I first remember Sparta and the treatment of disable. Ancient Spartan society involved rule of the state in deciding whether weak children were thrown to Caeadas (Καιάδας).

This purpose of this was to have healthy children, and later on strong warriors.

In early Roman Republic the father's power is absolute to kill, mutilate, or sell his children.

The Hippocrates (~365 BCE) Writings began to show concern for children and a separation of their illnesses from those of adults.

Plato (427 -- 347) and Aristotle have similar positions with spartans. May be less barbarous.

Finally we have to reach modern times to see a real concern for the disables.

I remember also an opinion of a fried of mine. He was saying that "in the old times, especially in the villages, where no doctors or hospitals existed, only the real healthy children were survived. That is a real selection type was working. In the modern times, doctors intervention has as a result that many, essentially disable children survive. This give customers to doctors for all of their lives".

Given the situation that exist in modern societies, I believe that the disables must have rights and have the state's help in order to have regular lives.

Dear Costas, I admire ancient Greek culture. Is there any symbol of changelling in Greek folk stories, fairy tales or the symbol of change within personalities for worse or better ?

Dear Costas,

I have already read an article that children’s skeletons were looked in the countryside of Sparta but nothing was found. This selection treatment could be but a mythical event.

Dear All,

Slightly mad young men are often the heroes of Russian and Hungarian folk tales (ostoba Jemelja = the foolish Jemelja, bolond Istók = the silly Istók). They are generally the youngest sons in the family. I have found similar protagonists in medieval German chronicles.

Dear Andras we also have in Polish folk tradition the youngest Jasiu (Johnny) who was also mainly treated in families as silly boy, but his life changed, because of his cordial nature and helpfulness. Finally he was awarded by his destiny.

Dear All,

In tales and mythology mermaids have no feet, Greek sirens have but a human head and a bird’s body, centaurs have horse bodies, Minotaur has a bull’s head. The little mermaid in the tale of Andersen exchanged her voice for a pair of feet.

Dear @Andras, I will go back to issue you highlited. This is intsresting direction.

Dear @Larisa, very interesting interpretation and source. Your story reminds me mythologized true story of the Stephan Bibrowski (1891–1932) - Lionel, Lion-face Man, Polish circus artist who lived in the beginning of 20th century in Poland, US, Germany. Stephen Bibrowski had genetic condition called hypertrichosis. His whole body was covered with long hair that gave him the appearance of a lion/ Lionel was born in 1891 in Bielsk near Plock in Poland with one-inch hair covering his body.

The folk story behind his life is connected with genesis of his unusual condition. "His mother blamed the condition on the mauling of his father by a lion, which she witnessed while pregnant with Stephan. She considered Stephan an abomination and gave him up to a German impresario named Sedlmayer when he was four. Sedlmayer gave him his stage name and started exhibiting him around Europe" Lionel toured the U.S. with Barnum & Bailey circus, presenting performances on his long, bright hair all over the body. Bibrowski knew five languages" (http://en.wikipedia.org)

Here is more about Stehpan Bibrowski - Lionel http://intothebeautifulnew.tumblr.com/post/30228755498/lionel-the-lion-faced-man

I share Lionel in images by D. Arbus

I would like also add, that probably story of the "Beauty and the Beast" could be inspired by another man with hypertrichosis.

A famous example of a story of diversity with a happy ending comes from Italy with the story of Pinocchio by Carlo Collodi. The character of the wooden puppet who becomes a child through various adventures thanks to the love of his father and inventor, has become a a celebrity all over the world.

Dear Ierardi, of course Pinocchio with his many adventures and naivete is good example.

Dear Beata,

In Russian and Hungarian folk tales limping people (men) or creatures are manifestation of the evil. I note limping coincides often with evil behaviour see the evil maid of the Teutonic Knights in the novel of Henryk Sienkiewicz (Zakon Krzyżacki = Order of the Cross).

Dear Beata,

I cannot think of something right now. When I have something I let you know!

Right, @Andras this negative valorisation was mostly based on fear (similar like in ancient Rome).

But as I remember "The Teutonic Knights" written by our Noblist Henryk Sienkiewicz there were a few treads concerned disabilities and evil made by human beings to another. First was in my opinion trauma caused to Danusia, bride of Zbyszko from Bogdaniec and daughter of Jurand from Spychov. Knights kidnapped Danusia for some time and she was the prisoner. She became sick on some probably psychosis, having hallucinations. After she was freed, she shortly died on unexplained illness.

But there was in the novel another thread with disability, I mean of Jurand from Spychov, who was tortured by the Teutonic Knights. The Knights blinded him, cut out his tongue, mutilated body, but spared life. This is interesting, that Jurand after the release not lost his social position, he was still held in high esteem. Really dramatic but beautiful novel.

In U.S. folklore is a gigantic woodsman Paul Bunyan. Was he suffering from gigantism and acromegaly? That is hard to say, but he also traveled with his big blue (!) gigantic ox Babe. I think Paul and Babe were maybe figures of what is called in English "a tall tale," i.e., an outlandish fantasy.

Dear @Cecilia oh yes, I agree. He was the funniest and the cutiest for all dwarfs, the most delicate.

Dear @Nelson, Yes I agree this Paul Bunyan may be good example for disability associated with appearence abnormality in folklore imagination and pop culture. It is very interesting how was he as character, exept his gigantism ? I'll search online.

Thank you both.

Dear All, speaking of bodily malformations, as Andras and Nelson mentioned I know many examples from polish folklore regarded mermaids. Those half women and half fishes lived in different a various water bodies. Below I share links to two excerpts of Polish legends. First - "Polish legend of the Warsaw Marmaid" and "Jurata - the legend of the Queen of the Batlic" .There is some disability and rare genetic malformation which could be on the ground both stories called sirenomelia: Mermaid Syndrome or another Ichtiosis as skin disease. But in the Polish folk story, these two marmaids were intellectually skillfull and had good and humanistic intentions. They were emotional and were able to share love. In second story entitled "Jurata - the legend of the Queen of the Batlic" - Jurata first wanted to use her powers to drown young fisherman but in fact felt in love with him reciprocatedly. These couple met regularily on the Batlic shore. This is however good key question, how it is happening, that in folk stories men felt in love with women with body malformations (as mermaid syndrome for ex.) accepting them unconditionally ?

http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/classroom/legends/WM1.pdf

http://info-poland.buffalo.edu/classroom/legends/QB1.pdf

I share picture of sculpture of Queen Jurata of Baltic, much idealized, without any corporeality malformations or signs of mermaid.

Dear All, I share and another sirene image from French folklore. This depictes half woman half fish, with probably hormonal disorders and abnormalities, associated with facial hair.

The medieval French image, from about 1463, is extraordinary. Entitled "Une recitation de alcuns monstres" - depicts sirene not as beautiful, powerful, skilful or friend of human beings but rather as weird sea monster. She is depicted much as helpless victim.

I do not know French meaning of word "alcuns" - but description below the image is following: "Dalmatian sea monster". It was painted by Poggio Bracciolini.

http://discardingimages.tumblr.com/

Dear Beata,

Mermaids are enchanted beings, water fairies in tales, so the human male heroes have no difficulty to fall in love with them because they, the mermaids are able to transform their half fish bodies into human anatomy. The tales mention some children of those couples e.g. excerpts of a Swedish fairy tale in the Wonderful journey of Nils Holgersson by Selma Lagerlöf.

Dear Andras, yes good remark about transformations and bodily changes. Thank you Andras, for the reference.

I share interesting image of currently painted baby - changelling called "Mamuna". Mamuna was the other name for changelling in Polish folklore. The artist name is M. Toczydłowska - Talarczyk. The image depicts screaming baby and helpless woman, probably mother. As you see unusual for this stage of development of the baby are teeth. Mother looks much frustrated, in the gesture to give the baby to someone above, or perhaps she is just trying to make the baby calm ?

Dear Beata,

While reflecting on many of these folk figures, especially mermaids and good-hearted giants and dwarfs, I am struck by the fact that small children are blind to what we adults call disabilities or deformities. Such children would break into tears if they were aware that their favorite story figures were somehow "deformed." Children think in terms of archetypes. Paul Bunyan is a "good guy." Therefore there can be nothing wrong with him.

Dear Nelson, nice observations. The same situation is within groups of children in integration classes in our preeschools.They accept easily friends with disabilities. They accept any deformities with a willingness to ask direct questions. For example seeing child on the wheelchair the other preeschool child said: "OK. that's fine let me take a ride, please". It wasn't strange for the child without disabilities to say this to another with visible deformities. He, wasn't afraid.

Dear Nelson, as you know not all folk stories were meant for children. They are cruel too. I always had dilemma If I should read Brothers Grimm to my own children. Despite the values, I finally choosed another fairy tales.

Btw. Dear Nelson, I think that we as adults are much more afraid of otherness than our children.

Dear Beata,

My 5-year-old granddaughter has an astigmatism and so wears glasses unlike most of her classmates. But she feels that she is a "princess" because her daddy said she was, so she thinks that she is perfect. (As her grandfather, I think she is perfect too.)

Dear Nelson, and that's the key point - attitudes and self-esteem is much dependent on parents, as well as attitudes to otherness.

Dear All, here is interesting depiction of the Old Woman from Hansel & Gretel by Brothers Grimm.

I want to emphasize the image of the aged woman, as a bad fairy tales character with disability, drawn in 1909 year in London. The physical disability was highlighted by the crutch. Old Woman looking weird, on the image below, is supporting herself on a crutch. Her physical and sensory disabilities, as well as ugliness wasn't frightened to little children. Perhaps, seeing old lady with the crutch they, could even think of her as needing help.

(source: http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/illustrations/hanselgretel/rackhamhansel2.html )

The deformed old witch has a long tradition extending as far back at least as the Greeks. In myth, the Graeae, or gray women, were three aged sisters with magic powers. They all shared a single eye and a single tooth between them. Perseus stole the single eye to force them to tell him where he could find certain objects which would enable him to slay Medusa.

We should not forget that Shakespeare´s shortest play, "Macbeth," starts out with the dire prophecies of the three Weird Sisters, three witches filling their cauldron with horrible edibles. The whole play is peppered with predictions of misfortune.

Dear Nelson, so is the time for witches now. I wonder if there was any aspect of changes - transformations in witches lives exept "Snow white"?

If they were always ugly, weird and bad charcter witches ? I share depiction of good witch - called sometimes in Poland - "Whisper-woman". She usually whisper magic spells, words, religious sentences, "clear" the people using smoke and make that people have a some sense of control over the world. I share some photo of contemporary Polish witch, photographed by Katarzyna Majak artist, who among others took part in the research project. Artist photographed 29 women in Poland, from different regions, who were engaged in with pagan or neo-pagan Slavic magic.

So, as you can see the woman in the photograph is the depiction rather close to archetype of the old, wise woman. There is nothing demonic in this woman, at first glance. Woman arouses interest and looks a bit unconventionally with child's hairstyle, but still sympathetically.

(source: http://kobieta.interia.pl/kultura/news-wiedzmy-czarownice-uzdrowicielki,nId,983024 )

Dear Larisa, in Polish we have analogous Slavic word "wiedźma" - she who knows.

In Serbian we have a name for it: VEŠTICA! We have a book about this issue!

In the all-time famous children´s movie, "The Wizard of Oz," based on L. Frank Baum´s fairytale about a child´s dream, the villain was the Wicked Witch of the West, played by Margaret Hamilton, a superb actress. In this movie she had green skin and a large aquiline nose. Throughout a fifty year career she used her unusual facial features to play in a wide variety of movie roles. Here is a short video about that actress, with emphasis on her most famous role as the green-skinned witch:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3ta7t91JxSw

Dear All,

I think witches’ real disability in tales is their lack of goodness, a spiritual quality. In Hungarian, witch is boszorkány, banya or vasorrú bába (= a witch with iron nose). This later expression has some relationship with the Russian Baba Jaga, the man eater witch.

Dear Nelson and Andras, interesting witch images. B. Hamilton as Green Witch is plausible. Green color of skin is somehow emphasizing her character. Andras said about some unusual facial detail of Hungarian witch - iron nose. Very interesting depiction. I wonder why iron nose has wicht in Hungarian fairy tales ? Is this kind of disability behind or am I wrong ?

Dear All,

The tale of L. Frank Baum contains many protagonists with a disability: The lion has no courage, the tin man has no heart and the scarecrow cannot think. What do you think which hiatus of these tale heroes may be the most characteristic deficiency in our century?

Dear Beata,

The witch with an iron nose might have been a Siberian idol and perhaps people were sacrificed for “her”. The “iron nose” might have been some role when making bloody sacrifices.

Nice remaks Dear Andras, of L.Frank Baum tale. I agree. I'll read more about this iron nose phenomena.

Here is a modern painting of the fearsome Hindu goddess Kali, with her many arms. We dare not call her extra arms a disability: it is we who are disabled in comparison to divinity.

Dear Nelson, Yes, interesting interpretation.

Dear All, here is some other depictions of old woman in Slavic folklore, mythology and folk stories. It is called Mamuna. Mamunas were somehow believed as involved in causes of disability in the babies. They were also weird jades, from Slavic mythology.

"Mamunas are Slavic demons, which are also known as transform, Babul, also sometimes call it Boginka or Bogunka. They are creatures of the forest, which can meet the night of the bodies of water, such as ponds, lakes, rivers. Normally inhabit the bushes and thickets around these waters, it happens , however, that the place of residence pick a swamp or marsh.

Mamuna arose after the death of old maids, unmarried mothers or mothers who died before birth. Also formed from the souls of dead or abandoned children out of wedlock. And sometimes it was determined simply as the spirits of evil women.

Applications for their appearance are not compatible.

According to some sources, they have the body of a young, beautiful and voluptuous women, who are able to captivate every second a careless man. However, the vast majority describes them as ugly and old wild jade.

Mamuny were the most dangerous for women in the blessed state or freshly baked mothers. Sometimes the shadow stole the infant, which caused him to madness in adult life. The worst of the acts that make plain, it was stealing babies and tossing in their place another child. Here administration are also not compatible. Foundling was to be either a twin like a witch and a demon child or infant goblin, which was relatively easy to recognize by its appearance. Children of Mamuna were in fact usually extremely ugly. His/her body was misshapen, had a big belly, long and thin limbss, and the head was disproportionate to the rest of the body - too big or too small. Their whole bodies were covered with hair, grew their long claws and sharp teeth very quickly".

http://literat.ug.edu.pl/podania/index.htm#spis

I share some depiction of Mamuna (called also Dziwożona)

@Beata, @Andras, we us the term BABA ROGA for BABA YAGA! As kids, we were scared about!

In central Mexican cosmogonical myths, when the gods gathered at Teotihuacan to create the universe for the fifth time, it was Nanahuatzin, a humble god with sores on his body, who had the courage to leap into the sacred fire and emerge as the Sun. Teucciztecatl, who was strong and had offered precious objects at the side of the fire, only managed to sacrifice himself after seeing Nanahuatzin's action; he arose as a second Sun, but another god threw a rabbit in his face to obscure it, so that he became the Moon. This story shows that even a sickly person/god, when possessing the qualities of humility, selflessness, and bravery, can have greater merit than a strong, haughty and wealthy person/god.

For those who read 16th century Spanish (and/or Nahuatl), the Florentine Codex, a primary source with one of the better-known versions of this story, may be consulted here (see vol. 2, folios 228 verso-233 recto [book 7, chapter 2]):*

Sahagún, Bernardino de, “Historia general de las cosas de Nueva España por el fray Bernardino de Sahagún: el Códice florentino,” digital facsimile, in Biblioteca Digital Mundial (http://www.wdl.org/en/item/10096/, updated: November 1, 2012, access: May 11, 2013).

Below is an image from the Borgia Codex that has been interpreted as a representation of Nanahuatzin; notice the deformed extremities (image source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Nanahuatzin.jpg).

* I am using the modern numbers at the bottom of each folio, not the original foliation at the top. If you use the older numbers you won't find the story.

Here is something from central Mexico about witches and babies. Witches (called "brujas" in Spanish, "nzut'i" in Otomí*), in modern and contemporary Otomí culture, crawl on cielings and suck the blood out of babies through strings of saliva. They can be kept out by placing a knife or another sharp object in doorways and window sills. (In the Florentine Codex, mentioned in my last post, it says that in pre-Hispanic times a bowl of water with an obsidian blade was placed at the entrance to the house; the witch would see her reflection in the water, with the blade inside her image, and flee [see vol. 1, folio 352 verso; book 5, appendix, chapter 27].) Witches can turn into large birds, for example turkeys. They fly through the night in the form of luminous balls. Sometimes they detach their legs before flying. Those who find these legs can do various sorts of magic with them. In one story a witch shed her human form by entering a goat through its mouth and emerging through its anus, reversing this operation to become human again, to the horror of the traveller who was spending the night at her remote home. When a baby is found dead in the morning (sudden infant death syndrome?) witches are sometimes blamed. I once heard a skeptical Otomí woman say that she thought the corpulent mother had rolled over on her baby while asleep, rather than accepting the witch hypothesis. There are lots of stories about witches in Otomí oral traditions.

* The letter "u" in nzut'i is supposed to be underlined, but I can't do that here. It is a closed central vowel, about halfway between Spanish "i" and "u". The apostrophe is a glottal stop.

Vulcan, the lame Roman god, is the one most skilled at crafts. However, Mars stole away the affections (and body) of his beloved Venus. In "The Forge of Vulcan" Velázquez depicts Vulcan with a twisted body, showing horror as Mercury tells him of Mars´s antics with Venus. What I love about this painting are the expressions of shock in Vulcan´s young helpers in the foreground. My two sons love this painting for the strength of character shown in all the figures present. The colors and flesh tones are also skillfully rendered.

Dear @Ljubomir, you are right, Baba Jaga - this was she, exactly. This nose, nails, and smile. I read some good anthropological research of Polish weird old women living in the southern villages in Poland. Researcher A. Perzanowski in his research report from 2008 introduced the touching images of these ladies, sometimes with intellectual problems, many times very hard, and unbelievably bad, experienced in life, before they became stigmatized as "weird" by communities. Researcher explored oral stories about these women living after second ww. The image you posted gives me some impression of portraits of old women, I read about in his report.

Dear @David, your both examples are great and making me more interested in Mexican mythology. Thank you also for unusual Otomi stories.

Dear @Nelson, thank you for this sublte depiction of disability in Velasquez art. No doubt, how much my scientific discipline owes Velasquez.

As a postscript to the story of the creation of the Sun and the Moon in the sacred fire at Teotihuacan, I should mention that there really is a rabbit in the face of the Moon, as native Mexicans point out to this day. With a good telescope (or by mouse-clicking on the attached image) you can even see his eye! (:o )

Image source: http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Conejo_en_la_Luna.png

Dear David, thank you. I'll respond to your interesting image and mysterious rabbit issue on Thursday, when I'll be back from the conference.

Dear all, have good time.

Dear Beata, here is the link to web site where the picture originates from! It might be a good link for some contributor/follower of this thread!

http://mdiw.weebly.com/witches.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lak6Q0WI_hI

Http://elcuentodesdemexico.com.mx/la-parabola-del-joven-tuerto

One of the most discouraging insights that can be gleaned from Fairy Tales is the battle of Beautiful Vs. Ugly. In analyzing the movie of Snow White, while she is beautiful, her treatment to the 7 dwarfs is one of a superior dealing with disabled children, very condescending and bossing them around constantly, making them wash their hands, behave properly at the table, and taking advantage of their hospitality. There is also her passive victory over her evil stepmother in which she gets the prince while the witch- in her ugly form- falls off a cliff. (I can make an equally convincing argument that she is killed because she is an independent woman whereas Snow White waits for Marriage, but maybe next time. )

However my point in all this is the easy lesson learned is that Beauty always wins. Every evil and ugly stepmother meets with some horrible fate while the princess wins by being pretty-I can even throw Rumplestiltskin in this mix because he appeared as a small man who offered help to the Miller's Daughter and she tricks him out of the deal.

The Evil stepsisters-in the Grim Fairytale go so far as to cut off their toes and their heels in order to fit into the glass slipper, however Cinderella still gets the Prince and her birds peck out the sister's eyes. In the Grim version of Snow White, the stepmother is forced to put on iron shoes heated over hot coals and dance until she is dead.

Transgressing into Greek myths, Hephaestus (Vulcan) was briefly mentioned, and he is considered one of the more kind gods however Ares is constantly sleeping with his wife. Thankfully he is not as passive, and he is able to trap Ares in the act and humiliate him, but it is a constant battle that he can only gain small victories. Hephaestus is only deformed in the first place because he tries to intercede on Hera's behalf during her arguments with Zeus and Zeus literally throws him out of Olympus. Zeus is usually the one at fault because he is having coitus with multiple nymphs and human women, however Hephaestus, the one who tries to bring the peace is the one that is ultimately punished.

Dear Augustin, please write some comments to links you shared.

Martin Luther believed in changelings and indicated that he had witnessed the destruction of a changeling. Luther pronounced that it was not sinful to kill a changeling because they did not have souls. In modern times scientists and ethicists have replaced the notion of a soul with new constructs. So biothicists like Joseph Fletcher and Peter Singer have stated that is morally acceptable to kill a severely disabled child because it is not a "person." So the changeling myth was perpetuated in Christianity as and then in the scientific age into secular ethics, but it is really still the same fairytale that claims that severely disabled children are in some way alien as nonhumans or nonpersons and therefore not protected as human persons.

Dear Dick, thank you for contribution. I know horrible, published in distingushed journals, concepts of Peter Singer, who reminds me eugenicists from the beginning of the 20th century in US or Germany.

Very nice question.

It makes me think of the numerous stories and songs in Anglo, Scandic and Germanic folk (with which I am most familiar) where fear makes the protagonist perceive a witch or frog, and loving or kissing makes them change into a beautiful, lovable partner.

Dear Gert, please share stories you had in mind. Thank you.

Tiresies from Greek myth was a prophet and was blinded by the gods (either for revealing their secrets or seeing Athena naked depending on the myth). There’s also the one-eyed Cyclops Polyphemus, who captures Odysseus. Odysseus blinds Cyclops in order to escape. In Norse mythology, there is the blind God Höðr who gets tricked by Loki into killing the God of happiness. And who could forget the three blind mice, or the parable of the blind men and the elephant?

There’s a Bolognese tale of Tabagnino the Hunchback who saves a town by outwitting an ogre.

There’s a whole classification of myths where someone is forced to wed an animal, who is actually a human that has been cursed into animal form. Some are born in the cursed shape, others are transformed by curses later on in life. A couple of examples are Beauty and the Beast, the Frog Princess: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Prince_Who_Married_a_Frog and Hans the Hedgehog: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hans_My_Hedgehog Some are able to leave the animal skin at night, and would be able to break the curse if the animal skin is burned, for others the burning of the animal skin keeps them trapped in a curse that the spouse would just have held out a little longer and learned to love them and accept them anyways.

Arthurian legends have Sir Gawain who is forced to find the answer to the question of “what women most desire” in order to avoid being slain. After repeated failures to find the answer, he marries an ugly hag to get the answer, which she says is “the ability to make their own decisions”. After the marriage, she reveals that she can turn into a beautiful woman, but for only half the day. She says she can let Gawain choose whether she will be beautiful during the day when others will see her, or at night when they will be alone together. Remembering his lessons well, he lets her decide. This breaks the curse and she is able to be beautiful both day and night.

There’s the tale of Three deaf men from Indian folklore: http://www.worldoftales.com/Asian_folktales/Indian_folktale_40.html

And the four deaf persons tale from Ceylon:

http://www.wisdomlib.org/south-asia/book/village-folk-tales-of-ceylon-volume-1/d/doc6854.html

The Phillipino culture has myths about a Tikbalang, which is a usually malevolent) forest creature that has both human and animal features, and can shapeshift . It delights in tricks and leading travelers astray, and is said to come from aborted fetuses.

Māui from Māori mythology is also a trickster type. He is considered the product of abortion because his mother gave birth to him prematurely and cast him into the ocean. In Māori culture, it is thought that the spirits of aborted fetuses tend to become malevolent or trickster in some way. Māui ended up doing some pretty helpful stuff, though, such as discovering the secret of fire, catching the North island of New Zealand when he went fishing, and extending the length of days.

Sihuanaba, La Siguanaba, Cigua or Cegua are all names for a supernatural creature in Central American mythology that takes the form of an attractive woman (or sometimes the man’s girlfriend), who leads men into danger before reverting to her natural, more hideous form. In some myths, she targets unfaithful men, drunken men, or disobedient children. She may also lure children by appearing to be the child’s mother. Once she touches the child, it causes madness. There’s a similar pattern of beauty, luring and hideousness for the South American myths of the Patasola, who is a one-legged creature that sucks blood like a vampire.

The Ippon-datara from Japan is another one-legged spirit.

There are many myths of sea-dwelling fishwomen that lure men to drowning, like the rusalka of Slavic mythology. These are the spirits of women who are being punished for having children out of wedlock, dying near a river or lake, women who committed suicide after being jilted by lovers, people who die violently before their time, or unbaptized children.

There is Kuchisake-onna in Japanese legends, a woman who was mutilated by her husband and returns as a malicious spirit. She appears wearing a surgical mask, and asks the child "Am I pretty?": the child’s answer determines whether they will be killed with scissors, cut in half, have their mouths mutilated, or confuse her into letting the child slip away while she ponders what the answer means.

Mmm. That's not so easy. Let me see.

From England there is the folk band Steeleye Span who did a song King Henry: http://www.lyrics007.com/Steeleye%20Span%20Lyrics/King%20Henry%20Lyrics.html

From my childhood I know the fairy tale of the enchanted prince loooking like a frog, parodied a.o. in Shrek - but I cannot find out who the author was, if known. it does not figure in the lists I see on the Web. I'd think mother goose (French), but cannot confirm.

A less enchanted version is in a folk song "le mariage Anglais" by French band Malicorne, where the daughter of the French king is taken to marry the abhorrent English prince: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NJ3rqMEhY8Q

In Sweden, Peer Gynt has a baby with a Troll girl, and it's a horrid changeling.

There is a rather horrid song "een rijke boer" by a Dutch folk band about a girl whose father thinks she's illicitly pregnant, but in reality she is bewitched and possessed by snakes http://www.sweetslyrics.com/866965.Fungus%20-%20rijke%20boer.html .

In Sweden in 1976 a band Folk og Rackare sang a song 'Herr Olov og havsfruen' in which a fierce mermaid from whom he shies away at first, but who lures him into her bed, and turns him into a lover.

Ok - so these are some tales and medieval songs with the thematic slant i was referring to. Have fun with them!

By the way, Harry Potter is also full of animaguses, and I guess you could go on and on...

Dear Genna and Gert, thank you very much for comprehensive and deeply interesting contributions. :))

Let´s not forget the demonization of leprosy in biblical texts. The physical deformations to which this disease submitted sufferers caused so much repugnance, that the only treatments accorded lepers were segregation from the society at large and seclusion together. Likewise, some of the most applauded miracles of Jesus were his cure of lepers. One could not call the Bible a series of folk tales, but certainly many folktales derived from biblical sources.

Dear Larisa,

Thank you, as always, for correcting my ignorance! How could I have forgotten, for instance, that the world flood was a prebiblical myth, swirling around Semitic subconsciouses for centuries before Noah came into being? Or that the serpent had arms and legs before his lies to Eve led to the punishment of their removal, according to folk legend? Could he have been a forerunner of the changeling legends? Or that Adam had a first wife Lilith, whose rebelliousness made her the precursor of all witches of the world?

I just published (Egypt and autism) have a look http://www.springerreference.com/index/chapterdbid/364278 19 May 2014 11:33

© Springer-Verlag Berlin Heidelberg 2014

Thank you dear Nagwa, I'll try to get access to your text. Seems very interesting.

Marvelous thread.

Undoubtedly there are certain myths of this type that transcend cultures. Nevertheless, their historical specificity needs to be identified too, especially if you are looking at them in the light of such a cultural variable as disability. I have tried to do this with "intellectual" (as distinct from physical) disability, which is a Western cultural construct belonging specifically to the late medieval period onwards (see chapter on "The Wrong Child" in my book A History of Intelligence and "Intellectual Disability": The Shaping of Psychology in Early Modern Europe, Ashgate 2011). You may also need to be careful about what exactly is a folk story. Jack Zipes is a leading anthropologist in this area, and perhaps you have seen his book The Brothers Grimm (London, 1989)? He seems to say that all their "folk" tales are in fact derived from literary sources, not oral ones. Good luck.

Dear Chris, thank you for brilliant reference of yours. I bookmarked your papers findig them very interesting, in a broad and deep cultural contexts you analyzes the intellectual disability or disability. I'll read them. Thanks a lot, for letting me know about your publications and comment.

Hephaestus.

Tricksters and wise fools.

Verb based cultures do not label people as noun based cultures do. Everyone has gifts and challenges and is in the process of transformation and recovery.

In: "Disability & Deafness In the Middle East, A Bibliography: comprising materials with technical, cultural and historical relevance to child and adult impairments, disabilities and deafness, incapacity, mental disorders, special needs, social and educational responses and rehabilitation; partly annotated. Revised and updated version, June 2008".

http://cirrie.buffalo.edu/bibliography/mideast/index.php

See:

GRANQVIST, Hilma (1947) Birth and Childhood among the Arabs. Studies in a Muhammadan Village in Palestine. Helsingfors: Söderström; Copenhagen: Munksgaard. 289 pp.

GRANQVIST H (1950) Child Problems among the Arabs. Studies in a Muhammadan Village in Palestine. Helsingfors: Söderström; Copenhagen: Munksgaard. 336 pp.

Substantially referenced studies, with village women's accounts. See e.g. beliefs about 'changelings' pp.102-104. Granqvist was concerned to throw modern light on literature from earlier times.

See also:

Footnote [9] below, in: Miles, M. (2005) "Martin Luther and Childhood Disability in 16th Century Germany: What did he write? What did he say?" Revised and extended version of a paper first published in the Journal of Religion, Disability & Health (2001), vol. 5 (4) pp. 5-36, here reproduced with permission.

http://www.independentliving.org/docs7/miles2005b.html

[9] The French ecclesiastical historian Baudouin de Gaiffier (1967) traced stories of baby substitution back to the 10th or 11th centuries in Southern Europe, with both manuscript and artistic representation. One tells of the birth of St. Stephen, son of Antiochus and Perpetua, at Cana of Galilee in the time of Caesar Augustus. The baby was supposedly stolen by Satan, and a substitute placed in its cot ("ydolum in eius lectulo colocavit", p. 182); but the evil was overcome by the end of the tale. (See also Schmitt, 1983, 74-80).

Widespread historical traditions involving babies 'stolen' and 'substituted' may originate primarily within the intimate and little-recorded world of mothers, grandmothers, midwives, aunts and sisters, where watchful eyes have noticed that an infant, who was thriving and progressing through the traditionally expected sounds and movements of early childhood, has changed to one with indifferent colour, lack of response to stimuli, faltering progress, inconsolable cries. Sometimes the change is dramatic, within hours; in other cases, a week or two passes before one woman glances meaningfully at another and a question is raised. A paediatric researcher might now measure temperature, test blood and urine, identify the virulent infection that raised a high fever and left permanent cerebral damage, or some other biological mechanism; but in much of the world's domestic history the thriving infant has clearly been 'taken away' and replaced by a crying, sickly ghost. The casting of an evil eye, the fall of moonlight on the babe's unprotected head, the action of elves in changing the loved child for an unlovable thing, are possible explanations. In the supposedly 'modern, scientific' world, parents still report, e.g. that, "We took him for his second immunisation, and that night he was unsettled. Next morning, he was a different child." Explanation of the process may be very different, but the parents may still feel their child was stolen.

DE GAIFFIER, Baudouin (1967) Diable, Voleur d'enfants. Subsidia Hagiographica, no. 43. Brussels: Société des Bollandistes.

SCHMITT, Jean-Claude (1983) The Holy Greyhound. Guinefort, healer of children since the thirteenth century, transl. M. Thom. Cambridge UP.

[Kindly excuse, if this transfer does not fit well -- I'm using the system for the first time, and should perhaps have practised with a briefer response!]

miles

On remarks by András Bozsik, re the Spartans supposedly throwing weak children over a cliff, and possibility of this being mythical, there is a detailed and heavily referenced article by Mark Huys (1996) The Spartan practice of selective infanticide and its parallels in ancient utopian tradition. Ancient Society 27: 47-74, concluding that evidence for the practice is pretty weak.

Bozsik also mentions various 'fool' stories across Europe, in which the weak-minded or half-witted person gets a (pre-Facebook) life, has some fun at the expense of more respectable society, etc. Similar tradition also exists across the Middle East and South Asia, e.g. stories of Mullah Nasruddin, and of 'Lull the Idiot'. One such story, from an English source, ca. 1700: The fool stands outside the baker's shop, unwilling to pay for a bun, but at least enjoying the smell of fresh baking. The baker has him arrested for stealing the smell. Hauled in front of the judge, the fool takes out a bag with some tiny coins in it, and jingles them together. "What do you hear?" he asks the baker. "The sound of money!" "That's fair payment for the smell of food!" The judge bangs his gavel: "Case dismissed!"

Going further East, I did not find mention of changelings while compiling a book-length study on “Buddhism and Responses to Disability, Mental Disorders and Deafness in Asia. A bibliography of historical and modern texts with introduction and partial annotation, and some echoes in Western countries” :

www.independentliving.org/miles2014a

Another notable Polish cultural anthropologist got into this bibliography, with some useful remarks on the wisdom of ordinary folk and their beliefs:

TOKARSKA-BAKIR, Joanna (2000) Naive sensualism, 'docta ignorantia'. Tibetan liberation through the senses. Numen 47: 69-112.

Professor Tokarska-Bakir, Polish cultural anthropologist, historian of popular religiosity across Europe and South Asia, and critical analyst of ways in which post-Enlightenment European Man might sometimes be less enlightened than he likes to imagine, produced this article of considerable erudition, while recognising that the intellectual heritage to which it belongs has a strong tendency to misunderstand or entirely overlook the truths that are open to the non-reflective spontaneity of children and the naively-believing majority of adults in many parts of Europe and Asia. [Incidentally, it provides a further critique of the overwhelmingly print-confined 'textual' orientation of the present bibliography, when the historical South Asian preference has been to revere the living, meticulously memorised, and carefully spoken Word from ancient authorities, and to regard the dead, fixed, and easily corrupted scroll or book as an inferior medium!] The initial focus is on the range of supposedly naive, 'superficial' Tibetan Buddhist practices, giving an idle whirl to the prayer wheel, repeating mantras a hundred thousand times, plodding stupidly round stupas, kissing or stroking the feet of religious statues, tasting or smelling special foods, herbs or dedicated substances. Such practices (and their equivalents across the human world), beginning with the physical and pointing toward the spiritual, are more readily accessible to 'the masses', the great majority of humankind who make up the average, below average, and substantially limited, on the 'intelligence spectrum' (as devised and measured by the 'above average'). Modern writers believing themselves to be part of a 'Great Tradition' or 'High Culture' smile pityingly at the local traditions and 'folk cultures'; yet a turn of a different wheel may bring down the foolishly proud. Perhaps there is a spectrum of wisdom hidden behind the 'stupidly innocent', unselfconscious surface of folk belief. The philosopher-activist Simone Weil "unexpectedly lends her support to the idea of the religiosity of liberation through the senses", and Tokarska-Bakir rides with Thomas Merton, and with Weil's analysis, through some difficulties of modern European religious philosophy, finding parallels between crazy Tibetan teachers and earlier Jewish and Christian hermits, heretics, and halfwits. (Fortunately, T-B is kind enough to lighten the Grand Tour with a series of hilarious tales about holy simpletons, some of whom managed to see the universe in a blade of grass, while others at least knew what to do with a plate of food for which the temple statue showed no appetite. Further, she generously allows that even intellectuals may find grace, if not completely deluded by their own cleverness).