The world was or will be (almost) burned when several suns had (will) appear(ed) simultaneously; or the only sun was too hot (or bright)
Other suns or moons besides present ones had been in the sky and were later annihilated
Extra suns who almost burned or could burn the world are children of the present one
The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male
The Sun is female, the Moon is male or (more rare) also female
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
During an eclipse or at the sunset the Sun or the Moon are attacked by a reptile (a snake, a lizard, a dragon, a crocodile) or a fish
A bird or birds attack or shade the Sun or the Moon during an eclipse or at the sunrise and sunset
Coming together of the Sun and the Moon is the reason of their eclipses
Every night the Sun passes by creatures or objects which try to destroy them
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
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
Original earth was small and later increased in size or the fertile soil grew from a small amount of original substance
A worm obtains the earth (from the underworld), it emerges from the worm's excrements, is extracted from inside of the worm
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
There is enormous amount of water inside a trunk of a tree or a tree turns into water
Waves of the sea petrified and turned into dry land with mountain chains
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
Catastropic displacement of layers of the univers in the past or in the future is mentioned. Among variants (sometimes combined):
the sky fell on the earth; the earth (the underworld) and the sky interchanged their positions; the earth turned upside down; the layers of the universe collapsed in one after another; they will change their place during the future cataclysm
Persons or animals dive or otherwise decend to the lower world to get a desired object and to bring it to earth (besides episodes in the fairytales, cf. motif k27x9)
The dry land (the earth) grows from a small amount of solid substance (sand, clay, dirt and the like) brought from the lower world (usually from the bottom of the ocean)
An insect brings the earth (from under the water, from a lower world or from a far-away place)
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
Hunters perish because they were laughing at the killed (and revived) animal
Person sticks out of the ground his penis that looks like a plant (provoking a woman to sit on it)
There are (or were) women who live apart from men in their own village or villages
People learn to copulate after they see birds, fish or animals doing it
Fruits and shoots of different cultivated plants grow on the branches of one tree (on one vine) or certain plant has a tree form that is alien to it in nature
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)
A tree which trunk is cut through do not fall because it is hold from above
Food crops emerge from remains of a woman or girl
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)
Person or creature is transformed. Separate parts of its (his, her) body give origin to different plants, mostly edible or cultivated
Death (also Old Age, Disease, etc.) is a particular person not identical with the Master of the Dead. He kills people usually carrying away their souls
People are mortal because they have been likened to something subject to decay and easy destruction (e.g. to the soft wood and not to the stone)
Killed and destroyed (often burned) person or creature (usually ogre, fierce animal, powerful shaman) turns into a multitude of biting insects or into other small molesting creatures
One supernatural creates the body of the first people, another revives them
Creatures that produce rain and/or thunderstorms are birds or anthropomorphic beings with wings; or (rare) some or all birds are connected with thunder, lightning or rain though Thunder is not a bird
The lightning (and thunder) is (produced with) an object (axe, sword, mirror, belt, stones, skin, etc.) in hands of anthropomorphic being
The earth does not fall down or swing because it is suspended to ropes
Only one pole or mountain supports the earth or the sky
A turtle, toad, or frog supports the earth (sky) or is its embodiment
Giant water-chthonic or sky serpent or dragon has horns or antlers on its head
A dog is the lord, guard or guide of/to the land of the dead; or dogs live on the way to the land of the dead
There is (or was) a tree on which souls of still unborn babies grow, which leaves transform into people, or which trunk is covered with female breasts or flowers that innumerable babies are sucking
The ultimate aim of the afterlife journey is to reach certain tree
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
Giant reptilian monster (serpent, more rare fish, chain of fish) extends in the sky and/or supports the sky being associated with Milky Way or the rainbow
Thunder's enemies are evil spirits, reptiles, animals living in burrows. They hide from him in different objects, Thunder destroys these objects
Stars are people, ghosts, anthropomorphic beings (interpretations of unique star objects like Venus or Polaris as persons not considered)
The Pleiades are only one anthropomorphic being, not several persons
Persons shoot arrows (darts) which hit each other’s end forming a chain (rope, ladder). Persons climb by this chain to the sky or (rare) across an obstacle
To climb to the sky, person must first to shoot an arrow that reaches the sky and sticks to it
Person's sharp elbows or (rare) knees are like awls or knives
Trees squeak in the wind. Trickster hears a noise, climbs up the tree and is caught between limbs
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.
Person conceals her children and tells another one that she has killed them. Another person really kills her own
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)
Human being or imprint of human being is seen in the moon
Venus or some other bright star seen near the eastern or western horizon is female and wife of the Moon
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 children of the Moon and/or the Sun
The rainbow of the Milky Way is a reflection of a snake (fish) that is on the earth or in the sea
Monstrous bird (giant bat) predates on humans. Heroes fight with it
Body members of a person has the form of cutting or piercing weapon
In a certain time in the past three or more suns were on the sky simultaneously
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)
The door of a house is opening and closing by itself crashing persons who attempt to come in or out
The Sun and the Moon are or were enemies, either permanently or in particular situations
It is described how the earth was obtained and put on the back of a turtle or frog
One of costellations is a hunting or fishing net, trap, snare
Rainbow comes out of the mouth of a reptile, amphidian or in vertebrate animal