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
During an eclipse or at the sunset the Sun or the Moon are attacked by a frog or toad
The Moon, unlike people, revives or rejuvenates every month; or those who live in the Moon are immortal; or the Moon makes decision if people should die forever or regularly revive
To reach the sky (the Sun, Moon, particular star), people build a ladder or tower that consists of separate modules (bricks, logs, sticks, etc.). This construction collapses
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
Fire is stolen from its original owner or brought back to the people from somebody who had stolen it before
The first people (or only the first men or the first women) are not created but come to earth from the underworld (from a cave) or from a small enclosure under the earth or on its surface (tree trunk, rock, gourd, etc.). Many people of both sexes and of different ages or people and different species of animals come out together
Person observes traces of some activity that takes place in his (rare: her) house in his (her) absence and then takes by surprise the responsible one
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)
Woman gives birth to a gourd, a bag (with eggs), a piece of meat. The flesh is cut into pieces which turn into people or many people come out of the gourd or bag
After the world cataclysm or in the beginning of times a gourd survives or appears, new people come out of it
Man takes or attempts to take a wife who is connected with the underwater world (fish, crab, snake, water animal and the like)
People learn to copulate after they see birds, fish or animals doing it
Certain creatures (snakes, insects) get access to special substance that proved to be out of control and become poisonous or immortal; creatures obtain their characteristics (usually becomes poisonous) after drinking or licking a particular medicine
Only one pole or mountain supports the earth or the sky
A tree or post pierces and unites different layers of the universe
There are objects which remaining on the same place are moving permanently or periodically (meet and part. rise and fall down, shut and open, rotate)
Snake, lizard or worm is a bridge or a rope over the river
Way to the place of a certain person is guided by dangerous creatures (which often stand on the both sides of the pathway). Person placates them by gifts or nice talk, and they let him or her go the both ways, sometimes being punished for this by their master
Certain person loses his or her freedom, is confined to a far away place (often, to the underworld) and acquires cosmic dimensions: supports the earth or the sky and/or his or her movements produce earthquakes or (rare) storms
Husband or lover is a tree (that temporarily turns into a man)
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)
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
Maternal uncle or father (or grandfather if he replaces father who is not mentioned) of the young man is his rival or enemy and tries to kill him
To kill a strong man, others fell a tree and hope that the man will be crashed when it falls on him, or they tie him to a tree. The man remains unharmed and brings the tree home
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.
One of (step)sisters, co-spouses or young female neighbors meets a being that is able to reward and to punish. She behaves herself properly and is rewarded. Another (other) girl comes to the same being but behaves in a wrong way and is punished (not rewarded).
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
A boy born into a family or found by his adoptive parents has a strange guise (ball of meat, nut, bag, half of a man, an animal). He possesses magic power, becomes a handsome man and usually marries a girl of high social status. The magic spouse of a princess originally has a non-human or monstrous appearance
Person in a desperate situation gets to see how a snake or other small animal uses remedy to revive or to cure itself or other animals. The person uses the remedy, succeeds
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 man gets to know about dangers that threaten another man (and often about turning into stone of anybody who would warn about these dangers). He helps the man to escape the dangers though his behavior seems strange or hostile
An enemy asks house utensils or personal objects where their master hid himself or herself or what direction he or she ran away. One of the objects, not treated by the master in a proper way, betrays him or her
Being (any besides birds) with more than ten heads or with odd (but more than one) number of heads are described in tales or represented in art. If beings with ever more number of heads are named, the row ends with a being that has odd (or more than ten) number of heads
Two persons hunt or fish. One of them is or becomes a cannibal. He or she reveals his or her nature eating the quarry raw
A cannibal under a tree plans to eat up a man who has climbed the tree. The man throws down and afar his pray or some object and escapes while the cannibal rushes to this object or is eating the pray
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 accidentally overhears secrets of animals or demons and thus gets to know the causes of his and other people's misfortunes
An ogre steals fresh corpses from graves and devours them
A man falls asleep or pretends to be sleeping or dead. Animals take him for dead: mourn, carry to bury, are going to eat up, etc. The man kills a lot of animals or obtain valuables otherwise
Instead of common body discharges a man or a woman urinates, spits, etc. beads, flowers, gold and other valuables; valuables are produced by the very presence of particular person
Person pretends that a person (often his or her mother, spouse or lover) who recently died is alive, claims that the death of the false alive resulted from negligence of others and gets a reward
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
A weaker person asks the stronger one to take present to his or her kin and hides himself or herself in a bag. The stronger one brings the bag to the weaker one's relatives thinking that there are but some objects inside. Usually a girl deceives the ogre into carrying her sisters and then herself in a sack (chest) back to their home
Trickster pretends to be dead, sick or weak and is picked up by those who carry something edible in a cart (sledge, boat, bag, etc.). The trickster secretly eats the food, often after throwing it out of the cart (sledge, etc.)
Getting into a well or pit and being unable to climb out animal person tricks another to descend and thanks to this gets out while the second person remains below
Person believes that unachievable natural phenomena are objects of culture. Usually he agrees to bring a the fire mistaking for it a sunset, a firefly, etc.
Person pretends to eat his own genitals. Another one believes him and cuts off his genitals
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)
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
First people are dumb but begin to speak when they hear something unusual, are made to laugh, etc.
A man and a tiger carry meat on a pole. The man tricks the tiger to take the thorny end of the pole and the tiger suffers from pain
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
Stories act as particular persons: become harmful because they think that a certain person does not treat them in a correct way
An animal or a person eats up the first book (writing, important document). (In some of European traditions the eating up of the book is not directly described but follows from the context)
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the tiger suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
The first or the only survived man and woman move in different directions around a post, a hill, etc. When they come together they marry each other
In the past a particular groups of people possessed scripture and knowledge that were later lost or the people missed opportunity to obtain them
The hero presses his adversary into the ground or both of them press each other (ankle-, waist-, breast-deep and the like)
A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife
Person gives his permission to pollute his place with excrements but only on condition that not a drop of urine would be spilled. To fulfill this condition proves to be impossible
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
Beads or metals are discharged by bodies of deities
Instead of common body discharges a a man urinates, spits, etc. beads, flowers, gold and other valuables; valuables are produced by the very presence of particular male person. See motif m57a
There are mountains or rocks which permanently collide and separate again from each other or a crack (jaws) in a vertical cliff which is opening and closing
Woman gives birth to a gourd which turns into person or which contains a person or people inside
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
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
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