The Sun is female, the Moon is male or (more rare) also female
Certain stars or constellations are interpreted as hunters, their dogs and game that the hunters pursue
In the cosmic hunt tale the game pursued by the hunters is an ungulate (elk, deer, mountain sheep, etc.)
Ursa major (seven stars or only four stars of a dipper) is identified with an ungulate (elk, deer, mountain sheep, etc.)
Stars of the handle of the Big Dipper are identified with the hunters, the dipper itself with the game (bear or elk) or a neat-barn ravaged by bear
In the cosmic hunt tale only one hunter (not many) pursues an animal (elk or bear) associated with a circumpolar constellation but not with Orion or the Pleiades. (In Kalevalaic tradition the association with particular sideral objects is absent
Seven main stars of Ursa major are interpreted as a figure of a mammal: bear, deer, mountain sheep, camel, dog
Person dragged on the ground disintegrates or touches the ground with different parts of her or his body producing particular features of landscape, different plants, etc.
Fire is personified as an (elder) woman, alone or with her husband, master of fire
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
Person hides in a tree. Somebody tries to fell it but the notch disappears and the tree becomes intact
Dogs having spots over the eyes are called the four-eyed and believed to have special properties (e.g. to see ghosts)
An ungulate animal (a horse, an elk, a moose) with six or more legs is described or represented in art
Milky Way is a path of a person who was walking on snow-shoes
A woman (rare: a man) with transparent body is described. This transparence is an evidence of the beauty
A woman (rare: a man) with transparent body is described: bones are seen through the skin and marrow through the bones. This transparence is an evidence of the beauty
Coming home after a long absence, a man understands that there is another man in his house but keeps patience and discovers that it is his own son or a close kin of his wife
Because containers with alive and dead water (one makes one stronger, another weaker) are imperceptibly exchanged, during the battle the hero drinks the alive water and overcomes his enemy who drinks the dead water
Person has to feed powerful creature (usually a giant bird) giving it regularly pieces of meat. When meat supply is exhausted, he cuts off a piece of his own flesh
Two (rare more) persons or creatures think that they are doomed but one whose death is slightly delayed is happy while one who will be killed earlier is in grief
Coming home after a long absence, the hero (rare: heroine) peeps into his house and sees his mother (his parents, her husband) who suffers hunger. He or she throws food inside, extinguishes the fire, pushes aside, etc. Usually those who are inside do not understand what is happening
Powerful person listens in conversation of three (rare: two or four) women. Each of them tells what she would do if the person marries her. One promises to bear his son (children) who would have wonderful qualities, two others promise to practice some kind of work or (more rare) marry people of lower status
A young woman promises to bear a wonderful children (wonderful son). In her husband's absence other people (co-wives, mother-in-law, etc.) try to kill the mother and/or the child, usually slandering the young woman
Hostile women substitute baby of the newly made mother with a pup (inform the baby’s father that his wife has given birth to a pup)
A woman who was falsely accused of killing her new-born child or giving birth to pups and the like is punished in such a way that she must suffer from filth and be taunted by passers by
A woman who initially is friendly to the hero (his mother, sister, more rare his wife, sexual partner) begins to cooperate with his enemy. For this she provokes the hero to do something that is mortally dangerous for him
A woman is abandoned by her magic husband. She finds him and becomes his wife again
Supernatural women make harm to people. Hero overcomes them and usually marries them
Being (any besides birds) with more than ten heads or with odd (but more than one) number of heads are described in tales or represented in art. If beings with ever more number of heads are named, the row ends with a being that has odd (or more than ten) number of heads
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
Person sets off in search of fire and finds it in the house of a demon. The demon makes harm to the person
Person escapes to a tree or high rock. An ogre tries to cut it down. Some person or animal suggests the ogre to have a rest, promises to work instead of him but spoils his work or (in Subarctic) kills him when the ogre gives him his axe. (Africa versions have Eurasian origins)
A man travels and comes to two or several blind (usually old) persons
A man comes across (often in the sky) one or two blind persons and cures their eyes
Long trips, campaigns, flights or battles are described using cliché which contain expressions like “they get to know that it is winter seeing rime, that it is summer, seeing rain” and the like
The young man takes the job of grazing animals and is warned not to cross the border of the ogre’s land. The hero ignores the warning and overcomes the ogre
Magic bridegroom who comes as bird or other guise and then changes into a man meets regularly with a young woman. Her jealous sisters (stepmother, brother, etc.) wound him (usually putting knives of broken glass around the window). He disappears, the girl goes to find him.
Young man lives with an old man whose eye(s) were stolen by an ogre. The youth comes to the ogre, kills him, brings the stolen eyes and the old man gets to see again
Besides his parents on earth, the baby who had been thrown into a river or lake and comes from time to time to the shore has another father (and mother) under the water. He does not want to be separated from them or they do not want let him go
A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world
To revive or to cure his friend (rare: himself) or to fulfill a vow person is ready to sacrifice his small (young) son (children). The son revives or the supernatural powers are satisfied with the very willingness of the person to commit sacrifice
The time required to perform an action or the time that has passed since the described event is estimated by comparing with the time required to boil the water and / or to cook a food
Hostile women substitute baby of the newly made mother with an animal or an object (inform the baby’s father that his wife has given birth to an animal or an object)
Somebody (usually his sister or mother) puts a poisonous tooth (bone, nail, etc.) into the bed of the hero. The young man dies but is revived
The hero presses his adversary into the ground or both of them press each other (ankle-, waist-, breast-deep and the like)
Setting off for a search of a woman or magic objects, a man comes across several (usually three) supernatural (often demonic) persons who help him. All the persons are similar but usually every next one is older (younger) than another
Persons climbs a tree and thanks to this escapes from a demon (who usually tries to fell the tree)
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
Two (rare: three) men or women regularly throw or give somthing to each other despite a significant distance between them. It is a sign of their strength, big size and dexterity
The antagonists acquire person’s organ or body part (his remains) . Another person gets back what has been stolen and the first one revives (becomes strong again)
Somebody from the enemies’ camp is constantly weaving (forging) ever new warriors (rare: weapons)
The formula that describes the confusion of feelings: when a person looks in one direction, he or she cries, when in another – begins to laugh or smile; or one eye of a person laughs and another laughs; or person laughs looking at one object and weeps looking at another; or one of two persons who share the same fate laughs and another smiles, etc.
Описывается или изображается чудовище (обычно змей) о семи головах. При перечисления существ по мере возрастания у них числа голов ряд заканчивается на семи
Baby heroes, embryos or objects from which they emerge are found in a river or lake or come to people out of the water
To reach his or her destination, person follows a ball of threads (rare: some ball, apple) which is rolling in front of him or her
Wife of a powerful person gives birth to wonderful child(ren). Her envious sisters play a trick to make her husband order to get rid of her (usually to put her and her child into the barrel which is thrown into the sea). The wonderful son saves her and himself. Imperceptibly (usually in guise of an animal or an insect, or sending his brother who has guise of a puppy) he gets into his father’s house and listens in what people are are talking about
Woman gives birth to three (and not two or more) wonderful children. They survive and triumph over their enemies