The sun and/or the moon are inanimate objects thrown up to the sky or fixed in the sky
As a result of some intimate contacts and/or love affair, the Moon acquires its present appearance (often, the stains on his face) and/or ascends to the sky
Dark spots on the lunar disc are dirt, blood, paint, traces of beating, burning, scratching, etc. on the Moon person's body or face (Kiliwa: spots on the Sun) and do not form any particular figure
Water is the original element, the dry earth appears later
Original earth was small and later increased in size or the fertile soil grew from a small amount of original substance
Person who follows the wild animals turns into one of them or into their master
Fish emerges from remains of a killed person or creature
A woman (usually after a conflict with a man or remaining alone) or a man and a woman (married couple, lovers, brother and sister) turn into water mammals
The dog or other domestic animal speaks aloud about those details of its masters' life that they would prefer to conceal. He is punished by depriving his ability to speak
Supernaturally big genitals are cut off and turn into snakes or other creatures and objects
Children conflict with their parents who do not pay them enough attention, condemn their sexual behavior, do not give them enough food, clothes, etc.; the children abandon their parents and become birds, bats, atmospheric phenomena, or stars (usually the Pleiades)
During the flood or in the beginning of times fruits, seeds or other objects are dropped into water one by one, usually by a person who has climbed a tree. As far as the objects fall, water recedes and the dry land appears
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
Female person is the owner or inventor (but not the personification) of the fire
First fire was hidden in genitals or anus of a woman
Magic person reveals his true nature and/or remains with the real people after the object responsible for preserving the non-human appearance (usually an animal skin) is destroyed (usually burned)
Sacred knowledge, objects and rituals are initially obtained from the denizens of the underwater world
Man takes or attempts to take a wife who is connected with the underwater world (fish, crab, snake, water animal and the like)
For girls and young women it is dangerous to come near water. Water creatures swallow them or drag away; a girl can die or become pregnant from a spirit; she can trigger a flood (rare: other cataclysm). Water spirits can come themselves to a girl who has her periods
Certain woman or a group of women take for paramour a big water animal (caiman, otter, sea-lion, whale, anaconda; rare: water bird, crab), water spirit or monster. Husbands, brothers or (adoptive) children kill or maim paramour and/or (sometimes) the woman
Person feeds another with the meat of his or her sexual partner who cooks or eats it without knowing whose meat it is
Women were possessors of the sacred knowledge, sanctuaries or ritual objects which are now taboo for them or they made attempts to acquire such a knowledge or objects
An anthropomorphic male or an androgyne is the only possessor or leader of women
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
The men of primeval community kill the women because of their unsocial behavior
Marriage partners of the primeval women, the amazons or a solitary woman are small animals (usually flying foxes)
There are (or were) women who live apart from men in their own village or villages
Cesarean operation upon a woman at childbirth as a custom
The first men and/or women have no genitals
Two companions or brothers live together. One has a wife which he conceals. Another suspects her existence, destroys her or tries to get a wife also for himself
A baby son turns into an adult man, copulates with his mother, then acquires his baby guise
Fruits and shoots of different cultivated plants grow on the branches of one tree (on one vine) or certain plant has a tree form that is alien to it in nature
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
(Animal-)people try to fell a tree that contains water and fish or has cultivated plants on its branches. The notch disappears and the tree becomes intact
A deep notch in the tree is magically restored when persons or creatures who cut it go away to take a rest. They get to fell the tree after they begin to burn the cut off chips or to carry them far way
A tree which trunk is cut through do not fall because it is hold from above
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
The alive person comes to the land of the dead to bring back somebody who has recently died (besides stories about shamans who journey to the other world to bring back the soul of a sick person) or, having no particular aim, goes there in company of somebody who had recently died or following his or her tracks
All the fish or (rare) shellfish) was concentrated in one place. Certain person lets it lose or puts it into the rivers or sea
Rat is responsible for introduction of permanent death
The lightning (and thunder) is (produced with) an object (axe, sword, mirror, belt, stones, skin, etc.) in hands of anthropomorphic being
Beings without mouth, anus, genitals, whose women do not know how to give birth live in the underworld, in the sky, or in a far-away land
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 girl (or two sisters) travel, usually in search of a proper marriage partner who lives far away or who has gone away. On her way or after reaching the place of destination the girl gets to some unpleasant suitors
Antagonist perishes falling into the water or trying to cross a water body
Hero climbs up a tree or rock to get eggs, nestlings, fruits, honey, etc. Another person makes the tree (rock) grow higher or thicker and the hero is unable to descend back
Person gets into the belly of water being or into the belly of giant creature which appearance and living place remain vague. He kills the monster from the inside and/or returns to earth by himself (i.e. not extracted by other people)
Person gets into the belly of ground animal or bird. He kills it from the inside and/or returns to earth by himself (i.e. not extracted by other people)
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
A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world
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
Person or creature has another pair of eyes (or one eye) on the back of his head or (rare) on his back
After breaking some taboo, coming across a strange object or person, people fall asleep. They do not feel when at night spirits come and injure or kill them
Person gets hold of another. Trying to free himself, the latter turns into different materials, elements, animals or (Urarina and Setebo) orders different dangerous creature to attack the person
Person catches fish in a place where it ought not live, i.e. in a forest pond or in a tree hollow isolated from other water bodies. After eating he dies, is transformed and/or attacked by monsters
When a person climbs a tree, a demon comes to it and carries the person away, or the person follows the demon to his world by his own will
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
An ogre or ogress catches a person and brings him to his or her home where he or she plans to cook and eat him. The hero escapes
To overcome a disaster, hot stones or ashes are thrown into the water
A baby or small child proves to be a demon, devours or injures people
Animal, fish or person wounded by hero runs or swims away, usually with the man's projectile in his or her body. Local doctors are not able to cure the wound (usually because they do not see the projectile). The hero or his companion comes to the place where the wounded one lives and cures him or her (usually extracting his projectile from the wound)
Person transforms himself into an object of hunting or fishing, provokes hunters of fishermen to catch or shoot him and carries way the tools that they use (arrows, darts, harpoons, hooks, baits). Or he fishes by turning himself into a hook. Or he is caught but escapes turning back into a person
Person turns into a fish or game and exposes himself as a target. A lot of arrows, darts or harpoons stick in his body making him no harm, he carries them away
Food or liquid that person swallows are immediately pouring out from his bottom part
Person himself or somebody else stitches up or firmly stops his anus (with wax, clay, grass, etc.)
Person discovers that somebody steals game or fish from his trap or devastates his garden. He or his guards catch the thieves who prove to be the first humans beings or the first men
Person turns into baby, is picked up by the owner of valuables, steals the valuables or makes love to a woman. The baby is not a demonic creature and does not plan to kill those who picked him up (cf. motif L60)
A small child cries and becomes satisfied only when he gets a particular object to play with. This object is of high value and is hidden in the house. As soon as the object is given to him, the child or a person related to him carry it away
An animal or a supernatural creature is wounded but escapes. Local doctors are helpless. The hero or his companion, masked as a doctor, comes to the wounded one and either cures or kills him.
A man travels and comes to two or several blind (usually old) persons
Coconut palm grows out of the human head
An evil spirit abandons a girl or a young woman in a tree or islet. She takes care for a nestling of bird of prey, he grows big, rescues her
Magic wife abandons her mortal husband when she finds her clothes (often, her feathers if she is a bird-woman), makes herself the new clothes, receives them from her kin or her husband gives her her clothing believing that she will not abandon him. (Versions with magic wife abandoning her husband because she feels herself offended is not alternative to the “found clothes but in most of the texts these motifs are not combined)
An animal or (rare) a person that gave birth to the hero or supported him for a long time asks his master or son to kill him or her. Its (her) remains turn into a house with a household where the hero can live
The heroine’s rival transforms her into a turtle. The turtle makes attempts to contact her children or husband
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
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
The Sun (the day light) that was absent, stolen or hidden appears (again)
Stars are people, ghosts, anthropomorphic beings (interpretations of unique star objects like Venus or Polaris as persons not considered)
A strong rope (chain, etc.) is thrown to the person pursued by a demon but a rotten rope is thrown to the pursuer. The person is saved and the demon falls down (drowns) and dies
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
Hero escapes from the demon's basket or bag letting stone (a piece of wood, some sand) instead of him
An ogre or ogress catches a person and brings him to his or her home where he or she plans to cook and eat him. The hero escapes
Persons climbs a tree and thanks to this escapes from a demon (who usually tries to fell the tree)
The Moon is an object which its owners released by chance or which was stolen from them and ultimately ascended to the sky
Husband follows his dead wife to the other world but is unable to bring her back or succeeds to do it but loses her once again
Mother of a baby child is asked by demonic woman to give her the baby for a short while or the demon imperceptibly replaces another person who must take the baby. As soon as the demon gets the baby she carries it away to her place
Person feeds others a food that is extracted from his, hers or somebody else’ body or is polluted by body extractions not informing about the source of the food
Being seized by a person, a female person turns into different materials, elements or animals (Urarina and Setebo: sends different dangerous creature to attack the one who caught her)
Planning to get or to return valuables, person turns into baby or in a small objects that has power to impregnate a woman. The picked up or the born baby steals the valuables and acquires his real guise (including cases according to which the girl herself is the desired valuable)
A girl (a woman, a group of women) intentionally takes a penis-being, a snake, an eel, a lizard, a worm, a big water animal or water monster or a big terrestrial mammal for paramour. People kill or maim the paramour, the woman and/or her progeny or she is transformed herself into an animal. She is blamed for her behavior
During the flood some persons survive in a tree