Linked Motifs

Motif	Name	Description
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
f70d	A disgraced informer	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
g8	Restored tree	A deep notch in the tree (or in the sky support) is magically restored as soon as persons or creatures who cut or gnaw it stop working
g8b	Cutting tree to get a person	Person hides in a tree. Somebody tries to fell it but the notch disappears and the tree becomes intact
h36b	Death and the chameleon	Chameleon is responsible for introduction of permanent death or hard life; loses object that the deity trusted him to bring to the earth
h36c	Death and the lizard	Lizard is responsible for introduction of permanent death. (Lithuanian case can be a mistification)
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
i120	Cornucopia	Food and clothes are extracted from the horn of a cow or goat
j15	Woman gets to dangerous creatures	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
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
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
k176	A man in search of the woman	A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife
k28	Father or uncle is rival and enemy	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
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
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
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)
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
k88b	Food exchanged for eyes	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
l106	Lost object claimed back	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
l106a	Stomach cut open	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
l106b	Journey to the other world in search of the lost object	In search of a lost object, usually carried away by water or wind, a girl or (rare) a boy comes to a powerful person, gets the object back and/or is rewarded. The object is related to the everyday life, it has no ritual significance and is not a weapon
l113	The ogre bridegroom	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
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
l34	The burning hair	Person kills or injures his enemy putting fire on his or her straw costume, mask, headgear, hair or object on his or her back
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
l41	Hero escapes on the way	An ogre or ogress catches a person and carries his or her prey home but the person escapes on the way or immediately after reaching the ogre's house
l5f	Helpful skull	A bodiless head, face, or skull is a woman's husband, suitor or son. He is not dangerous but a good provider, saves people from hunger, etc.
l6	Demon clings to person	A demonic being demands that a person would carry it permanently, clings to his shoulder or back
l72	The obstacle flight	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
l81	Demon’s fire	Person sets off in search of fire and finds it in the house of a demon. The demon makes harm to the person
l85	One-sided people	One-sided people have one leg and/or also one arm, one half of a head, etc. The second leg is not cut or burned off, preserved as a stump but is absent completely
m183	A race: one against many	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
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
m29k	The turtle (tortoise, toad, frog) wins thanks to his smartness	Being smart and persistent, the turtle (toad, frog) overcomes strong adversaries
m52	Butchered carcass	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
m62c	Pulling a rope	A weak animal-person agrees separately with two strong ones to pull a rope with him. They do not know that are engaged into tug-of-war with each other or that the rope is tied to a tree. (In New World motif borrowed from Afroamericans)

Similar traditions based on Cosmology and Etiology motifs:
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 8 Tradition: Bemba (Wemba, Babemba; incl Ambo, Lala, Lamba, Bisa), Holoholo, Kaonde
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 7 Tradition: Tswana (Chwana), Suto (Soto; incl Pedi, Mbire)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 7 Tradition: Kalenjin; including Sabaot, Nandi (Nande), Arusha, Kipsigis, Pokot (Suk), Keiyo (Elgeiyo), Marakwet, Sebeei
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 6 Tradition: Hausa
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 6 Tradition: Duala (Douala), Basa (Basaá), Kwiri (Kweli), Isubu
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 6 Tradition: Northern Gur (Oti-Volta): Mamprussi, Dagomba, Dagari (Dagara; incl Lodaga), Bassari, Mosi, Nankanse, Konkomba, Moba; Ditammari, Nyende, Bulsa (pl Builsa, Bulo)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 6 Tradition: Zulu, Swazi
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 6 Tradition: Ndebele, Pedi, Thonga (incl Ronga), Hlengwe, Matabele (Tebele)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 6 Tradition: Zande (Azande, incl Nzakara)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 6 Tradition: Shone (Shona, =Mashona, =Karanga), Makoni (Shoni dialect), Remba (=Hungwe, Wahungwe); Zezuru, Rozwi, Ndau (Vandau)

Similar traditions based on Adventures and Tricks motifs:
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 5 Tradition: Kabylia and other Berber of Northern and Central Algeria: Beni Snous, Beni Menacer (incl Zuav), Shaui, etc.)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition: Byelarusians
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition: Fang (Pangwe), Eton, Bafia, Batanga, Benga, Bube (Bubi), Buheba, Yaunde (Ewondo), Yebekolo, Koko, Bulu, Beti (Beti-Bulu), Sekiani, Eghap
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition: Tiv, Bamum (Bamun), Mungaka (Mgaka, Bali), Beba, Anaguta, Bete (Mbete, Karang), Ekoi, Nyang, Vute (Wute), Jukun, Chamba, Bamileke, Kwotto, Kirri; Denya (Nyang)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition: Duala (Douala), Basa (Basaá), Kwiri (Kweli), Isubu
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition: Luchasi (Ngangela), Chokwe (Konwe); Mbukushu
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition: Swahili, Midjikenda (incl Giryama), Nyika, Duruma; Ngindo, Kiluguru and other Islamic groups of the Eastern Coast of Africa
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition: Sakata
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition: Congo (Koongo, Bacongo; incl Vili, Fioti, (Ma)Yombe, MuKunyi), Ndombo, Luango (Loango), Zombo (Sambo), Laadi (Laari), (Ba)Fioti, Woyo (Kiwoyo)
Shared motifs (from a list of 10 less used): 3 Tradition: Lithuanians