The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male
The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (much more rare) asexual
The earth is a female person (alone or together with a male person); she is female being or associated with a woman
(While the earth is still absent or liquid), a bird buries its relative in its own head that usually explains its appearance (a swell on its beak, a crest of feathers) or unpleasant smell
Initially the earth is a swamp, water and dry land are not separated from each other
Originally the sky was close to the earth, then it has risen up
The sky rose to its present height and/or the direct relations of the sky deity with the people were broken off when the sky or the deity was touched or struck with a long object (a pestle, a broom, etc.)
To reach the sky (the Sun, Moon, particular star), people build a ladder or tower that consists of separate modules (bricks, logs, sticks, etc.). This construction collapses
Fire is stolen from its original owner or brought back to the people from somebody who had stolen it before
Dog obtains fire, daylight or the Sun or steals them
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.
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
A man gets into the village of women. Usually he has to satisfy every woman against his will or every woman claims him for herself
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
People learn to copulate after they see birds, fish or animals doing it
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 open container with death or disease inside and become mortal
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)
Goat or sheep is responsible for introduction of permanent death
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
Rainbow is two creatures or persons, usually a male and a female
Milky Way is the path over which souls travel to the beyond or a path of the funeral procession
The Pleiades are a brooding hen, hen with its chickens, chickens
When person comes to the water body, waters are split apart so the person reaches the other bank walking on the dry ground
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
Person is lured into a trap being invited to lie in a box or a hole to measure it. Being unable to liberate himself from the box etc., the person remains in power of his enemies
To get know names of strangers, person finds or creates situations when the strangers call each other by name
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
An animal saves a man or helps him but the ungrateful man humiliates the animal, kills or tries to kill it
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
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)
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
Person sets off in search of fire and finds it in the house of a demon. The demon makes harm to the person
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 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 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
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is a spider
Punishing a person or animal or restoring his or its body after its disintegration, a powerful being intentionally or by chance puts head to bottoms
Hero comes across a (animal-)person from an enemy group and takes his or her appearance, usually dressing himself in a skin of his victim; after this he penetrates the enemy camp
Somebody claims that he has been born before present world came into being. His opponent claims the same, and they argue who of them is the older
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
Father or mother is going to give primogeniture to the son he or she has chosen. Another son comes in disguise of the chosen one, receives primogeniture
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.
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
Man takes or attempts to take a wife who is connected with the underwater world (fish, crab, snake, water animal and the like)
Person promises to bring a snake. The snake agrees to let him measure it. He ties the snake to a measuring stick or during the measuring finds a vulnerable place on the snake’s body
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
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
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
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
Chaeleon is a premordial animal and walked on the earth while its was not still solid
An imprisoned man is rescued and exalted because only he gets to resolve problems that trouble the king or to save the princess (prince, the king himself)
Sky or sky objects were edible but later this source of food became inaccessible or used only by the inhabitants of the distant land where the sky and the earth meet
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)
Man takes or attempts to take a wife who is connected with the underwater world (fish, crab, snake, water animal and the like)
Person promises to fill container with small flying creatures which are alive. When he expresses his doubts that the creatures are numerous enough to fill the container, they fly in and he closes the lid
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)
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
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
Stinging insects (rare diseases) had been inside a container or some enclosure. They escaped to the world when the container or enclosure was foolishly opened
Stars are people, ghosts, anthropomorphic beings (interpretations of unique star objects like Venus or Polaris as persons not considered)
Person ascends to the sky (rare: descends from the sky; ascends the cliff) by a rope, a ladder, etc. Another person tries to follow him or her but the rope (the ladder) is broken or severed
Treasure, or the like, is thrown back to tempt pursuer to delay
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
Человек оказывает услугу нескольким (потенциально опасным) животным и другому человеку. Благодарные животные помогают ему, а человек предает и вредит
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
A slow and a fast animals (or not flying bird) agree to race. The slow one imperceptibly sticks to the fast one’s body (or to a vehicle) and getting to the finish pretends to come there simultaneously with the fast one or before him
Birds, animals or fish compete as about who is the fastest or can fly higher than others. A weak one imperceptible sticks to the body of the fastest or strongest and wins
The riddle refers to extraordinary or accidental events that happened to the person setting the riddle, and thus is unsolvable to outsiders
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the leopard (panther) suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
The art of weaving people get from a spider or from a person who turns into spider afterwards; a spider is weaving for people
Story about trickster Spider ends with his transformation into the spider who lives under the roof, in dark nooks, etc.
A hunter can transform himself into different objects. His demonic wife tries to identify them and kill the hunter
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
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
(While the earth is still absent or liquid), a bird buries its relative in its own head that usually explains its appearance (a swell on its beak, a crest of feathers) or unpleasant smell
All humans, members of a particular ethnic or social group or a ruling dynasty are believed to descend from a mortal man and a woman of supernatural origin
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
When a deity (powerful person) attempts to pass some money to a certain man, he either gets it or not thanks to his fate while all other factors play no role
A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world