Woman (alone or with her companion) gives birth to or creates not only people but also different creatures and objects
Bat (rare: ostrich) makes attempts to join sometimes animals and sometime birds or is excluded from both categories
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)
Hero climbs up (e.g. to a tree) or down (e.g. into a deep cave) by ladder, rope, from branch to branch, etc. The rope etc. breaks or is intentionally destroyed and the hero cannot return to the ground. (All cases of motif K2A, besides the Koreans, also contain motif K2)
Person climbs up a tree or rock or descends to a cave to get eggs or nestlings from the bird's nest. Another person remains on the ground. They get into conflict and/or the first person is unable to get back to the ground
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 task: to sort a large amount or small particles of different kind (usually seeds of different plants) mixed in container or to count such particles or to pick up the spilled grains
A man must fulfill difficult tasks (to win competition) to receive the permission for a marriage
Hero is sent to bring milk of a wild animal or milk in possession of a dangerous creature or person
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
Small objects and animals (rare: animals alone but including those who really are harmless) revenge on a powerful enemy making attack on him in succession (usually they hide in his or her house); the enemy is badly injured, runs away or dies
Objects and/or domestic animals live in a house. When dangerous enemy comes, they attack him, he dies or escapes (all texts with K77A and K77B included)
Cow (ox, bull) helps an orphan child or a young woman who got into trouble
Life of a person or creature is preserved outside of his (her, its) body. Person or creature dies after the corresponding object is destroyed
Good or bad luck of a man are particular persons with whom the man meets
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
A woman gives birth to disfigured child because she offended a powerful supernatural being (Rain, Sun, etc.). Her child is provided with magic power and eventually obtains normal body
Using trick, a man sells or exchanges for treasure ashes. Another person tries to sell ashes and is ridiculed
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 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
Person who gives difficult tasks to the hero and/or person who demands the fulfillment of certain conditions from those who want to marry his daughter is a prominent figure in social hierarchy. He is a head of the socio-political unit of community or super-community level and is neither a member of the hero’s household nor a mythical being
A powerful person coverts a beautiful bride or wife of a man and gives him impossible tasks to get rid of him
A man obtains an object that fulfills his wishes. The object is stolen but brought back by the animals (which had been saved by the man before)
A lad with incomplete or grotesque body becomes normal after coming to the sky (coming to God, getting back to the earth)
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
Person is able to steal an egg (a nestling, to put it back) from under the bird (to change the bird’s feather; to steal an embryo from animal’s womb, etc.)
Tiny boy as small as a thumb, a pea and the like taunts people, predator animals, ogres
A man gives his last money for simple advices. Each of them saves his life or helps to achieve success or he does not follow the advices and gets into trouble
One who eats certain fruit (leave, etc.) gets horns (long nose, etc.) or turns into an animal. After eating another fruit (leave) person recovers his or her normal body
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
Several young women who are co-wives or sisters loose both eyes but the youngest only one eye
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)
Frog or toad marries a girl or a handsome youth marries a frog or road
A person who has not a bit of a skill to expose thieves and find the lost objects does it successfully thanks to a series of lucky coincidences
The pretended diviner overhears a talk, otherwise he would be unable to find the lost object
A man comes across persons who incorporate his own or somebody’s else Bad and Good Lucks. He gets to influence their behavior and change course of events (for himself) for better
Setting off for a search of a woman or magic objects, a man comes across several (usually three) supernatural (often demonic) persons who help him. All the persons are similar but usually every next one is older (younger) than another
The bat becomes an outcast among other creatures (usually after it makes attempts to join first animals and then birds or vice versa)
The hero must bring a small object (often a finger ring) from the bottom of a deep waterbody (often the sea)
The Moon is male, the Sun is also male or (much more rare) asexual
Water is the original element, the dry earth appears later
Inhabitans of the Middle World are (partly) destroyed (or will be destoyed) once by fire or draught, another time by a flood or the world is destroyed with a flood of fire or boiling water
A girl becomes pregnant without her knowledge thanks to the contact with body liquids of a male person or with objects touched by him (not because of the normal sexual contact, or a wish expressed by the father of her future child, or her mistical contact with a deity). The happy marriage of the girl with her child’s father follows
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)
People fell trees to make a garden. In the morning, the forest is intact again
Somebody acts in absurd way to lure person out of his or her place. The person does not understand the deception and comes to explain how to act correctly
Monstrous bird (giant bat) predates on humans. Heroes fight with it
Husband remains home instead of his wife (rare: son instead of his mother) but does everything wrong so as he suffers a series of accidents
A woman hides in a fruit that was brought to house and comes out when nobody is nearby
Person does not know that he or she eats or cooks the meat of the member of his or her household (blood relation, more rare a spouse or servant) or serves it to his or her friends, or uses her or his bones for everyday needs, or slowly kills him ort her
An ugly, old, lazy, etc. woman or (in Chaco) a male trickster comes to man under disguise of his wife or bride who is driven out, confined to the underworld, killed, etc.
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
Two men sleep (hide themselves) in one bag or lie with their soles touching each other. Dangerous creature or spirit takes them for an unknown monster
Person (usually a young woman) turns into different objects or creatures which another person destroys one by one. However, the person is reincarnated again and again and ultimately acquires her or his original form
A weak and timid man or boy overcomes accidentally powerful enemies and gets high esteem
Person who have eaten a prohibited meat or fish turns into monstrous snake or fish
A man hides in a shelter. An ogre wants him to demonstrate certain parts of his body. The man demonstrates or parts of the body of an animal or some objects. The ogre believes that his adversary is a powerful creature
A man and a demonic person agree to compare their lice. When the man demonstrates a tortoise (a frog), the demon believes that the man is the strongest of them
A blind man and a lame man live together and help each other. When they got mortally scared or became to fight with each other, their eyes and legs were cured
When a demonic person or a predator animal gives his name, the hero or a herbivorous animal invents such a name for himself that suggests his superiority over his opponent
Person or animal is asked why his or her body parts or tools are such as they are. He or she gives the answers (or one who is asking answers for him). Ultimately one of them kills or badly injures the other
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
During the night a strong predator (a tiger, a lion, etc.) and a thief not knowing about each other get into stable to steal a domestic animal. The thief takes the predator for domestic animal or for a person and acts accordingly
A stronger and a weaker predator animals (ogre and an animal) tie together for safety. When the stronger one runs away, he drags the weaker one along with him
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the monkey suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the tiger suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
An animal (ass, cow, horse, goat, bear, leopard) extracts gold or food from its body or person makes others believe that it is so
The pretended diviner thinks that his exposure is inevitable and pronounces words that reflect his emotional condition. The thieves who stand nearby understand some of these words as their personal names, believe that the diviner knows all about their crime and ask him not to betray them
Person is sent to receive something of relatively low value. He asks to give him quite different object (to provide a service) and asks one who had sent him to confirm the demand. Usually a person or animal comes to a wife or a son of a powerful one and tells her or him that her (his) husband or father tells to give him food, to make love to him, to marry him, etc.
A man trains a cat (monkey, dog) to hold lighted candle (lamp) on its head or to extinguish the light by a signal. When a mouse (a rat) runs through the room, the cat drops the candle (forgets about the lamp) and chases the mouse
In exchange for temporal advantages, person agrees to be maimed or branded
To cure a sick person or to make him (rare: her) young again it is necessary to bring a remedy from a distant country. The medicine is brought and the sick person is cured (becomes young)
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)