The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male
The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (much more rare) asexual
Coming together of the Sun and the Moon is the reason of their eclipses
The lunar (and solar) eclipse or spots on the lunar disc are expained by the fact that the Sun or the Moon came to a wrong path or that their paths crossed
The sun and/or the moon are inanimate objects thrown up to the sky or fixed in the sky
The Sun has appearance of a big terrestrial mammal (bull, ram, antilope, pig, rhinocero, etc.) or rides such an animal
Person prepares a snare, loop, noose, etc. to catch the Sun and/or the Sun is caught in a snare, tied by a rope, etc.
Two persons have children (younger siblings, mothers). One of them proposes to another that they should kill (eat, bake, etc.) their children (mothers, etc.) but hides his or her own. The opponent actually kills his or her own kin. One of the persons or/and the only survived child is the Sun
The earth is a female person (alone or together with a male person); she is female being or associated with a woman
The male Sky (the Sun, the Thunder, the creator of the sky) marries the female Earth (or its female creator) or the female Sky marries the male Earth
Fire is stolen from its original owner or brought back to the people from somebody who had stolen it before
Person or people who have stolen fire or asked its owner to share the fire are punished by God
First fire is sent to earth from the sky or the ancestors ascend to the sky and bring from there fire or warmth
The first people (or only the first men or the first women) are not created but come to earth from the underworld (from a cave) or from a small enclosure under the earth or on its surface (tree trunk, rock, gourd, etc.). Many people of both sexes and of different ages or people and different species of animals come out together
The first people or first anthropomorphic divine beings descend to earth from the sky.
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
Child is born from a tumor or swelling on person's body (on thigh, knee, finger, etc.) or is temporarily placed there or child grows from blood that flew out from a cut
Initially women and men live apart from each other. Later they meet each other and become to live together
Originally, humans had (had to have; can have under some special confition) their genitals not on the place where they are now; the genitals were absent, or people did not know know their function and used for copulation other parts of the body
After eating certain fruit, berry, tuber, etc. people become sexually aware
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
Death (also Old Age, Disease, etc.) is a particular person not identical with the Master of the Dead. He kills people usually carrying away their souls
People become mortal because they do not hear or answer a call of a being who promises them immortality (or do not pronounce his name) or answer a call (pronouns the name) of a being who brings death
Inhabitants of the land of the dead eat excrements
Person has a series of suggestions how to make the world easy for living and free of hard work and death. His companion successively rejects them. Their dialogue forever defines conditions of human life
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)
Person distorts instructions that he must pass to others, intentionally lies, forgets or replaces certain objects that must be given to others. Because of this human beings become mortal (do not revive after death)
Chameleon is responsible for introduction of permanent death or hard life; loses object that the deity trusted him to bring to the earth
Frog or toad is responsible for introduction of permanent death
One supernatural creates the body of the first people, another revives them
Rainbow is a reptile (usually a snake) or (more rare) a fish, or it is related to snake, to its tongue, breath, or to scorpion's tail
The Pleiades are a brooding hen, hen with its chickens, chickens
The Pleiades are a group of girls or women (with children)
The Pleiades are any people (of any ages and sex, combined data of i99-i100a)
Food and clothes are extracted from the horn of a cow or goat
Antagonist perishes falling into the water or trying to cross a water body
A task: to sort a large amount or small particles of different kind (usually seeds of different plants) mixed in container or to count such particles or to pick up the spilled grains
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
Hero demonstrates his supernatural abilities remaining alive in a burning hot chamber, stove, bonfire, among burning vegetation
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
A despised wife gives birth to wonderful human children, other wives give birth to animals
Hero hides in a tree from an ogre. Before the ogre gets to fell the tree, the hero flies away or a bird helps him to escape
A demon helps a man or a woman or lets him or her free. As a reward, the person is forced to promise to give the demon his child
An antagonist makes a demand to the hero which is correct in form but really is unjustified. The hero fulfills the claims or is punished. Now antagonist takes an object or animal possessed by the hero, is unable to give it back and is punished
A predator animal (ogre, ogress) swallows people or animals. The goat (rare: the sheep) punishes him or her and usually saves the victims (most often opens the ogre’s belly open and the swallowed ones come out alive)
A gourd proves to be a cannibal or grows from remains of a monster
A demonic being swallows a multitude of people and animals. When it is killed and cut open, the swallowed ones come out alive or are revived
A girl (rejects suitors for a long time but at last) falls in love with a handsome man who proves to be a demon or animal. Usually she eventually escapes from him
A girl who rejected suitors finds at last a really handsome man. He escorts her to his place and distributes on the way all his clothes and body parts that he loaned before. Only his skull (head) remains
Acquiring possibility to fly, person ultimately falls to the ground or remains in a faraway place being unable to fly any more
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is hare or rabbit
Being smart and witty, a small ungulate overcomes strong adversaries. The hero is a duiker, a mouse-deer or other small even-toed ungulates that are not very close biologically but look similar. In some publications on African folklore it is difficult to say what species is meant in particular case
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the hyena suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
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
An ogre or a stronger animal catches a man or a weaker animal or drives him into a small enclosure. He goes away for a while leaving a watchman. The watchman is unable to fulfill his duty and the man (the weak animal) escapes (usually he dupes the watchman). Most, though hardly all American cases can have post-Columbian African origin
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)
Person conceals his or her close relatives (children, mother, brothers) and tells another that he or she has killed them. Another believes and agrees to kill his or her own children, mother, etc.
An animal person refuses to dig or clean a source of drinking water together with other animals or birds but takes advantage of the results of the work
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
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
A stronger (animal)-person gets to seize a leg or tail of a weaker one. To get free the weaker one pretends that his pursuer got hold of a tree root, and the pursuer lets his enemy free
A man obtains knowledge of animal languages but if he reveals the secret, he must die. Once he hears animals talking and laughs. His wife thinks that he laughs at her or at her mother. The man is ready to open his secret and either does it and dies or hears how animals (usually a cock) blame him for being so foolish. So he keeps his secret.
Person claims that a man or a male animal had given birth (or is menstruating) or that a female gave birth to a young of another species or that a woman gave birth to an animal
To demonstrate that a strong animal is his slave or his riding animal, a weak animal tricks the strong one to carry him. People believe that the strong one is really a slave of the weak one
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
The (animal) person threatens another to beat him and sticks to him with all his limbs in succession. Usually it is a figure smeared with some sticky substance that the person takes for somebody alive
A man marries a woman who initially has guise of an ungulate animal (buffalo, elk, derr, etc.)
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
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
Because of the female antagonist, a girl faints and is taken for dead but her body is not decomposed. A valuable marriage partner breaks the charms, she revives
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
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 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 claims that a calf (colt, kid, etc.) was born (brought to the place) not by the cow (mare, etc.) of another person but by his own male animal (bull, stallion, etc.), his own animal of another species or by inanimate object (usually a cart)
Person proves the absurdity of the claims of another person saying that his or her father (or other man or a male animal) had given or is giving birth or is menstruating
Vulva is a unhealed wound on the body of the primeval women or the primval people had no sex mistaking vulva for a wound
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the leopard (panther) suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the lion suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
Person suffests another a woman but does not have any or does not want to give her. He makes artificial girl (of wood, snow, etc.), sends servant girl instead of his daughter, turns into a woman himself, or recognizes his fault when he feels that it is save to do so
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
Chief of thieves (demonic person) brings his men (other demons) into some people’s yard hiding them in empty jars, casks, etc. The plan to kill members of the household at night. A girl (a young woman; rare: somebody else from the family) gets to know about the danger and kills the thieves one by one (usually pouring boiling water into the jars)
The earth or the world as a whole is a male person (alone or together with a female person)
Thunder looks like a quadruped mammal (pig, buffalo, camel, anteater, tapir, dog, cat, leopard, monkey, etc.)
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).
A bird (that usually emerges from the remains of a murdered person or being incarnation of his or her soul) punishes the murderer or tells people about the crime
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
Person or creature pretends to be afraid of a particular sort of treatment that really cannot do him any harm
Person conceals her children and tells another one that she has killed them. Another person really kills her own
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
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
The girl becomes beautiful or ugly after washing herself in the water of particular color
Birds first give their feathers to a certain person to make him be able to fly or to make him beautiful and then take them back
Person or animal gets to exchange less valuable goods for ever more valuable. The last or the next to last one is a girl
A man obtains knowledge of animal languages but if he reveals the secret, he must die. Once he hears animals talking and laughs. His wife thinks that he laughs at her or at her mother. The man is ready to open his secret and either does it and dies or hears how animals (usually a cock) blame him for being so foolish. So he keeps his secret.
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)
To get know names of strangers, person finds or creates situations when the strangers call each other by name
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)
Each of calender units (usually the months) that make the year is a separate object or person
Extra suns who almost burned or could burn the world are children of the present one
Stars are people, ghosts, anthropomorphic beings (interpretations of unique star objects like Venus or Polaris as persons not considered)
A cannibal under a tree plans to eat up a man who has climbed the tree. The man throws down and afar his pray or some object and escapes while the cannibal rushes to this object or is eating the pray
Person invites others to help him in his work. Every next one is stronger than the one who came before and eats him up, the last two perish when they begin to fight
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
Two animal persons are invited to a feast. Both along the way and at the place of destination one deceives another
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
Two women (usually female animal persons) live together, both have children, one of them kills and devours another or wants to do it. The son of the murderer kills his mother and becomes a companion of the victim's son, or the victim’s and the murderer’s children escape together
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
A man travels and comes to two or several blind (usually old) persons
The predator wants to eat a person or animal; the victim asks for a favor to let him first wash himself and escapes
Using a trick the intruder occupies other person’s house and refuses to let the owner in
Many animals of one species that all look identical together fulfill the task that would be impossible for any of them if he were alone; the competitors believe that the task was fulfilled by only one animal. Usually a slow and a fast animals agree to race. The slow one puts other animals of his species at the finish or along the distance, each one answering the fast one that he is ahead of him. The fast one accepts his loss
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
A girl (rejects suitors for a long time but at last) falls in love with a handsome man who proves to be a demon or animal. Usually she eventually escapes from him
A girl who rejected suitors finds at last a really handsome man. He escorts her to his place and distributes on the way all his clothes and body parts that he loaned before. Only his skull (head) remains
Bat is in conflict with other creatures because of the incident related to somebody's death or funerals
Stars are children of the Moon and/or the Sun
A man who had married an unusual girl is warned that she should avoid work or food. Some other members of his household make her violate the raboo and she dies or disappears
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
A wild animal, ogress or ogre turns into woman and marries a hunter with a special aim to kill him. Usually she goes with the hunter to the forest and acquires there her real guise
When person comes to the water body, waters are split apart so the person reaches the other bank walking on the dry ground
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 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
After warning his wife about the planned trick, person lets free a wild animal or bird asking it to pass a message to his wife. Seeing the same (actually another) animal or bird in his companion’s house another man buys the animal for a lot of money
An animal (ass, cow, horse, goat, bear, leopard) extracts gold or food from its body or person makes others believe that it is so
A dog or other animal kills dangerous creature who was going to attack the child. The master thinks that the assailant was the pet and kills it
Babies disappear but are ultimately returned to their mother or father grown up and in good health
A king notices that his ban to kindle any light during the night is broken
A woman is abandoned by her magic husband. She finds him and becomes his wife again
A girl is promised to a man who would know her name or whose finger would fit her ring, or who would guess a material from which certain object is made or grown. Person finds a correct answer by deception
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
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
A cannibal (old man, Gipsy, etc.) carries away a girl. He walks from village to village forcing her sing or dance. People recognize her (or her voice) and release her
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
To get rid of a dangerous but stupid demon or animal, a man commits certain acts. His adversary repeats them without understanding their meanings and makes harm to himself
It to point at the rainbow, pointing finger or entire arm will rot, wither or become crooked
A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world
The supernatural person does not like the behavior of the unkind girl and punishes her making her ugly (disfigured)