C961.5. Person transformed into an anthill (WTF - Weird Things in Folktales)

Welcome to my A to Z Challenge blog series titled WTF - Weird Things in Folktales! Find the introduction post (explaining the theme) here. Find all other participating blogs in the comments of each day's post on the main blog! You can also follow us on Twitter and Facebook.

The C category in the Folktale Motif Index stands for Taboo: Things that heroes in stories are not allowed, or not supposed, to do (for example "C50 - Offending the gods"), and also things that happen to people when they do the things they shouldn't. Case in point:

C961.5. Transformation to anthill for breaking tabu

I found this weird little moment in a folktale from the Thadou people in India, titled The Magic Fiddle. It is part of a longer tale than involves seven pregnant women, a blind king, a horned owl, some goat blood, and yes, a magic fiddle.

Thadou dresses are apparently
very beautiful, by the way
(Photo from Wiki Commons)

Aaaanyhow, at one point the hero of the story witnesses the seven daughters of God coming down to a spring to bathe, and immediately falls in love with one of them. This is not an unusual occurrence - in fact, it is very common for folktale heroes around the world to grab a wife by stealing items of clothing (seal skins, feather cloaks, silken scarves, etc.) of bathing women, and then blackmailing them into marriage. So much so that it - badumm! - even has its own motif number ("F302.4.2. Fairy comes into man's power when he steals her wings (clothes)").

But. You will not believe what happens next!

Madly in love with the youngest daughter of God, the boy snatches her petticoat off the rack, and runs away with it. Noticing that a stranger just made off with her underwear, the girl yells after him: "Hey! You! I had diarrhea last night and my petticoat is soiled!" The boy immediately stops in slight panic to look at the garment - and turns into an anthill.

Well, some time later the hero's aunt and uncle realize he is not coming back, so they go out looking for him. They dig up the inconspicuous anthill, and in the middle of it they find their nephew, "tiny and tender like the hidden leaf-bud in the centre of the stem of a plantain tree." They bring a fan, and fan him until he grows back to his normal state.

The story goes on for several more pages - notably, the second time he steals the petticoat, the girl tries the same trick, but it doesn't work, and they have to get married. Still, good for her for the first time. That was some pretty quick thinking.

(Find the full story here.)

Runner-ups
C152.2. Tabu: refusing unreasonable demand of pregnant woman
C165. Tabu: marriage with person whose blood one has drunk
C181.4. Tabu: women not to climb on roof
C227.1. Why cannibalism is out of vogue
C281. Tabu: drinking without presence of dead heads
C461. Tabu: bearded man laughing when shaken
C568.1. Tabu: poets to be ignorant of national literature
C662. One must eat "death vegetable" whenever one sees it
C942.1. Loss of magic strength by smoking
C948.3. Tongue of woman who breaks tabu protrudes and entwines itself around a post in the home