| Motif | Name | Description |
| 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 |
| a12f | Eclipses: the creditor | A creditor comes from time to time to the Sun or the Moon to claim back his money producing eclipses |
| a3 | Male sun and female moon | The Moon is female or bisexual, the Sun is male |
| a32 | Figure on lunar disc | 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) |
| a32h | The Moon plant | A tree or bush is seen in the moon |
| b46 | Big Dipper is seven men | Every one of the seven main stars of the Ursa mayor is a an adult man |
| b46c | Big Dipper is seven persons or animals | Every main star of the Big Dipper is interpreted as a particular person or animal |
| d1 | Female spirit of fire | Fire is personified as an (elder) woman, alone or with her husband, master of fire |
| 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 |
| e31c | Rescuers of an abducted girl | Every one of several men had learned a unique skill thanks to which they save a girl abducted by demon or animal |
| e8b | Woman hides in a fruit | A woman hides in a fruit that was brought to house and comes out when nobody is nearby |
| f62 | Incognito at the feast | An (ostensibly) sick (ugly, weak, poorly clad) person remains at home when others go to the feast. The person comes by himself or herself looking like a handsome man or beautiful girl. The man (woman) does not recognize him (her) and feels against her (him) sexual interestю (All texts with motif k57, Chinderella, are also included into f62) |
| f70 | Potiphar's wife: false accusation of sexual abuse | Woman makes vain overtures to young man and/or falsely accuses him of sexual abuse. Her husband believes that the young man is guilty, kills or tries to kill him |
| f70b | Revenge of a rejected woman | A woman revenges on a man who rejected her love but necessary not pretends to be an object of sexual harassment from his part |
| h11 | The call of God | People become mortal because they do not hear or answer a call of a being who promises them immortality (or do not pronounce his name) or answer a call (pronouns the name) of a being who brings death |
| i100 | The Pleiades are girls | The Pleiades are a group of girls or women (with children) |
| i100b | The Pleiades are a group of people | The Pleiades are any people (of any ages and sex, combined data of i99-i100a) |
| i120 | Cornucopia | Food and clothes are extracted from the horn of a cow or goat |
| i41 | Rainbow serpent | 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 |
| i41b | Rainbow drinks water | Rainbow drinks (soaks up) water |
| i44 | Chthonic serpent | Giant serpent lies on the perimeter of the earth or supports the earth |
| i51a | Bull the earth-holder | Big mammal supports the earth |
| i62 | Milky Way is a river | Milky Way is a sky river, water body, chain of beings that swim |
| i69 | Star dung | Shining sky objects or atmospheric phenomena are excrements of sky dwellers |
| i82a | Venus is male | Morning and/or Evening Star is a male personage |
| i85b | Polaris is a person | Polaris is a person |
| i87b | The quest for a strong adversary | A man seeks a strong adversary to wrestle with and comes across person who is incomparably stronger than he |
| i97 | Rainbow horse | |
| k100g | The son must be sacrificed | To revive or to cure his friend (rare: himself) or to fulfill a vow person is ready to sacrifice his small (young) son (children). The son revives or the supernatural powers are satisfied with the very willingness of the person to commit sacrifice |
| k100h | The gratitude test | Supernatural person grants wishes of a man (or several men) and later visits him (each of them) again. The man or most of them demonstrate ingratitude and drive the person away. In response to this he deprives them of all that they got thanks to his generosity |
| k103 | Helpful cow | Cow (ox, bull) helps an orphan child or a young woman who got into trouble |
| k103a | Tree raises its branches | A plant (tree, vine, lotus) that has grown up rapidly does not let anybody besides the hero or the heroine to climb it or to pick its fruits (flowers) |
| k107 | Lost husband found | A woman is abandoned by her magic husband. She finds him and becomes his wife again |
| k107c | Knives on the windowsill (the prince as bird) | Magic bridegroom who comes as bird or other guise and then changes into a man meets regularly with a young woman. Her jealous sisters (stepmother, brother, etc.) wound him (usually putting knives of broken glass around the window). He disappears, the girl goes to find him. |
| k113 | The animal bride | Several young men (usually three brothers) decide to choose wives (usually shooting arrows or throwing objects on the off-chance). The wife of the youngest initially is ugly or non-human (a frog, a snake) but proves to be beautiful enchantress. She and her husband triumph. Or girls choose their husbands and the youngest one gets a youth who has guise of a snake |
| k119 | Animal helper marries a poor boy to a princess | To make a poor man rich (usually to marry him to a rich girl or to marry a poor girl to a prince), an animal makes other people believe that the groom is rich already. The man becomes prosperous indeed |
| k135 | Seven with one stroke | A weak and timid man or boy overcomes accidentally powerful enemies and gets high esteem |
| k136 | A lad and his cattle | A lad becomes a master and a leader of great amount of cattle (cows or buffaloes) and meets a princess (usually after she finds his hair fallen into a river) |
| k136a1 | Youth’s hair picked up from a river | A woman finds the youth’s hair that was carried by water and decides to marry its owner |
| k14 | Precious advices | 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 |
| k153 | Grateful animals, ungrateful man | Человек оказывает услугу нескольким (потенциально опасным) животным и другому человеку. Благодарные животные помогают ему, а человек предает и вредит |
| k177 | The travelling heroine | A girl or young woman sets off to find or return her fience or her husband or she escapes from a fanger and ultimately marries happily |
| k27hh | To sort grain | 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 |
| k27z2d | An argument between female sparrow and her husband | A conflict breaks out among a pair of birds (sparrows, doves, etc.) in which the male bird is (to some extent) guilty. This episode forms the outset of a story in which noble persons participate |
| k32 | The false wife | 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. |
| k32h | Punishment: buried alive | To punish an antagonist, he or she is buried alive |
| k32i | Two sitters at the bed of a sleeping prince | A girl finds a body of a sleeping youth who will wake up at a certain time and marry the girl who would sit nearby. Usually at the last moment the girl goes away for a time and the impostor takes her place. |
| k33 | Drowned woman remains alive | 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 |
| k33c | Girl from a fruit | Young man gets a girl who is inside of a fruit or (rare) a flower or an egg |
| k33c1 | Transformed into lotus | Person is thrown into the water and becomes a flower (usually lotus) |
| k33c2 | Girl from the pomegranate | Young man gets a girl who is inside a fruit of the pomegranate |
| k33c7 | One fruit with a girl inside | Young man obtains a fruit from which a girl comes out (rare: two girls from two fruits, both remain with the man). The episode of the loss of girls who were inside other fruits is absent, Cf. motif k33c6 |
| k33d | Peau d'asne | A man discovers that a beautiful girl hides herself under a guise of an ugly and dirty servant, under a skin of an animal or in an object that is brought into his house |
| k33h | The cat, the dog and the magic object | 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) |
| k36 | Bewitched into animal | Person is temporary transformed into animal (usually into a dog or coyote or into donkey, ox, etc.). When he acquires his human guise again, the antagonist suffers similar transformation. In some texts only the hero or only the antagonist is transformed |
| k38 | Hero helps the nestlings | For helping its children, their powerful mother or father who is a giant bird or (rare) other flying being helps the hero |
| k38b | The nestlings and the aggressive snake | A serpent or water monster regularly devours or injures children of a bird or other flying creature (almost always nestlings of giant bird). The hero kills the serpent (monster) |
| k38c | Bird brings the hero to his destination | After the hero helps a powerful bird (usually does good to her nestlings), the grateful bird brings him to the place where he is eager to get or tells to do it one of her nestlings. (It is not the vertical movement between layers of the world. According to the Sumerian variant, the bird endows the hero with capability to move with extraordinary speed and directs him to his destination) |
| k47b | Dog turns into handsome man | A girl marries a handsome man whom she had first seen in guise of a dog |
| k57 | Cinderella | 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 |
| k60b | Invitation to coffin | 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 |
| k61f | The make-believe daughter (son) | Being afraid of her husband, a sterile woman pretends to give birth. In a due time the husband plans to marry his daughter or son. During the wedding ceremony a doll or an animal is in a sedan-chair but at the last moment a supernatural persons transforms it into a young woman or handsome youth |
| k73 | Children of the youngest wife | 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 |
| k73a | Baby child substituted with object or animal | Hostile women substitute baby of the newly made mother with an animal or an object (inform the baby’s father that his wife has given birth to an animal or an object) |
| k73a1 | Baby child substituted with inanimate object | Hostile women substitute baby of the newly made mother with inanimate object and/or inform the baby’s father that his wife has given birth to a stone, broom, doll, etc. |
| k73a6 | Children turn into trees | Enemies of the woman kill (throw away) her wonderful children. Trees (flowers) grow from their remains. Eventually the children acquire their human form again. |
| k73b5 | But the mother also could eat her baby up | A woman is accused of doing something that she could not do by her very nature. To reject accusation, another example of something absurd and impossible is suggested or it is told that the person believes in impossible though rejects possibility of the possible |
| k76b | Snake son and snake husband | An (adoptive) son is a snake who turns into handsome man. The snake is the magic spouse of princess, lost and returned |
| k80 | Repetitive reincarnation | 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 |
| k80d | The stuck in pin | Person is bewitched (transformed into a bird, faints) when a pin or other sharp object is stuck into her (rare his) body |
| k83 | The sons on a quest for a wonderful remedy for their father | 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) |
| k85b | Magic three-legged horse | A horse with a bigger number of legs or wings is faster than the horse that has lesser number of legs or wings |
| k92 | King Lear | A man puts his children questions that seem easy to answer (how they love him, who is the elder in the family, etc.). The elder children flatter, the youngest daughter (rare: son) is reserved and her father drives her away or deprives of inheritance. Later her noble nature becomes evident to him |
| k92a | The princess responsible for her own fortune | A girl driven away from home or married to a poor man become prosperous |
| k93b2 | Conception from eaten fruit | After eating a fruit (usually an apple, in Northern traditions also an egg), the sterile woman gives birth to a son or twins |
| k93b3 | Boys, colts and puppies are born the same day | To have children, a woman eats a fish, apple or something else. A mare, a bitch or other domestic animals eat part of this food (often skin, broth, etc.). The woman gives birth to a boy (twins) a mare to colts, a bitch to puppies |
| k94 | Bird of luck (eaten up head) | Person eats magic bird, fish, small animal, or fruit and becomes prosperous and powerful |
| k96 | Fifty sons | Many brothers marry or have to marry in such a way that all their wives are (were) sisters |
| k99a1 | Smart man is rescued from prison | An imprisoned man is rescued and exalted because only he gets to resolve problems that trouble the king or to save the princess (prince, the king himself) |
| l103 | Obstacle flight (Atalanta type) | Treasure, or the like, is thrown back to tempt pursuer to delay |
| l110 | The devourer | A demonic being swallows a multitude of people and animals. When it is killed and cut open, the swallowed ones come out alive or are revived |
| l15d | The external soul | Life of a person or creature is preserved outside of his (her, its) body. Person or creature dies after the corresponding object is destroyed |
| l37a | To get know causes of problems | |
| l37b | Secrets accidentally overheard | Person accidentally overhears secrets of animals or demons and thus gets to know the causes of his and other people's misfortunes |
| l37b3 | The magic medicine is in the body of a bird | Overhearing conversation of two snakes or raven, person gets to know the cause of a sickness of another person: a snake has crawled into him. He snake out and the person regains his health |
| l37c | Bad and Good Lucks | 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 |
| l42g | Hansel and Gretel | Step mother or more often father (persuaded by his wife) abandons children in a desolate place. Getting to the ogre or ogress, children (or at least one of them) survive and ultimately achieve success |
| l44b | The blind got his sight, the lame got his legs | 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 |
| l93a | Helpful fox | Cunning fox, jackal or coyote saves particular person or many people, helps them |
| m113 | For certain bird water is taboo | During the hottest month of the summer or permanently birds of certain species are prohibited to drink from the water bodies. Usually they can quench their thirst only from rain drops and dew on leaves and cry calling for rain |
| m113a | Bird sees blood instead of water | Bird of a certain species cannot drink from rivers and lakes because sees there blood (fire, etc.) instead of water |
| m136d | The air castles | A person plans to turn his (future) possessions into a great wealth (milk, eggs, small money, animal to be killed, etc.) but imagining this wealth, he destroys what he already has (eggs are broken, the animal runs away, etc.). Or two persons are involved into quarrel about possessions that they do not yet have |
| 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 |
| m167 | A tiger taken for a bull | 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 |
| m171 | The profitable exchange: from a pea to a horse | Person or animal stays for a night and the next morning declares that his possessions (which value is none or negligible) are lost. Or other persons whom the trickster meets really use or spoil objects that the trickster gives them. Every time he receives in compensation objects or animals with ever bigger value, the last acquisition usually being a costly animal or a girl. (All texts with motifs M171A and M171C contain also the motif M171) |
| m171a | The profitable exchange: getting a girl | Person or animal gets to exchange less valuable goods for ever more valuable. The last or the next to last one is a girl |
| m188a | Jackal the king | Animal person claims to be the king (usually sitting on a garbage heap). One of the animals unmasks him |
| m196 | The silence wager | A man and his wife make a wager: Whoever speaks first must do certain trivial work or get a bigger portion of some simple food. They or one of them continue to keep silence even being exposed to violence or taken by others as the dead |
| m196a | Corpses that became to speak | Making a wager because of a trivial thing, spouses (or only one of them) lie without movement and are taken for dead. People bury them but at the last moment they become to speak, people run in panic |
| m198 | Wise brothers (the king is bastard) | When three brothers (rare: a person) are Invited to khan (judge, king, etc.) and served delicious food, they claim that the food and drink have a taste (smell) of a corpse, dog, goat etc. and/or their host is of a low descent or a bastard. Investigation confirms that their deduction was correct |
| m198a | Wise brothers (the strayed camel) | Three or four brothers (rare: one man) see the track of a domestic animal and are able to deduce how it looked like (lame, had no tale, carried oil and honey, etc.) or they deduce how the man who had stolen the animal looks like |
| m198a3 | Who did steal the ruby? | One of the brothers steals a treasure for which all of them have equal rights or he is a bastard. Brothers come to a powerful person and want him to say who of them is the thief or the bastard. Usually the person tells a story and discovers the guilty one considering his reaction |
| m198b2 | Grasshopper by name, the astrologer | A king (landlord, etc.) suggests to guess what he has in his hand (in a box). It is an insect there (usually a grasshopper). The man says that now you, Grasshopper, is caught. People think that he gave the correct answer |
| m204 | Money gets one who is destined to get it | When a deity (powerful person) attempts to pass some money to a certain man, he either gets it or not thanks to his fate while all other factors play no role |
| m204a | One does not see money because he closes his eyes | Money is intentionally thrown in front of a man to be used by him. At this moment he closes his eyes and passes by |
| m21 | A protector hides fugitives | The protagonist pursued by an enemy comes across a person, an animal or an object to help him and receives help |
| m29b | Trickster-fox, jackal or coyote | In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is fox, jackal or coyote |
| m29g | Trickster-hare or rabbit | In episodes related to deception, absurd, obscene or anti-social behavior the protagonist is hare or rabbit |
| m39a1 | Misunderstood instructions: a step behind | Fool follows instructions that were reasonable in every previous episode but become absurd in every next one |
| m39a4h | The lost camel of the king | A smart man (using a naive person) gets to acquire treasure that was on the back of a lost camel |
| m39a6c | King the craftsman | A poor girl agrees to marry a prince only if he learns some craft. He does it, marries the girl and then gets into hands of some criminals. He promises them to produce valuable object that they can sell for good money. His wife or (rare) his father recognize his work (or read signs of the object). He is released, the criminals killed |
| m39a6d | A coded message | A person sends to his or her kinsmen or spouse through other persons a text or an object. Only the receiver understands the real meaning of words or of the object, saves the sender and/or destroys his enemies |
| m39c | Pumpkin sold as a donkey’s egg | A numskull finds or buys an unknown fruit (pumpkin, melon, etc.). He mistakes it for an egg of a donkey (mare. camel, etc.). When he drops it or throws it off he scares a hidden hare (rabbit, fox, mouse, etc.). The fool thinks the fugitive is a young animal hatched from the egg |
| m39e | What sort of a tree? | Asking about minor details of the case, a judge demonstrates that the plaintiff (or the defendant) lies because he does (not) know about them |
| m57a | Beads discharged from the body | 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 |
| m57a3 | Female person is the producer of valuables | Instead of common body discharges a a woman urinates, spits, etc. beads, flowers, gold and other valuables; valuables are produced by the very presence of particular female person. See motif m57a |
| m83 | Who is older? | Somebody claims that he has been born before present world came into being. His opponent claims the same, and they argue who of them is the older |
| m83b | Whose dream is better? | Two (or more) (animal)-persons agree that whichever of them has the most wonderful dream may eat all the food. The first one tells about a feast that he participated in his dream. His companion answers that he was sure that after such a feast (after getting into the paradise, etc.) the first one would not need the food, so he has eaten it alone |