrative lore of the Arab World. One Such case incorporates the illegality of marriage between milk cross siblings (designated as new Motifs: C162.5.1.3$, “Tabu: marriage between milk-brother and sister”, and K2107.3.2.2$, “Rumor (claim, charge) that girl is milk-sister of would-be suitor disrupts marriage plans”.

In the romance of ^CAntar of Banî ^CAabs, the black tribal hero, at long last, won his ‘white’ paternal-uncle’s permission to marry his daughter ^CAblah. But a troublemaker emerged with the claim that the marriage may not take place because both ^CAntar and ^CAblah are milk brother and sister.94

Other instances of association between cross milk siblings include the following: In the Thousand and One Nights, the Story of Prince Sayf al-Muluk and the jinn Princess Badi’a al-Jamal, the Adamite (‘incî) hero accounts for how he happened to have a female jinn as “milk sister”:

My mother went out to solace herself in the garden, when labour-pangs seized her and she bare me. Now the mother of Badi’a al-Jamal [i.e., Badî^Cat al-Jamâl] chanced to be passing with her guards, when she also was taken with travail-pains; so she alighted in a side of the garden and there brought forth Badi’a al-Jamal. She despatched one of her women to seek food and childbirth-gear of my mother, who sent her what she sought and invited her to visit her. So she came to her with Badi’a al-Jamal and my mother suckled the child, who with her mother tarried with us in the garden two months.95

A milk brother plays the role of helper toward his milk sister in the tale of “Kamar al Zaman [(i.e., Qamar al-Zamân)]. In this account a young princess (“Lady Budûr”) is imprisoned in isolation for refusing to marry.96 Jinn transport a handsome young prince (Qamar al-Zamân) to her room and place him in bed next to her. They fall in love with each other. During their sleep the jinn return the prince to his home. When the princess wakes up and finds out that her beloved is gone, she grieves and becomes violent. She is thought to be insane and is shackled with iron chains around her neck.

Consequently, she wept till her eyes waxed sore and her cheeks changed form and hue, and in this condition she continued three years. Now she had a foster-brother [(i.e., milk/nursing)], by name Marzawan, who was travelling in far lands and absent from her the whole of this time. He loved her with an exceeding love, passing the love of [(blood)] brothers.97

Marzawan, the milk brother, finds his milk sister’s beloved who had vanished. The two lovers get married. [Their own adventures follow].

5. Concluding Event: Twins and Martyrdom

Martyr Wants His Twin Sister as Wife

A recent event that took place in Cairo, Egypt, during the social upheavals labeled “The 25th of January Revolution” (or what has been labeled in the West “The Arab Spring” [of 2011] (El-Shamy 2013, n. 11, pp. 9–13) provides a glimpse into twin brother-sister emotional attachment. A news report on the front page of a leading daily newspaper describes the experiences of a mother (a widow) with her “martyred” son, and her daughter—a twin sister of the son.98

In a surrealistic account of “martyrdom,” an aggrieved mother describes her own dream of encountering her deceased son who “came to her in vision” to tell her about the life of martyrs in Paradise and of future political events that will take place. The mother then reports her daughter’s dream encountering her twin brother (who is also the son of their mother). There is no mention of the children’s father (the mother’s husband). The clear message is that the daughter’s dream conveys that her martyred twin brother wants her—[not the mother]—to join him as his bride in marriage in his afterlife abode (for, “They all [the martyrs] got married”).

Clearly the “martyred” brother’s wishes are in conformity with El-Shamy’s virtually tabooed “Brother-Sister Syndrome” theory, rather than with Freud’s virtually venerated “Oedipus Complex” (AT 931) as applied to Arab populations.99

In conclusion, it may be stated that cognitive behaviorism as enacted in the multiple facets of ”folkloric behavior” can address with considerable success a variety of human experiences. These experiences may range from interpersonal relationships (kinship and affinity) to the processes of learning how to live. Key fields (schools) that seem to guide folklore researchers, beside art, such as: “contextualism”, “motivation”, “rewards and punishments”, “education and learning”, and, more recently, “orality” are only components of the cognitive behaviorism approach. Not least among these fields is that of stability and continuities of traditional culture. The two analytical devices that folklore offers in this respect are the Tale-type and the motif; they mark the unique contributions of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson to objective research. Although incomplete, with reference to their intended global coverage and ignoring the demographic factors constituting the core (psyche) of the human bearers of traditions, their instrumentality for allowing cultural analysis with specificity (accuracy/precision), one of the basic requirements of objectivity in research is irrefutable. Folk-tales prove to be a sixth culture institution of man (Homo Narratus).

As pointed out with reference to folk narratives:

“Attempting to establish the relationship between contemporary narratives and their ancient […] counterparts constitute not a quest for origins but, rather, an effort to ascertain the stability of a tradition and its social, cultural, and emotional relevance. Had these ideas and values not been of continuous significance to their bearers, they would have survived only in the form of scrolls or rock paintings.

(El-Shamy 1980, p. 239)

REGISTER {PRIVATE} OF MOTIFS AND TALE-TYPES Pt: I

REGISTER OF MOTIFS: Pt. I

A6.3$, Reason for creation of woman.	Pt.I: p. 6 n. 14.
A6.3.1$, “Eve created to relieve Adam’s loneliness”.	Pt.I: p. 14 n. 61.
A6.3.0.1$, Women were created solely for men.	Pt.I: p. 6 n. 14.
A6.3.1.1$, “Mate (house-companion, wife, etc.) molded for hero so that he would not live alone. (The gods grant Batu female companionship)”.	Pt.I: p. 6 n. 16, + p. 14 n. 61.
A141.0.1$, “Marvels of Creation by The Creator—(Cajâ’ib al-makhlûqât: encompasses all aspects of the universe)”.	Pt.I: p. 8 n. 28
A164.1.0.1$, “Twin sister and brother in love even when in mother’s womb”.	Pt.I: p. 12 n. 47.
A164.5.1$, Gods (Goddessses) Sired by different fathers born in one pregnancy,	Pt.I: p. 6.
A625.2.1.1$, “Heaven and earth originally layers of one mass: ripped (peeled) apart by deity”.	Pt.I: p. 8.
A626.1$, “Embrace of twin brother Geb (the earth) and his twin sister Nut (the sky) broken by their father Shu (the atmosphere)”.	Pt.I: p. 8.
A654.2.1.1$, “Air (atmosphere) created to separate earth from sky”	Pt.I: p. 8.
A702.5.1$, “Marriage of brother Earth and sister Sky (Geb and Nut)”.	Pt.I: p. 11 n. 40.
A112.7.5.1$, “Set forces his own birth by splitting mother’s womb and issues out of her side”,.	Pt.I: p. 17 n. 75.
A112.7.5$, “Deity born from mother’s side”.	Pt.I: p. 17 n. 75.
A1225.1, “First couple organically united. Like Siamese twins”).	Pt.I: p. 8.
A1278.4.1.1$, “Deity (Khnum) molds beautiful mate for unjustly treated man (Batu/Bata)”.	Pt.I: p. 14 n. 61.
A1297.1$, “Cain killed Abel in order not to lose own twin sister as wife”.	Pt.I: p. 11.
A1388.2$, “Hatred begins when a daughter of Adam and Eve (CUnâq, Lilith) discovers that she cannot marry because she has no twin brother to exchange for a husband with other brother-sister twins”.	Pt.I: p. 11.
A1552.1, “Why brothers and sisters do not marry”	Pt.I: p. 4.
B311, “Congenital helpful animal. Born at same time as master and (usually) by same magic means)”.	Pt.I: p. 9 n. 34.
C162.5.1.3$, “Tabu: marriage between milk-brother and sister”.	Pt.I: p. 20.
D1705$, “barakah (blessedness): supernatural [positive] power residing in object, act, or person”.	Pt.I: p. 5 n. 7.
D1812.5.1.35.1$, “Birth of deformed person (animal) as bad omen”.	Pt.I: p. 8 n. 30.
D2161.3.2.4$, “Severed penis supernaturally restored”.	Pt.I: p. 13 n. 67.
E125.2.1, “Sister(s) resuscitate(s) brother”.	Pt.I: p. 14 n. 62.
E192.1.1$, “Wife retrieves (buys) husband’s corpse in exchange for service as menial. (Isis retrieves Osiris’s body).	Pt.I: p. 15 n. 62.
E192.2$, “Sister retrieves (buys) brother’s corpse”.	Pt.I: p. 15 n. 62.
E631.9.1$, Corpse enclosed (incorporated) in tree (trunk) retrieved and then resuscitated (reincarnated)—(Osiris’s).	Pt.I: p. 14 n. 62.
E724.0.1$, “The Ka/Kâ as a person’s counter-spirit (‘Double’)”.	Pt.I: p. 19 n. 89.
E724.3.1.1.1$, “‘Ukht (Sister) protects her human brother”.	Pt.I: p. 19 n. 89.
E724.3.5.1.1$, “‘Ukht (Sister) injures her human sister”.	Pt.I: p. 19 n. 89.
E724.3.5.2.1.1$, “‘SIDS’ (Sudden Infant Death Syndrome, “khunnâq” etc.) caused by suffocation by malevolent counter-spirit (Qarînah, ‘Ukht, etc.)”.	Pt.I: p. 19 n. 89.
E724$, “A person’s counter-spirits (Qarînah, Qarîn, ‘Ukht, ‘Akhkh, ‘Omm-es-subyân, etc.)”	Pt.I: p. 19 n. 89.
F302.0.3$, “Jinn-’mikhawiyyah’ (‘bebrothering’): jinniyyah (fairy, jinn-woman) as a man’s foster-sister”.	Pt.I: p. 20.
F523, “Two persons with bodies joined. Siamese twins”).	Pt.I: p. 8.
F547.3.1.2$, Enormous penis.	Pt.I: p. 13 n. 67.
F577.2, “Brothers identical in appearance”.	Pt.I: p. 4.
F668.9.3$, “Surgery to amputate one twin conjoined from the waist down with another”.	Pt.I: p. 8.
G303.25.18.1$, “Satan cannot influence a person with (God’s) immunity from errancy (e.g., prophet, saint, etc.)”.	Pt.I: p. 8 n. 20.
K2107.3.2.2$, “Rumor (claim, charge) that girl is milk-sister of would-be suitor disrupts marriage plans”.	Pt.I: p. 20.
K2116, “Innocent person accused of murder”.	Pt.I: p. 17 n. 75.
K300.0.2S, ‘Trickstery’ as a necessary means of survival”.	Pt.I: p. 17 n. 75.
K309$, “The trickster (al-mukhâdiC): a character composed of opposites (contradictions)”.	Pt.I: p.17 n. 78.
K501$, “Incriminating evidence (confession) discredited by ruse”).	Pt.I: p. 19.
N365.3.1, “Brother and sister unwittingly in love with each other”	Pt.I: p. 4-5.
P264.0.1.1.1$, “The ship of co-wives sailed, but the ship of wives of brothers foundered”	Pt.I: p. 24
P264.0.1.2$, “Accommodation is not possible between a woman and her silfah (wife of husband's brother, sisters-in-law), but possible between co-wives”	Pt.I: p. 24
P231.0.1$, “Mother of a son more valuable”	Pt.I: p. 5 n. 10.
P234.0.1.1$, “A daughter is burdensome: begets enemies, generates grudges (daghâ’in), siphons off father’s wealth to her husband’s family, etc.”.	Pt.I: p. 5 n. 10.
P234.0.1$, “Father of daughter(s) less powerful”	Pt.I: p. 5 n. 10.
P250.0.5.1$, “Inter-species milk-siblings—(jinn-’ince)”.	Pt.I: p. 20 n. 95
P251.5.2, “Two brothers confusingly like each other”.	Pt.I: p. 4.
P253, “Sister and brother”.	Pt.I: p. 4.
P253.2.0.3.1$, “Sister confides in her favorite brother and learns about the outside world through him”.	Pt.I: p. 13 n. 53.
P254.0.1$, “Household composed of only brother and sister(s). They live alone in palace (house, cave, etc.).	Pt.I: p. 15 n. 64.
P610$, “Homosociality: social relations between persons of the same sex”.	Pt.I: p. 13 n. 52.
P7.1$, “Role strain (role conflict): effects of difficult choices between conflicting obligations”.	Pt.I: p. 13 n. 53.
P293.1.1$, Brother adopts his sister’s son.	Pt.I: p. 12 n. 45.
P798.1.0.5$, “Triads revolving around brother and sister as unbalanced (Sethian Syndrome)”.	Pt.I: p. 12 n. 45.
Q244.0.2$, Rape for rape: brother of raped girl gets revenge by violating sister of culprit.	Pt.I: p. 12 n. 45.
Q551.8, “Deformity as punishment”.	Pt.I: p. 8 n. 30.
S24.2$, “Son kills his mother”.	Pt.I: p. 17 n. 75.
T142.1$, Brother and sister marry sister and brother.	Pt.I: p. 13 n. 54.
T145.2.2$, “Second wife taken because first gives birth to females (husband desires a son)”.	Pt.I: p. 5 n. 10.
T300.1$ (formerly, T301.0.1$), “‘Bebrothering’ between man and woman: chaste, brother-sister-like”.	Pt.I: p. 20.
T315.2.6.1$, “Continent husband’s secret: ‘I am a woman like you!’”.	Pt.I: p. 14 n. 61.
T317.5.1$, “Husband and wife in chaste marriage (‘brother-sister-like’) for many years”.	Pt.I: p. 14 n. 61.
T380.2.2$, Isolated dwelling (house, tent, etc.) for virgin.	Pt.I: p. 20 n. 96.
T412, “Mother-son incest”.	Pt.I: p. 3.
T415.3, “Lovers reared as brother and sister learn to their joy that they are not related”.	Pt.I: p. 5.
T479.1$, Eunuch as lover (husband).	Pt.I: p. 14 n. 61.
T586.5.0.1.1$, “Five babies born during five successive days”.	Pt.I: p. 6.
T586.5.0.1$, “Multiple births in the same pregnancy (twins, triplets, quadruplets, etc.), with unusually long time intervals separating the births”.	Pt.I: p. 6.
T587.0.1$, “Twin brother and sister”.	Pt.I: p. 7.
T587.5.2$, “Quasi twin brothers: born at the same time to same father from different mothers”.	Pt.I: p. 18.
T587.5.1$, “Quasi twin brother and sister: son and daughter born at the same time to brothers impregnating their wives on the same night. (Usually the wives are sisters)”.	Pt.I: p. 18.
M146.4.1$, “Brother and brother arrange marriage of their unborn children (paternal-cousins) to each other”	Pt.I: p. 18.
T416$, “Paternal-cousin (bint-Camm) as substitute for sister”.	Pt.I: p. 18.
T106$, “Paternal-cousin is preferred as spouse”.	Pt.I: p. 18.
T611.1.2$, “Twin infant sister and brother nourished by suckling each other’s thumbs”.	Pt.I: p. 8 n. 18.
T616$, “Rearing of children (socialization, enculturation)”.	Pt.I: p. 5 n. 6.
T685, “Twins”.	Pt.I: p. 4.
T685.3, “Twins who look exactly alike”.	Pt.I: p. 5.
U311.0.1$, “Biological drives (primary drives/al-gharâ’iz) motivate everyone. (They are universal)”).	Pt.I: p. 24.
V210.0.1$, “Prophets’s infallibility (Cismah: immunity from errancy)”.	Pt.I: p. 8 n. 20.
W164.2.1.1$ (formerly, W164.2.1$), “Woman attending call of nature slights a man (by immodesty): he abducts her. She apologizes and he ‘bebrothers’ her”.	Pt.I: p. 20.
W251$, “Beliefs (theories) about composition of character (personality). Implicit (folk) Personality theory”.	Pt.I: p. 15 n. 70.

REGISTER OF TALE-TYPES: Pt.I

123C$, Predator (Ogre, Wolf, etc.) Gains Access to Children’s Home on Tree Top. They are rescued by their brother (father).	Pt.I: p. 12 n. 45.
303, The Twins or Blood Brothers.	Pt.I: p. 9.
303A, Six Brothers Seek Seven Sisters as Wives.	Pt.I: p. 9.
303B$, Six Jealous Brothers against their Youngest: to whom Does the Extra Bride Belong?	Pt.I: p. 9.
303C$, The Brothers’s Wager with Princess (Maiden, Woman): Telling an All lies tale (or the like). Only one escapes enslavement.	Pt.I: p. 9.
311C$, The Father Rescues his Abducted Daughter from Magician (Ogre, Witch).	Pt.I: p. 9.
311D$, A Woman is Rescued from Magician (Ogre, Witch) by a Relative Other than her Father or Brother (e.g., rescued by her husband, paternal cousin, fiancé, etc.).	Pt.I: p. 9.
312, The Giant killer and his Dog (Bluebeard). The brother rescues his sisters.	Pt.I: p. 9.
312A, The Brother Rescues his Sister from the Tiger [(Hyena, Ogre, etc.)].	Pt.I: p. 9.
312D, Brother Saves his Sister and Brothers from the Dragon [(Ogre)].	Pt.I: p. 9.
313E*, Girl Flees from Brother who Wants to Marry her.	Pt.I: p. 15.
315, The Faithless Sister. [Treacherous sister conspires with paramour against her brother].	Pt.I: p. 14 n. 58.
318, The Faithless Wife. Batu/Bata: the Egyptian ‘Two Brothers’ Tale”. [The chaste youth severs own organ to show innocence, and is subsequently betrayed by his divine mate (wife)].	Pt.I: p. 9.
318A$, The Man who Lost his Organ and then Regained it. The perfidious (ungrateful) wife.	Pt.I: p. 9 n. 36.
318B$, Murdered Person (Lover, Husband, Brother) Brought Back to Life through Repeated Reincarnations (Transformations).	Pt.I: p. 11n. 40 p.13-14 n. 57, p. 15 n. 65/Afr., n. 67
590, The Prince and the Arm Bands. [Faithless mother conspires with paramour against her son]	Pt.I: p. 14 n. 58.
590A, The Treacherous Wife. [Faithless wife conspires with paramour against her husband]	Pt.I: p. 14 n. 58.
567A, The Magic Bird Heart and the Separated Brothers. [Faithless mother, faithful servant woman], where one of the two brothers rescues the other from enslavement (or the like).	Pt.I: p. 10.
681, King in Bath; Years of Experience in a Moment.	Pt.I: p. 6 n. 16.
705A$, Born from Pregnant Man, Raised by Bird (Animal): the Falcon’s (Kite’s) Daughter. (A man’s mother mutilates his wife and takes her place in bed).	Pt.I: p. 3.
707, The Three Golden Sons. [Cast away infant sister and brother(s) reunited with their parents; treacherous relatives punished].	Pt.I: p. 7, p. 12 n. 50.
707C$, Infants Cast away, (by Jealous Co-wives, Mother in law, Slave, etc.), and Subsequently Reunited with their Parents.	Pt.I: p. 9, p. 12 n. 49.
720, My Mother Slew Me; My Father Ate Me; [My Sister Buried Me]. The Juniper Tree. The boy’s bones transformed into a bird.	Pt.I: p. 11 n. 44, p. 14 n. 63, p. 15 n. 65.
758C$, Origin of Sibling Rivalry: conflict between siblings of the same sex began when one was favored over the other.	Pt.I: p. 11.
762, Woman with Three Hundred and Sixty-five Children.	Pt.I: p. 6.
850A$, Rape for Rape: the Brother Avenges Violation of his Sister. “My Father Aggressed; My Maternal-uncle Redressed”.	Pt.I: p. 12 n. 45.
871B$, Spirits Transport Young Man to Sleeping Girl.	Pt.I: p. 18 n. 84.
792$, Resuscitation in order to Learn Truth (Get Information about Past Events). The tell-tale corpse (mummy).	Pt.I: p. 6 n. 14.
917$, Innocent (Chaste) Man Slandered as Seducer (Rapist): Subsequently Vindicated. (Batu/Baîtî and Anubis’s wife, Joseph and Pharaoh’s wife, etc.).	Pt.I: p.6 n.14, p. 9 n. 36.
931, Oedipus. As foretold by the prophecy, the hero kills his father and marries his mother.	Pt.I: p. 3, 4 n. 2, p. 21
931A$, Oedipus unfulfilled: Mother son Incest Averted.	Pt.I p. 4 n.2.
932B$, A Mother’s own Daughter as her Daughter-in-law; Bride Behaves as a Daughter-in-law. Brother-sister marriage (sister as wife).	Pt.I: p. 13 n. 55.
936A$, Voyages (Adventures) of an Entrepreneur. (Sindbâd the sailor). (Focus).	Pt.I: p. 6 n. 14.
985, Brother Chosen Rather than Husband or Son. [A woman (a sister) may save only one from death].	Pt.I: p. 13 n. 53.
971C$, Insanity (Death) from Death of Beloved Sibling (Brother, Sister).	Pt.I p. 21 n. 99.
1364, The Blood brother’s Wife. [When teller of adulterous adventure discovers that the listener is the woman’s husband he claims it was a dream. His account is thus disregarded].	Pt.I: p. 19.
1469$, Foolish Person Tricked into a Humiliating (Disgraceful) Position.	Pt.I: p. 6 n. 14.
1535, The Rich and the Poor Peasant. (Unibos). [Series of tricks by trickster; disastrous imitations by gullible rival(s)].	Pt.I: p.17 n. 75 78
1645D$, Perilous Journey in Search of Treasure Trove.	Pt.I: p. 6 n. 14.
1920J$, Wager on Self and Property: Telling Tale with no Truth (an All lies tale).	Pt.I: p. 9.