| Motif | Name | Description |
| a12 | Eclipses: monster’s attack | Some creature or creatures regularly (sunrise and sunset, summer and winter, lunar phases) or irregularly (solar and lunar eclipses, eschatological events) attack the luminaries or shade their light |
| a12a | Eclipses: a predator animal | During an eclipse or at other circumstances the Sun or the Moon are attacked by a predator animal (a bear, a feline, a canine, a racoon) |
| a2 | Several suns | In a certain time in the past three or more suns were on the sky simultaneously |
| a21 | Luminaries are objects fixed in the sky | The sun and/or the moon are inanimate objects thrown up to the sky or fixed in the sky |
| a2a | The sun is a source of distructive heat | The world was or will be (almost) burned when several suns had (will) appear(ed) simultaneously; or the only sun was too hot (or bright) |
| a2b | Extra suns and moons annihilated | Other suns or moons besides present ones had been in the sky and were later annihilated |
| a2b1 | The last sun | Two or more suns shine in the sky. When the extra suns had been annihilated, there was a risk of the last one being destroyed too |
| a3 | Male sun and female moon | The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male |
| 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) |
| a32a | The Moon rabbit | Rabbit or hare are seen in the moon |
| a32d | Man in the Moon | Human being or imprint of human being is seen in the moon |
| a36 | The immortal Moon | The Moon, unlike people, revives or rejuvenates every month; or those who live in the Moon are immortal; or the Moon makes decision if people should die forever or regularly revive |
| a37 | The Sun is attacked with weapons | Person intentionally and with special equipment (usually shooting arrows) attacks the Sun (or several suns if they were many) |
| a4 | Female sun | The Sun is female, the Moon is male or (more rare) also female |
| a46 | The Sun and Moon emerge from the eyes of a being | The Sun and Moon (Rig-Veda: the Sun only) appear from eyes of an anthropomorphic being |
| a46a | The Sun and Moon are eyes of a deity | The Sun and Moon (Rig-Veda: the Sun only) are associated with eyes of an anthropomorphic being (the motif of their emergence, creation from his eyes is not obligatory) |
| a4a | The Sun dazzles eyes | Modest Sun-woman dazzles (usually pricks with needles, i.e. the sun rays) eyes of those who look at her |
| a4b | The Sun is afraid of the night | Being afraid of the night, the Sun decided to travel across the sky only at the day time |
| a5 | The Sun and the Moon are males | The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (much more rare) asexual |
| b1 | Two male creators | Two male anthropomorphic creators compete in producing things. One of them is or becomes master of the underworld and/or spirits while another is associated with humans |
| b1c | One creator deceives another | Two creators agree that whose object will be found in a certain condition (usually: whose tree or flower will grow or blossom first) should be recognized as a senior one. While one of the creators sleeps or is absent, another replaces the objects and so achieves the priority by deceit |
| b2a | The female earth | The earth is a female person (alone or together with a male person); she is female being or associated with a woman |
| b43 | Purusha | Parts of the body of the primeval person or creature are transformed into different elements of the landscape and parts of the universe |
| b52c | Earth bigger than sky | When the earth was created it proved to be bigger than the sky and had to be squeezed. This way mountains or swamps have appeared |
| b57 | Blood reddens world | When some person or animal is killed, blood paints the sky (origin of the sunrise or sunset, of reddish colors of Aurora borealis) or other natural objects (Moon, autumn vegetation) |
| b6 | A man and a woman move around a post and meet each other | The first or the only survived man and woman move in different directions around a post, a hill, etc. When they come together they marry each other |
| b77 | Primeval sky close to earth | Originally the sky was close to the earth, then it has risen up |
| b77a | Giant pushed the sky up | One or several (animal)-persons push sky up to its present height |
| c39 | The repaired sky | When part of the sky was broken, the hole was filled up with stones or pieces of ice |
| c40 | Rocks fall from the sky | In the beginning rocks were falling from the sky killing people |
| c41 | Why the sky is blue | In the beginning the sky has no particular colour. When certain person covers it with a blue cloth or makes something else, the sky acquires its present colour |
| c4a | The flood: survival in a tree | During the flood some persons survive in a tree |
| c7 | The flood: breaking the dam | In the beginning of times or after the flood a dam of earth, person or creature does not let water to recede. The dam is broken or opened, waters withdraw |
| c8 | The couple of close relations originates the mankind | In the beginning of time or after the natural disaster brother and sister, mother and son, or father and daughters are the only human beings. They marry and the present day people are their descendents |
| c8a | Grinding stones match | Being alone and having no other marriage partners, brother and sister agree to marry each other if a highly improbable event or a series of events will take place. Among the events that take place (alternatively or one after the other) are 1) the siblings let two grinding stones roll from two mountains, the brother's stone falls on the sister's one; 2) brother and sister throw two swords from two mountains, both swords get into one sheath; 3) they throw some objects up, the objects get together; 4) they kindle two fires, columns of smoke get together; 5) they put to grow two stems of bamboo, tops of the stems get together |
| c8a1 | Thread should enter the needle’s eye | Being alone and having no other marriage partners, brother and sister agree to marry each other if a highly improbable event will take place: a thread that is far from a needle has to enter the needle’s eye. |
| c8aa | Brother and sister beget the people | In the beginning of time or after the natural disaster brother and sister are the only human beings. They marry and the present day people are their descendents |
| c8e | Survival in the floating bottle gourd | During the flood or in the beginning of times persons (usually brother abd sister) are floating in a big bottle gourd |
| c9 | Warning about the coming flood | God, animal, some person warns one of the people about the catastrophy (usuallly the flood) that will become soon and in which most of the people must perish |
| d1b | Male spirit of fire | The fire is personified as an elder man (alone or with his wife, mistress of fire) |
| d4l | Fire from the sky | First fire is sent to earth from the sky or the ancestors ascend to the sky and bring from there fire or warmth |
| e1a1 | Becoming sodden under the rain (origin of cripples) | Deity or ancestor makes people from mud. Some figures become sodden under the rain and this is the reason why some people have physical defects |
| e38b | People from gourd | After the world cataclysm or in the beginning of times a gourd survives or appears, new people come out of it |
| e5c | People from the sky | The first people or first anthropomorphic divine beings descend to earth from the sky. |
| e9a | Fox-wife | Man maries fox-woman |
| f47 | Pieces of flesh turn to people | A living creature or a lump of alive flesh is cut into pieces which are diepersed around. After some time every piece turns into human being |
| 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) |
| g6 | Primeval tree | One of the trees is the principal, original one (emerged before all the other; ancestor of wild or cultivated plants; ocean or rivers inside it; world axis; higher than all the others; overshadows sky) |
| h12 | The alive person comes to the land of the dead after somebody’s death | The alive person comes to the land of the dead to bring back somebody who has recently died (besides stories about shamans who journey to the other world to bring back the soul of a sick person) or, having no particular aim, goes there in company of somebody who had recently died or following his or her tracks |
| h36 | The muddled message | Person is sent by god to bring instructions or certain objects but distorts, forgets or replaces them. This has fatal consequences for humans or for a certain species of animals. (Lithuanian case can be a mistification) |
| h36g1 | Bull distorts the message | When the bull (ox, cow) is sent to deliver important message, he distorts them intentionally or by chance |
| h4 | The shed skin | Those who change their skin become young again |
| h44 | Demonic spouse cuts in two her offpring from human being | Human person becomes a wife (husband) of a demonic being. When they part with each other, the demon cuts (wants to cut) their offpring in two |
| h46a | The dog and the spike | Properties of the cereals (usually the size of the spike) are defined by what the dog did in time of creation |
| h5 | People and snakes | Reptiles or invertebrates possess the medicine of immortality; are contrasted with men as immortal with mortals and/or are responsible for originating of death; or a snake's bite inflicts the first death |
| i104 | Stars are fragments | Stars are fragments of a bigger luminary (usually the Moon); or stars, the sun and the moon are formed from one and the same primeval person or creature |
| i11 | Cosmic turtle or toad | A turtle, toad, or frog supports the earth (sky) or is its embodiment |
| i45a | Not to point at the Moon or a star | Person who points at the Moon or a star or looks intently at them will get sick or die or his pointing finger will rot or wither |
| i55 | Stars are openings | Stars are openings in the firmament; holes in dwelling's covering are thought to be stars |
| i62 | Milky Way is a river | Milky Way is a sky river, water body, chain of beings that swim |
| i69 | Star dung | Shining sky objects or atmospheric phenomena are excrements of sky dwellers |
| i74 | Stars are stones | Stars are shining stones, spangles, beads |
| i85c1 | The rain stored in the sky | In the sky there is a special container (vessel, skin, box, etc.) for storing the rain |
| i8e1 | Four supports of the world | The sky or the earth rests upon four or five (cardinal points and the center) supports of any kind (poles, mountains, giants) |
| j18a | Mother is eaten up, children escape | An ogress devours a woman, gets into her house. Her daughters (daughter and son, one daughter) run away, climb a tree or a rope that hangs from the sky. Ogress pursues them and perishes |
| 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 |
| k176 | A man in search of the woman | A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife |
| k24 | Stolen clothes of supernatural woman | Women (rare: men) who possess supernatural power and usually come from a non-human world (from sky, from under the water, they are winged beings, bird- or animal-persons; rare: a girl of higher social status than the hero) take off their clothes (feather skins and the like) or part of it. Because a person hides the clothes (of one of them), their owner(s) have (has) to marry him or help him (rare: her) |
| k25 | Magic wife | A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world |
| k25a1 | Magic wife finds her clothes | Magic wife abandons her mortal husband when she finds her clothes (often, her feathers if she is a bird-woman), makes herself the new clothes, receives them from her kin or her husband gives her her clothing believing that she will not abandon him. (Versions with magic wife abandoning her husband because she feels herself offended is not alternative to the “found clothes but in most of the texts these motifs are not combined) |
| 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 |
| k27n | Difficult tasks of the in-laws | A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage |
| 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 |
| k29a | Surviving in a fire | Hero demonstrates his supernatural abilities remaining alive in a burning hot chamber, stove, bonfire, among burning vegetation |
| k29b | Posthole murder | Hero is asked to climb into a hole or pit. When he does it, they fill it with soil or throw down a post, a stone, etc. The hero demonstrates his magic capacities coming back uninjured |
| 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. |
| k33 | Drowned woman remains alive | A young woman is transformed into an animal, pushed into the water, into the underworld or she herself has to plunge into water (acquire animal form). Her connection with the human world is not completely lost, however, and usually she is helped to return to the people |
| k38d | Monster blocks waters | A monster blocks sources of water (or sends floods) and usually gives some (promises not to send floods) in exchange for human victims or valuables. Hero kills the monster |
| k38d1 | A girl sacrificed to a dragon | To appease a water monster (water spirits, gods) or to put an end to the drought or flood, a girl is sacrificed or descends into the water by her own will |
| k38f | The dragon-slayer | A reptile monster demands humans (usually virgins) as a sacrifice or abducts a girl or closes sources of water. Hero kills him. Monster’s victims do not play an active part in the plot |
| k56 | The kind and the unkind girls | One of (step)sisters, co-spouses or young female neighbors meets a being that is able to reward and to punish. She behaves herself properly and is rewarded. Another (other) girl comes to the same being but behaves in a wrong way and is punished (not rewarded). |
| 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 |
| k80 | Repetitive reincarnation | Person (usually a young woman) turns into different objects or creatures which another person destroys one by one. However, the person is reincarnated again and again and ultimately acquires her or his original form |
| l27a | One is eaten up, another escapes | Two or three children get to the house of a demon or the latter comes to their house. They do not know that the person is a cannibal or are not sure about it. The demon eats up one of the children. Another child (children) escapes, the demon pursues him or them and perishes. Usually the demon is a female, and if he is male, his victims do not arouse in him sexual interest |
| l28 | The snake-eater | Person who have eaten a prohibited meat or fish turns into monstrous snake or fish |
| l30 | Eating of snake meat triggers thirst | Person who breaks some sort of taboo (usually has eaten a prohibited food) is thirsty and drinks enormous quantity of water |
| m145 | The lion in a well | A weak (animal) person demonstrates a strong one his reflection in water. The latter believes that an animal like he contests his supremacy, invites him for a visit, etc., usually jumps in and drowns |
| m167 | A tiger taken for a bull | During the night a strong predator (a tiger, a lion, etc.) and a thief not knowing about each other get into stable to steal a domestic animal. The thief takes the predator for domestic animal or for a person and acts accordingly |
| m167a | A tiger who is afraid of Twilight | A strong predator (usually a tiger) overhears a person saying that he fears something worse than a tiger The word is unknown to the tiger (twilight, etc). Thinking it must be a terrible thing he hides and then runs away |
| m29g | Trickster-hare or rabbit | In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is hare or rabbit |
| m29g1 | Hare or rabbit as the main trickster | In most of the episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is hare or rabbit. Not considered are traditions in which 1) trickster hare/rabbit is rare while other trickster (usually fox/jackal/coyote) typical; 2) Mesoamerican traditions in which episodes with trickster rabbit are not many and could be borrowed in post-Columbian time being of African origin |
| m29o1 | The monkey is a failure | Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the monkey suffers a reverse, is injured or dies |
| m29w2 | The tiger is a failure | Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the tiger suffers a reverse, is injured or dies |