The Little Bull-Calf

Monkeys climbed the tree after him, and the boy squeezed the cheese, claiming it was flint; when they saw the whey, they retreated.

In his 1987 guide to folktales, folklorist D. L. Ashliman classified the tale, according to the international Aarne-Thompson Index, as type AaTh 511A, "The Little Red Ox".

[11] Thompson supposed that the tale type originated from Oriental tradition, and variants exist across Europe, in India, and in North and Central Africa.

[12] Similarly, according to Hasan M. El-Shamy, type 511A is reported in Southern Africa[13] and in South Arabia, and is "widely" present in the Arab and Berber cultural areas.

[14] In regards to the European distribution of the tale type, Swedish scholar Waldemar Liungman [sv] proposed a transmission from Balkanic Countries "west of the Black Sea" to the Baltic Countries, and from there it diffused to the Soviet Union, Denmark, Norway, Island and Ireland.

[1] According to Norwegian folklorist Reidar Thoralf Christiansen's 1950 article, Swedish scholar Anna Birgitta Rooth, in her work on Cinderella, separated five redactions of the cycle; the fifth redaction, which she termed "C", features a boy and a helpful animal.

He recognized a wide variety in the second part of the tale, but, in Irish tradition, it continues as "The Dragon-slayer".

[18] Similarly, Greek scholars Anna Angelopoulou and Aigle Brouskou, editors of the Greek Folktale Catalogue, state the tale type is marked by two "key motifs": the ox as the hero's nurturer and the tree that sprouts on its grave.

[19] In the same vein, French folklorists Paul Delarue and Marie-Louise Ténèze noted that the tale type features a male hero and, as "characteristical motifs", the nurturing animal and the tree grown from the animal's body parts.