Different suns illuminate different worlds or will appear successively in the future
The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male
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
Man takes or attempts to take a wife who is connected with the underwater world (fish, crab, snake, water animal and the like)
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
Person pretends to die. His or her wife or husband abandons him or her on a burial place. He or she marries his or her paramour
Person hides in a tree. Somebody tries to fell it but the notch disappears and the tree becomes intact
After getting domestic animals from supernaturals a person immediately loses the animals or most of them (usually because of a broken taboo like to look, to speak in a loud voice, etc.; the animals disappear in water, remain in the sky, scatter in various directions, etc.)
Container with valuables or with dangerous creatures is opened (before time). Its content goes out of control or disappear
Four cardinal directions and/or some objects associated with them are associated with different colors
The Pleiades are a brooding hen, hen with its chickens, chickens
The Pleiades are only one anthropomorphic being, not several persons
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 boy is born whose father or (rare) mother is unknown. He himself points at his parent who as a rule occupies the lowest social position. Usually many men (women) come together and everyone hopes that the boy points at him (her)
Hero is sent to bring milk of a wild animal or milk in possession of a dangerous creature or person
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
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
Hero's dogs or horse or (rare) he himself fight with his adversary in the underworld (under the water). Those who are waiting for the outcome of the combat understand who overcomes whom by the color of water or foam that rises to the surface, or the color animal who comes first to the surface
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
Person accidentally overhears secrets of animals or demons and thus gets to know the causes of his and other people's misfortunes
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
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
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
Cunning rabbit or hare saves person, helps him or her
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
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 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 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
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is fox, jackal or coyote
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 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)
Trickster puts on a rotten hide of an animal and, being unrecognized, pretends to be victim of hare’s magic. Animals are frightened and decide not to pay the hare back for his tricks
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.
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 pierces a bladder with blood or red juice, simulates murder or suicide
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)
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
Getting into a well or pit and being unable to climb out animal person tricks another to descend and thanks to this gets out while the second person remains below
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.
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)
The strongest predator (usually a lion) suggests one of his companions to shares the booty. He is not satisfied by results and beats the companion. When another companion becomes to divide, he gives everything to the strongest one and explains that the injured one taught him the right way of sharing
In the presence of powerful person one of his subjects is plotting against the other. The other answers that the problem can be resolved if the first one would be maimed (usually a part of his body used as a medicine). The schemer is killed or injured
An animal person pretends to have no other interests than to fulfill religious rules and prescriptions (to confess his sins, to make a pilgrimage, to become vegetarian, etc.) and kills those who have believed him
An animal person pretends to be dead and lies down on a road in front of a traveler who carries something valuable. The traveler passes by but returns to pick up the animal when he sees another one, i.e. the same trickster who ran ahead. The trickster steals the possessions that the traveler abandoned for a time
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
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is a ground squirrel (Xerux sp.)
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
Человек оказывает услугу нескольким (потенциально опасным) животным и другому человеку. Благодарные животные помогают ему, а человек предает и вредит
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
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the hyena suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
Three (two, more) men find (rob) a treasure. One of them goes away for a while. Those who stay kill him when he returns but die later from eating food (drinking wine) which he had poisoned
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
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 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
When a girl or a boy is asked where are her or his father, mother, brother or other relations or what they are doing she or he answers in such a way that only a smart person is able to understand what it is about (father went to make an enemy from a friend, mother went to make one out of two, etc.); or the girl explains corresponding answers of other person
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 weak person's demand will be granted if he brings a skin (paw, tears, etc.) of animals stronger than he. He fulfills the task using tricks (but usually does not receive the promised reward)
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
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
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
A guard (courtier) agrees to open a man an access to a powerful person after a promise to share with him the expected reward. The man asks to be bitten (from the very beginning expected the punishment)
A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world