| Motif | Name | Description |
| a23 | Elections of the Sun to be | The primeval ancestors come together to choose the best candidate to become the Sun and/or to send the Sun to the sky or to see how the Sun rises to the sky for the first time |
| a32 | Figure on lunar disc | A figure or an imprint of some being or object are seen in the Moon. (For statistical analysis motifs A32A – A32J are also included into A32) |
| a32b1 | Jumps on the face of the Moon | A woman sits (jumps) on the face (back) of the Moon man and now is seen as the shadows on the lunar disc |
| a32d | Man in the Moon | Human being or imprint of human being is seen in the moon |
| a32e | Person with an object in hands | Person who holds some object in his or her hands is seen in the moon (rare: in the sun) |
| a32f | Water-carrier in the Moon | Person who went to fetch water and/or holds in hands a container for liquid is seen in the moon |
| a47 | The Sun is born from an egg | The Sun is born or created from an egg |
| a5 | The Sun and the Moon are males | The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (much more rare) asexual |
| b1g | The transformers: four brothers | Four travelling brothers transform the world, annihilating monsters, changig the habits and appearance of different creatures and acquiring valuables (water, fire, cultivated plants and the like). Usually one of them is the main actor, and they often have one name for all the four |
| b28 | Travelling transformer | The transformer walks along coming across different persons and creatures, transforming them into birds, animals, stones, shrines, etc. (or transforming monstrous animals into present day ones) and introducing cultural norms, landscape features, etc. |
| b2e | The male earth | The earth or the world as a whole is a male person (alone or together with a female person) |
| b36 | Creatures acquire their physical traits | Birds, fish, reptiles, mammals intentionally or by chance are smeared with colorful substances or divide among themselves parts of somebody's body thus acquiring their present characteristics |
| b37 | Creatures are made appear as they are now | Person decorates different birds (rare: fish), share fat between anomals. Since then, the corresponding species acquire present characteristics |
| b3b | Earth grows big | Original earth was small and later increased in size or the fertile soil grew from a small amount of original substance |
| b42 | Cosmic hunt | Certain stars or constellations are interpreted as hunters, their dogs and game that the hunters pursue |
| b42c | Sky hunters pursue a bear | In the cosmic hunt tale the game pursued by the hunters is a bear |
| b42g | Ursa major is a game animal(s) | Ursus major (seven stars or only four stars of a dipper) is identified with the game animal or anmials (usually pursued by the hunter) |
| b42p | Ursa major is a bear | Ursa major is identified with a bear |
| b44a | Council on seasons: units of time | Animals (Melanesia: persons) discuss the number of discrete units of time that should be in a certain calendar period or in the night |
| b44b | Council on seasons: toes, claws, hairs, feathers | Toes, claws, feathers, hairs, color stripes, etc. are counted and compared to establish the number of period of time or particular way of alternation of periods |
| b44c | Should warmth and light exist? | It is discussed if darkness or light, cold or warm periods should exist |
| b44e | Dispute of ancestors | The primeval ancestors (usually birds and animals) participate in discussion concerning the desired predominance or wamth/light or cold/darkness, number of the units of time in a tempoi cycle, etc. |
| b45 | Marriage of winter and summer | A coming of warm (light, abundant, etc.) or cold (dark, barren, etc.) time is related to the marriage of certain person |
| b48 | Predators become herbivorous | Weak or herbivorous animals were dangerous predators but have been transformed |
| b50 | Whose blood is sweeter? | An insect feeds on human blood (flesh). Dangerous person asks it where it had sucked blood or whose blood (flesh) is the most delicious. Usually the insect lies or cannot answer (its tongue is cut off) and thanks to this dangerous person attacks certain plants or animals and not people |
| b51 | Mosquito and thunder | Thanks to intentional misinformation, Thunder did not get know that
bloodsucking insect has sucked human blood
|
| b64 | The bony fish | Bones of fresh-water fish are result of a fighting or military expedition. The bones are arrows that have pierced the fish bodies (gill openings are pierced by arrows) or the small bones are fragments of originally big ones |
| b64c | Small bones: fish fall from the sky | Fish in company of other earth dwellers ascend to fight with the sky dwellers. They fall to earth and break their bones. Since then there are many small bones in the fish |
| b69 | Chipmunk's back scratched: hence his stripes | To thank or to punish a small mammal like chipmunk or (ground) squirrel, animal or person scratches or paints it producing stripes on its back |
| b69 | Chipmunk's back scratched: hence his stripes | To thank or to punish a small mammal like chipmunk or (ground) squirrel, animal or person scratches or paints it producing stripes on its back |
| b85 | Wind pacified | Wind is too strong, hero makes it to blow more calmly |
| b85b | Bag of winds | Wind was or is in a particular enclosure (bag, cave, etc.). It was released from it or comes out from time to time |
| b92 | Flint person turns into flints | Person whose body is extraordinary hard and invulnerable or (rare) a small object is broken to pieces that turn into flints or other hard stones (the origin of flints) |
| b97 | Grateful person makes the bird pretty | Grateful person decorates (rare: punishes) a bird who lives near water (kingfisher, loon, goose), thence its appearance (crest, beak, feathers) |
| c2 | Deluge and conflagration combined | Inhabitans of the Middle World are (partly) destroyed (or will be destoyed) once by fire or draught, another time by a flood or the world is destroyed with a flood of fire or boiling water |
| c6 | Valuables brought from the lower world | Persons or animals dive or otherwise decend to the lower world to get a desired object and to bring it to earth (besides episodes in the fairytales, cf. motif k27x9) |
| c6c | The diver is a bird | An aquatic bird dives and brings the desired object from the bottom |
| c6c3 | The loon is successful diver | The loon dives and brings a piece of earth (a blade of grass etc.) that is transformed into the dry land or it brings other object which everybody is eager to get (the loon is the only or the only successful diver) |
| c6f | Diving for drowned person | Persons or animals dive to get from under the water a drowned person or creature or part of its body |
| d4a | Theft of fire | Fire is stolen from its original owner or brought back to the people from somebody who had stolen it before |
| d4c | Acquisition of summer | Warm season is obtained from its original owners |
| d4e | Coyote or fox obtain fire | Coyote or fox bring people the fire, the daylight or the Sun |
| d4i | Beaver obtains fire | Beaver steals fire for people |
| e10 | Pets turn into children | A lonely woman or married couple surprises childred who live nearby in guise of animals (plants, objects). After this the children preserve their human guise |
| e1b | Person of unfit materials | Certain person is made of improper material and proves to be short-lived or unfit for fulfilling his functions |
| e30 | The make-believe spouse of wood | Person does not have a spouse, uses wooden fakes for his wife or her husband |
| e30a | Make-believe spouse replaced with alive person | Person does not have a spouse, uses wooden fakes for his wife or her husband till alive person comes to replace it |
| e8 | People of wood | The first people or (the first) woman (wife of a primeval ancestor) are made of wood |
| e9c | Ungulate animal-wife | A man marries a woman who initially has guise of an ungulate animal (buffalo, elk, derr, etc.) |
| f10 | Vaginal teeth knocked out | Woman has another toothed mouth (usually in vagina) or biting animals in vagina. Man inserts there a stone, bone, stick, etc. breaking or knocking out the teeth or extracting from there dangerous animals |
| f16 | Men and women: exchange of anatomical characteristics | Initially men possessed women's biological traits and vice versa (beard, menses, breasts, bearing children) |
| f18a | The long penis | Penis is so long that he can turn it round his waist or send into a woman who is at a long distance from him. (Only texts considered to describe real events and beings and not anecdotes are included) |
| f18c | Girls at the opposite bank | Seeing a girl on the opposite bank of a river, person uses tricks to have sex with her: sends his long penis, transforms his penis into a bridge or a dam, dives and copulates with a girl from under the water |
| f25 | Origin of menses: girl smeared with blood | Woman is smeared with blood or red paint. Since then women menstruate |
| f28d | Artificial conception | Woman conceives after masturbating with an artificial penis |
| f33 | Water creature paramour | Certain woman or a group of women take for paramour a big water animal (caiman, otter, sea-lion, whale, anaconda; rare: water bird, crab), water spirit or monster. Husbands, brothers or (adoptive) children kill or maim paramour and/or (sometimes) the woman |
| f34b | The paramour is not a human being | A girl (a woman, a group of women) intentionally takes a penis-being, a snake, an eel, a lizard, a worm, a big water animal or water monster or a big terrestrial mammal for paramour. People kill or maim the paramour, the woman and/or her progeny or she is transformed herself into an animal. She is blamed for her behavior |
| f35 | Feeding with the paramour’s meat | Person feeds another with the meat of his or her sexual partner who cooks or eats it without knowing whose meat it is |
| f35a | Feeding with the kin’s meat | Person does not know that he or she eats or cooks the meat of the member of his or her household (blood relation, more rare a spouse or servant) or serves it to his or her friends, or uses her or his bones for everyday needs, or slowly kills him ort her |
| f49 | The abnormal birth | Cesarean operation upon a woman at childbirth as a custom |
| f58 | Trickster and women | A man cohabits with a group of women (or with several women in succession) concealing his identity and/or intentions. He is either eventually exposed and punished by women or escapes to continue his tricks |
| f60 | Trickster cures maiden | A girl gets sick. A man comes to cure her but only copulates with her or makes an attempt to do so |
| f61 | Trickster rapes a woman who carries him on her back | A man pretends to be weak, ill or injured, asks a woman to carry him on her back. When she agrees, he makes attempt to copulate with her |
| f64 | The lecherous parent | Person changes his or (rare) her guise to marry his or her close relative in descending or (rare) ascending line |
| f64a | Describes future husband | Going away or pretending to die, a person bids his or her relative to marry another person who resembles him (her) or has some special traits; or he describes a man who should be met as a dear guest; person comes himself unrecognized and is taken for one whom he had described |
| f65 | The false burial | To realize his or her secret desire (illicit sex, refusal to share food with relations), person pretends to die and is abandoned at a burial place |
| f83 | News precede man | Person commits something shameful, obscene. Presumably, nobody could see him doing it. When he asks people, "What's the news?", they answer that so-and-so (this person) has done such a thing |
| f86 | Conditional signal | Person summons with a certain signal a non-human being (usually his or her sexual partner or his or her protégé). Another person spies, uses the same signal or pronounces the same words and kills the being who comes to him (or uses this being sexually himself) |
| f9 | A dangerous woman | For different reasons, sexual contact with a woman is deadly dangerous for a man |
| f9a | Vagina dentata | There are teeth, blades or sharp stones in woman’s genitals, vagina is the biting mouth. (Only texts that are believed to correspond to reality are considered but not anecdotes and jokes) |
| f9c | Snake in vagina | Snake (Pacific snake-eel in Polynesia) is in vagina; around the woman's thighs; vagina is a mouth of a snake; a woman with toothed vagina is associated with a snake; a snake crawls out of woman's mouth to bite off the man’s penis during the copulation |
| f9e1 | Dangerous animal in vagina | Woman is dangerous because biting or stinging animal or animals is (are) inside her genitals (and not only the head of such an animal) |
| g23 | Alive being turns into many objects | Person or creature is transformed. Separate parts of its (his, her) body give origin to different objects or creatures (only etiological narratives are considered) |
| g23b | Alive being turns into nations | Different body parts of a being turn into people of different ethnic affiliation or such people receive their names and characteristics according to body parts that they got |
| g8 | Restored tree | A deep notch in the tree (or in the sky support) is magically restored as soon as persons or creatures who cut or gnaw it stop working |
| g8b | Cutting tree to get a person | Person hides in a tree. Somebody tries to fell it but the notch disappears and the tree becomes intact |
| h20 | Fish disperse in the world | All the fish or (rare) shellfish) was concentrated in one place. Certain person lets it lose or puts it into the rivers or sea |
| h20a | Mistress of fish loses it | A woman (a girl, several women) keeps all the fish for herself. Man comes and lets fish escape into rivers or sea. |
| i1 | The thunderbirds | Creatures that produce rain and/or thunderstorms are birds or anthropomorphic beings with wings; or (rare) some or all birds are connected with thunder, lightning or rain though Thunder is not a bird |
| i117 | Spider ferries from one world to another | Spider person raises the hero to the sky, helps him or her to return back to earth or otherwise helps to overcome the borderlines between worlds |
| i17 | Body anomalies of inhabitants of a distant land | Beings without mouth, anus, genitals, whose women do not know how to give birth live in the underworld, in the sky, or in a far-away land |
| i22 | Objects in permanent movement | There are objects which remaining on the same place are moving permanently or periodically (meet and part. rise and fall down, shut and open, rotate) |
| i65 | Milky Way of the dead | Milky Way is the path over which souls travel to the beyond or a path of the funeral procession |
| i72 | Stars are people | Stars are people, ghosts, anthropomorphic beings (interpretations of unique star objects like Venus or Polaris as persons not considered) |
| i78 | The square earth | The earth is square, the sky is usually round |
| j1 | The vengeful heroes | Persons avenge the death of their father, mother or other relatives who are one (rare two) generations older than they |
| j12 | Travelling girl walks across suitors | A girl (or two sisters) travel, usually in search of a proper marriage partner who lives far away or who has gone away. On her way or after reaching the place of destination the girl gets to some unpleasant suitors |
| j12k | A valuable partner and an imposter live in one house | A valuable partner whom a girl (two sisters) should marry and an imposter live together in one and the same house |
| j13 | Two sisters | Two sisters (if more, only two play a significant role in the plot) travel and meet an unpleasant suitor or get to an ogre |
| j15 | Woman gets to dangerous creatures | Walking in search of her husband, boyfriend, kinsmen, shelter woman or girl gets to the house of dangerous creatures where she is injured or killed |
| j23 | A late son kills monsters | People (elder brothers, elder siblings, elder sister) disappear (one by one). A lonely woman has a baby or finds a baby or she becomes pregnant magically and gives birth to a boy or twins. The boy grows up, exterminates the antagonists, usually revives and releases those who had disappeared |
| j23a | A mucus-boy | A woman is crying, mucus from her nose (or her tear) turns into a boy who grows up, overcome powerful adversaries |
| j23c | Youngest brother kills monsters | People (elder brothers, elder siblings, elder sister) disappear (one by one). A lonely woman has a baby or finds a baby or she becomes pregnant magically and gives birth to a boy. The boy grows up, exterminates the antagonists, usually revives and releases those who had disappeared |
| j25 | Babies escape and return | Heroes (usually one or two), being still babies or embryos, escape or are thrown away, often into the water. To bring them back into the human world, they are lured (persuaded) to come out or caught with difficulty |
| j30 | Parents’ remains | Before the hero destroys the antagonists or escapes from them, he finds or receives the remains or possessions that belonged to the antagonists' victim |
| j39 | Who killed a rabbit? | Antagonist makes a girl or a woman his or her slave. The slave's brothers or sons secretly come to her, kill for her some small game. Woman tries to pursue the antagonist that she herself killed the game |
| j4 | Revenge for the death of the male relatives | Heroes avenge the murder or captivity of the male relatives: (grand)father, uncles, or the elder relatives in general, the loss of the males being the most traumatic |
| j44 | The broken bridge | Person or his helper draws his enemies on the unstable bridge and destroys it. The enemies fall into water, into a precipice |
| j45 | The stretched out leg (crane bridge) | Person stretches his or her leg or neck as a bridge across water body. The fugitives or those who walk ahead cross the bridge; the persecutor or those who are behind usually fall because the person takes his bridge off |
| j46 | Enemy drowns | Antagonist perishes falling into the water or trying to cross a water body |
| j47 | Pursuer falls from height | Person ascends to the sky (rare: descends from the sky; ascends the cliff) by a rope, a ladder, etc. Another person tries to follow him or her but the rope (the ladder) is broken or severed |
| j4a | Revenge for the death of the mother | A woman is murdered. Her son or children (rare: grandchildren, nephews) revenge for her death |
| j4b | Revenge inside the family | Children (son, sons, son and daughter) of the murdered woman or man revenge on persons who have marital or close kin relations with the victom |
| j5 | Brothers as victims | Two or several brothers or friends are killed by antagonists. One of them is the father of the young hero who avenges their death or all of them are his uncles |
| j52 | Two animal persons and their children | A person (usually zoomorphic and female) treacherously kills her (his) companion. The victim's children revenge on the murderer killing her own children |
| j52a | Bear as antagonist | A bear-person (usually Bear-woman) kills her or his female companion who is associated with a weaker animal – not a predator or a weaker predator. The victim's children revenge on the antagonist killing her own children and / or run away and escape |
| j53b | The killed mother’s breasts | Two women live together, each one has children. When they are outdoors, one of them kills another and brings home her flesh. The victim’s children gets to see their mother’s breasts (in California: eyes or liver) or their mother’s breasts speak with them |
| j53c | One of two female companions kills another | Two co-wives of female companions live together, both have children. Once when they go to work outdoors (usually to gather wild plants), one of them kills and devours another. The victim's children escape |
| j58 | The arrow ladder | Persons shoot arrows (darts) which hit each other’s end forming a chain (rope, ladder). Persons climb by this chain to the sky or (rare) across an obstacle |
| j59 | Following arrow to get to the sky | To climb to the sky, person must first to shoot an arrow that reaches the sky and sticks to it |
| j59d | To revive the dead stepping over his remains | Person revives the dead stepping or jumping over his remains |
| j7 | The changed signs | A woman or a girl is in search of her husband (lover) or kinsmen or a man sets out on a journey to his bride. She (he) loses her (his) way because signs that should direct her or him to the right place had been changed |
| k10 | Fight with the monstrous bird | Monstrous bird (giant bat) predates on humans. Heroes fight with it |
| k10g | The man uses a fledgeling to descend to the earth | A man gets into the nest of a giant bird on a high rock or tree. He descends to the earth killing the bird and fixing its feathers or wings to his body or (more often) using the bird’s nestling (riding on its back, holding its feet, fixing its feathers or wings) |
| k12 | Woman is lost and returned | By trick or by force, a rival or adversary kidnaps hero's wife or bride. The man gets her back |
| k176 | A man in search of the woman | A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife |
| k177 | The travelling heroine | A girl or young woman sets off to find or return her fience or her husband or she escapes from a fanger and ultimately marries happily |
| k18 | Infant picks out his unknown father | A boy is born whose father or (rare) mother is unknown. He himself points at his parent who as a rule occupies the lowest social position. Usually many men (women) come together and everyone hopes that the boy points at him (her) |
| k18a | Infant takes father’s bow and arrows | When a small boy has to recognize his father among many men, he comes to him and takes father's bow and arrows |
| k18aa | Pregnancy because of the non-sexual contact | A girl becomes pregnant without her knowledge thanks to the contact with body liquids of a male person or with objects touched by him (not because of the normal sexual contact, or a wish expressed by the father of her future child, or her mistical contact with a deity). The happy marriage of the girl with her child’s father follows |
| k19b | Star-husband | A woman maries a star-man |
| k1f | Conflict because of a woman | A man maroons another because of jealousy or because he plans to take hold of his wife |
| k1h | Imprisoned in the tree-hollow | Person is imprisoned in a tree-hollow or inside a rock and is released by somebody who makes a hole from outside |
| k20 | Wish for star-husband or wife realized | A human person admires a star or (rare) the Moon in the sky, expresses desire to marry it or (rare) to get a star-object. Star descends to him or to her or takes him or her to the sky |
| k24a | Supernatural male hides clothes of human girl | Supernatural male person (often a snake, a dragon) hides clothes of a human girl or sits on it. To return her clothes she had to become his wife |
| k25 | Magic wife | A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world |
| k27 (motif is not in the correlation table) | Competitions and difficult tasks | Person is suggested to fulfill tasks that are mortally dangerous or cannot be fulfilled without supernatural helpers or capacities. The person fulfills the tasks and remains alive. A contest between persons has form of a competition or game in which the loser is deprived of his status or life |
| k27a | Ordeal: survive cold | An ordeal: to survive cold (frosty night outdoors, chamber with ice, cold water and snow) |
| k27c | Ordeal: knives and thorns | An ordeal: to remain alive after contact with sharp points or blades |
| k27d | Ordeal: chamber with dangerous beings | An ordeal: to remain alive in a closed room full of beasts of prey, poisonous or other dangerous creatures |
| k27n | Difficult tasks of the in-laws | A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage |
| k27n1 | Task-giver is a king or a chief | Person who gives difficult tasks to the hero and/or person who demands the fulfillment of certain conditions from those who want to marry his daughter is a prominent figure in social hierarchy. He is a head of the socio-political unit of community or super-community level and is neither a member of the hero’s household nor a mythical being |
| k27n3b | Task-giver lives in the sky but is not the Sun, Moon, Thunder or Wind | Person who gives difficult tasks or tests to the hero or heroine lives in the sky but is not associated with the Sun, Moon, Thunder or Wind |
| k27t | Climbing contest | A contest: to climb a pole or tree |
| k27v | To hit a bird with an arrow (stone) | Person must kill a bird with an arrow or a stone |
| k28 | Father or uncle is rival and enemy | Maternal uncle or father (or grandfather if he replaces father who is not mentioned) of the young man is his rival or enemy and tries to kill him |
| k3 | Tree or rock grows taller | Hero climbs up a tree or rock to get eggs, nestlings, fruits, honey, etc. Another person makes the tree (rock) grow higher or thicker and the hero is unable to descend back |
| k32 | The false wife | An ugly, old, lazy, etc. woman or (in Chaco) a male trickster comes to man under disguise of his wife or bride who is driven out, confined to the underworld, killed, etc. |
| k35 | False husband | An imposter pretends to be the hero to take his position and/or to marry or to violate his woman |
| k4 | The bird nester | Person climbs up a tree or rock or descends to a cave to get eggs or nestlings from the bird's nest. Another person remains on the ground. They get into conflict and/or the first person is unable to get back to the ground |
| k43a | Compassionate person saves fire | People abandon a boy, a girl, brother and sister, a group of children, or a young family without fire and food. A compassionate person conceals hot coals for the outlaws in the abandoned camp |
| k43b | Bird brings some meat | People abandon a boy, a girl, brother and sister, a group of children, or a young family without fire and food. The outlaws demonstrate supernatural powers or protectors providing food and lodging. While the abandoned persons have plenty of food other people starve. A person (often a bird like crow, magpie, sea-gull, etc.) visits the abandoned ones and brings from them some food home. This way people get to know that the abandoned ones prosper |
| k5 | The fake nestlings | To lure the hero into a trap or to send him far away, the antagonist makes a bird or nestlings of excrements or guts |
| k50 | False wife beheads enemy | A man disguised as a woman comes to his enemy and kills him at night (usually cuts off and carries away his head) |
| k75 | The youngest daughter is willing (The loathsome bridegroom) | A girl (usually the youngest of several sisters) does not reject but marries a poor, sick, dirty, old, too young, non-human, etc. man who later demonstrates his supernatural qualities |
| k86 | Weeping child stolen | Because a small child is ignored or punished by its parents (usually it cries late in the evening), bush spirit or animal carries it away |
| k8a | Jonah: swallowed by monster | Person gets into the belly of water being or into the belly of giant creature which appearance and living place remain vague. He kills the monster from the inside and/or returns to earth by himself (i.e. not extracted by other people) |
| k8e | Getting inside via anus | Person or animal gets into another being through its anus |
| l123 | Running in many directions | To confuse pursuer, person many times runs away in different directions and comes back |
| l1b | Bear-woman and her sister | A young woman turns into monstrous bear. She kills most of the people besides her younger sister (Ojibwa: younger sister of her former husband). Their brothers return from a hunt, kill the bear or she dies pursuing them |
| l1b1 | Demonic woman and her brothers | A woman gets into conflict with her brothers and turns into dangerous demon |
| l1f | Sister avenges her lover | A young woman turns into monster and kills her brothers avenging the death of her husband or lover |
| l39 | Hero is compelled to descend from a tree | When a person climbs a tree, a demon comes to it and carries the person away, or the person follows the demon to his world by his own will |
| l4 | The unmasked murderer (Blue Beard) | Person kills girls (rare: his nephews or younger brothers of his wife) in succession (usually the male person kills his wives). The last of potential victims escapes, usually after finding remains of those who had been killed or imprisoned earlier |
| l50 | Cliff ogre | A person kills those who are passing by him. Usually he does not attack them all of a sudden but first distracts their attention. Usually he throws down his victims into a precipice, lake, etc. |
| l56 | Fire in monster’s belly | A monster or a big animal dies when fire is kindled in its belly |
| l57 | Person gets his body part back | Person loses his organ or body part, it is carried away. He finds its new owner, gets his property back |
| l5c | Rolling head is a dangerous monster | Rolling head is a dangerous mobster (pursues celestial bodies, people etc.) |
| l65b | Dogs save their master | A demonic woman or (rare) her paramour or a monster is going to kill a man usually after driving him up a tree. At the last moment the man's dogs or other animals or birds who are the man's pets come and kill the demon |
| l65b3 | The escape on the tree | Persons climbs a tree and thanks to this escapes from a demon (who usually tries to fell the tree) |
| l65d | Younger sister of cannibal woman | When the elder sister becomes a cannibal, the younger one (temporarily) escapes. Cf. motifs L1B, L65C |
| l70 | Fruit falls and kills | Person or animal is killed or injured with a heavy object dropped from a tree (or rock, etc.). The person or the animal knows that the objects will fall but has falls ideas about its character and weight |
| l72 | The obstacle flight | Running away from a dangerous being, person throws small objects behind him or her which turn into mighty obstacles on the way of the pursuer |
| l80 | A drop of blood | A demonic person or animal is killed but revives or can revive if a small piece of its flesh or blood goes out of control |
| l9 | Sharp body members | Body members of a person has the form of cutting or piercing weapon |
| l98 | Cannibal owl | Dangerous cannibal or bush spirit who abducts children, attacks people, etc. is associated with an owl |
| l9a | Sharp leg | Person's leg is injured intentionally or by chance. The loss of one leg does not bother him. He uses the sharpened bone as a thrust weapon |
| m11c | Person gets lard from his body | A male person cuts or roasts his own body to extract meat, lard or blood, cooks it and serves to his guest without injuring himself. Such a food is not considered to be unclean |
| m122 | Advisers inside | In a difficult situation animal person asks for advice his tail, anus or some beings that are inside him (excrements, parasites, his "sisters", etc.) |
| m18 | Stolen arrows and hooks | Person transforms himself into an object of hunting or fishing, provokes hunters of fishermen to catch or shoot him and carries way the tools that they use (arrows, darts, harpoons, hooks, baits). Or he fishes by turning himself into a hook. Or he is caught but escapes turning back into a person |
| m18a | Getting arrows | Person turns into a fish or game and exposes himself as a target. A lot of arrows, darts or harpoons stick in his body making him no harm, he carries them away |
| m18b | Getting fishing hook or harpoon | Person turns into a fish to steal fishing hook or harpoon or he turns into fishing hook to catch a fish |
| m27 | Coming back from the sky | A tree or a chain of reeds by which people have ascended to the sky is destroyed. On their way back they fall to the ground. Some of them remain in the sky for ever or longer than others |
| m29b | Trickster-fox, jackal or coyote | In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is fox, jackal or coyote |
| m29b1 | The wolf is a failure | Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the wolf suffers a reverse, is injured or dies |
| m29b2 | The bear is a failure/enemy | Because of its stupidity or unsocial behavior, the bear suffers a reverse, is injured or dies |
| m29c | Trickster-jay | In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is Canada jay |
| m29e | Trickster-skunk | In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is skunk |
| m29g | Trickster-hare or rabbit | In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is hare or rabbit |
| m29y | Trickster is a wren | In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is a wren |
| m38 | Stupid imitation (all versions) | Person sees how others act using magic or according to their animal nature. He or she imitates their actions and gets into trouble. Actions are not heroic deeds, competitions or tests and refer to everyday activity, mostly to providing and cooking food |
| m38a | The bungling host | Being on a visit to other people or (more often) animals, an (animal)-person sees them act using magic or according to their animal nature. Back at home, he imitates their actions and gets in trouble. Actions are not heroic deeds, competitions or tests and mostly refer to providing and cooking food |
| m41 | The eye-juggler | Person plays throwing his eyes or (Alaska Athabascans) his tooth up or away. Eyes or tooth first come back to eye sockets or mouth but eventually are lost |
| m42 | Eyes: taken out of orbits and lost | Person loses his eyes because of his playfulness or negligence. He makes new eyes of some substance or/and takes eyes of another person |
| m42a | Eyes of berries | Person (usually after losing his own eyes), makes new eyes of berries and is able to see again |
| m46 | The false baby | Planning to get or to return valuables, person turns into baby or in a small objects that has power to impregnate a woman. The picked up or the born baby steals the valuables and acquires his real guise (including cases according to which the girl herself is the desired valuable)
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| m46b | A stratagem: baby born by woman | Person turns into tiny object or creature. Touching or swallowing it, the woman conceives and gives birth to a baby-boy. The boy steals valuables or make love to the woman |
| m49 | Man in a skin of another | Hero comes across a (animal-)person from an enemy group and takes his or her appearance, usually dressing himself in a skin of his victim; after this he penetrates the enemy camp |
| m49a | The substituted medicine-woman | The hero has to come unrecognized to the meeting place of his enemies. He meets an old woman (usually a shaman, a medicine-woman) who goes there, puts on her skin and acquires her appearance |
| m51 | Meat in a tree | One of two animal-persons kills game. In the absence of the stronger one, the weaker one hides the meat to eat it alone later |
| m52 | Butchered carcass | A small animal (not a predator) or a weak person kills a big game. He asks another (animal-)person to skin or butcher the carcass. The latter is willing but takes or tries to take all the meat for himself |
| m59 | Treacherous rider kills ferry animal | A small animal asks bigger one to bring him across the stream, rejects one by one all possible places to sit; finds the position that lets him kill the big animal after crossing the stream |
| m61a | To obtain valuables, quarrel provoked | To obtain valuables person provokes a quarrel between their owners. When the owners become to fight with each other, the valuables fall out |
| m61a2 | Person provokes a quarrel between two stones | To provoke a quarrel between two different stones, person (always a raven) tells each one that the other was insulting him |
| m62a | Quarrel provoked by action [not in correlation table] | Hero imperceptibly causes detriment to two persons or creatures. They accuse each other and fight |
| m67 | Trickster gone with a wind | Imprudent trickster produces wind that carries him away |
| m71 | Picked up piece of wood | Trickster floats down the river or falls from the height and turns into a piece of wood or into a wooden object. Somebody picks it up. Eventually, the trickster acquires his real self, usually in the host's absence |
| m73 | Exchanged excrements or vomits: who is stronger | Two (animal) persons compare their feces or vomits to know about the diet and habits of each other (who is the strongest). The weaker one gets to exchange the feces (vomits) |
| m74 | Vomits compared | Two animals or persons compare their vomits to know about the diet and habits of each other. The weaker one gets to exchange vomits, to swallow the unusual food before, or to swallow his partner's vomits |
| m8 | Breaking the obstacle | Non-human persons work hard to destroy a strong and durable obstacle that blocks access to some place or object |
| m80 | Quail scares trickster | Person insults a partridge-like bird, kills or injures her chickens. The partridge scares him, he falls, usually into a river or lake |
| m81b | Not to climb after an arrow stuck in a tree | Despite a warning not to do so, person climbs in a tree to get his arrow that was stuck and gets into trouble
(Cf. Tree, from which an arrow is supposed to be fetched, grows up high and thus carries the arrow’s owner into the sky, Boas 2002: 662)
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| m81d | Blind persons cured | A man comes across (often in the sky) one or two blind persons and cures their eyes |
| m82 | Animal person ties rattles to its tail | An animal person sees that another has something tied to his tail, wants the same tail for himself and has a trouble as a result |
| m87 | Invisible ghosts | Person enters a seemingly empty house and attempts to take certain things. Invisible beings prevent him from doing it or objects themselves hurt him |
| m8a | Birds peck a rock to release prisoners | Birds and sometimes also animals work hard to break from the outside or from the inside a rock, a tree truck, bonds, etc. to release some beings or themselves from confinement in a small enclosure or trap |