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
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)
A young man is castrated but his member is restored by magic (and he marries happily)
A castrate or girl pretends to be a man or a cripple girl conceles her injury or a man pretends to be a girl. Some person gets to know about it and plans to expose the deception. At the last moment the hero or heroine magically becomes a real man (or girl; gets back the lost members) and the informer is disgraced
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
Giant water-chthonic or sky serpent or dragon has horns or antlers on its head
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
Person gets into the belly of ground animal or bird. He kills it from the inside and/or returns to earth by himself (i.e. not extracted by other people)
Person or animal gets into another being through its anus
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
Women 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) take off their clothes (feather skins and the like) or part of it. Because a man hides the clothes (of one of them), their owner(s) have (has) to marry him or help him
A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world
Person or animal must eat (drink) enormous quantity of food (beverage) or eat or drink poisonous beverage or food
A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage
Hero is sent to bring milk of a wild animal or milk in possession of a dangerous creature or person
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.
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
Siblings (most often younger brother and elder sister) leave their home. One of them (most often the brother, most rare several brothers) turn into animal (usually an ungulate) or (rare) a bird but (in the most cases) ultimately acquires his or her human form again
Two or more different kinds of valuable edible liquids like oil, honey, milk, etc. are available or imaginable. Cf. motif n34
Person is temporary transformed into animal (usually into a dog or coyote or into donkey, ox, etc.). When he acquires his human guise again, the antagonist suffers similar transformation. In some texts only the hero or only the antagonist is transformed
To return or to get his or her son, wife, husband, domestic animal or (rare) object, person must recognize her, him or it among several identical persons, animals or objects
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).
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
A girl who conceals her beauty and/or is poor and oppressed by her stepmother puts on a splendid attire and comes incognito to a feast where a man of high status falls in love with her. He marries her after identifying her by an object given to her or lost by her or (rare) seeing how she changes her clothes
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)
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
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
Wife of a man or wives of a group of brothers envy his (their) sister and tries (try) to destroy her
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)
Young man gives his sisters to the first bridegrooms who claim them. These are demons or animals who usually later help him
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
Person eats magic bird, fish, small animal, or fruit and becomes prosperous and powerful
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
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
Cow (ox, bull) helps an orphan child or a young woman who got into trouble
To accuse a guest of theft, a host plants a treasure into his guest’s bag
A demonic being demands that a person would carry it permanently, clings to his shoulder or back
Person that looks weak and feeble asks a man to carry him or her on his back and refuses to leave him
Person accidentally overhears secrets of animals or demons and thus gets to know the causes of his and other people's misfortunes
An ogre's child or (rare) wife believes in what hero tells him (or her) and releases him. Usually the hero kills the child and puts its meat to cook in the very pot where the ogre planned to cook the hero
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
When a man comes to a beautiful woman she tricks him by asking to finish some trivial task, keeping him by her magic in an awkward or ridiculous position until daylight. Episode is repeated next nights with other or (rare) the same suitor. Usually the first suitor being ashamed tells the other that everything was nice, so all of them are humiliated the same way
Treasure, or the like, is thrown back to tempt pursuer to delay
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is fox, jackal or coyote
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
Fool takes his own shadow for a person who pursues him and gives it his possessions
Person is sent to receive something of relatively low value. He asks to give him quite different object (to provide a service) and asks one who had sent him to confirm the demand. Usually a person or animal comes to a wife or a son of a powerful one and tells her or him that her (his) husband or father tells to give him food, to make love to him, to marry him, etc.
Person discovers that somebody steals game or fish from his trap or devastates his garden. He or his guards catch the thieves who prove to be (the first) women or the thief is the water being whom the hero lets go after receiving a woman for ransom
Instead of common body discharges a man or a woman urinates, spits, etc. beads, flowers, gold and other valuables; valuables are produced by the very presence of particular person
An animal (ass, cow, horse, goat, bear, leopard) extracts gold or food from its body or person makes others believe that it is so
Person gets one by one magic objects that bring food or treasure. Other people replace them with common objects or take them away by force. The person takes his property back (usually beating the thieves with magic cudgel or whip)
To demonstrate that the thief who had eaten food supplies is somebody else or to declare somebody else as a victim to be eaten up, animal person smears his sleeping companion with remains of the food or body excretions (exchanges the excretions)
Person pretends that a person (often his or her mother, spouse or lover) who recently died is alive, claims that the death of the false alive resulted from negligence of others and gets a reward
Person pierces a bladder with blood or red juice, simulates murder or suicide
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
Person is put into a bag (a cage, tied up, etc.) to be drowned, burned, etc. He pretends to be in this situation by his own will or because he refuses to marry a princess, to become a chief and the like. Another person is willing to take his place and is killed
An animal-person provokes another to jump from of a bluff or cliff (tree) because his father (grandfather, etc.) could do it. The one yielded to provocation jumps and dies or is caught by the provoker
An animal person becomes a herdsman but eats the entrusted animals up
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)
A woman is thrown into a well (pond, hole, etc.) or transformed into a water bird. Being in water, she gives birth to a son (children) or she had been thrown together with her baby. Ultimately she and her children are saved
Person is able to steal an egg (a nestling, to put it back) from under the bird (to change the bird’s feather; to steal an embryo from animal’s womb, etc.)
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)
Magic wife tricks her naive mother-in-law to give her back her supernatural clothes or other object thanks to which she is able to escape from the human world
In exchange for temporal advantages, person agrees to be maimed or branded
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
One who eats certain fruit (leave, etc.) gets horns (long nose, etc.) or turns into an animal. After eating another fruit (leave) person recovers his or her normal body
A man finds the woman’s hair that was carried by water and decides to marry its owner
Hero gives his rivals the food provided by him by order of the king but the king finds this food poisonous, useless or tasteless while the food presented by the hero is excellent even if it looks not so good
Fool brings his goats to a fruit tree and kills them when they become to eat fruits that he has thrown down from the tree
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
Person must climb a tree (pole, rock) with a full open vessel in hand and not a drop should be spilled
Some valuables (foals, hay, apples, etc.) are regularly stolen. Nobody (the elder brothers) is able to catch the thief and only the hero (the younger brother) finds who it is
A person gives order to kill the young man’s sister (mother, wife). The young man saves her but later regrets about it
The Sun is female, the Moon is male or (more rare) also female
Both the Sun and the Moon are considered to be females (incl. cases when the gender is not directly specified but both emerge from parts of the body of a female person)
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
Seriously or demonstrating absurdity of the situation, a person tries to cook something using a fire (a source of light) that is far away from the object to be cooked
Person eats a meal of eggs and leaves without paying. Some years later when he returns to pay his debt, the innkeeper claims the value of all chickens that would have hatched from the eggs in the meantime. On the day of the trial another person pretends to have cooked seeds for planting and the judge agrees that chicken could not be hatched from the boiled eggs
A cripple tells that he lost his leg (eye) because of his visitor’s father. The visitor’s wife (or he himself after receiving a good advice) asks the cripple to give him another leg (eye) for comparison or brings him a leg of a dead person claiming money for it
A woman is abandoned by her magic husband. She finds him and becomes his wife again
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.
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the hyena suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the leopard (panther) suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
To hide truth, person buries an animal or an object and tells that it is the burial of a bride (wife, sister, children, etc.) of another
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
Wicked stepmother (aunt, a rival) blinds a young woman. The heroine returns her eyes (often gets them back in exchange for some values)
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
An animal or person who crawled into a fresh carcass or put on a fresh animal skin cannot free himself (usually because the carcass or the skin becomes dry). He gets free when the skin becomes soft again or somebody helps him
Penetrating into an animal, a person or other animal gets food without injuring the animal itself
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
A companion promises to share water or food with a thirsty or hungry person on condition that he or she allows to blind him or her
An animal person pretends (several times) that he has to make a visit (that he has been invited to be godfather at a baptism or invited to a funeral or wedding) but instead eats secretly food supplies
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
By trick or by force, a rival or adversary kidnaps hero's wife or bride. The man gets her back
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
A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife
The sovereign orders his youngest daughter (together with a man chosen by her) to live in conditions that do not correspond to her high status. Her father does not know that her chosen one is not a poor wretch as he seems to be but a prince
Streams of honey and oil (oil and milk, milk and blood) instead of streams of water are mentioned as a sign of generosity and prosperity. Cf. motif K33F
A river (wave, lake, basin) of milk that exists on earth (and not among the stars) is mentioned in narratives (in different context)
Person gets to live a long life rich in events but eventually finds himself in the same place and moment from which the story begins.
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)
A kid (lamb, gazelle, etc.) comes to a well (see, etc.) where his mistress was pushed down and says that they sharpen knives and boil water to kill and cook him
Being on guard, the hero gets to know who steals regularly fruits (usually apples) from the garden
Mother tries to kill her son (children) because he interferes with her love affair
To gain a woman, a man hides inside a hollow figure or a carcass of a big animal (horse, bull, etc.). Person who guards the woman brings it to her. The man comes outside and becomes the woman’s lover. Or a woman hides inside the figure of the horse that is brought into the room of a man
An (ostensibly) sick (ugly, weak, poorly clad) person remains at home when others go to the feast. The person comes by himself or herself looking like a handsome man or beautiful girl. The man (woman) does not recognize him (her) and feels against her (him) sexual interestю (All texts with motif k57, Chinderella, are also included into f62)
After the death of her or his mother, a girl or a boy suggests her or his father to marry another woman who is her or his teacher, neighbor etc. and who usually persuaded the girl (boy) to give such an advice. As soon as she is married, the step-mother becomes to persecute her step-daughter (stem-son)
A woman who was thrown into the water is swallowed by a fish (whale) but ultimately saved
Instead of common body discharges a a man urinates, spits, etc. beads, flowers, gold and other valuables; valuables are produced by the very presence of particular male person. See motif m57a
Instead of common body discharges a a woman urinates, spits, etc. beads, flowers, gold and other valuables; valuables are produced by the very presence of particular female person. See motif m57a
During the time of creation particular species of animals (rare: plants) exchanged certain organs or traits or one animal borrowed an organ from another one but never brought it back. Thence the characteristics of these animals now. In rare cases the back exchange and restoring of the initial situation or the passing of certain organ from one animal to another without compensation are described
Going to the feast, party, etc., animal person borrows from another one a part of the body that must make him more attractive
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
Persons avenge the death of their father, mother or other relatives who are one (rare two) generations older than they