| 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 |
| a12c | Eclipses: reptiles and fish | During an eclipse or at the sunset the Sun or the Moon are attacked by a reptile (a snake, a lizard, a dragon, a crocodile) or a fish |
| a14 | Eclipses: relations between the Sun and the Moon | Coming together of the Sun and the Moon is the reason of their eclipses |
| a14a | The conflict between the Sun and the Moon | The Sun and the Moon are or were enemies, either permanently or in particular situations |
| a35 | Spots on the lunar disc | Dark spots on the lunar disc are dirt, blood, paint, traces of beating, burning, scratching, etc. on the Moon person's body or face (Kiliwa: spots on the Sun) and do not form any particular figure |
| a4 | Female sun | The Sun is female, the Moon is male or (more rare) also female |
| 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 |
| b42n | Orion is one person | Constellation of Orion or the Belt of Orion is identified with only one male person, usually with a warrior or hunter |
| b46b | Seven star sisters | Every one of the seven main stars of the Ursa major is a female person |
| b46c | Big Dipper is seven persons or animals | Every main star of the Big Dipper is interpreted as a particular person or animal |
| b82 | The white raven | Raven or other carrion-eating bird of dark color and a similar size was originally white |
| b87 | Alcor | Alcor (a weak star near the second star of the handle of the Big Dipper) is selected as a particular sky object |
| c30a | A pound of flesh | A contract entitles the lender of a sum of money to cut a certain amount of flesh (or eye, head, limb, etc.) from the debtor’s body if the load is not repaid in time. The lender cannot cut out the flesh being unable to fulfill a condition that looks logical but is practically absurd |
| c32c (motif is not in the correlation table) | Beware of cut off nails | The cut off nails (and hair) have special significance for the fate of the soul in the beyond or for the future of the entire world |
| c5a | Bird-scouts | Birds or humans later changed to birds are sent to explore the earth (is it dry, are any survivals, to investigate why smoke rises to the sky, etc.) or to bring some soil to make the land that would be good for living |
| e31a | Creators and rescuers of a girl | Several men take part in rescuing, creation or reanimation of a girl (rare: a bird) or several women take part in the reanimation of a dead man or they differetly express their grief. It is asked whose role was crucial (who behavior more noble) and/or who should be the spouse of the reanimated person. Or three men make something valuable and it is asked whose role in the corresponding enterprise was more important |
| e31a1 | Three men construct a woman which becomes alive: to whom does she belong? | Three (rare two or four) men take part in creation of a girl: one cuts her body of wood, another puts clothes on her, the third one makes her alive. To whom does she belong? |
| e9 | The mysterious housekeeper | Person observes traces of some activity that takes place in his (rare: her) house in his (her) absence and then takes by surprise the responsible one |
| f25 | Origin of menses: girl smeared with blood | Woman is smeared with blood or red paint. Since then women menstruate |
| f3 | A man eats woman’s pregnancy medicine | A man gives birth after accidentally eating pregnency medicine. The child appears from a swelling on his leg or otherwise but the man remains alive |
| 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 |
| f3a | The pregnant man | A man carries a child like a woman |
| f70f | Sex is changed accidentally | Getting into a far away place, person discovers that his or her sex is changed |
| f71 | Susan and the old men (the innocent slandered maiden) | An innocent girl or young woman rejects a man who attempts to seduce her. The man accuses her of loose conduct, ultimately the truth comes to light |
| f9 | A dangerous woman | For different reasons, sexual contact with a woman is deadly dangerous for a man |
| f97 | The prohibited fruit: origin of sex | After eating certain fruit, berry, tuber, etc. people become sexually aware |
| h56 | The prohibited fruit (origin of death) | After eating certain fruit, berry, tuber, etc. people become mortal (cf. motif F97: people become sexually aware) |
| i126 | Funerals in the sky | Ursa major or other circumpolar constellation is a stretcher on which a dead or sick person is carried, a dead body ready for the burial, a tomb |
| i25 | The bribed guards | Way to the place of a certain person is guided by dangerous creatures (which often stand on the both sides of the pathway). Person placates them by gifts or nice talk, and they let him or her go the both ways, sometimes being punished for this by their master |
| i32a | Tree of human life | When a leave or a fruit of a certain tree drops, one of the people on the earth dies |
| i35a | Old woman’s thunder | Thunder is produced by an old woman who lives in the sky |
| i40 | Rainbow bow | Rainbow is a bow |
| i46e | Rainbow sword | Rainbow is a sword, a cutting weapon |
| i59 | Milky Way is spilled straw | Milky Way is a trace of people who spilled on their way something related to agriculture (straw, chaff, hay, more rare flour, peas) |
| i82i | Venus is Zahra (Zuhra, Zura, etc.) | The name of an object of the night sky (usually Venus) is like Zakhra, Zukhra, Zura, etc. |
| i87 | Skull as a cave | Personages use a shelter which proves to be an object related to the world of the giants (a skull, a shoulder-blade, a mitten) |
| i87c | The hut in a mitten | Animals use for shelter or transportation a small object related to the human world (skull, mitten, sieve, etc.) |
| i87c1 | A mouse makes a boat | A mouse makes a canoe form a small object and rides in it |
| i95a | Orion is a balance | Orion is a balance, scales |
| k100 | A faithful servant | A man gets to know about dangers that threaten another man (and often about turning into stone of anybody who would warn about these dangers). He helps the man to escape the dangers though his behavior seems strange or hostile |
| k100c | Girl’s bridegrooms are bitten by a snake | . The hero or his companion eliminate the source of danger |
| k100g | The son must be sacrificed | 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 |
| k101 | Night dances of girls | Every morning girl' or (rare) boy’s clothes are in disorder, the boy looks very tied. People spy on her (or on him) and discover that she or he spends nights in the non-human world |
| k102 | Woman associated with the hero conspires in favor of his enemy | 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 |
| k102b | To ride for the last time | To kill a boy (a girl), the antagonist first needs to get rid of his or her horse. When they are ready to kill the horse, the boy (the girl) rides on his horse away saving his or her life |
| k103 | Helpful cow | Cow (ox, bull) helps an orphan child or a young woman who got into trouble |
| k107 | Lost husband found | A woman is abandoned by her magic husband. She finds him and becomes his wife again |
| k107a1 | Head of the household is asked to bring presents | When the head of the household goes for a journey his daughter, those who remain at home ask to bring them presents. The elder ones want something practical (usually clothes or decorations) while the younger one asks for something unusual (a flower, a bird, etc.). Thanks to this object, the younger one attains great success though after overcoming great difficulties |
| k107a4 | Daughter asks to bring magic bridegroom | When a man sets off for the journey, his daughter asks him to bring her an object or creature which is the incorporation of the magic bridegroom. The man does not understand what does it mean |
| k115 | Person saved thanks to the spider web | A man escapes from his (her, theirs) pursuers and hides in a cave. A spider spins its web over the hiding place. When the pursuers see the spider web they think the cave is unoccupied and do not enter it |
| k117a | To make a mute woman speak | A girl who keeps silence is promised to one who would make her speak; a man with much difficulty makes his magic wife speak |
| k118 | The prohibited room | Master of the house allows person to feel himself (herself) free bit not to look into particular place. The person breaks prohibition |
| 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 |
| k120 | The averted incest (daughter and father) | A man is going to marry his daughter (rare: his stepdaughter; sometimes certain conditions are put on his future marriage and only his daughter complies with them). The girl gets to escape |
| k120a | The averted incest (sister and brother) | A man is going to marry his sister (often puts certain condition on his future marriage, only his sister complies with them). The girl gets to escape |
| k121 | Wanderer at a crossroad | It is written at a crossroad that following one of the paths person will safely return and following another it will not return (there is often a third path following which person either returns or not). Hero follows the dangerous path |
| k123 | Old woman’s curse | A youth or (rare) girl offends an elder woman. Her words make him or her to be overcome by desire to undertake something dangerous (usually to get a particular marriage partner) |
| k14 | Precious advices | A man gives his last money for simple advices. Each of them saves his life or helps to achieve success or he does not follow the advices and gets into trouble |
| k143 | Hero is a fowler | Protagonist of the story is a bird-catcher (bird-hunter) or a son of a bird-catcher (bird-hunter) |
| k14a | Thrown into the oven himself | An antagonist orders to kill the first one who will come in the morning to a certain place. The hero becomes late by chance, the antagonist or his wife or son come and are thrown into the fire |
| k14c | Man mistakes his son for his wife’s lover | 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 |
| k14d | The make believe crime | To test his wife (friend, member of his household), a man pretends to commit a crime or his behavior seems to be strange and deserved to be punished. At the last moment he presents evidence that proves his innocence |
| k14e | The pretended inheritance | Sons of a man neglect their father (daughters-in-law neglect their father-in-law). He pretends to be hiding something (counts money conspicuously, etc.). The sons believe that their father has considerable inheritance and become to look after him carefully. When the father finally dies they find nothing valuable in his chest |
| k152 | The devil is frightened and runs away | A man saves a devil (snake, dangerous animal) who suffers from proximity of certain object or person. The grateful devil promises to enter a princess and abandon her as soon as the man comes to cure her. The man will get a reward but he should not try such a trick again. The man scares the devil forever telling him that the object or person of which the devil is afraid will be near soon |
| k152a | The evil woman and the devil in one pit | A man throws his evil wife into the pit or well. The devil (snake, predator animal, etc.) who had been there before is grateful when the man pulls him to the surface or jumps our himself: even he is afraid of the shrewish woman |
| k157a | Vanished husband recognized by keeping inn | For finding the lost husband (wife, benefactor), person regularly assemble together the chance people to hear what they are saying (usually sets up an inn, bakery, bathhouse and the like where guests are stimulated to talk). One of the people proves to be the lost one or his or her story helps to find the lost one |
| 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 |
| k178 | The enchanted husband sings lullaby | A young woman follows an enchanted man to his underground place, becomes pregnant but breaks a taboo and is chased away. She finds lodging in a rich house, her husband finds her and is disenchanted |
| k2 | The destroyed ladder | Hero climbs up (e.g. to a tree) or down (e.g. into a deep cave) by ladder, rope, from branch to branch, etc. The rope etc. breaks or is intentionally destroyed and the hero cannot return to the ground. (All cases of motif K2A, besides the Koreans, also contain motif K2) |
| 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 |
| 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 |
| k27nn | Envious minister | Not the powerful person himself but his official or adviser tries to get rid of the hero and suggests that the person should give the hero difficult tasks |
| k27q | Milk of the wild beast | Hero is sent to bring milk of a wild animal or milk in possession of a dangerous creature or person |
| k27w | Monster brought by the hero kills the task-giver | Task-giver asks to bring him dangerous being or object possessed by a moster or deity. Hero fulfills the task. The beast, monster, deity or the object itself kills the task-giver |
| k27x5 | Helpful persons of different age | 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 |
| k27z2a1 | Innocent woman is believed to be wanton | When a young woman becomes pregnant, her own kin or relations of her husband blame her for her improper behavior because they are sure that she had no opportunity to be impregnated by her husband or fiancé. After a lot of suffering the woman is united with the man who is her son’s father |
| k27z2a2 | Unrecognized wife visits her husband | A man marries a woman but abandons her without consummating his marriage. She visits him in disguise and ultimately he gets to know who was his beautiful companion. Usually the wife gives birth to his son (three sons) and upon seeing the boy, the man realizes that it is his own child |
| k27z2b | The killed doll | Complicated relations between a poor girl and a prince lead to his attempt to kill his bride in the nuptial night. The girl puts a doll in her bed, the prince pierces it with a sword and takes the sweet juice (honey, sugar) with which the doll was filled for the blood. He repents his deed but the real girl appears and the couple is happy |
| k27z3 | Cat with a lamp | A man trains a cat (monkey, dog) to hold lighted candle (lamp) on its head or to extinguish the light by a signal. When a mouse (a rat) runs through the room, the cat drops the candle (forgets about the lamp) and chases the mouse |
| k27z6 | The stone of pity | Being a victim of the injustice and after much suffering, a young woman speaks with a certain inanimate objects (often it is “the stone of pity”) telling it her sad story or her husband does it. The woman is rescued and the justice reinstated |
| k2a | Hero marooned in the underworld | Hero is sent to the lower world though a well, precipice, etc. After he obtains valuables (young women), his envious companions cut the rope to get rid of him but he succeeds in returning back |
| k33b | Friends abandon a pretty girl | A girl goes with her friends to a river, into a forest, etc. Other girls return home but the heroine has to remain or to go back to the forest, etc. She has a narrow escape from a dangerous creature. marries a supernatural being or a chief, or dies but is avenged |
| k33d | Peau d'asne | A man discovers that a beautiful girl hides herself under a guise of an ugly and dirty servant, under a skin of an animal or in an object that is brought into his house |
| k33e | Disappeared and returned children | Babies disappear but are ultimately returned to their mother or father grown up and in good health |
| k35a | Hero brands his rivals | In exchange for temporal advantages, person agrees to be maimed or branded |
| k38 | Hero helps the nestlings | For helping its children, their powerful mother or father who is a giant bird or (rare) other flying being helps the hero |
| k38a | White and black rams | Getting to the underworld, hero should take a white ram (horse) which would carry him back to earth. By chance, he takes the black one which carries him even deeper to the lower level of the underworld. Or the hero grabs not the right but the left horn of the animal and because of this gets to the wrong place |
| k38b | The nestlings and the aggressive snake | A serpent or water monster regularly devours or injures children of a bird or other flying creature (almost always nestlings of giant bird). The hero kills the serpent (monster) |
| 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 |
| k39 | Man feeds his own flesh to a creature who helps him | 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 |
| 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). |
| k56b | The worthy man is rewarded, the unworthy punished | First one, then another man meets a powerful person or persons. The first man is worthy and rewarded with treasure, prestige or the like. The second man (or two men) follows him, behaves in a wrong way and is punished |
| k56e | Two humpbacks | Two men have a similar defect (a hump, a lump). One spends a night in a place where spirits free him from his defect. Another comes to the same place but spirits double his defect giving him what they had taken off from the first man |
| k60a | How strong are these bonds? | Person lets be firmly tied up when another one say that it's only a joke (e.g. a test to see can the first one break bonds) |
| k67b | Bargain not to become angry | Person of a low social position (a man) makes an agreement with a person of high social position (an ogre) that the master must never become angry with the servant. The servant abuses the master until the latter erupts in anger and has to be severely punished or to pay a great fee |
| k73 | Children of the youngest wife | 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 |
| k75a | Thrown apple hits the chosen one | Boy or girl selects one person among many throwing an object (usually an apple) into him or her. This way a girl makes a choice of a husband, a young man of a bride, a boy identifies his father |
| k80c4 | Mute witnesses of the crime | In a deserted place, a man kills another. After some time he is exposed thanks to circumstances and facts that do not seem important and do not report on the crime directly (the victim’s last words; objects or live beings that were or appeared on the place of the murder). (All texts that contain motifs K80c, K80c1, K80c3, K80c4, also contain a more general motif K80c4) |
| k81 | The handless girl | For minor offence or because of false accusation a young girl or woman is maimed and expelled from home (rare: killed or she kills herself). The maimed person magically obtains her body integrity (the dead revives) |
| k83 | The sons on a quest for a wonderful remedy for their father | To cure a sick person or to make him (rare: her) young again it is necessary to bring a remedy from a distant country. The medicine is brought and the sick person is cured (becomes young) |
| k88 | The two travellers (Truth and Falsehood) | Two men travel or argue about whether truth or falsehood (justice or injustice, etc.) is more powerful. The evil one abandons the good one robbing or blinding (maiming) him but the good one gets back his sight and becomes rich. The evil one usually perishes |
| k92 | King Lear | A man puts his children questions that seem easy to answer (how they love him, who is the elder in the family, etc.). The elder children flatter, the youngest daughter (rare: son) is reserved and her father drives her away or deprives of inheritance. Later her noble nature becomes evident to him |
| k92 | King Lear | A man puts his children questions that seem easy to answer (how they love him, who is the elder in the family, etc.). The elder children flatter, the youngest daughter (rare: son) is reserved and her father drives her away or deprives of inheritance. Later her noble nature becomes evident to him |
| k92a | The princess responsible for her own fortune | A girl driven away from home or married to a poor man become prosperous |
| k92b | Love like salt | A girl answers her father (rare: brother) that she loves him like she loves salt (or that salt is the most valuable, etc.). He becomes angry (usually drives her away) but later satisfies himself that she was right |
| k99 | Prophecy of future sovereiniy | A young man or (rare) a girl has a (day-)dream that predicts his or her future triumph. The dreamer either conceals or reports its contest to his family and in both cases is punished for too high opinion of himself. In the beginning the dreamer sometimes sells his dream to another young man, who becomes the protagonist of the tale. Adventures that follow explain the contest of the dream. The youth becomes rich and happy (e.g. marries heiresses of two kingdoms, that in the dream were symbolized by two suns or a sun and a moon), the girl marries king's son |
| l100d | The entrapped suitors | A pretty, faithful wife is courted by one or several men, one of them usually a clergyman. With her husband’s consent, she invites the suitor(s) to a private rendezvous. Before the first man’s wishes are gratified, the next one arrives and then the husband himself. The suitor or suitors are caught in an uncomfortable position and then killed, punished in some other manner, ridiculed, made to pay ransom, to work, etc. |
| l100e | The lover, the husband and the guest | Before coming in, a guest gets to notice that the housewife is with her lover. When the husband comes home, the guest pretends to possess magic object or the like that helps him to reveal where the good food and the lover are hidden |
| l100f | Guest runs away from the host | In the absence of the host, the guest is told that the host is going to kill or to maim him. The guest runs away, the host runs after him with good intentions but the guest believes that the received warning had a reason |
| l108 | The wolf and the kids | An (animal) person gives a signal (special song, etc.) to his relative or friend who lets him or her in. Antagonist imitates the person's voice or guise and the relative lets him in |
| l108b | The thin voice | To make himself unrecognizable by the victim, a predator or ogre modifies his throat or tongue mechanically (oils or burns it, asks blacksmith to remake it, etc.) |
| l108c | The white hand | To make himself unrecognizable by the victim, a predator or ogre demonstrates clothes, limb, etc. that look like clothes or limb of his victim's mother, etc. |
| l114c | To exchange clothes with ogre's daughters | Children or youths (usually a group of brothers) exchange clothes (headgears, ornaments, blankets, sleeping places) with their enemy’s children. The enemy kills his or her own children by mistake. Usually brothers get to the ogre or ogress and the youngest advices to exchange places (clothes, etc.) with ogre’s daughters). Outside of Europe the actors can be animals |
| l126 | The bird indifferent to pain | A small bird makes a powerful anthropomorphic person lose his temper. The bird cannot be annihilated, cries from inside person's stomach, the person suffers or dies |
| l19b | Beings with odd number of heads | 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 |
| l37a | To get know causes of problems | |
| l37a1 | Wolf should eat a fool | A man travels to get know why he is poor (unlucky). Other persons, animals, plants ask him to investigate the reason of their own misfortunes. God (fate) tells that the wolf (bear, lion) should eat the most stupid man. Other problems can be resolved if the queen gets a husband, a treasure is taken from under the fruit tree, etc. The man does not use opportunity to become a king, to receive gold, etc. because did not receive direct instructions to do it. The wolf decides that the man is a real fool and he must eat him |
| l37b | Secrets accidentally overheard | Person accidentally overhears secrets of animals or demons and thus gets to know the causes of his and other people's misfortunes |
| l37b2 | The overheard secret: a snake inside a person | Overhearing conversation of two snakes or raven, person gets to know the cause of a sickness of another person: a snake has crawled into him. He snake out and the person regains his health |
| l42 | Hero carried to ogre’s home | An ogre or ogress catches a person and brings him to his or her home where he or she plans to cook and eat him. The hero escapes |
| m106h | Holding down the hat | A man defecates, covers the pile with his hat and pretends that there is something valuable under it. Another man believes the deceiver and loses his money or property |
| m118 | Source of values is destroyed imprudently | Person or animal gets access to values that are inside an animal, a tree, a rock or other enclosure. Later he himself or more often somebody else tries to do the same but destroys source of values, blocks access to it or makes it too dangerous |
| m126 | The speaking skull | Person comes across speaking head, skull or tortoise and tells others about his experience. When the information is controlled, the skull keeps silence and the man is punished as a liar |
| m127 | Lost tail of the fox | After losing his tail (ear) an (animal) person tries to trick other animals of his species or other people of his group to lose their tails (ears) too |
| m130c | The mouse and the lion (the help of the weak) | When a lion (tiger, bear, elephant, man) gets into a trap, a mouse (rat) makes him free (usually bites through the ropes) |
| m136e | It is good that pumpkins do not grow on a big tree (St. Peter and the nuts) | A man complains that large trees have small fruits. When an acorn (nut, pear) falls on his head, he understands the order of the natural phenomena |
| m153 | Letter on the hoof | The wolf (lion, etc.) is going to eat a horse (mule, etc.). The horse asks him to look at his hoof (for different reasons) or eat him from his hindquarters forward; then he kicks him |
| m156 | The ungrateful one returned to captivity | An (animal) person saves a dangerous animal from a snare or the like. The saved one is going to kill his savior but the third person saves the second (usually tricks the first one to captivity again) |
| m157b | To take the one thing she holds dearest | Husband casts his wife out but allows her to take the one thing she holds dearest. She takes her sleeping or drunk husband with her and thus moves him to forgive her |
| m158 | Tops or buts | Two animals (an animal and a person, an ogre and a person, etc.) agree to divide a crop in such a way that one would take what is above the ground and another what is beneath ground. One of them (several times makes a wrong choice (takes turnip tops and wheat roots) |
| m159 | The lion’s share | The strongest predator (usually a lion) suggests one of his companions to shares the booty. He is not satisfied by results and beats the companion. When another companion becomes to divide, he gives everything to the strongest one and explains that the injured one taught him the right way of sharing |
| m165 | Fur coat for the wolf | One animal person promises to sew a fur coat (or boots) for another and asks to bring him ever more sheep. He eats the meat and sews nothing |
| m171 | The profitable exchange: from a pea to a horse | Person or animal stays for a night and the next morning declares that his possessions (which value is none or negligible) are lost. Or other persons whom the trickster meets really use or spoil objects that the trickster gives them. Every time he receives in compensation objects or animals with ever bigger value, the last acquisition usually being a costly animal or a girl. (All texts with motifs M171A and M171C contain also the motif M171) |
| m171a | The profitable exchange: getting a girl | Person or animal gets to exchange less valuable goods for ever more valuable. The last or the next to last one is a girl |
| m171d | The profitable exchange: gets a drum | Animal person gets to exchange less valuable goods for ever more valuable and ultimately gets a drum |
| m180 | Fox and crane invite each other | An animal person invites another and serves his food in such a way that he is unable to taste it. Then the other invites the first animal and puts him in similar situation |
| m200 | The miller, his son, and the donkey | An elder man and a boy travel with one donkey (horse). They try all possible ways but are always blamed (a man rides on the donkey and the boy walks; the boy on the donkey and the man walks; both on the donkey; both walk or they carry the donkey). |
| m202 | Thorn removed from lion’s paw | Person removes a thorn from the paw (bone from the throat) of a strong and dangerous animal or a demon, the animal (demon) is grateful |
| 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 |
| m29w3 | The lion is a failure | Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the lion suffers a reverse, is injured or dies |
| m29z1 | The Bald-headed | A bald person acts in narratives (thence his usual name: Taz, Tazchi, Kal, Keloglan, Kechal etc.) |
| m30 | Trickster falls down | Person or creature who has no wings or is unable to fly on a long distance attempts to ascend to the sky or to fly far away but falls down or, deprived of his wings, remains in a place from which he is unable to return |
| 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 |
| m38b | Stupid wives imitate magic one (the daughter of the Sun) | The first and rejected or taken later wife acts using magic. Other wives try to imitate her but perish are maimed or disgraced |
| m38b1 | Young wife is mute until her husband pronounces particular words | After the wedding a wife does not speak with her husband until he says particular words related to her origin (the name of her adoptive father, her own name that reveals her superhuman nature, and the like) |
| m39a6d | A coded message | A person sends to his or her kinsmen or spouse through other persons a text or an object. Only the receiver understands the real meaning of words or of the object, saves the sender and/or destroys his enemies |
| m39d | Series of clever unjust decisions | In succession and unintentionally a man causes a series of accedents. The injured parties bring him before a judge. In each case the judge makes decisions that are formally logical but patently unacceptable and saves the man |
| m39e | What sort of a tree? | Asking about minor details of the case, a judge demonstrates that the plaintiff (or the defendant) lies because he does (not) know about them |
| m39h | Husband pretends to become blind (The faithless wife) | A married woman is eager to get rid of her husband and usually asks a spirit (God, saint, etc.) to make him blind. The husband hides in a tree, behind the alter, etc. and usually tells her that good food will make her husnad blind, or the husband himself tells his wife that the good food is dangerous for him. He pretends to become blind, kills the love (and his wife) |
| m39i | The treasure of the hanging man | When he spends his entire fortune, a man is going to hang himself but finds treasure (intentionally put in the corresponding place by his father) |
| m57c | Gold producing animal | An animal (ass, cow, horse, goat, bear, leopard) extracts gold or food from its body or person makes others believe that it is so |
| m91c1 | Herd from the river bottom | Person gets other person’s possessions by trick (or pretends to get it; usually another person is drowned instead of him) and then demonstrates his possessions (usually a herd) and explains that he had received everything at the river bottom. His enemies believe him |