- Genre
- Etiological legend
- Source status
- folkloric
- Motifs
- mistreated animal, request for help, origin of horns
The story
When God made the ram, it had no horns. Other animals mistreated it, and it had nothing with which to defend itself.
At last the ram went to God and asked for some means of protection. It explained the wrongs it had suffered and showed why it needed help.
God listened and gave the ram a pair of horns. It has worn them ever since.
Reading the story
Here horns answer the plea of a vulnerable creature. This short version contains no contest or punishment: a bodily feature becomes a defence.
The notes to the 1967 edition cite the earlier source Mūsų tautosaka IX (1935), no. 202. That reference supplies no separate recording place or date.
Source and retelling
Lietuvių tautosaka, IV (1967), Nr. 349, p. 433: „Avino ragai“; PDF p. 432. An original retelling of the recorded traditional narrative cited here. The sequence of events and ending are retained in modern language.