Part 2 of How NOT to Get a Wife: Stealing Skins

Myths of very different cultures contain the theme of the human male acquiring a wife of non-human origin by stealing her property and then withholding information from her. Three folktales from Chad, Sweden and Scotland all share these elements:

• An human man.
• A wild animal who becomes a woman after shedding her skin.
• The man steals the skin of the animal-woman.
• Unable to return to her animal form, she stays and becomes the man's wife.
• The animal-wife eventually finds the stolen skin and leaves the marriage.