Mrs. Wilsons True Tales Retold

(corresponding to “Granny Goody’s Hairy Lips”) If my tale of “Granny Goody’s Hairy Lips” may be off-putting by some of its imagery, the tale of “Panther and Lynx,” upon which it is based, shall seem grotesque. A lynx and panther lose the fire they keep and Lynx goes out to steal some. He finds an old woman with fire. He steals a firebrand from her. When he does, the old woman notices it and spreading her legs, she looks at her vulva and accuses it of taking the firebrand, and strikes her vulva with another firebrand. This is very strange. In the end a series of grizzly bears, who are the old woman’s sons, seek out the lynx to punish him for taking the firebrand. By our understanding of the normal grammar of myth, some of this is not difficult to address. Animals in fables are a motif we have heard, and in the first instance this seems a classic tale, the theme of the taking and making of fire. This much we can make out. But the old woman striking her vulva with a firebrand and accusing it of taking fire