The earth is a female person (alone or together with a male person); she is female being or associated with a woman
The male Sky (the Sun, the Thunder, the creator of the sky) marries the female Earth (or its female creator) or the female Sky marries the male Earth
Water is the original element, the dry earth appears later
Animals (Melanesia: persons) discuss the number of discrete units of time that should be in a certain calendar period or in the night
It is discussed if darkness or light, cold or warm periods should exist
Originally the sky was close to the earth, then it has risen up
One or several (animal)-persons push sky up to its present height
Raven or other carrion-eating bird of dark color and a similar size was originally white
In the beginning of time or after the natural disaster brother and sister, mother and son, or father and daughters are the only human beings. They marry and the present day people are their descendents
First man (a group of brothers) or first human couple come out from the underworld (a cave) or from a small enclosure on its surface (tussock, reed, tree, rock, gourd)
A woman or a girl takes a snake, an eel (i.e. Pacific snake-eel), a lizard, or a worm for husband or paramour. People kill or badly injure him, the woman and/or her progeny or the woman herself is transformed into snake. Cf. motif k76b: the snake-husband becomes and remains a handsome man
Cesarean operation upon a woman at childbirth as a custom
People learn to copulate after they see birds, fish or animals doing it
A person asks people to abandon him or her in the forest, to burn or drag him or her around the future garden plot, to burn her in her house, etc. People fulfill the person's wish and find cultivated plants growing on the place
Food crops emerge from remains of a woman or girl
Person or creature is transformed. Separate parts of its (his, her) body give origin to different objects or creatures (only etiological narratives are considered)
Person or creature is transformed. Separate parts of its (his, her) body give origin to different plants, mostly edible or cultivated
Person has a series of suggestions how to make the world easy for living and free of hard work and death. His companion successively rejects them. Their dialogue forever defines conditions of human life
One cereal grain (cob, etc.) is enough to prepare a meal
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
Rainbow is two creatures or persons, usually a male and a female
It to point at the rainbow, pointing finger or entire arm will rot, wither or become crooked
Rainbow is the ornamented part of the clothes, its decoration, a belt
Rainbow is a flatulence of a demon, a spray of a skunk, is associated with spit, urine, feces, genitals, etc., causes skin diseases, is associated with death
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
A baby or small child proves to be a demon, devours or injures people
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is a mouse
Person or creature who has no wings or is unable to fly on a long distance attempts to ascend to the sky or to fly far away but falls down or, deprived of his wings, remains in a place from which he is unable to return
Animal person who cannot swim asks a good swimmer to carry him. The latter agrees only to throw his rider into the water
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
One animal person gets to convince another that dangerous or disgusting objects are attractive and delicious (a wasp nest is a drum, a snake is a girdle, a heap of dung is a delicacy, etc.)
An animal person invites another and serves his food in such a way that he is unable to taste it. Then the other invites the first animal and puts him in similar situation
Demons (or one of them) attack people and return to their den (usually a cave or tree hollow). People make suffocating fire around the den killing most or all of the demons
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the tiger suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
The Sun is female, the Moon is male or (more rare) also female
Both the Sun and the Moon are considered to be females (incl. cases when the gender is not directly specified but both emerge from parts of the body of a female person)
Stars are people, ghosts, anthropomorphic beings (interpretations of unique star objects like Venus or Polaris as persons not considered)
The lunar (and solar) eclipse or spots on the lunar disc are expained by the fact that the Sun or the Moon came to a wrong path or that their paths crossed
A figure or an imprint of some being or object are seen in the Moon. (For statistical analysis motifs A32A – A32J are also included into A32)
Initially the earth is a swamp, water and dry land are not separated from each other
The first people grew or crawled out of the earth like a grass, mushrooms, worms, etc.
First people or people made by Creator's rival were imperfect, not completely anthropomorphic (often: had webbed fingers)
The lightning (and thunder) is (produced with) an object (axe, sword, mirror, belt, stones, skin, etc.) in hands of anthropomorphic being
A turtle (tortoise, toad, frog) behaves foolishly creating serious problems for himself
Souls of the dead walk upon the rainbow to the other world
During the time of creation particular species of animals (rare: plants) exchanged certain organs or traits or one animal borrowed an organ from another one but never brought it back. Thence the characteristics of these animals now. In rare cases the back exchange and restoring of the initial situation or the passing of certain organ from one animal to another without compensation are described
Giant water-chthonic or sky serpent or dragon has horns or antlers on its head
God, animal, some person warns one of the people about the catastrophy (usuallly the flood) that will become soon and in which most of the people must perish
During a flood or when crossing a river those people who drowned (or those who survived) turn into water animals
In the beginning of time or after the natural disaster brother and sister are the only human beings. They marry and the present day people are their descendents