The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male
The sun and/or the moon are inanimate objects thrown up to the sky or fixed in 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
In the beginning there are only air and water. 1) Person descends from the sky, creates the dry land or a hard support created for her or him grows into the earth. 2) The earth is sent or dropped from the sky, put on the surface of the water. 3) The earth is brought from somewhere (not from the underworld) and put on the water
Islands or continent are fished out of the ocean or pulled to their present place by rope
Fire is stolen from its original owner or brought back to the people from somebody who had stolen it before
Female person is the owner or inventor (but not the personification) of the fire
Before fire became known, people prepared food using warmth of their bodies (usually putting food in their armpits); or a person keeps fire in his or her armpits
First people or inhabitants of a distant country cook food in the sun; or fire owner lies that he or she cooks food in the sun
Man makes a wooden doll and pretends that it is alive. Really it is not or it is half-alive. A real woman takes place of a doll, marries the master
Man takes or attempts to take a wife who is connected with the underwater world (fish, crab, snake, water animal and the like)
Cesarean operation upon a woman at childbirth as a custom
A man or boy thinks about incest when he gets to see his daughter(-in-law)'s, sister's, or mother(in-law)'s vagina
One of the trees is the principal, original one (emerged before all the other; ancestor of wild or cultivated plants; ocean or rivers inside it; world axis; higher than all the others; overshadows sky)
To make some object (usually a canoe), person cuts a tree, goes away, returns, finds the tree intact. Usually another person who was restoring the tree by magic fells it down himself and makes a canoe for the hero
Serpent (snake-eel in Oceania) or alligator is the original possessor or the source of cultivated plants or wild staples
Coconut palm grows out of the human head
Person or creature is transformed. Separate parts of its (his, her) body give origin to different objects or creatures (only etiological narratives are considered)
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
Person comes to the land of the dead and brings back somebody who has recently died or brings his remains. The dead one becomes alive and lives normal life (for some time)
Thunder falls to earth, cannot return to the sky. Usually a human person helps him to do it
Thunder looks like a quadruped mammal (pig, buffalo, camel, anteater, tapir, dog, cat, leopard, monkey, etc.)
When a leave or a fruit of a certain tree drops, one of the people on the earth dies
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
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
Not being burned in a fire, person ascends to the sky or gets across a river on clouds of smoke
Person is marooned on an islet or on another side of a sea or wide river
A man maroons another because of jealousy or because he plans to take hold of his wife
By trick or by force, a rival or adversary kidnaps hero's wife or bride. The man gets her back
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
Finding a hole in the ground or making it, person gets to see below another world. Usually the earth is seen from the sky
Opening in the firmament is covered with a flat stone. When person puts the stone aside, he or she gets to see the earth
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
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
Dangerous person tells simple-heartedly what he is afraid of giving the hero a good opportunity to scare him
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
Person discovers (rare:still fails to discover) another getting to see his or her shadow or reflection in water
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
A monster or a big animal dies when fire is kindled in its belly
Treasure, or the like, is thrown back to tempt pursuer to delay
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
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
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.
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
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
Some creature or creatures regularly (sunrise and sunset, summer and winter, lunar phases) or irregularly (solar and lunar eclipses, eschatological events) attack the luminaries or shade their light
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)
Woman (alone or with her companion) gives birth to or creates not only people but also different creatures and objects
Dangerous person tells simple-heartedly what he is afraid of or what particular object is the receptacle of his life giving the hero a good opportunity to scare or to kill him
Being smart and witty, the crab overcomes strong adversaries
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 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
Two different fish (a fish and a whale, dolphin, squid, squid and dolphin, etc.) agree to have a race
A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife
A crab participates in the race and wins
Man marries a seal, dolphin or porpous who takes guise of a woman and lives with her in the human world
The Sun and the Moon are or were enemies, either permanently or in particular situations