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
Woman makes vain overtures to young man and/or falsely accuses him of sexual abuse. Her husband believes that the young man is guilty, kills or tries to kill him
To accuse a man or boy of (sexual) abbuse, a woman tears her clothes, smears or scratches her body pretending to be attacked
A woman revenges on a man who rejected her love but necessary not pretends to be an object of sexual harassment from his part
A young man is castrated but his member is restored by magic (and he marries happily)
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
Person hides in a tree. Somebody tries to fell it but the notch disappears and the tree becomes intact
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
Four cardinal directions and/or some objects associated with them are associated with different colors
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
A man seeks a strong adversary to wrestle with and comes across person who is incomparably stronger than he
Supernatural male person (often a snake, a dragon) hides clothes of a human girl or sits on it. To return her clothes she had to become his wife
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
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 woman conceals from God part of her children (rare: all of them) or part of domestic animals that are under her care. The concealed children become poor people or non-human beings and the concealed domestic animals become wild
Several companions have extraordinary abilities (one who runs fast, one who eats great quantities, one who produces or can withstand severe frost, etc.); a hero comes across and takes for companions several men, each of them being involved into a special and unusual activity
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
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
Person removes part of his or her body (head, scalp, lungs) and then puts it back
Cunning rabbit or hare saves person, helps him or her
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
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
(Animal) person provokes another to put a part of his body into a split log (between two planks, etc.) and removes the wedge
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is hare or rabbit
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the hyena suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
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
A weak person makes a separate agreement with two strong ones to cultivate a field. The strong ones do not know about each other, and ultimately the weak one takes all the harvest himself.
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
People are ordered to kill their fathers or (rare) mothers (the Nyoro: to deprive them of power and property; the Baluch: not to take them setting off for the journey). An old man concealed by his son helps to resolve difficult problem
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)
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
The antagonist tries to drink a river or sea and bursts
One cereal grain (cob, etc.) is enough to prepare a meal
Travelling with his sibling, a youth regularly kills those who help him and save him creating for himself ever more problems
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
A fugitive turns in succession into different animals or objects. A pursuer does the same, every time becoming an animal or a person who is dangerous for the fugitive in his given guise
Spirits or unpleasant animals (reptiles, worms, etc.) are (often: concealed from the eyes of God or deformed) children or miscarriages of the same human couple or the same primeval ancestor who produced first human beings
Being on a visit to other people or (more often) animals, an (animal)-person sees them act using magic or according to their animal nature. Back at home, he imitates their actions and gets in trouble. Actions are not heroic deeds, competitions or tests and mostly refer to providing and cooking food
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
Every one of several men had learned a unique skill thanks to which they save a girl abducted by demon or animal
Life of a person or creature is preserved outside of his (her, its) body. Person or creature dies after the corresponding object is destroyed
An object that contains the life (soul) of a person is inside two or more creatures or other objects (like an egg in a duck, a duck in a hare, etc.) or the zoomorphic soul container tries to escape and turns in succession to other animals (three or more transformations)
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
Powerful person orders to build a house in the air. The man finds a clever solution for this puzzle
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.
Person conceals his mother or (rare) wife or mother-in-law, tells another that he has killed or sold her, another really kills or sells his mother (wife, mother-in-law)
Person buries a tail or head of a bull or other domestic animal with a tail or horns outside. He explains that the animal sank into the ground and usually asks the others to pull the tail (horns). When they are “torn off”, he tells that people are guilty of the animal being lost
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is fox, jackal or coyote
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
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
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 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)
Several brothers leave home immediately after their mother gives birth to a girl. Usually they do not want to have another brother and hope that this time a girl will be born but chance or by evil intent a signal is given that not a girl but a boy is born again. The brothers are disappointed and leave, the girl grows up and travels in search of them
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
To punish an antagonist, he or she is tied to a horse (camel, bull) and dragged or he or she is torn apart (usually by horses)
A group of young people comes to a demon. The youngest brother of sister or a person whom others take for a sick, unpleasant, invalid one and who often accompanies the others against their wish saves them all
A member (usually the youngest) of a group of boys or girls gets with them to a cannibal. The cannibal plans to kill people when they fall asleep. The youngest boy or girl every time answers the cannibal why he or she is still awake and forces him or her to be engaged into different activities instead of killing the sleeping people. Brothers (sisters) run away and return home
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 is bewitched (transformed into a bird, faints) when a pin or other sharp object is stuck into her (rare his) body
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
A woman (rare: a man) asks if she (he) is the most beautiful among female (men) folk and always receives a positive answer. It continues till she or he receives the negative one
A group of young men live apart. A girl comes to them or is born magically. The men keep her as their sister. After some time she is separated from them and is in danger but ultimately she is rescued
On the way to the non-human world people or objects ask a child (a young girl) to taste certain food or to fulfill some work. The child (girl) does (rare: does not) what she was asked to do and thanks to this achieve his or her destination and safely returns
Person knows that the deceiver and trickster has one of his teeth broken. To identify him, person makes others laugh and thus open their mouths
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 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
Animal person agrees to put on a fresh skin of another animal or to be tied up with raw straps. The skin or straps inflict sufferings (usually after they become dry)
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
A man maroons another because of jealousy or because he plans to take hold of his wife
A tree or vine quickly grows up near the rock or in the bottom of a pit where the hero was marooned. He gets to the ground climbing down (or up) this tree (vine)
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
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
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
Hero is sent to bring milk of a wild animal or milk in possession of a dangerous creature or person
In exchange for temporal advantages, person agrees to be maimed or branded
Penetrating into an animal, a person or other animal gets food without injuring the animal itself
Person believes that unachievable natural phenomena are objects of culture. Usually he agrees to bring a the fire mistaking for it a sunset, a firefly, etc.
To realize his or her secret desire (illicit sex, refusal to share food with relations), person pretends to die and is abandoned at a burial place
Man pretends to die because he does not want to share food with the others and eats it alone at his burial place
Animal person promises to take care of another animal's children but do not fulfill obligations and usually eats the young ones
When a man or a woman promises to give his or her child to a demon, he or she does not try to save the child but help the demon to catch him or her. Despite all, the boy or girl escapes from the demon
A woman who lives in the house of a supernatural person conceals the man who had come to her and puts questions to this person. The answers that are received and became known to the man are of great importance for him
Persons climbs a tree and thanks to this escapes from a demon (who usually tries to fell the tree)
Описывается или изображается чудовище (обычно змей) о семи головах. При перечисления существ по мере возрастания у них числа голов ряд заканчивается на семи
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
The zenith and/or nadir are described together with four cardinal directions as the fifth (and the sixth) ones
An object that contains certain person’s soul / death is inside other object, the latter is in the third one (etc.). The last receptacle of the life is an egg
An object that contains the life (soul) of a person is inside two or more creatures or other objects (like an egg in a duck, a duck in a hare, etc.) or the zoomorphic soul container tries to escape and turns in succession to other animals (three or more transformations)
When person comes to the water body, waters are split apart so the person reaches the other bank walking on the dry ground
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
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
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
After a series of adventures and victories, the hero gets into trouble. His twin brother or the best friend follows his traces, gets across the same persons but overcomes the last enemy and revives (liberates) the hero
Hunting a doe (a deer), hero gets to the place of a magician or demon; the doe is a bewitched person or demon
Somebody acts in absurd way to lure person out of his or her place. The person does not understand the deception and comes to explain how to act correctly
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