| Motif | Name | Description |
| a11b | One-eyed luminaries | The Sun or the Moon is one-eyed (usually another eye was knocked or sucked out but sometimes this defect is not explained |
| a12 | Eclipses: monster’s attack | 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 |
| a14a | The conflict between the Sun and the Moon | The Sun and the Moon are or were enemies, either permanently or in particular situations |
| a2c | Extra suns are children of the present one | Extra suns who almost burned or could burn the world are children of the present one |
| a3 | Male sun and female moon | The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male |
| a4 | Female sun | The Sun is female, the Moon is male or (more rare) also female |
| a41 | The Sun swallows her children | Two persons have children (younger siblings, mothers). One of them proposes to another that they should kill (eat, bake, etc.) their children (mothers, etc.) but hides his or her own. The opponent actually kills his or her own kin. One of the persons or/and the only survived child is the Sun |
| a6 | The Sun and the Moon are females | 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) |
| b52a | Vulture creates the landscape | Flying above the earth and flapping its wings, a bird (usually a vulture) makes it dry after the flood or otherwise creates present landscape |
| b60 | Offended children abandon parents | 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) |
| b72b | An offended child flies away as a bird | A girl or more rare a boy turns into a bird and flies away when her or his mother (father or other adult person in whose house she lives) does not give her or him food, water or makes her feel offended in other way |
| b77 | Primeval sky close to earth | Originally the sky was close to the earth, then it has risen up |
| b77b | Sky touched with a long object | 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.) |
| b77b1 | Sky touched with a pestle | 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 pushed up, touched or struck with a pestle or with a ladle during the preparation of food |
| b82 | The white raven | Raven or other carrion-eating bird of dark color and a similar size was originally white |
| e31a | Creators and rescuers of a girl | 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 |
| e32 | People born from trees | First people are born by trees or come out of a tree, flower, reed |
| e5b | First couple from the underworld | 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) |
| i45b | Not to point at the rainbow | It to point at the rainbow, pointing finger or entire arm will rot, wither or become crooked |
| i81a | The chthonic crab | A giant crab produces earthquakes or floods, stops or can stop flow of the waters into the chasm or on the contrary prevents waters from being dammed. |
| i81b | Haribda (the origin of tides) | It is tide when a creature belches out the sea water or ousts it with its body and it is ebb when it swallows the water or lets it go back (or it is simply told that water periodically emerge and disappears into the maelstrom |
| i82b | Venus is female | Morning and/or Evening Star is a female personage |
| i8e1 | Four supports of the world | The sky or the earth rests upon four or five (cardinal points and the center) supports of any kind (poles, mountains, giants) |
| i8g | Atlas | One giant supports the earth or the sky |
| k142 | Corpse buried many times | Person kills several people. asks somebody to bury only one and then tells that the dead man has returned. The grave-digger buries several people but believes that it was one and the same corpse |
| k19a | Star-wife | A man maries a star-woman |
| k25 | Magic wife | A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world |
| k25a1 | Magic wife finds her clothes | 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) |
| k25e | Magic wife is an ancestor | 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 |
| k74 | Hero, his companions and a dwarf | The hero and his companion or companions live together. Every morning one stays at home while another or others go to hunt, etc. A demonic person comes, eats up all the food and beats the cook. Or the man who remained at home comes to the demon himself in search of fire and is maltreated by him. The hero kills or neutralizes the demon |
| l72 | The obstacle flight | 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 |
| m104 | Make believe killing of kinsfolk | 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. |
| m105a | Make believe killing of children | Person conceals her children and tells another one that she has killed them. Another person really kills her own |
| m110 | The forgotten liver | An animal is tricked to be carried across the water by those who are going to eat or to use as a medicine a part of its body. The animal tells that forgot to take just that part which is needed, is carried back to take it, escapes |
| m111 | Monkey on the banana tree | An animal person who can climb trees (usually a monkey) suggests another (a turtle, a crab) to harvest bananas. He climbs the banana, throws down but peels, rotten fruits and the like. His companion revenges on him |
| m115 | The eaten up wolf | Using a trick, (animal)-person kills a dangerous animal. Kinsmen and friends of the killed animal get to know about it and come to avenge its death. The person has narrow escape |
| m144 | The wasp nest as king’s drum | 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.) |
| m157 | The impossible giving birth | 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 |
| m157a1 | Father is giving birth | 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 |
| m157a3 | To milk a bull | Person demands from the other to bring him an offspring or milk of a male animal |
| m183 | A race: one against many | 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 |
| m184 | The slow one is ahead of the sleeping one | A slow and a fast animals agree to race. The fast one is sure that he will win and is not in a hurry at all while the slow one is moving persistently to his aim and wins |
| m187 | Snail is a participant of the race | A snail (other mollusk, trepang, etc.) participates in the race and wins |
| m29k | The turtle (tortoise, toad, frog) wins thanks to his smartness | Being smart and persistent, the turtle (toad, frog) overcomes strong adversaries |
| m29o | Trickster is a monkey | In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is a monkey |
| m29o1 | The monkey is a failure | Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the monkey suffers a reverse, is injured or dies |
| m39a6f | To sell a sheep and to bring the sheep and the money | Father tells his son to sell a sheep (goat) and to bring back both the sheep and the money. Usually a girl teaches the boy to sell the wool |
| m91c2 | Put into the bag | Person is put into a bag (a cage, tied up, etc.) to be drowned, burned, etc. He pretends to be in this situation by his own will or because he refuses to marry a princess, to become a chief and the like. Another person is willing to take his place and is killed |
| n3 | Hungry fingers | One of the fingers says that he is hungry and/or suggests to steal something. Other fingers express their opinion on this behalf. |