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
Two or more suns shine in the sky. When the extra suns had been annihilated, there was a risk of the last one being destroyed too
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 other circumstances the Sun or the Moon are attacked by a predator animal (a bear, a feline, a canine, a racoon)
During an eclipse or at the sunset the Sun or the Moon are attacked by a frog or toad
During the day and/or the night (in the underworld, beyond the horizon etc.) the Sun and/or the Moon regularly travel in a boat.
The Sun and the Moon (rare: the Sun and a star, the Moon and a star) are two siblings who live on earth and then ascend to the sky being still young persons
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
Person intentionally and with special equipment (usually shooting arrows) attacks the Sun (or several suns if they were many)
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
Woman (alone or with her companion) gives birth to or creates not only people but also different creatures and objects
Parts of the body of the primeval person or creature are transformed into different elements of the landscape and parts of the universe
Supernaturally big genitals are cut off and turn into snakes or other creatures and objects
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
From the primeval egg, eggs, or egg-like ball emerge the earth, the sky, sky bodies, different animals (all or part of the items of this list)
Bat (rare: ostrich) makes attempts to join sometimes animals and sometime birds or is excluded from both categories
During the flood or in the beginning of times fruits, seeds or other objects are dropped into water one by one, usually by a person who has climbed a tree. As far as the objects fall, water recedes and the dry land appears
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)
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
The Sun (the day light) that was absent, stolen or hidden appears (again)
A male and a female persons personify fire-sticks
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
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
A man gets into the village of women. Usually he has to satisfy every woman against his will or every woman claims him for herself
There are (or were) women who live apart from men in their own village or villages
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)
Person or creature is transformed. Separate parts of its (his, her) body give origin to different objects or creatures (only etiological narratives are considered)
Demonic person turns into or consists of different household objects or tools (and into elements of a landscape)
People become mortal because they imitated real funerals burying an animal
Chameleon is responsible for introduction of permanent death or hard life; loses object that the deity trusted him to bring to the earth
The lightning (and thunder) is (produced with) an object (axe, sword, mirror, belt, stones, skin, etc.) in hands of anthropomorphic being
The sky or the earth rests upon four or five (cardinal points and the center) supports of any kind (poles, mountains, giants)
A tree or post pierces and unites different layers of the universe
Some beings are half-men and half-dogs (usually anthropomorphic with heads of dogs)
Dogs or dog-headed men are husbands of human women
Rainbow is two creatures or persons, usually a male and a female
Giant serpent lies on the perimeter of the earth or supports the earth
World is supported by fish or fish-like monster or the earth itself is such a monster
Stars are fragments of a bigger luminary (usually the Moon); or stars, the sun and the moon are formed from one and the same primeval person or creature
An ogress devours a woman, gets into her house. Her daughters (daughter and son, one daughter) run away, climb a tree or a rope that hangs from the sky. Ogress pursues them and perishes
Baby heroes, embryos or objects from which they emerge are found in a river or lake or come to people out of the water
Person ascends to the sky (rare: descends from the sky; ascends the cliff) by a rope, a ladder, etc. Another person tries to follow him or her but the rope (the ladder) is broken or severed
A man maroons another because of jealousy or because he plans to take hold of his wife
By trick or by force, a rival or adversary kidnaps hero's wife or bride. The man gets her back
An unrecognized hero comes to a place where his bride or wife has to marry another man or is tuned into a slave. Despite expectations, he gets to strain a tight bow killing his rivals
Flying person or creature abducts a woman but is ultimately killed or the woman escapes from him
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
Person is lured into a trap being invited to lie in a box or a hole to measure it. Being unable to liberate himself from the box etc., the person remains in power of his enemies
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 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
A monstrous being is killed or neutralized by (burning hot) stones (pieces of metal, heavy fruits, etc.) thrown into its maw or anus or the being retreats when they menace to throw a stone into its maw
A baby or small child proves to be a demon, devours or injures people
An (animal) person gives a signal (special song, etc.) to his relative or friend who lets him or her in. Antagonist imitates the person's voice or guise and the relative lets him in
To make himself unrecognizable by the victim, a predator or ogre demonstrates clothes, limb, etc. that look like clothes or limb of his victim's mother, etc.
Person pursued by an enemy asks somebody whom he meets to help him. The helper hides him
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.
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 lies that his name is so and so. Others understand it not as a name but as a common word and behave accordingly
Person buries a tail or head of a bull or other domestic animal with a tail or horns outside. He explains that the animal sank into the ground and usually asks the others to pull the tail (horns). When they are “torn off”, he tells that people are guilty of the animal being lost
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.)
Using a trick the intruder occupies other person’s house and refuses to let the owner in
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.
The Sun, the Moon and the star (stars) are three sisters or three brothers
A trickster person or animal asks a big and dangerous animal (tiger or elephant) to carry some thatch and puts it on fire. After this the same trickster or other animal gives the victim advice to run not to river but up the slope
A respected man gets to know that a poor boy must inherit all his property or become a king and tries to prevent it, but the fate cannot be changed
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
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)
Fool follows instructions that were reasonable in every previous episode but become absurd in every next one
Fool follows instructions that were reasonable in every previous episode but become absurd in every next one
Game animals were concentrated in one single place. Certain person lets them disperse in the world
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 deceives other people telling them that his name is “Son-in-law” or the like. His victims do not find sympathy because his behavior is acceptable if he is a member of the family
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
To cure a sick person or to save a household from misfortunes a toad or frog hidden in the house should be killed or removed
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)
Person or animal swallows sacred book or its remains. During rituals this knowledge is actualized in the oral text, in sounds of musical instruments made of the animal body parts or in animal body parts used for divination
Becasue sacred book gets wet or sinks when people were crossing a river, it is lost or the text becomes unreadable. Or it is destroyed when people try to dry it or when they go to bath and let it lie on a shore
Man takes or attempts to take a wife who is connected with the underwater world (fish, crab, snake, water animal and the like)
A powerful person abducts or is going to abduct a poor man’s wife. She tricks him to put on a strange attire (often her husband’s clothes). After this his men or dogs kill him taking for the poor man (fool, devil)
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the tiger suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
Hero must bring hairs, feathers, scales, etc. of a dangerous person and does it thanks to the helps of a wife or (grand)mother of this person
Person comes to God (Fate, Sun, etc.) and puts questions that asked him to put those whom he met on the way. Somebody wanted to know for how long he must fulfill his duties. The answer: he or she must put other person on his or her place
The sound of the surf or of the river rapids is heard from the time of creation
Negative person, object or place is contrasted with one or two positive ones as wood with silver and gold
The cock lures out the Sun from its hiding place or people beliefe that the Sun will not rise if the cock would not cry
In the past a particular groups of people possessed scripture and knowledge that were later lost or the people missed opportunity to obtain them
A living creature or a lump of alive flesh is cut into pieces which are diepersed around. After some time every piece turns into human being
Stars are people, ghosts, anthropomorphic beings (interpretations of unique star objects like Venus or Polaris as persons not considered)
Stars are children of the Moon and/or the Sun
The earth or the world as a whole is a male person (alone or together with a female person)
The first people or first anthropomorphic divine beings descend to earth from the sky.
After eating certain fruit, berry, tuber, etc. people become sexually aware
The bat becomes an outcast among other creatures (usually after it makes attempts to join first animals and then birds or vice versa)
A (young) man sets off to find or to return his bride or his wife
A strong rope (chain, etc.) is thrown to the person pursued by a demon but a rotten rope is thrown to the pursuer. The person is saved and the demon falls down (drowns) and dies
Crossed legs of a dog or jaws of a snake served as a model for the first pincers
First seeds (sprouts, tubors) of cultivated plants or of important edible wild plants are brought from the sky (received from the sky-dwellers)
Souls of the dead walk upon the rainbow to the other world
Supernatural beings shake the earth because they think that no earth dwellers remained or wanting to check it, or demonstrating that they themselves are on the place
In a certain time in the past three or more suns were on the sky simultaneously
A man consciously marries a woman related to the non-human world
Tiger was scotched and because of this his skin became striped
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
A lazy (stupid) boy releases a fish (frog, serpent, supernatural being) which gives him a power of making all his wishes come true; he marries a princess
Two men have a similar defect (a hump, a lump). One spends a night in a place where spirits free him from his defect. Another comes to the same place but spirits double his defect giving him what they had taken off from the first man
The bear (lion) takes a woman for sexual partner or the she-bear takes a man. They have children who look like humans or bear cubs. More rare the woman gives birth to her son in the bear den because being abducted by the bear she was pregnant
Boy or girl selects one person among many throwing an object (usually an apple) into him or her. This way a girl makes a choice of a husband, a young man of a bride, a boy identifies his father
A youth who temporally has a strange or monstrous guise wants to marry a princess but is rejected. He threatens the princess’ father with disasters after which the king agrees to give him his daughter
As soon as a person plays his flute (fiddle, horn, etc.), people and animals become to dance and cannot stop without the person’s permission
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
Cunning rabbit or hare saves person, helps him or her
When an aged father is banned from the table and served his meals in a wooden cup by his son and his daughter-in-law, the little grandson starts to build a similar cup for his parents to use when they grow old. Thereupon the couple starts to reflect on their undignified behavior. Thinking of their own old age, they bring the old father back to the family table (previously type 980B). A son gives his father half a blanket (carpet, cape, cloth) to keep warm. Thereupon the little grandson keeps the other half of the blanket and explains that he will save it for his parents for when they are old (previously type 980A.). An aged father is abandoned by his son in the wilderness (abyss) in a cart (sledge, basket). The grandson keeps it in order to use it in the same way for his parents when they have grown old. They reflect on their behavior. (previously type 980C). The ungrateful son drags his old father out of the house. At the threshold the father says, "Do not drag me further; I dragged my own father only this far!". The son reflects on his bad behavior
Person demonstrates the absurdity of the claims of another person saying that he (or somebody else) was fishing on a hill, putting out a fire spilling straw, looking how the fish fly etc. or he is imitating such an activity. Either the place chosen for the activity or the means are irrational
Giant water-chthonic or sky serpent or dragon has horns or antlers on its head
An (adoptive) son is a snake who turns into handsome man. The snake is the magic spouse of princess, lost and returned
Person becomes a victim of a murder. Just before dying he or she calls on some birds (celestial bodies, animals, plants, etc.) to bear witness for the crime. Getting to see these birds (this plant, the Sun, the Moon, etc.) the murderer reveals himself without thinking. Or the birds, being the only witnesses, bring the investigators to the murderers.
Three (two, more) men find (rob) a treasure. One of them goes away for a while. Those who stay kill him when he returns but die later from eating food (drinking wine) which he had poisoned
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is hare or rabbit
In most of the episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is hare or rabbit. Not considered are traditions in which 1) trickster hare/rabbit is rare while other trickster (usually fox/jackal/coyote) typical; 2) Mesoamerican traditions in which episodes with trickster rabbit are not many and could be borrowed in post-Columbian time being of African origin
Animal who has no horns now had them before or missed opportunity to get them
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
A girl who conceals her beauty and/or is poor and oppressed by her stepmother puts on a splendid attire and comes incognito to a feast where a man of high status falls in love with her. He marries her after identifying her by an object given to her or lost by her or (rare) seeing how she changes her clothes
Person or creature pretends to be afraid of a particular sort of treatment that really cannot do him any harm
Fool takes his own shadow for a person who pursues him and gives it his possessions
Animal person puts his tail (penis) down and waits in hope to get something edible. The tail (penis) is torn or cut off, the person escapes or dies
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
The (animal) person threatens another to beat him and sticks to him with all his limbs in succession. Usually it is a figure smeared with some sticky substance that the person takes for somebody alive
Person paints birds or animals or they paint each other. Some of them are not satisfied with the result
Two birds decorate each other, one becomes worse than it was before
Raven or other carrion-eating bird of dark color and a similar size was originally white
Thunder's enemies are evil spirits, reptiles, animals living in burrows. They hide from him in different objects, Thunder destroys these objects
To get rid of a dangerous but stupid demon or animal, a man commits certain acts. His adversary repeats them without understanding their meanings and makes harm to himself
A king (landlord, etc.) suggests to guess what he has in a box. It is a toad or frog there. The man pronounces his name that is Toad (Frog) or says something that sounds like the word for this animal
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
Person sends a long object that looks identical from each end or is inside a box. Another person is smart enough to give a correct answer
To return or to get his or her son, wife, husband, domestic animal or (rare) object, person must recognize her, him or it among several identical persons, animals or objects
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
Person or animal is killed or injured with a heavy object dropped from a tree (or rock, etc.). The person or the animal knows that the objects will fall but has falls ideas about its character and weight
Persons climbs a tree and thanks to this escapes from a demon (who usually tries to fell the tree)
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 cereal grain (cob, etc.) is enough to prepare a meal
A woman who is transformed into animal or driven out of the human world returns to her baby to feed and to care for him
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).
It is foretold that the person will die because of the animal. The person dies when the animal’s representation becomes alive or a statue representing the animal falls on him
Person or creature has another face (another mouth) on the back of his (her, its) head
Person crosses a water or air space along the chain of many animals, birds or fish
Animal who does not swim well suggests animals who live in water to count their number. For this, they should make a chain and he would run along it. It is but a trick to cross a body of water
In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is fox, jackal or coyote
Because of its stupidity and unsocial behavior, the wolf suffers a reverse, is injured or dies
Person is suggested to twist (or he really twists) a rope or make other object of sand, ash, smoke, etc.
Hero comes to an agreement with antagonist that he can take animals of particular appearance or with particular behavior and takes all or most of them
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
A weak predator eats part of a body of a killed animal and explain to the strong one that this animal did not have such a part at all
A young woman promises to bear a wonderful children (wonderful son). In her husband's absence other people (co-wives, mother-in-law, etc.) try to kill the mother and/or the child, usually slandering the young woman
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
Two animals or persons compare their vomits to know about the diet and habits of each other. The weaker one gets to exchange vomits, to swallow the unusual food before, or to swallow his partner's vomits
A man spends a night in a forest or desert where spirits live. One of them explains to the others that he has a guest (i.e. this same man) tonight
To lure his potential victim down from a tree, a predator pretends not to be dangerous (usually announces that it has been decreed that all animals are united in piece). The victim is dubious and usually asks the predator to announce the same news to the dogs. The predator runs away
A slow and a fast animals (or not flying bird) agree to race. The slow one imperceptibly sticks to the fast one’s body (or to a vehicle) and getting to the finish pretends to come there simultaneously with the fast one or before him
Birds, animals or fish compete as about who is the fastest or can fly higher than others. A weak one imperceptible sticks to the body of the fastest or strongest and wins
Two zoomorphic personages decorates each other or somebody decorates each of them
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
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
Persons of high status cannot reveal the hidden difference between two or more objects or creatures (or two sides of an objects of creature) which look similar. A smart or lucky person of lower status does it
When the day of a person’s death is near, he hopes that Death will be in search of him on the earth and makes attemt to live on or under the water. But Death finds him
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
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
During the flood or in the beginning of times persons (usually brother abd sister) are floating in a big drum
Rainbow comes out of the mouth of a reptile, amphidian or in vertebrate animal